Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

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

President George Washington spent his childhood at Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg (pop. 19,279). No structures remain from the time the Washington family lived there, but the farm is an active archaeological site.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

Delivering power within hours for relief and recovery efforts is the purpose of the Mobile Power System, designed by SkyBuilt Power of Arlington. The portable "plug and play" system, packed in a freight container, uses solar, wind and hydroelectric power to generate electricity.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

Built in 1920, a restored carousel with 48 princely steeds and two stately chariots—carved by German, Italian and Russian immigrant craftsmen—whirls in downtown Hampton in a pavilion near the Hampton River.

first appeared: 6/25/2006

Traditional decoys to contemporary lifelike shorebird carvings, vintage hunting posters and other art and artifacts document the region's migratory wildfowl at the oceanfront Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum in Virginia Beach.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

His children's death from meningitis led Dr. Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) to pioneer a system of medicine based on anatomy and treating illness within the context of the whole body. The founder of osteopathy was born in Lee County (pop. 23,589).

first appeared: 5/21/2006

The first airplane fatality was 26-year-old passenger Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge on Sept. 17, 1908, during Army performance tests at Fort Myer in Arlington. A propeller broke on a plane piloted by pioneer aviator Orville Wright, who was seriously injured in the crash. The first military officer to pilot a plane, Selfridge was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

The first African-American man to win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments was Arthur Ashe, born in Richmond in 1943. In addition to being a champion on the court, Ashe was an author, philanthropist and human rights crusader. He died in 1993.

first appeared: 4/23/2006

A shining landmark since 1949, the Roanoke star on Mill Mountain is 88 feet tall and was intended as a Christmas decoration. Today, the nation’s largest manmade star glows year-round in the "Star City of the South."

first appeared: 4/9/2006

Dodona Manor, the estate of Gen. George C. Marshall in Leesburg (pop. 28,311), opened last December after a $7 million restoration. European countries helped by the Marshall Plan, an economic recovery program after World War II, contributed to the restoration.

first appeared: 3/26/2006

Corn and tobacco were legal tender and could be used to pay debts in Colonial America. Musket balls, iron nails and pelts were bartered, too, and can be found at the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

first appeared: 3/12/2006

Built in 1657, Merchant’s Hope Church in Prince George County (pop. 33,047) is the nation’s oldest Episcopalian church still in use. The brick exterior looks nearly the same as when it was built.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

In 1951, African-American students protested separate and unequal conditions at Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville (pop. 6,845). The action was among several that led to the landmark school desegregation case known as Brown v. Board of Education. The school, now a museum, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 2/12/2006

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd is best known for his polar expeditions and making the first flight, with pilot Floyd Bennett, over the North Pole in 1926. He was born in 1888 in Winchester (pop. 23,585).

first appeared: 1/29/2006

NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd’s No. 10 race car and the 1903 Virginia Tech-Navy football game ball are among memorabilia at the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Portsmouth, which pays tribute to the state’s stars in 20 sports.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS VIRGINIA 2006—Kristi Lauren Glakas is a pre-med student at George Mason University. She’s also a spokesperson for Locks of Love, which provides hairpieces to disadvantaged children with hair loss. Richard Simmons cut off 18 inches of Glakas’ donated hair on his TV show DreamMaker.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

Called the "Great Seal of Virginia," a cross-eyed, mixed-breed dog named Seal served as mascot for the University of Virginia at Charlottesville (pop. 45,049) in the 1940s. The pooch had free run of campus and local restaurants had signs: "No dogs allowed (except Seal)."

first appeared: 1/1/2006

The National Jousting Hall of Fame at Natural Chimneys Regional Park in Mount Solon salutes the traditional rural sport in which riders on horseback spear three small rings, hanging from arches, with a lance. Clubs in five states—Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia—compete.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

In 1611, colonists established Virginia’s second permanent English settlement, the "Citie of Henricus," on a bluff overlooking the James River in today’s Chesterfield County. Reconstruction of Henricus is ongoing with the watch tower, bake house and gardens complete.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

The world’s first beer sold in a can, Krueger’s Special Beer, made its public debut on Jan. 24, 1935, during a marketing test in Richmond. Consumers liked the canned beverage so much that within six months, Krueger’s production increased 550 percent.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

A Rosenwald school, one of a few remaining schools built for African-American schoolchildren in the early 1900s by Julius Rosenwald, former chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co., was moved to downtown Smithfield (pop. 6,324) earlier this year and is being restored for a museum of African-American education.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

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