You figured that out huh?
Well, you see, the objective is not to establish what happened when (it's irrelevant). The main objective is to make the real accomplisment of white European males insignificant, since he was not the first. Never mind that all the others were inconsequential.
What is the value of cultural and anthropological curiosity? For me pretty much zero. For people without a life, it is the cat's meow.
The only cultural fallout that I care about is the resulting posture, for instance, by American indians to claim cultural ownership of everything because they happened to be here when the European arrived.
To them I say, "Bite me".
The European christians weren't invited.