Facts about Virginia
According to the 2004 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Virginia’s gross state product was $326.6 billion.
At $30B in 2001, Virginia received more defense spending than any other state except for California ($31.3B), and more than Texas ($18.1B) and Florida ($13.7B).
When Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.
The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6 percent), German (11.7 percent), unspecified American (11.2 percent), English (11.1 percent), Irish (9.8 percent).
Virginia holds elections for these offices every 4 years in the years following Presidential election years.
The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts, and the Circuit Courts.
Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest existing legislature in the New World.
Bermuda remained part of Virginia until 1614, when its administration was given to the Crown.
From the Hampton Roads area to Richmond and down to Lee County in the southwest includes military installations, cattle, tobacco, and peanut farming in Southside Virginia.
About half of Virginia's population was made up of enslaved Africans who worked its tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations.
Despite Virginia's support of Republican presidential candidates and reputation as a conservative state, voters elected Democratic candidates for all three gubernatorial races in the 1980s.
Virginia has not experienced major seismic activity: Earthquakes rarely register above 4.5 on the Richter magnitude scale.
By 1860, there were 58,042 free people of color (black or mulatto, as classified in the census) in Virginia.
Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast, with slightly more than 99,000 Vietnamese migrants.
On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution.
According to the American Electronics Association, Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state.
Virginia is often struck with the remnants of systems that bring torrential rain to the state.
Virginia's nanotechnology industry, centered in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, accounted for $1 billion in manufactured goods in 2006.
Virginia sent delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, beginning in 1774.
Virginia did not formally rejoin the union until January 26, 1870, after the end of Reconstruction.
Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Northern Virginia have the highest and second highest median household income, respectively, of all counties in the United States as of 2006.
By the 1850s, Virginia had a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary.
Parts of Virginia are highly urbanized, while the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park, the Appalachian Trail, and Luray Caverns also comprise some of the state's natural scenery.
Virginia's current streak of voting for Republicans in ten consecutive presidential elections since 1968, when Richard Nixon began the Southern Strategy, is the longest among the former Confederate States.
Virginia has voted for Republicans in every presidential election since 1952, except for the Democratic landslide in 1964.
Northern Virginia (once the state's dairy region) hosts software, communications, consulting, defense contracting, diplomats, and considerable components of the professional government sector.
Virginia was given the title, "Dominion," by King Charles II of England at the time of The Restoration, because of its loyalty during the English Civil War.
Virginia has Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors, and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C., from Fredericksburg and Manassas.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a Southeastern state considered part of the Southern region of the United States of America.
The missionaries were killed the following February, leading to the end of Spanish explorations in Virginia by 1572.
Historically Virginia was the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture.
The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia.
Tomatoes recently surpassed soy as the most profitable crop in Virginia.
Virginia is served by a network of Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited-access tollways, railroads, ferries, rapid transit, bridges, tunnels, and even bridge-tunnels.
Virginia is also home to the Virginia Military Institute, the oldest state military college in the U.S.
Virginia has a diverse economy, with many federal and military employees in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, which have the world's largest office building and the world's largest naval base respectively.
Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes governor.
A Spanish exploration party arrived in the lower Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia in 1565, and met the Native peoples living on the Virginia Peninsula.
Virginia has many National Park Service units, including one national park, the Shenandoah National Park.
One of the major stumbling blocks to the reintroduction of lacrosse into the Olympic program is the fact that men's and women's lacrosse have completely separate international governing bodies.
The University of Virginia, a World Heritage Site founded by Thomas Jefferson, is ranked #2 and the College of William and Mary, the second-oldest college in America, is ranked #6.
Headed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Executive Officer of the VDOE also serves as the Secretary of the Virginia Board of Education.
Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms.
Patrick Henry, of Charlotte County, Virginia, served as the first Governor of the new commonwealth from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786.
The Virginia Company also took control of Bermuda from 1609, when its flagship wrecked there en route to Jamestown.
Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861, in response to Lincoln's call for volunteers to attack the Confederate States of America after its attack on Fort Sumter.
Bermuda and Virginia maintained close links for generations, with many Bermudians settling in Virginia, and Bermudian merchant families establishing trading branches throughout the southern Atlantic Seaboard.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is the administrative agency responsible for the commonwealth's public schools.
Hill, Hampton Roads, Petersburg, and Quantico make Virginia the home of more active duty military personnel than any other state.
The Virginia Colony was the first part of the Americas to be continuously inhabited by English colonists from its founding.
Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia Colony until the State House burned (for the fourth time) in 1698.
The Washington Metro rapid transit system serves Northern Virginia as far west as Fairfax County.
