Alternative historians are those who insist that the standard model of history, as supported

by all available evidence, must be wrong for whatever reason, and usually to accommodate

their own pet belief, whatever that is.

Among these are those who insist that the first non-natives to visit the Americas, with

some ancient explorer who probably never did.

Today, we're going to examine the top five contenders for first to the New World.

And that's coming right up, UnSkeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid, I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Who discovered the New World?

In 1492 Columbus sailed the blue, and was for a time considered to be the first European

to set foot on the Americas.

And then came evidence that Viking explorers, led by Leif Ericsson, had beaten him to it

by some five centuries.

Early archaeological uncertainty resulted in a minor controversy over which explorer

was first, but the story was yet to thicken.

Along came authors who suggested that Chinese admiral Xun Hu had also beaten Columbus, though

only by a few years, not European, but since he came by boat and not by the Bering

Strait Land Bridge, we'll let him enter the contest.

And then someone discovered petroglyphs in West Virginia that seemed to indicate that

sixth-century Irish navigator, St. Brendan, had beaten everyone to the continent.

Finally, this wrestling mass of Spaniards, Italians, Vikings, Chinese, and Irish were

joined by Muslims when researchers presented both archaeological and documentary evidence

...