Fergie's Tech Blog

26 April 1607: English Colonists Make Landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia

Via Wikipedia.

Jamestown was founded in 1607, financed by the London Company. After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from England, the three ships, Susan Constant sometimes known as the Sarah Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery with their crews of 105 men and boys, made landfall at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607. The party explored the area, named the cape, and set up a cross near the site of the current Cape Henry Memorial.

They then proceeded in their ships into the Chesapeake Bay to Hampton Roads and up the James River, where they arrived at the site of Jamestown on May 14. There they began the first permanent English settlement in what later became the United States. The colonists chose Jamestown Island largely because they had been advised by the Virginia Company to select a location that could be easily defended. Indeed, the island fit the bill as it had excellent visibility up and down what is today called the James River. Additionally, the local Indian tribes did not currently occupy the spot.

The settlers consisted mainly of English farmers and Polish woodcutters, hired in Royal Prussia. The settlers who came over on the initial three ships were not well equipped for the life they found in Jamestown, and many suffered from saltwater poisoning, which led to infection, fevers, and dysentery.

Upon landing, secret orders from the Virginia Company were opened, which named John Smith as one of the "councelors." Smith had been arrested for mutiny on the voyage over by Admiral Christopher Newport. He was scheduled to be hanged but was freed upon the opening of the orders.

More here.

Honorable mention: In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

posted by Fergie @ 4/25/2006 10:01:00 PM