Columbus Hijacks New York Statue Commission Debate

I have mixed feelings about Columbus and the Columbus statue. Columbus certainly was not the first old world mariner to reach the western hemisphere. We know that about 1000 AD Norsemen or Vikings from pre-Christian Scandinavia established settlements in the North Atlantic, including one for a brief time in what is now Newfoundland, Canada. Plausible claims have been made based on ocean currents, botanical evidence, and cryptic textual references for other trans-oceanic voyagers, including Andalusian Arabs from Spain, West Africans, and Polynesians. Legends from a variety of cultures have been used to make the case for trans-oceanic travelers to the New World from China, India, Japan, and an Irish monk known as Saint Brendan who supposedly crossed the Atlantic in the sixth century.

Article source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/columbus-hijacks-new-york-statue-commission-debate_us_5a1feeb4e4b064ca3c15122b?utm_hp_ref=new-york-city