Who was the first explorer to find America by sailing west from Europe?

Christopher Columbus.

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If you count people from Norway, Leif Ericson was the first to find and explore parts of North America by sailing west from Europe. He found Newfoundland (go figure) and Labrador, parts of modern day Canada and even established a settlement or two in these places. This was at the turn of the last millennium, almost 500 years before Columbus, about 1003 to 1005 AD. These dates are estimates with an error of a year or two.