who discovered america in 1492

Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, is credited with the discovery of the Americas in 1492. He made landfall in what is now the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, during his first transatlantic voyage, which led to widespread European awareness of the New World. However, it is important to note that the Americas were already inhabited by Indigenous peoples long before Columbus's arrival, and other explorers such as the Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, had reached parts of North America centuries earlier around the year 1000. Columbus's voyages, though, marked the beginning of extensive European exploration and subsequent colonization of the continents.