January

January

January 1, 1776
Four British warships fire on Norfolk, and British soldiers row ashore and begin burning warehouses and waterfront buildings. Patriots, seeing Norfolk as a "nest of Tories," engage in similar behavior, setting fire to most of the city and participating in widespread looting.

January 2, 1964
Boxer and Olympic Gold Medalist Pernell Whitaker is born in Norfolk, Virginia. 

January 5, 1781
General Benedict Arnold, having traveled up the James River from Hampton Roads, leads 800 British troops on a raid of Richmond. Many public and private buildings and tobacco warehouses are burned during the two-day campaign.

January 6, 1759
George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis at White House, her New Kent County home.

January 7, 1789
America's first presidential election is held. Voters chose electors who, one month later, selected George Washington. Washington was inaugurated in New York on April 30, 1789.

January 10, 1917
Suffragists beginning picketing the White House to demand the right to vote for women. These “Silent Sentinels” included Virginians Pauline Adams and Maude Jamison.

January 11, 1958
J. Lindsay Almond is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 11, 2014
Terry McAuliffe is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 12, 1974
Mills Godwin begins his second, non-consecutive term as governor. He is the only Virginia governor to date to win election to two terms, serving from 1966-1970 and 1974-1978. 

January 12, 2002
Mark Warner is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 13, 1962
Albertis Harrison is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 13, 1990
L. Douglas Wilder is inaugurated as the first elected African American governor in the United States.

January 13, 2018
Ralph Northam is inaugurated as governor of Virginia. 

January 14, 1978
John Dalton is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 14, 2006
Tim Kaine is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 15, 1943
The construction of the Pentagon in Arlington County is completed.

January 15, 1994
George Allen is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 16, 1786
The General Assembly adopts the "Ordinance of Religious Freedom," introduced by James Madison, and proposed seven years earlier by Thomas Jefferson.

January 16, 1982
Chuck Robb is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 17, 1970
Linwood Holton is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 17, 1998
Jim Gilmore is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 18, 1950
John S. Battle is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 18, 1986
Gerald Beliles is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 19, 1807
Robert Edward Lee, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, is born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County.

January 19, 1959
Massive resistance was dealt a double death-blow when a three-judge federal panel ruled that closing the schools violated the 14th amendment guaranteeing equal protection. That same day the Virginia Supreme Court found that cutting off state funds to prevent integration violated the state constitution.

January 20, 1732
Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of Virginia's first two U.S. senators, is born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County.

January 20, 1954
Thomas B. Stanley is inaugurated as governor of Virginia.

January 26, 1870
Following Virginia’s ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, President Ulysses S. Grant signs the act that readmits Virginia to the Union with full representation in the U.S. Congress. Reconstruction ends in Virginia.

January 27, 1801
John Marshall receives U.S. Senate confirmation to be chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. President John Adams nominated Marshall for the position, and the Senate confirms the appointment during the last session in which Federalists hold a majority in the upper chamber of Congress.

January 29, 1931
A strike by members of the United Textile Workers at the Schoolfield mills near Danville comes to an end. After nearly four months the textile workers are unsuccessful in their opposition to the 10 percent wage cut and longer hours demanded by their employers.

January 30, 1952
Allied Command Atlantic of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is based in Norfolk, Virginia.