Virginia Geographic Calendar - January

January 1

- President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and it goes into effect at the start of 1863. It freed the slaves throughout Virginia - "except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth." Those were the areas of the state under the actual control of the Union Army, so the proclamation excluded the places in Virginia where it could have had the greatest impact. The proclamation would have legally freed Virginia slaves in only Alexandria County and the rest of northern Virginia that was occupied by the Union Army.

- British burn Norfolk, American rebels finish the job (1776)

January 2

- A special committee of the General Assembly, meeting in Richmond, suggested emancipation of Virginia's slaves. The preceding December 6, Governor Floyd had opened the legislature with a speech advocating the appropriation of funds to deport the state's free black population. The debate was in response to Nat Turner's insurrection the previous August in Southampton County.

- Virginia ceded its land claims to the Northwest, beyond the Ohio River, to the new national government. Virginia legislators attached conditions to the cession, in part to block Congressional acceptance of claims based on private purchases from the Native Americans. Maryland refused to sign the Articles of Confederation until 1784.

January 3

-

January 4

-

January 5

- Benedict Arnold occupied Richmond in 1781.

January 6

- Walter Raleigh is knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and names his patented lands in North America "Virginia," in 1585.

- In 1844, the Petersburg Railroad started physically destroying the track of its rival, the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad

- In 2023, President Biden signed a law directing the Department of the Interior to determine if the Great Dismal Swamp should be designated as a National Heritage Area.

January 7

-

January 8

-

January 9

- The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal opened in 1859.

January 10

- Lord Culpeper sold 30,000 acres of what would later be called the Fairfax Grant to four speculators planning to settle Huguenots in western Stafford County (now Prince William and Fauquier counties)

- In 2023, the Martinsville City Council voted 3-2 to end efforts to revert to town status.

January 11

-

January 12

-

January 13

-

January 14

-

January 15

-

January 16

- In 1786, the General Assembly passed the Statute for Religious Freedom. At the time, the legislature met at the corner of Cary and 14th Streets in Richmond.

- George Washington returned in 1754 from his expedition to Fort Le Boeuf, to report that the French refused to abandon their claims to the Ohio River Valley

January 17

-

January 18

-

January 19

- At Stratford Plantation, Robert E. Lee was born, son of Ann Hill Carter from Shirley Plantation in Charles City County and Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee from Leesylvania Plantation in Prince William County (1807).

January 20

- Virginia attempts to block England from shipping convicts to the colony (1671).

January 21

-

January 22

-

January 23

- General Assembly chartered the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, opened in 1798, reopened in 1861 as the Richmond Armory (see image)

January 24

- In 1935, Canned beer (Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale) was sold for the first time, in Richmond.

- In 2023, Rocket Lab's first launch from Wallops Island of an Electron rocket was successful.

January 25

-

January 26

- Virginia was readmitted back into the Union and Reconstruction ended (1870).

January 27

-

January 28

-

January 29

-

January 30

-

January 31

-