Virginia Geographic Calendar - March

March 1

- Virginia's cession of the Northwest Territory became official in 1784.

- The fish ladder at Bosher's Dam opened

March 2

- The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control opened its 300th store in 2005, at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax County.

March 3

- The General Assembly banned betting at horseracing tracks, but the exemption for agricultural associations and driving clubs allowed sharp operators to open two tracks with gambling dens in Arlington County

March 4

- Patrick Henry made his last speech to the electorate at the Charlotte County courthouse in Marysville on March 4, 1779, but died before taking his seat in the General Assembly that June.

March 5

- In 1728, surveyors preparing to "draw the line" and define the boundary of Virginia and North Carolina measured angles to the stars. They determined they needed to adjust their compasses three degrees to account for the variation between magnetic and true north.

March 6

- The General Assembly chartered Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University) in 1882

March 7

- Smith Mountain Lake, a pumped storage reservoir built in concert with Leesville Dam so the same water from the Roanoke and Blackwater rivers could be pumped back upstream and generate hydropower again at times of peak demand, reached "full pool" in 1966.

- In 2023, a 20-acre brush fire at the Signature at West Neck golf course threatened to burn houses which had enjoyed vistas of manicured fairways until the golf course closed in 2019.

March 8

- The CSS Virginia, built at the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, sailed out of the Elizabeth River on March 8, 1861 to attack the Union fleet and establish one day of uncontested control of Hampton Roads.

March 9

- The General Assembly chartered the Richmond and Danville Railroad, so tobacco and other agricultural products could be shipped at less cost from the upstream end of the Roanoke River to the factories and wharves on the James River.

- In 2013, Southwest Airlines ended service at Newport News-Williamsburg Airport, which then gambled badly to add a new low-cost carrier by financing service by PeoplExpress

March 10

- The General Assembly passed the Virginia Prohibition Act, ending production and sale of alcohol within the state by November 1, 1916 - three years before the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified to establish nationwide prohibition.

March 11

- In 1861, the first seven states to secede from the United States of America approved a new constitution for the Confederate States of America, but Virginia voters rejected a new state constitution - so throughout the Civil War, the Virginia constitution included references to the United States of America, with no mention of the Confederacy.

March 12

- Pocahontas dies at Gravesend, on the journey back to Virginia after visiting John Rolfe's homeland and meeting English royalty.

- in 1936, East Falls Church section of the town of Falls Church gets permission from Virginia Court of Appeals justice to secede from town and rejoin Arlington County

March 13

- On March 13, 1847, the Virginia General Assembly officially accepted retrocession of the portion of Virginia transferred to become part of the District of Columbia, creating Alexandria (now Arlington) County.

March 14

- In 1878, Virginia General Assembly ratified the compact with Maryland based on the Black-Jenkins arbitration decision in 1877, clarifying the Virginia-Maryland Boundary

March 15

- Joseph Jenkins Roberts is born in Petersburg, 1809. He will be elected the first Liberian president in 1848 - the ninth person from Virginia (after Washington, Jefferson, Madison...) to be elected "president"

- In 2022, the James River Water Authority officially abandoned plans to build a water pumping station that would have destroyed the site of the former Monacan town at Rassawek

March 16

- The General Assembly authorized $150,000 for construction of Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike on March 16, 1838.

March 17

- In 1883, the Norfolk and Western Railroad delivered the first load from the Pocahontal coalfields to Norfolk

March 18

- The last session of the Congress of the Confederate States of America met in the Capitol on March 18, 1865.

March 19

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March 20

- In 1920, the USS Langley was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier after two years on construction at the U.S. Navy Yard, Norfolk

March 21

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March 22

- In the "Algonquian Uprising" of the Powhatan tribes against the English, Martin's Hundred and it's administrative center, Wolstenholme Towne, suffer more English casualties than any other plantation in Colonial Virginia, in 1622

March 23

- At St. John's Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry delivers his "give me liberty or give me death" speech, in 1775

March 24

- King Charles II issued a charter in 1663 for a new proprietary colony in Carolina

- In 1966, the US Supreme Court decided in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections ended the requirement for paying a $1.50/year poll tax before voting in state elections, ruling the requirement was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law

- In 2021, Governor Northam signed the legislation to abolish the dealth penalty in Virginia.

March 25

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March 26

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March 27

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March 28

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March 29

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March 30

- Secretariat was born in 1970 at Meadow Farm in Caroline County, and later became one of the most famous horses from Virginia

March 31

- The Virginia-Carolina Railroad operated its last train, and the 34-mile portion of the route in Virginia was later transformed into the Virginia Creeper trail.