
On this day in history, Sept. 16, 1620, Mayflower departs Plymouth, England
Fox News
On Sept. 16, 1620, the Mayflower — an 80-foot British cargo ship carrying 102 passengers who wanted to build a new world — departed from Plymouth, England, on this day in history.
A Mayflower main timber "cracked like a chicken bone" in the middle of the Atlantic. "History records no nobler venture of faith and freedom." — Pilgrim monument, Plymouth, Mass. Two babies were born on the Mayflower: Oceanus Hopkins and Peregrine White. Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
"In hunger and cold they laid the foundations of a state wherein every man through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his own way."
Forty-eight of the settlers died that winter from exposure and disease, yet the grateful survivors celebrated their deliverance with a feast of thanksgiving the following autumn — and began the work of reshaping human history.