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Today in History
History's Happenings for November 21
Mayflower Arrives In America
On this day in 1620, an event that was to shape the history of the future United States occured as the tiny (180 tons)sailing ship Mayflower dropped anchor off Cape Cod, near present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her 100 or so passengers were Calvinist pilgrims escaping from religious persecution in England, and hoping to found a new life in the aptly named New World. Having set sail from Portsmouth the previous September 16, the Mayflower's original course had been for the earlier English colony of Virginia, but navigational errors and supply shortages forced her to make for a more northerly shore. The Pilgrims continued to live aboard the Mayflower, having scavenged supplies ashore, until December 21, when a settlement was founded on the tip of the Cape at what is now Plymouth. The northern winter having set in, many found continued shelter aboard ship. Those who survived that first hard winter then set about creating the community to which they had agreed in the Mayflower Compact, a community which became the first permanent European settlement on American soil and the foundation of the American national heritage. (Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
North Carolina Admitted to Union
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Edison Invents Phonograph
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Gap Discovered in Watergate Tape
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
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