Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

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

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

First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach is located near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where Captain John Smith landed in 1607 before traveling up the James River to establish the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown near Williamsburg (pop. 11,998).

first appeared: 10/23/2005

Tuskegee (Ala.) Institute founder and educator Booker T. Washington, born into slavery in 1856 in Hales Ford in Franklin County, was the first African-American depicted on a U.S. coin (a half-dollar minted from 1946 to 1951) and a U.S. postage stamp (issued in 1940).

first appeared: 10/9/2005

In 1794, to improve the threshing process, President George Washington designed and built, at his home, Mount Vernon, a nearly round, 16-sided barn in which horses circled around and around, trampling wheat to separate the grain from the straw.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

Headquartered at Fort Myer in Arlington, the 3rd U.S. Infantry, traditionally known as The Old Guard, has served the nation continuously since 1784 and is the oldest active-duty infantry unit in the U.S. Army.

first appeared: 9/18/2005

On May 27, 2001, Alan Webb from South Lakes High School in Reston (pop. 56,407) set the record for the fastest mile by a high school runner—3:53.43, two seconds faster than the previous record. In 2004, at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, Webb won the mile race with a personal record of 3:50:83.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

Woodcarvings created by folk artist Miles B. Carpenter (1889-1985) are showcased at the Miles B. Carpenter Museum in Waverly (pop. 2,309). The complex includes an herb garden, the artist’s studio and a nature trail.

first appeared: 8/28/2005

The First Peanut Museum in Waverly (pop. 2,309) honors the regional crop, first grown commercially in the 1840s.

first appeared: 8/14/2005

When an injury sidelined football player Leland Melvin, drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1986, he didn’t give up stardom. In 1998, he became an astronaut. Born in 1964 in Lynchburg (pop. 65,269), Melvin received degrees from the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia.

first appeared: 7/31/2005

At the Westmoreland Berry Farm and Orchard in Oak Grove in Westmoreland County, goats walk a wooden plank 20 feet above the farm’s entrance and amuse themselves and visitors, who hoist up snacks.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

Las Vegas star Wayne Newton began singing professionally at age 6 and was mentored by singer Bobby Darin, who oversaw his first recordings of Heart and Danke Schoen in 1963. Newton was born in 1942 in Roanoke.

first appeared: 6/19/2005

Located on the site of the April 2, 1865, Battle of Petersburg (pop. 33,740), the 422-acre Pamplin Historical Park includes the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, antebellum homes, battlefield trails and costumed interpreters who relate the Civil War story.

first appeared: 6/5/2005

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, born in 1878 in Richmond, transformed tap dancing from a flatfooted to a toe-stepping style. He danced his way across the big screen in more than a dozen movies from 1929 to 1943.

first appeared: 5/22/2005

Singer Kate Smith, born in 1909 in Greenville (pop. 886), made Irving Berlin’s God Bless America an overnight sensation when she sang the song for the first time on her weekly radio show to commemorate Armistice Day (Nov. 11) 1938. Berlin wrote the anthem in 1918 and revised it in 1938 as a "peace" song in the face of spreading war in Europe.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

At the age of 9, Julian Stanley Wise saw two men drown and resolved to become a lifesaver. In 1928, Wise founded the nation’s first rescue squad, the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew. His story and the history of emergency medical services (EMS) are told at the To the Rescue Museum in Roanoke.

first appeared: 4/24/2005

On May 31, 1897, the state’s most powerful earthquake rocked Giles County (pop. 16,657), toppling chimneys and cracking the courthouse in Pearisburg (pop. 2,729).

first appeared: 4/10/2005

The New World’s first known theatrical performance in English, The Bear and the Cub, was staged in 1665 in Pungoteague in Accomack County. In Williamsburg (pop. 11,998) 51 years later, the first theatre in the English colonies was constructed.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

Thick, hand-cooked potato chips made at the Route 11 Potato Chip Co. in Middletown (pop. 1,015) have snapped up national fame and awards as hip chips.

first appeared: 3/13/2005

The 40-acre Jefferson Vineyards, near Charlottesville (pop. 45,049), occupies vineyard sites chosen and planted by Thomas Jefferson in 1774.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

With a vertical drop of 1,200 feet in one-half mile, Crabtree Falls, a series of five major waterfalls and several small ones, in Nelson County is the state’s highest cascading waterfall. The falls were often mentioned as a place for Sunday outings on the 1970s television show The Waltons.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

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