:: wikimiki.org ::

1755

1755

1755 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 25 - Moscow University established.
- February 20 - General Braddock lands in Virginia to take command of the English forces against the French in North America
- April 15 - A Dictionary of the English Language is published by Samuel Johnson; he had begun the work in 1746
- July 9 - French and Indian War: Braddock Expedition - British troops and colonial militiamen are ambushed and suffer a devastating defeat inflicted by French and Indian forces. During the battle, British General Edward Braddock is mortally wounded. Colonel George Washington survives.
- November 1 - 1755 Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing 60,000 - 90,000 people.
- November 18 - An earthquake occurs in the vicinity of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, causing extensive damage.
- December 2 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
- Great Expulsion of the Acadians.
- The sultanate of Mataram on Java is divided in two, creating the sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. the acadians were forced to leave their home because of the treaty of uresty between the french and the british
- Wolsey the clothes manufacturer was established in Leicester; the business celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2005.

Ongoing events

- French and Indian War (1754-1763)

Births

- February 11 - Albert Christoph Dies, German composer (d. 1822)
- April 16 - Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, French painter (d. 1842)
- June 30 - Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras, French politician (d. 1829)
- September 9 - Benjamin Bourne, American politician (d. 1808)
- November 2 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (d. 1793)
- November 12 - Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general (d. 1813)
- November 17 - Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)
- Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1828)

Deaths

- February 10 - Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)
- February 11 - Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei, Italian archaeologist (b. 1675)
- March 2 - Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (b. 1675)
- April 6 - Richard Rawlinson, English minister and antiquarian (b. 1690)
- June 26 - Iyasus II, Emperor of Ethiopia
- July 13 - Edward Braddock, British general
- August 13 - Francesco Durante, Italian composer (b. 1684)
- September 8 - Ephraim Williams, American philanthropist (b. 1715)
- September 9 - Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, German historian (b. 1694)
- October 22 - Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (b. 1694)
- November 25 - Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (b. 1687)
- December 1 - Maurice Greene, English composer (b. 1696) Category:1755 ko:1755년 ms:1755

Common year starting on Wednesday

This is the calendar for a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E), e.g. 2003. (A common year is a year with 365 days — in other words, not a leap year.)

Millennium	Century	Year
2nd Millennium:	19th century:	1800	1806	1817	1823	1834	1845	1851	1862	1873	1879	1890
2nd Millennium:	20th century:	1902	1913	1919	1930	1941	1947	1958	1969	1975	1986	1997
3rd Millennium:	21st century:	2003	2014	2025	2031	2042	2053	2059	2070	2081	2087	2098
3rd Millennium:	22nd century:	2110	2121	2127	2138	2149	2155	2166	2177	2183	2194

Category:Wednesday Category:Weeks ko:수요일로 시작하는 평년 th:ปีปกติสุรทินที่วันแรกเป็นวันพุธ

Moscow State University

M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian: Московский Государственный Университет имени М.В.Ломоносова, often abbreviated МГУ, MSU, MGU) is the largest and oldest university in Russia, founded in 1755. As of 2004, the university has some 4,000 staff teaching 31,000 students and 7,000 postgraduates.

University history

2004 The university was established on January 25 (January 12 old style), 1755 by a decree of Russian Empress Elizabeth. The actual studies began on April 26. January 25 is still celebrated as the Students' Day in Russia. Originally allocated in the Principal Medicine Store on the Red Square, the university was transferred by Catherine the Great to the present Neoclassical building on the other side of the Mokhovaya Street. In 1905 a social-democratic organization was created at the university, calling for the tsar to be overthrown and for Russia to be turned into a republic. The Tsarist government repeatedly began closing the university. In 1911, in a protest of the introduction of troops onto the campus and mistreatment of certain professors, 130 scientists and professors resigned en masse, including prominent ones such as Nikolay Dimitrievich Zelinskiy, Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev and Sergei Alekseevich Chaplygin. Thousands of students were expelled in 1911 as well. After the October Revolution in 1917, the school opened up to allow the children of the proletariat and peasants, not just those of the more well-to-do petit bourgeois. In 1919, tuition fees were done away with, and a preparatory facility was created for children of the working class so that they would be able to pass the admission examinations. The university was renamed in 1940 in honor of its founder Mikhail Lomonosov. Mikhail Lomonosov

