Virginia Geographic Calendar - May

May 1

- regular shipments of coal started from Pocahontas to Norfolk, converting the Norfolk and Western Railroad from a general merchandise hauler into a coal railroad

May 2

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May 3

- In 1975, the King's Dominion theme park near Ashland opened to the public, with an Eiffel Tower replica that was 33 stories tall and visible from I-95.

May 4

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May 5

- "Punch" Jones took a rock he had found in 1928 near the Giles County border to a Virginia Tech professor, who declared it to be a diamond that could have come from Virginia.

May 6

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May 7

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May 8

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May 9

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May 10

- Survivors of the Sea Venture, shipwrecked during the Third Supply expedition in 1609, leave Bermuda to complete their journey to Jamestown

May 11

- CSS Virginia is destroyed in 1862 after efforts fail to lighten the ship so it could steam upstream towards Richmond in waters as shallow as 18 feet, at Craney Island

May 12

- The 299th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown is commemorated in a ceremony that starts with a overnight steamship journey from Norfolk, 1857

May 13

- The first permanent English colony in the New World is established at Jamestown, 1607

May 14

- In 2019, the Commonwealth Transportation Board renamed Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington County as "Richmond Highway."

May 15

- Confederate forces at Drewry's Bluff block the attempt of the Union navy to sail up the James River and capture Richmond in 1862. The delay between the destruction of the CSS Virginia and the attack up the James gave the Confederates, including sailors from the CSS Virginia, time to finish the fortifications - otherwise, the Civil War might have ended with the capture of the Confederate capital, three years before Richmond fell and Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 1865.

May 16

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May 17

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May 18

- In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British navy formally organized the British Corps of Colonial Marines on Tangier Island so formerly enslaved men could participate as fighters and laborers.

May 19

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May 20

- In 2018, Dominion Power came close to cutting off electricity to 150,000 customers on the Peninsula when demand almost exceeded transmission capacity, a problem solved a year later by the completion of the Skiffe's Creek powerline

May 21

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May 22

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May 23

- The Patience and the Deliverance arrive at Jamestown with governor Sir Thomas Gates. Both vessels had been built in Bermuda from the wreckage of the Sea Venture, after that flagship of the Third Supply had been separated from the rest of the fleet in a July, 1609 hurricane.

May 24

- Christopher Newport planted a cross at base of the falls on the James. He told the local chief ("Little Powhatan") that it symbolized the union between the native American and the English visitors. However, Newport failed to explain that the Jacobus Rex 1607 inscription reflected the English claim to the land by right of discovery.

- Martial law (the Laws Divine, Morall and Martiall) is declared at Jamestown by the governor, Sir Thomas Gates, in 1614.

May 25

- Black voters in Norfolk were allowed to vote in one of the city's four wards, in an 1865 election for a state senator and two members to the House of Delegates

May 26

- Governor Dunmore dissolved the House of Brugesses two days after it called for a day of fasting and prayer, after learning of the Boston Ports Bill.

May 27

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May 28

- George Washington attacked the French at Jumonville Glen in 1754

May 29

- In the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, the Powhatans were forced to move from the Lower Peninsula (to lands north of the York River), and the English agree not to settle within three miles of Powhatan towns. In 2003, the Circuit Court of the City of Newport News ruled that the Treaty of Middle Plantation could not be cited as a reason to stop the King William reservoir proposed for Cohoke Creek.

May 30

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