Oct 9 celebrates what famed explorer, who brought the first Europeans known to have set foot in North America?
Leif Erikson Day Leif Erikson Day Leif Erikson Day is an annual observance occurring on October 9. It honors Leif Erikson (Old Norse: "Leifr Eiríksson", , ), the Norse explorer who led the first Europeans thought to have set foot in continental North America (other than Greenland). The 1874 book "America Not Discovered by Columbus" by Norwegian-American Rasmus B. Anderson helped popularize the idea that Vikings were the first Europeans in the New World, an idea that was all but verified in 1960. During his appearance at the Norse-American Centennial at the Minnesota State Fair in 1925, President Calvin Coolidge gave recognition to
Vancouver parts of Burrard Inlet in 1791—although one author contends that Francis Drake may have visited the area in 1579. The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his crew became the first-known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster (founded February 14, 1859) on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, bypassing what would become Vancouver. Vancouver