Landing of the Pilgrims

Date: December 21, 1620 • Location: Plymouth, United States

The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to establish the Plymouth Colony.

The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English colonists who traveled to North America on the ship Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith named this territory New Plymouth in 1614, sharing the name of the Pilgrims' final departure port of Plymouth, Devon, England. The Pilgrims' leadership came from religious congregations of Separatist Puritans who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.