Thanksgiving (United States) The most prominent historic thanksgiving event in American popular culture is the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. Autumn or early winter feasts continued sporadically in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance and later as a civil tradition. The Plymouth settlers, known as Pilgrims, had settled in land abandoned when all but one of the Patuxet Indians died in a plague. After a harsh winter killed half of the Plymouth settlers, the last surviving Patuxet, Squanto (who had learned English and avoided the plague as a
History of St. Augustine, Florida History of St. Augustine, Florida The history of St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States, began in 1565 when it was founded by the Spanish admiral, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The Spanish Crown issued an "asiento" to Menéndez, signed by King Philip II on March 20, 1565, granting him various titles, including that of "adelantado" of Florida, and expansive privileges to exploit the lands in the vast territory of Spanish Florida, called "La Florida" by the Spaniards. This contract directed Menéndez to explore the region's Atlantic coast and report on its features,