6 Things American Schools Teach You About History (That Are Total Bullsh*t)
2. Who Discovered The Americas
What I was taught:
In 1492, Colombus sailed the ocean blue. Every kindergartner in the U.S. is taught this poem, extolling the virtuous life of Christopher Colombus, and his amazing voyage to the new world.
The truth:
Colombus wasn't even the first European to the Americas, let alone the first person to find them. Native Americans were already here. Kinda gotta give them credit for "being the first to discover the place" there.
As for the first Europeans, the vikings probably beat them to the new world by a few hundred years. They called the land they found Vinland, and had possibly been as far south as Boston Harbor, or New York. There's plenty of evidence to support that claim, so much so that history books really need to stop crediting Colombus for his "discovery."