Portal:Virginia

The Virginia Portal

Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. It borders Kentucky to the west, Tennessee to the south-west, North Carolina to the south, West Virginia to the north-west, and Maryland to the north. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. With a population of 8.8 million, it is the 12th-most populous and 15th-most densely populated state. More than one-third of Virginia's population lives in Northern Virginia, which includes the most populous jurisdiction in the state, Fairfax County.

Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Central Virginia lies predominantly in the Piedmont, the foothill region of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The fertile Shenandoah Valley fosters the state's most productive agricultural counties, while the economy in Northern Virginia is driven by technology companies and U.S. federal government agencies. Hampton Roads is also the site of the region's main seaport and Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

Hurricane Isabel was the costliest and deadliest hurricane in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. The ninth named storm and fifth hurricane of the season, Isabel formed near the Cape Verde Islands from a tropical wave on September 6 in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. It moved northwestward and steadily strengthened to reach peak winds of 165 mph (265 km/h) on September 11. Isabel gradually weakened and made landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) on September 18, quickly weakening over land and became extratropical over western Pennsylvania the next day.

The worst effects of Isabel occurred in Virginia, especially in the Hampton Roads area and along the shores of rivers as far west and north as Richmond and Washington, DC. Electric service was disrupted in areas of Virginia for several days, some more rural areas were without electricity for weeks, and local flooding caused thousands of dollars in damage. Overall, roughly six million people overall were left without electric service in the eastern United States and damage totalled about $5.7 billion (2003 USD, $9.98 billion 2026 USD). 16 deaths in seven U.S. states were directly related to the hurricane, with 35 deaths in six states and one Canadian province indirectly related to the hurricane.

Article archive

Read more...

edit

Selected biography

Angus McDonald (1727 – August 19, 1778) was a prominent Scottish American military officer, frontiersman, sheriff and landowner in Virginia.

During the Jacobite rising of 1745, McDonald fought as a lieutenant under the command of Charles Edward Stuart in the Battle of Culloden, after which, he was "attainted of treason." He fled Scotland, departing from Inverness for the Colony of Virginia in 1746 at the age of 18.

McDonald moved west into Virginia's interior and entered the military service of the colonial government under Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie, receiving the rank of captain. McDonald served in the French and Indian War under General John Forbes in which he was in command of a company of Scottish Highlanders. Following the war, McDonald retired with the rank of captain in 1763.

In 1765, McDonald returned to military service when he was commissioned by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron as a major in command of the Frederick County militia. Lord Fairfax also appointed McDonald as an attorney and land agent for his Northern Neck Proprietary.

Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore commissioned McDonald in 1774 as a ranking military officer of an expedition (known as "McDonald's Expedition") to promptly organize and recruit settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains to defend settlements from Native American attacks. McDonald completed the expedition, which met its goal of temporarily relieving western Virginia frontier settlements from attack.

McDonald received a personal letter from General George Washington in 1777 appointing him a lieutenant colonel in a battalion of Thruston's Additional Continental Regiment under the command of Colonel Charles Mynn Thruston. Despite his loyalty to the American Revolutionary cause, McDonald refused Washington's appointment. McDonald was later appointed by Washington to serve as a lieutenant colonel in command of Virginia revolutionary militia forces during the American Revolutionary War. He also served on various revolutionary committees throughout the war.

More biographies

Read more...

edit

This month in Virginia history

October 2002: The Beltway sniper attacks strike Northern Virginia
October 19, 1781: According to tradition, the "The World Turned Upside Down” is played at the Surrender of Yorktown. (Yorktown Victory Monument, pictured)
October 19, 1864: Union General Sheridan rides from Winchester to the Battle of Cedar Creek, rallying his troops and reversing the course of the battle.
October 23, 1995: The commercial Conestoga 1620 rocket is terminated during its failed launch at Wallops Island; its project is scrubbed shortly thereafter.
October 31, 1887: the 1887 Halloween tropical storm hits the Eastern seaboard, driving numerous vessels aground onto the Virginia coast

More about Virginia history

edit

Random Virginia article

A random generator will select an article about…

(note: generator may be slow)

edit

Things you can do

Join WikiProject Virginia

Tasks

Expand stub articles:
- Virginia stubs • Virginia geography stubs • Virginia politician stubs • Virginia school stubs
Assess:
- Assess articles that have tags but no quality or importance assessment.
Infoboxes are needed on these articles
Requested photos

edit

Selected image

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

An Antares rocket carrying Orb-D1 launches from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia on September 18, 2013

More selected pictures

Read more

Did you know - load new batch

... that a blizzard across the United States caused a major water crisis in Richmond, Virginia?
... that an African-American was appointed postmaster of Baynesville, Virginia, in 1893 in preference to a former Confederate soldier?
... that announcers at a Virginia radio station were warned that playing more than three rap songs an hour could get them fired?
... that Virginia voters are scheduled to decide in 2026 whether to formally legalize same-sex marriage?
... that a British newspaper paid $140,000 for a photograph of a photo taken by Jeffrey Epstein?
... that Richard L. Morrill, as president of the University of Richmond, was the highest-paid private-school president in Virginia?