For a nation of such a small population - just under 280,000 - Icelanders have managed to achieve a remarkable amount of firsts. The world's first national parliament, the Althingi, was established in 930 AD after a group of pagans from Norway had travelled to Iceland in search of freedom from the oppressive but impressively named King Harald Fairhair. The world's first elected female head of state, Vigdís Finnbógadottir gained office in Iceland in 1980. The country was also the birthplace of the first European to set foot on the continent of North America, the intrepid Leifur Eiríksson achieving this feat in the year 1000 AD, beating Christopher Columbus to the accolade by almost 500 years.
| Leifur Eiríksson: he studied abroad, briefly |
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Leifur was also known as Leif the lucky, presumably due to his serendipitous happening upon a large body of land where no-one expected one to be.