Today in History
What went down and why you should care.
may 13 Learn More First Jamestown Settlers Arrive
The first Jamestown settlers arrived on this day in 1607 and immediately ran out of supplies. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But the Virginia Company's colonists were ill equipped to take care of themselves in the new land and repeatedly battled hunger as they waited for provisions to arrive from Britain. In fact, 1609 to 1610 was known as "The Starving Time." Over 70% of the settlers died during this stretch, and some of the survivors even resorted to cannibalism. Disney wisely chose to skip this grim detail in their 1995 hit Pocahontas.
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