Portal:Virginia

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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. The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach, though its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County, part of Northern Virginia, where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of 8.72 million live.

The Blue Ridge Mountains cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The state's central region lies predominantly in the Piedmont. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain, and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. 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, including the U.S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. Hampton Roads is also the site of the region's main seaport and Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base. (Full article...)

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The Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway (C&A) was a short electric street railroad operating within the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, United States during the early 20th century. The line was preceded by several streetcar lines operating both horse-drawn and electric powered cars dating back to 1887. After facing financial difficulties, the predecessor lines were reorganized into the C&A in 1903. The C&A's electric streetcars operated off of an overhead line system that was powered by the railroad's own power plant. The C&A also offered electric power generated by its plant to the city of Charlottesville. During the mid-1910s, the line received numerous upgrades, including the construction of a new power plant on the Rivanna River, a new company headquarters building, expansion of track, and the purchase of new streetcars.

Increased expenses and decreasing ridership, coupled with the Great Depression, caused the railway to cease streetcar operations in 1935. The railway was reorganized as the Charlottesville and Albemarle Bus Company in 1936 with a transition to bus service. Today, Charlottesville Area Transit provides bus service to the city of Charlottesville. The city has recently investigated the feasibility of a streetcar line following much of the same route as the Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway.

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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.

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This month in Virginia history

June 12, 1776: The Virginia Declaration of Rights is ratified by the Fifth Virginia Convention
June 23, 1951: The SS United States (pictured), which has held the Blue Riband since 1952, is christened and launched at the Newport News Shipbuilding yard.
June 25–July 1, 1862: The Seven Days Battles, mere miles from the Confederate capital in Richmond, bring an end to Union efforts to capture it through the Peninsula Campaign; it will not be captured for nearly three more years.

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Little Joe 1 rocket being prepared for a test flight at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore, as part of Project Mercury, 1959

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... that Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area has one of the largest fields of Virginia bluebell flowers in northern Virginia?
... that Tucker Hall and Ewell Hall sit on either side of the Sunken Garden on the College of William & Mary's campus?
... that prior to becoming West Virginia's first African-American judge, Leon P. Miller was McDowell County's assistant prosecuting attorney, a Welch city councilman, and U.S. Attorney for the Virgin Islands?
... that Eppa Hunton Jr. and his son, Eppa Hunton IV, the namesakes of the Hunton Student Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, served a combined 50 years on the Medical College of Virginia's board of visitors?
... that five peregrine falcon chicks were released from the roof of an office building in Virginia in an unsuccessful attempt to combat an overpopulation of pigeons?
... that the 1988 closure of WLEE, once one of the top radio stations in Richmond, Virginia, also took WBBL, a church station in existence for nearly 65 years, off the air for good?