This week’s subject: Discovering AmericaIn 1492, when...

This week’s subject: Discovering America

In 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in what is now called North America, he wasn’t the first to discover the New World. In fact, scientists believe the first Americans traveled across an ice bridge from Asia several thousand years ago. Viking explorers crossed the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of years before Columbus, and a wave of immigration continues to this day. To learn more about the discovery of America, use the direct links on The Times’ Launch Point Web site. Go to http//www.latimes.com/launch/