Main building

Since 1953 the main departments are situated on Sparrow Hills. It was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev. In the post-war era, Stalin ordered seven huge tiered neoclassic towers built around the city. The MSU main building was by far the largest. It was also the tallest building in Europe at that time. The central tower being 240m and 36-stories high, was flanked by four huge wings of student and faculty accommodations. It is said to contain a total of 33 kilometers of corridors and 5000 rooms. The star on the top is large enough to provide a small room and a viewing platform; it weighs 12 tons. The building's facades are ornamented with giant clocks, barometers, and thermometers, statues, carved wheat sheaves and Soviet crests. It stands before a terrace featuring statues of male and female students gazing optimistically and confidently into the future.

Departments

Institutions

- [http://www.npi.msu.su/ Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics]
- [http://www.imec.msu.ru/ Institute of Mechanics]
- Sternberg Astronomical Institute
- [http://www.genebee.msu.su/ A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology]
- [http://www.srcc.msu.su/ Research Computing Center]
- N.N.Bogoliubov Institute for Theoretical Problems of Microphysics
- and several more

Famous alumni and faculty

External links

- [http://www.msu.ru/en/ Moscow State University]
- Web cam installed on the main tower http://webcam.mnc.ru/cam.htm
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.702403,37.525434&spn=0.004641,0.013617&t=k&hl=en Moscow State University campus on Google Maps]
- [http://www.mmonline.ru MechMath department - Unofficial website] (in Russian)
- [http://www.journ.ru Journalism department - Unofficial website] (in Russian) Category:Universities and colleges in Russia Category:Education in the Soviet Union Category:Education in Moscow 240 meters Category:Buildings and structures in Moscow ja:モスクワ大学 ko:모스크바 대학교

February 20

February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 314 days remaining, 315 in leap years.

Events

- 1472 - Orkney and Shetland are annexed to the crown of Scotland.
- 1547 - Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
- 1724 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.
- 1725 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
- 1792 - The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- 1810 - Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, was executed.
- 1816 - Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville debuts at Teatro Argentina, with a fiasco.
- 1835 - Concepción, Chile is destroyed by an earthquake
- 1864 - Battle of Olustee
- 1872 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- 1873 - The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
- 1901 - The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- 1913 - King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
- 1921 - The film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
- 1931 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- 1942 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
- 1943 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1943 - The Paricutín volcano begins to form in Paricutín, México.
- 1944 - World War II: "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers.
- 1944 - World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- 1952 - Emmett L. Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
- 1952 - The film The African Queen opens at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
- 1959 - The Avro Arrow programme to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
- 1962 - Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth.
- 1965 - Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
- 1974 - Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick claims he began experiencing intense gnostic visions on this date.
- 1976 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
- 1987 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.
- 1992 - Ross Perot announces his intention to run in the 1992 U.S. presidential election on CNN's Larry King Live.
- 1992 - The FA Premier League is formed and takes over as the professional league in England from season 1992–93.
- 1998 - The afternoon newspaperNashville Banner publishes its final edition.
- 2001 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
- 2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
- 2003 - In Rhode Island, in the USA, The Station nightclub fire kills about 100 and injures over 200.
- 2005 - Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
- 2005 - Jeff Gordon wins his third Daytona 500.

