Portal:Virginia

The Pittston Coal strike was a United States labor union action led by the United Mine Workers Union (UMWA) against the Pittston Coal Company, nationally headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The strike, which lasted from April 5, 1989 to February 20, 1990, resulted from Pittston's termination of health care benefits for approximately 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners. The strikers also cited the refusal of the company to contribute to the benefit trust established in 1950 for miners who retired before 1974 and the refusal of the company to bargain in good faith as grounds for their action. The company cited declining coal prices, decreasing demand, and recession as its reason for limiting health care benefits.

The strike affected production in mines mostly in Virginia, but a few in West Virginia and Kentucky as well. Mine workers and their families engaged in acts of civil disobedience, work stoppage, protests, and rallies. At its peak in June 1989, the strike involved approximately 2,000 miners daily staying at Camp Solidarity with thousands more sending donations and holding wildcat walkouts that involved around 40,000 people. The participation of women in the labor action through the ad hoc formation of the Daughters of Mother Jones—reminiscent of the early days of union organization—proved an essential element of the successful strike.

Grace Sherwood (c. 1660 – c. 1740), known as the "Witch of Pungo", is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. A farmer, healer, and midwife, her neighbors accused her of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops and causing the death of livestock. Sherwood lived in Pungo, Princess Anne County(today part of Virginia Beach).

She was charged with witchcraft several times. Sherwood's first case was in 1697; she was accused of casting a spell on a bull, resulting in its death, but the matter was dismissed by the agreement of both parties. The following year she was accused of witchcraft by two neighbors; she supposedly bewitched the hogs and cotton crop of one of them. Sherwood sued for slander after each accusation but her lawsuits were unsuccessful and her husband had to pay court costs. At her eventual trial in 1706, Sherwood was accused of bewitching Elizabeth Hill, causing Hill to miscarry. The court ordered that Sherwood's guilt or innocence be determined by ducking her in water. If she sank, she was innocent; if she did not, she was guilty. Sherwood floated to the surface, and was convicted.

Freed from prison by 1714, she recovered her property from Princess Anne County, after which she lived on her farm until her death in 1740 at the age of about 80. On July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Sherwood's conviction, Governor Tim Kaine restored her good name, recognizing that her case was a miscarriage of justice.

• December 9, 1775: The Battle of Great Bridge
• December 11–15, 1862: In the Battle of Fredericksburg (pictured), Union troops cross the Rappahannock River under fire into Fredericksburg and face the first major urban combat of the American Civil War.
• December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet departs Hampton Roads to begin its circumnavigation of the globe, heralding the rise of the United States as a world naval power.
• December 20, 1606: A fleet of three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, sets sail from England bound for the New World to establish the Colony of Virginia, led by Captain Christopher Newport.
• December 26, 1811: 72 people, including the governor, are killed in the Richmond Theatre fire, the worst urban disaster in the United States to that point.

A random generator will select an article about…

• … Virginia geography
• … a Virginian
• … a Virginia landmark, historic site, or museum
• … the economy of Virginia
• … transportation in Virginia
• … anything related to Virginia!

(note: generator may be slow)

• Join WikiProject Virginia

Tasks

• Expand stub articles:
  • Virginia stubs • Virginia geography stubs • Virginia politician stubs • Virginia school stubs
• Assess:
  • Assess articles that have tags but no quality or importance assessment.
• Infoboxes are needed on these articles
• Requested photos

The Meadow Pavilion at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, Fairfax County, Virginia

• ... that Tucker Hall and Ewell Hall sit on either side of the Sunken Garden on the College of William & Mary's campus?
• ... that chef Victor Albisu created a bulgogi taco that honors the Koreatown neighborhood of his hometown of Annandale, Virginia?
• ... that the University of Virginia threatened to leave the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1949 if the Sanity Code, which barred athletic scholarships, was not amended?
• ... that some mill workers in a historic district in Virginia gave their ages as fourteen despite appearing much younger?
• ... that illustrator Abigail Larson once designed a wine-bottle label for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum?
• ... that a Virginia TV station had to take out title loans to pay its staff?

• Capital: Richmond, Virginia
• Total area: 110,862 sq.mi
• Highest elevation: 5,729 ft (Mount Rogers)
• Population (2010 census) 8,001,024
• Date Virginia joined the United States: June 25, 1788

• Flower:Dogwood
• Motto:Sic semper tyrannis (Thus always to tyrants)
• Slogan:Virginia is for Lovers
• Nicknames:"Old Dominion", "Mother of Presidents", "Mother of States"
• Dance:Square dance
• Bird:Cardinal
• Fish:Brook trout
• Domestic Mammal:American Foxhound
• Fossil:Chesapecten jeffersonius

• Governor: Glenn Youngkin (R)
• Lieutenant Governor: Winsome Sears (R)
• Attorney General: Jason Miyares (R)
• Senators: Tim Kaine (D), Mark Warner (D)
• Representatives: Rob Wittman (R-1st), Jen Kiggans (R-2nd), Bobby Scott (D-3rd), Jennifer McClellan (D-4th), John McGuire (R-5th), Ben Cline (R-6th), Eugene Vindman (D-7th), Don Beyer (D-8th), Morgan Griffith (R-9th), Suhas Subramanyam (D-10th), James Walkinshaw (D-11th)