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 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. The first child of European descent to be born
on the newly-discovered...
