Virginia interesting Facts

Entries marked WVBL had been obtained from The western Virginia Book of Lists by Gerald Tomlinson and Richard C. Weigen. The guide comes in paperback for $15 from Strictly Business, Inc., P. O. Box 65, Sutton, WV 26601. W. Va. residents add 6% sales tax. This site had been last modified on Nov. 9, 2015.

• West Virginia is the just state created by carving on territory from another state, without that state’s authorization.
• On October 24, 1861, in a public referendum, voters overwhelmingly supported the development of the new condition, become called Kanawha. These thirty days, a convention at Wheeling changed title to West Virginia. 100 years later on, a Beckley newspaper proposed the name for the state be altered to either Kanawha or Lincoln because a lot of people believed western Virginia ended up being the western element of Virginia, rather than an independent state.
• Western Virginia’s capital was originally Wheeling. It was changed to Charleston in 1870, back once again to Wheeling in 1875, and back into Charleston in 1885.
• Western Virginia has got the highest typical level of every condition east associated with the Mississippi River, plus the many irregular boundary of any condition.
• Weirton could be the just town inside U. S. that expands from one condition border to another.
• Both prospects for Governor when you look at the 1888 election—Nathan Goff Jr. and Aretas Fleming—claimed to own won, and both had been sworn in as Governor on March 4, 1889. Goff appeared to have obtained the election by 130 votes, but Fleming disputed the vote count and requested the Legislature to declare him the winner. The President associated with Senate, Robert S. Carr, in addition reported the governorship.
• a holding in Ripley in 1896 changed into a spectacle that attracted nationwide interest. A brand new York Sun reporter likened town’s environment that time to a festival. The event is explained in a song by Tom T. Hall, the final Public Hanging in Ripley, West Virginia.
• Western Virginia University played Pitt in the 1st football game previously broadcast regarding radio, in 1921 on KDKA.
• The residents of Mullens in Wyoming County voted to hold the spelling of this title of the city, instead of change to the spelling used by A. J. Mullins, for whom the city had been named.
• The Northfork High School boys basketball staff put a nationwide senior high school record by winning eight straight AA condition titles, from 1974-81.
• In 1928 Minnie Buckingham Harper of Welch became 1st black colored woman legislator in the U. S. She had been appointed because of the Governor to your home of Delegates to fill the vacancy brought on by the death of the woman spouse.
• During World War II, 1700 persons from foreign nations, most of them diplomats, had been imprisoned in the Greenbrier resort.
• On January 26, 1960, Danny Heater of Burnsville highschool scored 135 points in a top school basketball game, making him an entry in Guinness Book of World Records.
• From 1849 until 1851, the 1010-foot Wheeling Bridge was the longest bridge on the planet. It absolutely was blown straight down by large winds in 1854. This new River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, finished in 1977, was the longest steel-arch bridge on earth until 2003, whenever a longer bridge had been finished in Asia.
• Bluefield radio station WHIS claims its broadcast of a murder test in 1931 had been the first ever beyond Russia. The defendant, accused of murdering the woman three-year-old stepchild by scalding it to demise in a clean tub of boiling water, appealed the woman belief from the grounds that broadcast had made a "circus" of her trial.
• In 1838 excavations began during the Grave Creek Mound, one of the largest conical mounds inside U. S. One of the relics restored from two burial chambers could be the popular Grave Creek Stone, on which tend to be markings that experts and students of ancient languages haven't had the opportunity to describe. No other writing want it has actually previously been found. It was recommended the rock can be a hoax.
• The first state sales income tax in the United States went into impact in West Virginia on July 1, 1921. The tax had been levied against the revenues of banks, street railroads, telephones, telegraph, express, electric light and energy retailers, wood, oil, coal, gas, also nutrients. [Robert Murray Haig and Carl Shoup, The Sales Tax in the American States]
• 1st federal jail solely for women into the U. S. had been the Federal Industrial Institution for females in Alderson, which unsealed in 1926. Among its inmates have been: Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, Lolita Lebron, who launched fire on home of Representatives chamber in 1954, Lynette ’squeaky' Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, which attemptedto assassinate President Ford, Billie getaway and Irene Smith, the sister of country songs legend Hank Williams Sr., both on medication beliefs, and Martha Stewart, the star homemaker, convicted of lying to detectives about a stock purchase.
• The first stone pavement within the U. S. was set in Charleston in 1870 by an exclusive resident at his own expenditure.
• The first barenuckle world heavyweight tournament occured on Summer 1, 1880, near Colliers, about 300 yards from Pennsylvania edge. Paddy Ryan won an undisputed subject by knocking aside Joe Goss of The united kingdomt in the 85th round. [Famous Very First Facts]
• The very first union soldier killed by opponent action into the Civil War had been Bailey Thornberry Brown. On May 22, 1861, while involved with acquiring recruits, he was fired upon by Confederate pickets at Fetterman, near Grafton. He had been given a military funeral. The initial considerable land struggle between Union and Confederate Armies was the Battle of Philippi, on June 3, 1861.
• Memorial Tunnel was initial tunnel when you look at the U. S. to be administered by television. The tunnel unsealed November 8, 1954, and had been closed-in 1987.
• The first rely upon the U. S. had been the sodium trust arranged November 10, 1817, because of the sodium makers of Kanawha. It moved into operation on January 1, 1818, in the Kanawha Salt business. It was formed for the true purpose of controlling the quantity of sodium made, the method of make, the packaging, as well as the manufacturing. [Western Virginia Encyclopedia]
• 1st municipally had parking building in the U. S. ended up being opened Sept...