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Virginia Important Dates


Important Dates in Virginia History

  • 1607 The Virginia Company of London founded the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown.
  • 1624 The King dissolved the Virginia Company and established Virginia as a crown colony with an elected General Assembly.
  • 1710 - 1740's Passes across the Blue Ridge mountains leading from eastern Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley were discovered. Emigrants from Pennsylvania and New Jersey began to enter the valley.
  • 1750 - 1784 Land grants made to the Ohio Company encouraged exploration beyond the Alleghenies. The new area southeast of the Ohio River was organized by Virginia in 1775 as the District of West Augusta, although much of this was ceded to Pennsylvania in 1779.
  • 1770's Wilderness Road opened access to KentuckyType Search words, Keywords or Web Addresses here1770s The Wilderness Road opened access across the Cumberland Gap from Virginia into Kentucky. The area that was to become Kentucky was organized as Kentucky County, Virginia in 1776.
  • 1780's In 1784, Virginia formally ceded its claims north of the Ohio to the United States. In 1788 Virginia ratified the United States constitution to become a state.
  • 1792 Kentucky became a separate state.
  • 1861 - 1870 Most of Virginia joined the Confederacy, although fifty western counties broke off and were admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia in 1863. Virginia was readmitted to the Union in 1870.

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