Virginia Geographic Calendar - February

February 1

- In 1969, the first Federal wildlife refuge to protect an endangered species was established on Mason Neck in Fairfax County.

February 2

February 3

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February 4

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February 5

- The General Assembly incorporated the Jamestown Exposition Company in 1901, leading to the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition of 1907 in Norfolk

February 6

- Virginia militia destroys the buildings in Norfolk that survived Gov. Dunmore's shelling about a month earlier on January 1, 1776

February 7

- In 1900, the first Virginia-Carolina Railroad train arrived in Damascus. The railroad became known as the Virginia Creeper because of its slow speed through the mountains.

February 8

- Virginias's two Senators, William Rives and Richard Parker, voted in what is now the Old Senate Chamber in the U. S. Capitol for Richard M. Johnson to be Vice-President. This is the only time in which the U.S. Senate has selected a Vice-President, after no individual won a majority of the electoral votes for that office. Virginia's 23 electors (the state's portion of the Electoral College) had refused to vote for Johnson, a Kentucky politician who had two mixed-race children with his mulatto common-law wife.

February 9

- 109 Yankees escaped from Libby Prison after digging a tunnel with "old pocket knife, some chisels, a piece of rope, a rubber cloth and a wooden spittoon" (obviously digging in fill dirt, not the granite bedrock that was underneath the prison) in 1864

- Virginia/Tennessee boundary dispute resolved (making the border run down the center of State Street in Bristol), 1901

February 10

- The Confederate Congress chartered the Piedmont Railroad in 1862, over the opposition of state's rights advocates.

February 11

- The General Assembly authorized purchase of free doses of smallpox vaccine, in 1832

February 12

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February 13

- The Virginia secession convention met at the State Capitol for the first day, in 1861. Most meetings would be held at the Virginia Mechanic's Institute (Ninth and Franklin streets) until Ordinance of Secession was passed on April 17, 1861.

February 14

- Construction began in 1850 of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, which opened eight years later and allowed trains to crosss the Blue Ridge at Rockfish Gap.

February 15

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February 16

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February 17

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February 18

- Warren County re-opened its high school in Front Royal in 1959. The school had closed on September 12, 1958 under orders from Governor Almond, as part of Massive Resistance to the Brown vs. Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court.

February 19

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February 20

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February 21

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February 22

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February 23

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February 24

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February 25

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February 26

- in 2019, Dominion Energy energized the controversial Skiffe's Creek powerline crossing the James River.

February 27

- In 1766, Richard Henry Lee and 115 colonists in Westmoreland County approved the Leedstown Resolutions, objecting to the Stamp Act tax imposed by Parliament in London.

February 28

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February 29

- Olin Corp. shuts down the last of its operations in Saltville, which had operated continuously since 1892