Someone forgot

[fpb]

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.