Births

- 1631 - Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (d. 1712)
- 1745 - Henry James Pye, English poet (d. 1813)
- 1751 - Johann Heinrich Voß, German poet (d. 1826)
- 1753 - Louis Alexandre Berthier, French marshal (d. 1815)
- 1757 - John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, English philanthropist (d. 1834)
- 1819 - Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
- 1839 - Benjamin Waugh, American minister and founder of the NSPCC (d. 1908)
- 1844 - Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1844 - Joshua Slocum, Canadian seaman and adventurer (d. 1909)
- 1848 - Edward Henry Harriman, American railroad executive (d. 1909)
- 1887 - Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada (d. 1967)
- 1888 - Georges Bernanos, French writer (d. 1948)
- 1893 - Russel Crouse, American playwright (d. 1966)
- 1901 - Muhammad Naguib, President of Egypt (d. 1984)
- 1902 - Ansel Adams, American photographer (d. 1984)
- 1904 - Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
- 1912 - Pierre Boulle, French author (d. 1994)
- 1914 - John Daly, South African-born broadcaster (d. 2001)
- 1923 - Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana (d. 1985)
- 1924 - Gloria Vanderbilt, American clothing designer and entrepreneur
- 1925 - Robert Altman, American film director
- 1925 - Heinz Kluncker, German labor union leader
- 1926 - Richard Matheson, American author
- 1927 - Roy Cohn, American lawyer, and anti-Communist (d. 1986)
- 1927 - Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2005)
- 1927 - Sidney Poitier, American actor
- 1931 - Amanda Blake, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1934 - Bobby Unser, American race car driver
- 1936 - Marj Dusay, American actress
- 1936 - Larry Hovis, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1937 - Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 - Roger Penske, American race car driver
- 1937 - Nancy Wilson, American singer
- 1938 - Richard Beymer, American actor
- 1941 - Buffy Sainte-Marie, American singer
- 1942 - Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
- 1943 - Mike Leigh, British film director
- 1944 - Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1945 - Brion James, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1946 - Brenda Blethyn, English actress
- 1946 - Sandy Duncan, American singer and actress
- 1947 - Peter Osgood, English footballer
- 1947 - Peter Strauss, American actor
- 1948 - Jennifer O'Neill, Brazilian-born actress
- 1949 - Ivana Trump, Czech skier, model and socialite
- 1950 - Ken Shimura, Japanese television performer and actor
- 1951 - Edward Albert, American actor
- 1951 - Gordon Brown, British politician
- 1951 - Randy California, guitarist (d. 1997)
- 1954 - Anthony Stewart Head, English actor
- 1954 - Patty Hearst, American socialite and kidnapping victim
- 1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1963 - Charles Barkley, American basketball player
- 1966 - Cindy Crawford, American model
- 1967 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (d. 1994)
- 1971 - Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
- 1975 - Brian Littrell, American musician (Backstreet Boys)
- 1976 - Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
- 1977 - Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
- 1978 - Julia Jentsch, German actress
- 1980 - Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
- 1981 - Tony Hibbert, English footballer
- 1985 - Yulia Volkova, Russian musician (t.A.T.u.)

Deaths

- 702 - Chan Bahlum II, king of the Maya state of Palenque (b. 635)
- 1171 - Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)
- 1194 - King Tancred of Sicily
- 1258 - Al-Musta'sim, last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad
- 1408 - Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English statesman (b. 1342)
- 1431 - Pope Martin V (b. 1368)
- 1513 - King Christian II of Denmark (b. 1455)
- 1579 - Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)
- 1618 - Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
- 1626 - John Dowland, English composer and lutenist (b. 1563)
- 1762 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1771 - Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist (b. 1678)
- 1773 - King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
- 1778 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
- 1790 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
- 1803 - Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
- 1806 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (b. 1725)
- 1810 - Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean national hero (executed) (b. 1767)
- 1871 - Paul Kane, Irish-born painter (b. 1810)
- 1893 - P.G.T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (b. 1818)
- 1895 - Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist writer
- 1907 - Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1916 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844)
- 1920 - Robert Peary, American explorer (b. 1856)
- 1961 - Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)
- 1966 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
- 1968 - Anthony Asquith, British film director and writer (b. 1902)
- 1969 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
- 1970 - Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (b. 1885)
- 1972 - Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1972 - Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)
- 1975 - Robert Strauss, American politician and diplomat (b. 1918)
- 1976 - René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1887)
- 1980 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (b. 1895)
- 1981 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)
- 1985 - Clarence Nash, American voice actor (b. 1904)
- 1992 - Roberto D'Aubuisson, Salvadoran politician (b. 1944)
- 1992 - Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1993 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- 1996 - Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)
- 1996 - Tōru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (b. 1930)
- 1999 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- 1999 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (b. 1946)
- 2000 - Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician (b. 1937)
- 2001 - Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Maurice Blanchot, French author (b. 1907)
- 2003 - Orville Freeman, American politician (b. 1918)
- 2003 - Harry Jacunski, American football player
- 2003 - Ty Longley, American guitarist (Great White)
- 2005 - Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1944)
- 2005 - John Raitt, American actor (b. 1917)
- 2005 - Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (b. 1937)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/20 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050220.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 19 - February 21 - January 20 - March 20 -- listing of all days ko:2월 20일 ms:20 Februari ja:2月20日 simple:February 20 th:20 กุมภาพันธ์

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the original thirteen states of the United States that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, and is part of the South. It is one of four states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be colonized permanently by England. Virginia's U.S. postal abbreviation is VA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Va. Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia at the time of the founding of the United States; but the former was admitted to the Union as a separate state in 1792, while the latter broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, more than any other state. Five of them were re-elected to a second term: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor round out the list of American Presidents from the Commonwealth of Virginia. (Harrison and Taylor died while in office.)

