Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

Looking for Virginia trivia? Try our list Virginia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Born in Monterey (pop. 158) in 1896, Marjorie Stewart Joyner invented a permanent hair wave machine while working as a cosmetologist. In 1926, she became the first African-American woman to receive a patent for an invention.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Bessie Blount was born near Virginia Beach in 1914. After World War II, she invented a self-administering tube device and a neck brace that supported utensils so disabled people could feed themselves.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

In 1999, Virginia celebrated 30 years of success with its “Virginia Is for Lovers” tourism slogan, a phrase that has been imitated by several other state tourism bureaus.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

In 1751, the first professional theater company opened in the colonies when the Virginia Company of Comedians opened a wooden playhouse in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998).

first appeared: 12/1/2002

Rita Dove of Charlottesville won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987. Born in 1952, she was one of the youngest writers ever to receive the honor.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in Portsmouth became the commonwealth’s “Official Sports Hall of Fame” in 1996. Memorabilia includes Arthur Ashe’s tennis racquet and golf great Sam Snead’s signature straw hat.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

George Mason, a prominent landholder born in 1725 in Fairfax County, authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution—both adopted in 1776.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Thomas Jefferson had an affinity for things Italian. The name of his home near Charlottesville, Monticello, means “little mountain,” and in 1767 he convinced Italian musician Francesco Alberti to move into the area to teach him the violin.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

The first major Civil War battle, the Battle of First Manassas, was fought in Fairfax and Prince William counties on July 21, 1861. The conflict also is called the First Bull Run.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Recent excavations of the James Fort in Jamestown have uncovered more than 350,000 artifacts dating to the early 17th century.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Starring as the state’s oldest movie theater, Millwald Theatre in Wytheville (pop. 7,804) showed its first movie in 1928.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

In the 1700s, flat-bottomed boats called “batteaux” transported tobacco from central Virginia to Richmond. Now, batteaux float once again during the James River Batteau Festival each June. Built from white oak, the boats are 6 to 8 feet wide and 40 to 50 feet long.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

Thomas Jefferson wrote that he enjoyed “the solitude of a hermit” at his year-round retreat, Poplar Forest, in Forest (pop. 8,006), where he designed an octagonal home surrounded by an elaborate villa landscape.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

With 17 miles of mapped passageways, Butler Cave in Bath County is the state’s longest cave.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

The 1835 Humpback bridge over Dunlap Creek in Alleghany County is the country’s only curved-span covered bridge.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Since 1976, some 11,000 bicyclists on the TransAmerica Trail have been welcomed to Afton by June Curry, 81, nicknamed “The Cookie Lady.” She provides sandwich fixings and lodging, too, and takes photos of each biker.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Grammy winner Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song,” was born in Newport News in 1917.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Cyrus McCormick, born in Rockbridge County in 1809, invented the grain reaper, taking out a patent in 1834. His Virginia Reaper is credited with hastening the country’s westward expansion.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Carter G. Woodson, born in Buckingham County in 1875, is considered the father of Black History Month. Educated at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Sorbonne, he founded Negro History Week in 1926, now expanded to the monthlong celebration.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Maggie Lena Walker was the country’s first woman to become president of a local bank. Born in 1867, the African-American opened Richmond’s St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

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