January dates in Virginia history

January 1, 1776
Four British warships fire on Norfolk, and British soldiers row ashore and begin burning warehouses and waterfront buildings. Patriots, seeing Norfolk as a "nest of Tories," engage in similar behavior, setting fire to most of the city and participating in widespread looting.

January 5, 1781
General Benedict Arnold, having traveled up the James River from Hampton Roads, leads 1,200 British troops on a raid of Richmond. Many public and private buildings and tobacco warehouses are burned during the two-day campaign.

January 6, 1759
George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis at White House, her New Kent home.

January 10, 1769
Mail boats begin leaving the Suffolk area on regular monthly trips north and south along the Atlantic Coast. The location is midway between colonial postal centers in New York City and Charleston, South Carolina.

January 13, 1990
L. Douglas Wilder is inaugurated as the first elected African American governor in the United States.

January 15, 1943
The construction of the Pentagon in Arlington County is completed.

January 16, 1786
The General Assembly adopts the "Ordinance of Religious Freedom," introduced by James Madison, and proposed seven years earlier by Thomas Jefferson.

January 19, 1959
Massive Resistance was dealt a double death-blow when a three judge federal panel ruled that closing the schools violated the 14th amendment guarunteeing equal protection. That same day the Virginia Supreme Court found that cutting off state funds to prevent integration violated the state constitution.

January 20, 1732
Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of Virginia's first two U.S. senators, is born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County.

January 20, 1931
A strike by members of the United Textile Workers at the Schoolfield mills near Danville comes to an end. After nearly four months the textile workers are unsuccessful in their opposition to the 10 percent wage cut and longer hours demanded by their employers.

January 26, 1870
President Ulysses S. Grant signs the act that re-admits Virginia's representatives to the U.S. Senate and House, thus ending Reconstruction in the commonwealth. From this point it is no longer designated "Military District Number One" by the federal government.

January 27, 1801
John Marshall receives U.S. Senate confirmation to be chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. President John Adams nominated Marshall for the position, and the Senate confirms the appointment during the last session in which Federalists hold a majority in the upper chamber of Congress.

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