History

Native Americans

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, among Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html]

Virginia Colony: 1607–1776

At the end of the 16th century, when Great Britain began to colonize North America, Virginia was the name that Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually applying to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. It swiftly financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony, in 1607, which settlement was founded by Captian Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609. Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned (not the first time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the time of the Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.

A new state

In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack. In the autumn of 1781, American troops trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula in the famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war and securing the former colonies' independence, even though sporadic fighting continued for two years. Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1790 both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War

Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union to become the Confederacy during the Civil War. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.

20th century

When Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as Governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.

Law and government

The capital is Richmond: the current Governor is Mark Warner, a Democrat. Tim Kaine, also a Democrat, is the governor-elect. Previous capitals included Jamestown (1609–1699) and Williamsburg (1699–1780). The Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the Governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the General Assembly is made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favour of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary. Virginia currently functions under the 1970 Constitution of Virginia. It is the state's ninth constitution. Under the Constitution, the State Government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make all state laws. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the state's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia. The executive branch comprises the Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc) and take office in January of the following year. The Governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as Commander-in-Chief of the State Militia. State law forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms. The Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the Governor. The Attorney General is chief legal advisor to the Governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the state and the head of the Department of Law. The Attorney General is second in the line of succession to the Governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes Governor. The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the Governor:
- Governor's Chief of Staff
- Secretary of Administration
- Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
- Secretary of Commerce and Trade
- Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Finance
- Secretary of Health and Human Resources
- Secretary of Natural Resources
- Secretary of Public Safety
- Secretary of Technology
- Secretary of Transportation
- Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth (although, as with all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court involving substantial questions of U.S. Constitution law or constitutional rights). The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system. The 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their own governments, usually a county board of supervisors or city council which choose a city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political chief administrator under the council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, Virginia, which has a popularly-elected Mayor who serves as chief executive separate from the city council.

Political control

After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a strong majority position of state and federal offices for over 85 years. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thereafter, Republicans made substantial gains, and for a time, controlled both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as the Governorship from 1994 until 2002.
- Republicans hold both seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, hold a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, and a Republican is Virginia's Lieutenant Governor-Elect. A republican is also temporarily serving as attorney general having been appointed to fill the seat left by Jerry Kilgore. However, the recent election for attorney general to fill the open seat has not been decided and a recount will occur to determine the election.
- Democrats control the remaining 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Governor and Governor-Elect are both Democrats. The Democrats have steadily been gaining seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and may soon take control, however the State Senate will likely remain under Republican Leadership. Incumbent Virginia governors cannot run for re-election under the state constitution and In the November 2005 election, the race to succeed Democratic Governor Mark Warner, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine beat Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County), and State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester) (longtime Republican) running as an independent. Kaine will become governor of the state at his inauguration on January 14, 2006.

Geography

2006 2006 Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west. The Chesapeake Bay divides the state, with the eastern portion (called 'the Eastern Shore of Virginia'), a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the state. Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following 5 regions:
- Tidewater - Stretching from the Atlantic coast to the fall line
- Piedmont - East of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Tidewater Region
- Blue Ridge Mountains - East of the Appalachian Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountain Region
- Valley and Ridge - Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley Region
- Appalachian Plateau - West of the Appalachian Mountains Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies much closer to New York and New England than to the rural western panhandle of its own state. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to 8 state capitals than it is to Richmond.

