Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson, this Icelandic explorer is worth commemorating much more than that Christopher Columbus fella and we have the reasons.
First off, he reached North America 500 years before Columbus who just went to a few coastal parts of the North American continent like San Salvador. While there, Leif spread his religion of Christianity to the New World. Unlike Columbus who enslaved the indigenous people, Leif didn't even harm a single hair or cell of the indigenous.
Leif's dad settled the first European colony on Greenland.
On one voyage, he took on a crew from a shipwrecked vessel and was given their entire cargo for his efforts.
Nordic Americans celebrate Leif Erikson on 9 October, a day that was declared in the United States in 1964 by President Lyndon B Johnson.