The first European to set foot on mainland North America was Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer from Greenland. Around the year 1000 CE, he landed in a region he named Vinland, believed to be located in present-day Newfoundland, Canada. Erikson's voyages were part of the Viking expansion across the North Atlantic and are significant for their early contribution to trans-oceanic exploration, well before Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. Erikson's explorations laid the groundwork for future European interest in North America.