Vikings reached North America five centuries before Columbus

Excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland uncovered a genuine Norse settlement, and in 2021 tree-ring analysis of its timber — using a preserved cosmic-ray carbon spike — pinned the felling date to exactly 1021 AD. Columbus didn't cross the Atlantic until 1492, 471 years later.

— Margot Kuitems et al., Evidence for European Presence in the Americas in AD 1021 — Nature, 2021