Leif Erikson: The Second European to Set Foot on North America?

When you hear the word Viking you think of two things, the Minnesota Vikings and Leif Erikson.  Who is Leif Erikson, and why do we think of Him when we hear the word Viking?  Well two reasons; 

One: He's said to have been the first European to set foot on North America,  

Two: The U.S passed a bill for "Leif Erikson day" (happens every October 9th). But is he really the first one to set foot on North America?

Erikson was most likely born in Iceland around 970 A.D.  His father was Erik the Red also a well known Viking.  After Erikson was converted to Christianity in Norway, he was ordained to bring the good news to Greenland.  But when his ship was blown off course he encountered a new land.  He had landed in North America.  He explored the area and found a lot of grape vines and called the newly discovered place, Vinland.  After he had finished exploring he stumbled upon two shipwrecked Icelandic people.
So the people who Erikson saved were the first Europeans to set foot on North America.  But Erikson was the first to explore and settle in North America. In 1960 Helge and Anne Ingstad were searching for archaeological evidence of Vikings in Newfoundland. In the small village of L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland they met a fisherman who showed them sod foundations that had the shape of Viking longhouses. More than a decade of archaeological investigation at this site has proved conclusively that Vikings had built a settlement in North America 500 years before Columbus.  After excavations they uncovered Viking artifacts including a ringed pin, a soapstone spindle whorl, a bone pin, a whetstone, iron boat rivets, worked wood and other objects. There was evidence of iron-smelting and forging, and hearth charcoal is dated to A.D. 1000.

Erikson did make his way back to Greenland and spread Christianity.  He even built a church in Vinland.  His father was a pagan and did not support Leif at all.  And when Erik's wife converted, I can only imagine how angry he was.

So Leif Erikson might not have been the first, but he did have an influence on modern day North America.  He has statues all over North America.  And he has a holiday named after him!