The map, supposedly dating back to the 15th century, was a big deal because it added weight to the claim that Vikings landed in North America before Christopher Columbus.

For decades, geography teachers have relied on a more than 400-year-old map that grossly distorts the size of the world’s landmasses — the byproduct of trying to depict a sphere on a flat ...

Stock image: Illustration depicts John White (c. 1540 - c1593) and others as they find a tree into which the word "CROATOAN" had been carved on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, in 1590.