The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent.
The Virginia Department of Transportation operates several free ferries throughout Virginia, the most notable being the Jamestown-Scotland ferry which crosses the James River between historic Jamestown and the community of Scotland in Surry County.
Virginia Tech and Virginia State University are the land-grant universities of the state.
Eastern Virginia has a lower rate of tornadoes, averaging around 2 tornadoes per year.
In 2004, John Kerry won 45.48 percent of the vote in Virginia, the highest percentage of any Democrat since Jimmy Carter.
The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system.
Many of our popular ideas about the Druids are based on the misunderstandings and misconceptions of scholars 200 years ago.
Virginia has an area of 42,774 square miles (110,785 kmІ), making it the 35th largest state.
Virginia has five major airports: Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National, Richmond International, Norfolk International, and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.
The Chesapeake Bay divides the commonwealth, with Virginia's Eastern Shore, a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the Commonwealth.
A Spanish exploration party arrived in the lower Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia in 1565, and met the Native peoples living on the Virginia Peninsula.
An additional element in recent years is the expansion of the southern suburbs of Washington, D.C. into northern Virginia, creating an "urban heat island" due to the increased energy output of the city.
The Lieutenant Governor, who is not elected on the same ticket as the governor, serves as president of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the governor.
Electing burgesses gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time, although voting was limited to free white men in the colony.
In 2006 and 2007, Forbes Magazine voted Virginia as having the best climate for business in the United States, citing economic growth, business costs/incentives, and quality of life.
Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia with over 30,000 students, followed closely by George Mason University.
Soybeans edge out tobacco for the number two position, providing about 5% of the state's total agricultural receipts. Tobacco generates around 4% of total receipts. Other field crops grown in Virginia are hay, cotton, wheat, peanuts, and barley. Tomatoes and corn for grain are other major crops grown in Virginia.
Virginia is the home base for the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. Virginia is known as "the birthplace of a nation." Jamestown was the first English settlement in the U.S. It was also the first capital of Virginia. Jamestown, the first of the original 13 Colonies was founded for the purpose of silk cultivation.
The Virginia Colony was founded in 1607 by John Smith and other colonists including John Rolfe backed by the London Company, at Jamestown. Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England - the "Virgin Queen".
"Virginia was named for Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen. Historians think the English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh suggested the name about 1584.
Secession was the hope of some western Virginians as early as 1829-secession from Virginia. Westerners felt underrepresented in Virginia's legislature, overtaxed, and shortchanged in state spending. ... Following the Richmond vote to secede from the Union, leaders in twenty-seven counties organized to remain.
King James I granted The Virginia Company a royal charter for the colonial pursuit in 1606. The Company had the power to appoint a Council of leaders in the colony, a Governor, and other officials. It also took the responsibility to continually provide settlers, supplies, and ships for the venture.
The Virginia Company refers collectively to two joint stock companies chartered under James I on 10 April 1606 with the goal of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.
Beef cattle and calves produce about 21% of the state's total agricultural receipts. Chicken eggs, dairy products, and turkeys are other major livestock products produced by the State of West Virginia. Sheep and lambs, hogs, farm chickens, honey, farm raised fish, and wool are also produced in West Virginia.
West Virginia is often considered one of the more scenic states in the nation, and several of the most beloved sights in the Mountain State center around its natural beauty. But West Virginia is also known for its Civil War history, grand resorts and architectural feats, so set out and explore.
West Virginia is the only state in the Union to have acquired its sovereignty by proclamation of the President of the United States.West Virginia is considered the southern most northern state and the northern most southern state.Mother's Day was first observed at Andrews Church in Grafton on May 10, 1908.More items...
In 1861, as the United States itself became massively divided over slavery, leading to the American Civil War (1861–1865), the western regions of Virginia split with the eastern portion politically, and the two were never reconciled as a single state again.
Secession was the hope of some western Virginians as early as 1829-secession from Virginia. Westerners felt underrepresented in Virginia's legislature, overtaxed, and shortchanged in state spending. ... Following the Richmond vote to secede from the Union, leaders in twenty-seven counties organized to remain.
One reason there is no East Virginia is that the government of Virginia during the Civil War did not really accept West Virginia as a legitimate state. ... Virginia saw itself as the real Virginia, and renaming itself as East Virginia would have undercut its claim that West Virginia was an illegitimate breakaway province.
East Virginia or Eastern Virginia may refer to: the Eastern part of Virginia, very roughly comprising the Tidewater region of Virginia. A rarely used term for Virginia, to distinguish it from the State of West Virginia.