Fascinating Facts About Virginia

Virginia was named for Elizabeth I, England's "Virgin Queen."

Virginia was the first, largest, most populous, and most prosperous of the original 13 colonies. Its first capital, Jamestown, which dates back to 1607, was the earliest permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World.

Known as "the birthplace of a nation," Virginia is nicknamed “The Old Dominion.”

The first Thanksgiving in colonial America was held in Virginia in 1619.

On June 25, 1788, Virginia became the tenth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents," because no other state has produced more U.S. presidents. Eight presidents were born in Virginia: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.

The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, chartered in 1693 by England’s King William III and Queen Mary II, is the second-oldest college in the United States. (Harvard is the oldest.)

Virginia has had three capitals: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Richmond. Richmond has been the capital since the Revolutionary War.

The American Revolution ended with the surrender of British General Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia.

Richmond, Virginia’s modern-day capital, was also the capital of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.

More major battles of the Civil War were fought in Virginia than in any other state. Today, one-third of America's most important Civil War battlefields are in Virginia, and most are open to the public.

Virginia’s major industries include technology, manufacturing, exports, tourism, agriculture and government.

Virginia has been dubbed the "Internet Capital of the world.”

More Virginians (about one-fourth of the state’s work force) are employed by the United States government than by any other industry. This includes the military.

The Pentagon building in Arlington is the world’s largest office building.

Approximately one-half of all the people in the United States live within a 500-mile radius of the Richmond, Virginia’s capital.
 
Virginia’s major agricultural contributions include tobacco, peanuts, corn, sweet potatoes, poultry, and ham.

The first commercial peanut crop in the United States was grown in Virginia.