Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia at a instance of a introduction of the United States, however the previous was admitted to the Union as a separate state inside 1792 while a latter bust out of Virginia when you took the American Civil War.

Virginia is referred to as a "Mother of Presidents," when additional U.S. Presidents (Viii) were born around this state than in any more. 5 of the babies were re-elected to another term: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor round out a listings of U.s. Presidents from either the Commonwealth of Virginia. (Historical footer: each Harrison and Taylor died while inside professional.)

History
Native Americans
At a instance of the English colonisation of Virginia, among Native American people living in what currently is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. A indigen come typically divided into iii groups. A big class action come referred to as a Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. A more groups come a Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) & a Siouan. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html]

Virginia Colony: 1607-1776

At a prevent of the 16th century when England began to colonize North Us, "Virginia" was a title Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was referred to as a "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the entirely vicinity explored per 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually using to the wholly coast from either South Carolina to Maine. A London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn au courant April 10, 1606. It fleetly financed a 1st lasting English award in the Future Globe which was at Jamestown, named around honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony in 1607, founded by Captain John Smith. Its 2nd Charter was officially ratified in May 23, 1609.

Jamestown was a original capital of a Virginia Colony, & remained intrinsically until a State Home burned (does'nt the number one instance) within 1698. When a fire, a compound capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II of England at a period of the Restoration for remaining firm to the crown in the period of the English Civil War.

A new state

Inside 1780, during a American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of so-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location processed it vulnerable to the British attack.

Patrick Henry served as a 1st Governor of Virginia, from either either 1776 to 1779, & once more from 1784 to 1786. In June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced a Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. In June 29, 1776, the convention adopted the constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. Within 1790 both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the fresh District of Columbia, but around an Work of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War

Virginia is one of a states that seceded from a Union to be the Confederacy during the Civil War. Whilst it did, a bit of counties were separated when Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld per United States Supreme Court in 1870. Virginia formally rejoined a Uniin on January 26, 1870, after the period of post-war military rule.

20th century

Whilst Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia in January 13, 1990, he became the 1st African-American to serve as Governor of the U.S. state since Reconstruction.

Law and government
A capital is Richmond: the todays Governor is Mark Warner, a Democrat. Last upper case involved Jamestown (1609–1699) and Williamsburg (1699–1780). A Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson and the cornerstone was placed by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785.

Inside compound Virginia, a moo home of a legislative was known as the Home of Burgesses. Together by using a Governor's Council, a Home of Burgesses manufactured higher a General Assembly. A Governor's Council was composed of Twelve men appointed per British Monarch to advise a Governor. A Council too served when a General Court of the colony, the compound same of the Supreme Court. Members of the Home of Burgesses were chosen by everthing victims world health organization can vote in the colony. To each one county chose 2 humans or even burgesses to represent it, when a College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. A Burgesses met to produce laws for even a colony & placed a counsel for its first incubation; a Council would so read the laws & either approve or disapprove the babies. A approval of a Burgesses, a Council, & the Governor was required to pass a law. A idea of electing burgesses was crucial & newly. It gave Virginians the risk to control their have government first. Initially a burgesses were elected by a lot loose men in the colony. Women, bound servants, & Native Americans could not vote. Late a system for vote changed, making it necessary for men to have at least fifty land (200,000 m²) of land sequentially to vote. Based within 1619, a Virginia General Assembly is still inside being when a oldest legislative assembly in the American Hemisphere. Now, a General Assembly is processed higher of the Senate & a Home of Delegates.

Rather numbers of more states, per 1850s Virginithe featured a state legislature, several executive officers, & an independent judiciary. Per instance of a Constitution of 1901, which lasted yearn than any more state constitution, the General Assembly continued when a general assembly, a Supreme Court of Appeals acted when a judiciary, & a eight elective executive officers were a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Law office General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Financial officer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction & Commissioner of Agriculture & Immigration. the Constitution of 1901 was amended numerous days, notably in the Thirties & Fifties, prior to it was abandoned pro other modern government, by using fewer elected officials, reformed local governments & a other streamlined judiciary.

Virginia presently functions under a 1971 Constitution of Virginia. These are a state's 9th constitution. Under a Constitution, a State Government is composed of 3 branches: legislative, executive, & judicial.

