August 3

John Rut was an English mariner in the 16th Century. King Henry VIII had chosen Rut to sail to the New World to search for the elusive Northwest Passage to the Orient. There was quite a lot of that going on at the time and Henry wanted to get his fingers into that pie. On the 10th of June in 1527, Rut set sail from Plymouth, England to begin his search. Acting true to form, the North Atlantic was not exactly overly cooperative and Rut and his crew took almost two months to make it to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia. Being a dutiful employee, once in a safe harbor Rut took pen in hand and dashed off a quick letter to King Henry. On the 3rd in 1527, he arranged for the letter to be carried back to England by one of the slew of ships lolling about in the harbor and delivered to the king. This is the first known instance of a letter being mailed from the New World.