Demographics

As of 2004, Virginia's population was estimated to be 7,459,827. The state had a foreign-born population of 679,500 (9.1% of the state population), of which an estimated 100,000 were illegal aliens (15% of the foreign-born). The state's population increased by 1.3 million between 1990 and 2004, a growth of 21% Race and Ancestry
The racial makeup of the state:
- 70.2% White non-Hispanic
- 19.6% Black
- 4.7% Hispanic
- 3.7% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 2% Mixed race The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African American (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%). Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion (about half) of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked the state's tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent. Today Blacks are concentrated in the eastern and southern tidewater and piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was most dominant. The western mountains are populated primarily by people of British and American ancestry. People of German descent are present in sizable numbers in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. And due to recent immigration, there is a rapidly growing population of Hispanics (particularly Central Americans) and Asians in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. 6.5% of Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 11.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are:
- Christian – 84%
- Protestant – 69%
- Baptist – 32%
- Methodist – 8%
- Episcopal – 3%
- Presbyterian – 3%
- Other Protestant or general Protestant – 23%
- Roman Catholic – 14%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 2%
- Non-Religious – 12%

Economy

Virginia's economy has long been regarded as one of the better-balanced in the United States with diverse sources of income, including military installations concentrated in the Hampton Roads area, tobacco and peanut farming all through Southside Virginia, manufacturing and transportation, and the location of Northern Virginia as a bedroom community for the federal government and its vendors. Virginia, arguably the wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, recovered from the civil war and the Great Depression much faster than the rest of the south. Today it is still significantly wealthier than the rest of the south, although much of that is from the northern influence around Washington D.C.

Transportation

Northern Virginia Virginia is served by a network of Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited access tollways, bridges, tunnels, and three bridge-tunnel complexes. The [http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/ Springfield Interchange Project] (also known as "The Mixing Bowl") and the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, two of the country's largest highway improvement projects, are taking place in the state ten miles apart. Major airports are located in these areas: Northern Virginia (Reagan-National and Dulles), Richmond-Petersburg (Richmond), Virginia Peninsula (Newport News), South Hampton Roads (Norfolk), and the Roanoke Valley (Roanoke). Virginia has extensive waterways. In addition to the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay, navigable rivers include the Elizabeth River at Hampton Roads, the James River, the York River, the Rappahannock River, and the Potomac River. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passes through eastern Virginia. Virginia has Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C. The Washington Metro serves Northern Virginia as far west as Fairfax County.

Sports

Virginia is by far the most populous U.S. state without a major professional sports league franchise. The reasons for this include the close proximity of Washington, D.C. which has franchises in all four major sports, and the lack of any dominant city or market within the state. An attempt to bring a National Hockey League expansion franchise to Hampton Roads in the 1990s was rejected by the NHL. A proposal to relocate the Montreal Expos to Northern Virginia was considered by Major League Baseball, but MLB eventually settled on the national capital as the Expos' new home. Virginia is home to many minor league clubs, especially in baseball and soccer.

Important cities and towns

Under the laws in effect in Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county. Of the 43 independent cities in the United States, 39 are in Virginia. The complete list of Virginia independent cities follows: Some other municipalities are incorporated towns, which are not independent of a county, but rather, located within one of the 95 counties in Virginia. These incorporated towns include: Finally, Arlington County, which lies across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is a completely urbanized community, much like a city, but remains organized as a county, and has no towns within its borders. There are also hundreds of other unincorporated communities (sometimes informally called villages or towns) in Virginia.

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information

- State motto: "Sic semper tyrannis." (Thus always to tyrants.)
- State bird: Cardinal
- State dog: American Foxhound
- State flower: Dogwood
- State tree: Dogwood
- State insect: Tiger swallowtail
- State bat: Virginia Big-Eared Bat
- State song: none; the former state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," was retired in 1997 because some found its lyrics to be racially offensive
- State dance: Square dance
- State boat: Chesapeake Bay deadrise
- State fish: Brook trout
- State shell: Oyster
- State fossil: Chesapecten Jeffersonius
- State beverage: Milk USS Virginia was named in honor of this state.

Other places

There are also places named Virginia in the States of Illinois and Minnesota: see
- Virginia, Illinois.
- Virginia, Minnesota.

External links

- [http://www.virginia.gov State Government website]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/raleigh.htm Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh : 1584]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va01.htm The First Charter of Virginia; April 10, 1606]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va02.htm The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va03.htm The Third Charter of Virginia; March 12, 1611]
- [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51000.html U.S. Census Bureau]
- [http://www.vahistorical.org Virginia Historical Society]
- [http://www.historical-markers.org Virginia's Historical Markers]
- [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/ Geography of Virginia]
- [http://www.fathersforvirginia.org/ Fathers for Virginia]
- Category:States of the United States ko:버지니아 주 ja:バージニア州

April 15

April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). There are 260 days remaining.

