December 23rd: This day in travel history takes around the world
By Brian Miller
![Landing of the Pilgrims', (1877). In 1620, a group of Puritans left Plymouth in England on 'The Mayflower' and arrived on the east coast of what is now the United States of America. Their landing site is known as Plymouth Rock. The settlers founded the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 1, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1877]. Artist Albert Bobbett. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fe8642a8d722fe111adfa2f3096b2c220b0b9905dd3fed5b6e4ae4491e4fb2d35.jpg "Landing of the Pilgrims', (1877). In 1620, a group of Puritans left Plymouth in England on 'The Mayflower' and arrived on the east coast of what is now the United States of America. Their landing site is known as Plymouth Rock. The settlers founded the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. From \"Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time\", Volume 1, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1877]. Artist Albert Bobbett. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)")
Sometimes there are historical episodes of travel history and today, we have a couple of interest.
What happened on this day, December 23rd in travel history? For starters, we can take to the sky and then a quick stop that would last forever in New England.
We start by heading back to 1986 when Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager piloted Voyager, an experimental aircraft that would make history. On December 23rd, the craft completed the first flight around Earth on a single tank of gas. It arrived at Edwards Air Force Base in California with a mere five gallons of fuel left.
The flight lasted nine days and four minutes after leaving the same base on December 14th. Jeanna Yeager was no relation to test-pilot Chuck Yeager who broke the sound barrier during test flights in the 1960s.
The flight path went West over the Pacific Ocean.
Traveling further back in time, we arrive at Plymouth Massachusetts. The Mayflower vessel had arrived on the coast a week earlier and the 102 passengers who were supposed to help settle Virginia, were instead blown north into what would become New England.
The settlers, Pilgrims, would begin colonization and building on this day in 1620 deciding that it was a suitable place for a colony. The ship had arrived in September but it wouldn’t be until December when a group of colonists who were searching for suitable living areas located what is now Plymouth across the Cape Cod Bay where they had been living.
Today, Plymouth is a big tourist destination just south of Boston and is steeped in tradition. Some consider this period to be the true birth of our nation.