A legislative branch or even state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make wholly state laws. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-biennial terms, when members of the Virginia Senate serve four-month terms. A General Assembly likewise selects a state's Auditor of Public Accounts.

A executive office of the president is a Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and a Attorney General of Virginia. Completely triplet officers come individually elected to quaternity-season terms around years ensuing Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc).

A Governor serves when chief executive officer of the Commonwealth & as Commander-around-Chief of the State Militia. State law forbids any Governor from either serving sequentially terms. A Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the Governor. A Law office General is main legal consultant to a Governor & a General Assembly, main public prosecutor of the state & the head of the Department of Law. A Law office General is 2nd in the line of succession to the Governor. If there is a vacancy all told iii executive agents of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, & Law office General, so a Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes Governor.

A Professional of the Governor's Secretaries aids handle a Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the ensuing souls, altogether appointed per Governor: Governor's Chief of Staff Secretary of Administration Secretary of Agriculture & Forestry Secretary of Commerce & Trade Secretary of the Commonwealth Secretary of Education Secretary of Finance Secretary of Health & Human being Resources Secretary of Natural Resources Secretary of Public Safety Secretary of Technology Secretary of Transportation Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness

A judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, a General District Courts & the Circuit Courts. A Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six more judges is a supreme court in the Commonwealth (although, when sustaining all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellant jurisdiction across decisions per Virginia Supreme Court involving real questions of U.S. Constitution law or even constitutional rights). A Chief Justice & a Virginia Supreme Court when well help as a administrative unit for the entire Virginia court rules.

A 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their have governments, unremarkably the county board of supervisors or city council which choose the city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political primary administrator under a council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, Virginia, which has a popularly-elected Mayor who serves as chief executive separate from either a city council.

Political control

When a William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, a Democratic Party held a hard majority position of state & federal agents for ended 85 years. Around 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thenceforth, Republicans mass produced material profits, & for the instance, controlled each houses of the Virginia General Assembly, when well as a Governorship from either 1994 until 2000.

When of October 2005:

Republicans held two seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, held a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, and a Republican was Virginia's Attorney General.

Democrats controlled a unexpended Triad seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and held a majority in the Virginia Senate. A Governor and Lieutenant Governor were both Democrats.

Incumbent Virginia governors just can't run reelection under a state constitution. In the November 2005 election, the race to succeed Popular Governor Mark Warner will be between Democratic Lieutenant Governor Timothy M. Kaine (Richmond), Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County), and State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester) (long a Republican) running as an independent.

Geography

View as well: List of Virginia counties, List of Virginia rivers, Lost Counties, Cities and Towns of Virginia

Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and a District of Columbia (across a Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west.

A Chesapeake Bay divides a state, by having the eastern part (known as 'a Eastern Shore of Virginia'), a a share of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from a rest of the state.

Geographically, Virginia is divided into a as a result Cinque regions: Tidewater - Stretching from a Atlantic coast to the fall line Piedmont - East of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Tidewater Region Blue Ridge Mountains - East of the Appalachian Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountain Region Valley and Ridge - Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley Region Appalachian Plateau - West of the Appalachian Mountains

Virginia's hanker east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies tremendously nigher to New York and New England than to the rural western panhandle of its have state. On the other hand, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is nigher to Viii state upper case than these are to Richmond.

Demographics

When of 2004, Virginia's people was judged to become 7,459,827. the state experienced a foreign-nonnative people of 67Niner,500 (9.1% of the state people), of which an approximated 100,000 were illegal aliens (15% of the foreign-nonnative).

A state's people increased by Single.Three million between 1990 & 2004, the incubation of 21%

Race & Ancestry
A racial makeup of the state: 70.2% White non-Hispanic 19.6% Black 4.7% Hispanic 3.7% Asian 0.3% Native American 2% Mixed race

A 5 big reported ancestry groups inside Virginia come: African American (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%).

Historically, when the big & moneyed colony & state & a birthplace of Southern & Western culture, a big proportion (just about half) of Virginia's people was mass produced higher of melanise slaves world health organization worked a state's tobacco, cloth, & hemp plantations. A twentieth century Swell Migration of blacks from either a rural South to the urban Northerly reduced Virginia's nigrify people to just about 20 percent.

