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America Wanted to Nuke the Moon and Other Weird History

Khalid Elhassan October 15, 2020 32 min

United States - List of nuclear weapons tests of China — Nuking the Moon. Stillness in the Storm

29. A Weird and Frustrating Series of Setbacks

The Pilgrims boarding The Mayflower. Encyclopedia Britannica

On August 5^th, 1620, the Mayflower and the Speedwell sailed from England to the New World. However, the Mayflower’s sister ship was unfortunately named, and was neither speedy nor well. The Speedwell began leaking, so the Pilgrims docked in Dartmouth for repairs. They set out again on August 21^st, but after a few days at sea, the Speedwell started leaking again.

The voyage’s leaders concluded that the Speedwell was simply not up to crossing the Atlantic. So they decided to leave her in England, and sail to the New World in the Mayflower. After transferring supplies from the Speedwell, the Mayflower finally set out on September 16 — over a month behind schedule. It would be a tough voyage.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.