Events

- 1450 - Battle of Formigny; Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in northern France.
- 1632 - Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
- 1738 - Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
- 1755 - Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
- 1783 - Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
- 1802 - William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy come across a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth.
- 1865 - Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
- 1892 - The General Electric Company is formed through the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company.
- 1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 a.m. after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic almost three hours earlier.
- 1915 - The Armenian Genocide began when the Ottoman Empire undertook the systematic annihilation of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Empire.
- 1920 - Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
- 1923 - Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics.
- 1924 - Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
- 1927 - Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Norma and Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
- 1940 - The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.
- 1942 - George Cross awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta - its people and defenders" by King George VI.
- 1945 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
- 1947 - Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
- 1955 - The first McDonald's restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois.
- 1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opens.
- 1985 - Marvin Hagler defeats Thomas Hearns by a knockout in round three to retain boxing's world Middleweight championship in a fight nicknamed The War.
- 1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human stampede occurs at Hillsborough, a football stadium in Sheffield, England, resulting in the loss of 96 lives.
- 1989 - Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
- 1994 - Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1 1995).
- 1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
- 2001 - Easter day (not again until 2063).
- 2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea killing 128.

Births

- 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist (d. 1519)
- 1489 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (d. 1588)
- 1552 - Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
- 1580 - George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician and colonizer
- 1588 - Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (d. 1653)
- 1641 - Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician and antiquarian (d. 1722)
- 1642 - Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)
- 1646 - King Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
- 1684 - Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
- 1688 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (d. 1758)
- 1707 - Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d. 1783)
- 1710 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1790)
- 1721 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (d. 1765)
- 1772 - Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French naturalist (d. 1844)
- 1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d. 1864)
- 1794 - Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d. 1867)
- 1800 - James Clark Ross, English explorer (d. 1862)
- 1809 - Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1877)
- 1832 - Wilhelm Busch, German poet and artist (d. 1908)
- 1843 - Henry James, American author (d. 1916)
- 1858 - Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (d. 1917)
- 1861 - Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d. 1929)
- 1874 - Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
- 1878 - Robert Walser, Swiss writer (d. 1956)
- 1879 - Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (d. 1980)
- 1883 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- 1886 - Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d. 1921)
- 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton, American muralist (d. 1975)
- 1889 - A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d. 1979)
- 1894 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
- 1895 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (d. 1980)
- 1896 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
- 1902 - Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d. 2002)
- 1907 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
- 1912 - Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
- 1916 - Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (d. 1982)
- 1917 - Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1920 - Richard von Weizäcker, President of Germany
- 1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995)
- 1922 - Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor
- 1922 - Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1987)
- 1924 - Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
- 1927 - Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)
- 1930 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
- 1933 - Roy Clark, American musician
- 1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1933 - Boris Strugatsky, Russian author
- 1938 - Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born actress
- 1940 - Jeffrey Archer, British author and Member of Parliament
- 1940 - Robert Walker Jr., American actor
- 1942 - Francis X. DiLorenzo, American Catholic prelate
- 1942 - Walt Hazzard, American basketball player
- 1944 - Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader (d. 1996)
- 1944 - Dave Edmunds, Welsh musician
- 1947 - Lois Chiles, American actress
- 1948 - Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)
- 1950 - Amy Wright, American actress
- 1951 - Heloise, American newspaper columnist
- 1954 - Seka, American actress
- 1955 - Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
- 1957 - Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
- 1958 - Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and musician
- 1959 - Emma Thompson, English actress
- 1959 - Thomas F. Wilson, American actor
- 1960 - Tony Jones, English snooker player
- 1962 - Nawal El Moutawakel, Morrocan hurdler
- 1963 - Bobby Pepper, American journalist
- 1965 - Linda Perry, American musician
- 1966 - Samantha Fox, English singer and model
- 1967 - Frankie Poullain, British bassist (The Darkness)
- 1967 - Dara Torres, American swimmer
- 1968 - Ed

1755

Events

Ongoing events

Births

Deaths

Common year starting on Wednesday

Moscow State University

University history

Main building

Departments

Institutions

Famous alumni and faculty

See also

External links

February 20

Events

Births

Deaths

External links

Virginia

History

Native Americans

Virginia Colony: 1607–1776

A new state

American Civil War

20th century

Law and government

Political control

Geography

Demographics

Religion

Economy

Transportation

Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Ice hockey

Indoor football

Soccer

Important cities and towns

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information

See also

Other places

External links

April 15

Events

Births