In todays world Blacks come concentrated in the eastern & southern tidewater & piedmont regions in which plantation agriculture was virtually all dominant. A Our contries mountains come populated primarily by humans of British & American ancestry. Humans of German descent come present within sizable amounts in the northwestern mountains & Shenandoah Valley. & due to recent immigration, there is a speedily growing people of Hispanics (particularly Central Americans) and Asians in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.

Sextuplet.5% of Virginia's people were reported when under Fin, Two dozen.6% under Eighteen, & Eleven.2% were 65 or even older. Females mass produced higher just about 51% of the people.

Religion
A religious affiliations of the population of Virginia come:

Christian – 84% Protestant – 69% Baptist – 32% Methodist – 8% Episcopal – 3% Presbyterian – 3% Other Protestant or even general Protestant – 23% Roman Catholic – 14% Other Christian – 1% Other Religions – 2% Non-Religious – 12%

Economy

Virginia's economy has yearn been take to be one of a better-balanced in the United States using diverse sources of income, including armed forces installations concentrated in the Hampton Roads area, tobacco and peanut farming everthing across Southside Virginia, manufacturing & transport, and a location of Northern Virginia as a bedroom community for the federal government & its seller. Lot of Virginia is placed in Xi Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Based on datthe from a Usa Nosecount, Fairfax County has a greatest median income of any county in the United States by having a people of further so 1,000,000 of $88,133.

Watch also List of U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in Virginia

Transportation

Virginithe is served by a network of Interstate main road, arterial highways, many limited access tollways, bridges, tunnels, & ternion bridge-tunnel complexes. A [http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/ Springfield Interchange Project] & a replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, two of the united states's big main road improvement projects, come ingesting place in the state decade miles apart.

Major aerodrome come located in these areas: Northern Virginia (Reagan-National and Dulles), Richmond-Petersburg (Richmond), Virginia Peninsula (Newport News), South Hampton Roads (Norfolk), and a Roanoke Valley (Roanoke).

Virginia has extensive lakes. Additionally to the moo part of the Chesapeake Bay, navigable rivers include a Elizabeth River at Hampton Roads, the James River, the York River, the Rappahannock River, and a Potomac River. A Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passes through eastern Virginia.

Virginia has Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors & Virginia Railway Express (VRE) maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C. The Washington Metro serves Northern Virginia as far west as Fairfax County.

Sports
Baseball
Bluefield Orioles (Appalachian League) Bristol White Sox (Appalachian League) Danville Braves (Appalachian League) Lynchburg Hillcats (Carolina League) Norfolk Tides (International League) Potomac Nationals (Carolina League) Pulaski Blue Jays (Appalachian League) Richmond Braves (International League) Salem Avalanche (Carolina League)

Basketball
Roanoke Dazzle (NBDL)

Ice hockey
Norfolk Admirals (AHL) Richmond RiverDogs (UHL) Roanoke Valley Vipers (UHL)

Indoor football
Richmond Bandits (AIFL)

Soccer
Chesapeke Athletic (Super Y-League) Hampton Roads Piranhas (W-League) Northern Virginia Majestics (W-League) Northern Virginia Royals (USL Second Division) Richmond Kickers (USL First Division) Richmond Kickers Destiny (W-League) Richmond Kickers Future (Premier Development League) Virginia Beach Mariners (USL First Division) Williamsburg Legacy (Premier Development League)

Important cities and towns
Under a laws effectively inside Virginia, tons municipalities incorporated when cities come independent of any county. Of the 43 independent cities in the United States, 39 are around Virginia. A complete names of Virginia independent cities follows: Another municipalities incorporated when towns, which are then non independent of the county, include: Eventually, Arlington County, which lies across a Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is a completely urbanized community, but has no incorporated area within its borders.

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information

State motto: "Sic semper tyrannis." (Thus always to tyrants.) State bird: Cardinal State pooch: American Foxhound State flower: Dogwood State tree: Dogwood State insect: Tiger swallowtail State bat: Virginia Big-Eared Bat State song: none; the previous state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," was retired in 1997 because a select few encountered its lyrics to become racially offensive State dance: Square dance State boat: Chesapeake Bay deadrise State fish: Brook trout State eggshell: Oyster State fossil: Chesapecten Jeffersonius State potable: Milk

USS Virginia was named in honor of this state.