I think it's reasonable to say they knew. They probably didn't realize how enormous the Americas were. But it was certainly known that some landmass existed west of Greenland. The Norse settled Greenland around year 1000 and allegedly founded colonies in Newfoundland around that time.
I think a lot of people don’t know about the settlements. I’ve never been myself, but I’d love to go someday. I want to go walk around it, and see what they saw.
Norse may have been there, but there was no lasting impact. No permanent settlement, no trade, no records other than logs/journals, no memory, no further exploration …. Compare that with the impact of Columbus’ voyage
We actually don’t know how much the Norse may have explored: we have very few records and I believe only one settlement for a couple years.
Someone can have a big impact on history and not be worth celebrating.
The thing I think about all the time is that I think our holidays should have a point. Labor day celebrates the accomplishments of workers and encourages us to adopt their best traits: industriousness, teamwork, determination.
Independence Day is supposed to inspire us to be grateful for the courage showed by the founders who seceded from Great Britain, and model their (supposed) virtues, such as liberty.
Thanksgiving is supposed to celebrate harvests, gratitude, the kindness of strangers, etc. There are certainly problems with the history it exhalts, but it makes sense.
Juneteenth is a celebration of diversity, the achievements of black Americans and of abolitionists, Memorial day is about military valor and sacrifice, etc.
Columbus Day just makes no sense. Even if we ignore that Columbus was a monstrous person hated even by his peers,.. what exactly is the point of the holiday? Columbus isn't known for any particular virtue at all, and the discovery of inhabited Caribbean islands by a Spanish-financed Italian explorer has no clear meaning for us as Americans. It barely has anything to do with us.
They took a holiday about an Italian who had nothing to do with the US much like that man took indigenous people prisoners? That's what didn't sit right with you? So weird to think an Italian funded by the Spanish was somehow important enough to a country that didn't exist for another 300 years that the government made it a federal holiday.
More time passed between him erroneously finding the Americas and the signing of the Declaration of Independence than the US has even been around.