Someone forgot

I just realized this. 1609 is the date of the first permanent, enduring, never-ceased-till-the-present-day English settlement in North America: the permanent settlement of Virginia. This predates the so-called Pilgrim Fathers by eleven years, let alone that without the example of its (comparative) success the Pilgrims would never have left Europe. It was the first European colony in the New World to import the ancient European concepts of an elected Parliament of law-making representatives, and, on the bad side, the first to embody the dark side of the American experience - black slavery and Indian wars of extermination. Altogether, it legitimately represents the beginning of the American nation.

So why did nobody, all through 2009, celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of this world-changing event?

EDITED IN: Someone forgot, and so did I. The date was 1607. Thanks to wemyss for pointing it out.

Modified hundred-experiences meme from cette_vie

The original of this meme was fairly obviously American-orientated. Where I thought the questions were too American, I struck them out, placing European-oriented ones in italics, and, of course, bolding the ones that I have carried out. (I also placed my own observations in italics and brackets.)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (No, but I tried to)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (This one is dumb. If I had, would I say it in public? Let your left hand not know what your right hand does.)
7. Been to Disneyland Land and World.
8. Climbed a mountain (Walked up a few, actually.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (Is it possible to be a student in a small flat with a small allowance and not get it?)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty With the parents! (Will the top of St.Peter's dome with my grandfather do?)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (London-Rome, Rome-Paris. Also on a night coach and ferry, London-Dublin.)
21. Had a pillow fight (Pretty sure I did when I was a child.)
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run Scored a goal after dribbling past the whole defence
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community Visited an ancient local religious community, such as Italy's Waldensians or local Jews
36. Taught yourself a new language (It doesn't say well or successfully, does it?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (For about six seconds...)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (Alas, no)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sang karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt Seen Mount Etna erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance And went to the emergency room. (At 13, when my mother had a road accident)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling (Only once, but it was in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia! CAn you say "unforgettable"?)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (Ye gods, this is impossible to translate! Can anyone think of an European equivalent? I've been in the Boy Scouts, but it's hardly the same.)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial Visited a national historical memorial or site
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square Stood in Trafalgar Square
74. Toured the Everglades Toured the Camargue
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House Visited Versailles or Schoenbrunn
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (Will a fish do? Because if so, I helped catch and dress a fish with my father when I was a child - an experience that contributed to my enduring distaste for fish)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (More cartoonists than I can remember, including Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman; also a singer or two and some scholars)
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person Visited one of Garibaldi's battlefields
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake Swam in the Red Sea
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee