Leif Erikson Day: The Ship That Brought Norway to America

Leif Erikson Day honors a Viking, but the date was chosen for a different voyage.

On October 9, 1825, the sloop Restauration arrived in New York Harbor carrying Norwegian emigrants, the start of the first organized emigration from Norway to the United States. That day is considered the beginning of mass Scandinavian immigration to America.

More than a century later, the date was written into U.S. law. In 1964, Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the President to proclaim October 9 as Leif Erikson Day every year, after a bill introduced in 1963 by Representative John Blatnik of Duluth, Minnesota.

Today the day is celebrated by Nordic-American communities across the country with festivals and community events.

The date printed on every Norway design in our catalog, June 7, 1905, is the day Norway's parliament declared its union with Sweden dissolved.

A Viking in the name, a small ship in the date.

See the Norway design → — or explore the story behind any other country's flag on our free Flag Story Cards page.