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. Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County, part of Northern Virginia, where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of more than 8.8 million live.

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...)

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Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Although Fairfax County is the most populous jurisdiction in the state, Virginia Beach is the most populous city in the state, as well as the 39th largest city in the United States, with a population of 447,489 in 2012. Virginia Beach is the easternmost city of the Hampton Roads area that makes up the core of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA.

Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. Every year the city hosts the East Coast Surfing Championships as well as the North American Sand Soccer Championship, a beach soccer tournament. It is also home to several state parks, several long-protected beach areas, three military bases, a number of large corporations, two universities, Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, and numerous historic sites. Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists, who eventually settled in Jamestown.

The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. It is located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the longest bridge-tunnel complex in the world.

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Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.

He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".

Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

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This month in Virginia history

December 9, 1775: The Battle of Great Bridge
December 11–15, 1862: In the Battle of Fredericksburg (pictured), Union troops cross the Rappahannock River under fire into Fredericksburg and face the first major urban combat of the American Civil War.
December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet departs Hampton Roads to begin its circumnavigation of the globe, heralding the rise of the United States as a world naval power.
December 20, 1606: A fleet of three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, sets sail from England bound for the New World to establish the Colony of Virginia, led by Captain Christopher Newport.
December 26, 1811: 72 people, including the governor, are killed in the Richmond Theatre fire, the worst urban disaster in the United States to that point.

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Downtown Roanoke at night, as viewed from the Mill Mountain overlook

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... that land for a library built for African Americans in Virginia was donated by Pope Pius XII?
... that when Edgewood was built in Stanleytown, Virginia, its Greek Revival style was unknown to most people in the area?
... that some mill workers in a historic district in Virginia gave their ages as fourteen despite appearing much younger?
... that a city in Virginia's 88.5-foot-tall (27.0 m) Christmas decoration was so popular with residents that it was decided to light it nightly year-round?
... that a government surplus audio console used by a Virginia radio station was believed to have been used to broadcast Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats?
... that John F. Kennedy's pollster found many West Virginia voters concerned that a Pope in the White House would arrive by transatlantic tunnel?