First person to land in U.S.

1. 82

   discovery2020posted 12 years ago

   First person to land in U.S.
   
   Who was the first person other than the native American Indian to set foot on the soil of what is currently the United States?

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2. 53

   Shinkickerposted 12 years ago

   Some Viking adventurer I guess out looking for trouble.

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3. 68

   davenmidtownposted 12 years ago

   quite possibly the Chinese/Japanese... I seem to remember reading an article about archaeologist finding the remains of what could only have been a Junk type boat or raft belonging to an Asian culture and the date of the raft was long before Columbus.

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4. 60

   point2makeposted 12 years ago

   Eric the Red from Iceland may have been the first European predating Columbus by 500 years or so. The Polynesians or the Asian explorers may have made landfall on the west coast 1000 years before that. The Clovis people who predate the native American Indian culture by thousands of years may have been the first peoples in the U.S. although there are some who believe that the even the Clovis were predated by peoples who originated in South America who arrived 10,000 years earlier.  Archaeologists generally believe the evidence shows that the Clovis people were the early ancestors  of our Native peoples.

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5. 84

   cprice75posted 12 years ago

   St. Brendan, of course.  All kidding aside, the first documented group was the Vikings led by Leif Eriksson around 1000.  There is the possibility that there were other groups to land in the Americas, but the evidence is not conclusive.  I also read a book on Cod recently, aptly titled Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (VERY interesting book, in spite of the boring-sounding topic), and it argued that there were Basques fishing the Grand Banks when Cabot "found" Newfoundland.

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6. 76

   stevesoposted 12 years ago

   I think it was either the Vikings or the Chinese who were actually looking for a new land. It certainly wasn't Columbus. He didn't have a clue where he was, thinking he was in India.

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7. 65

   mintinfoposted 12 years ago

   The VAI people from West AfRAka came here and built the Olmec civilization in South America. They thought the Indians how to build pyramids. Also the Moors came here before the American Corporation was formed. Though AfRAkan history has been omitted, time will reveal all truths.

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