on the Atlantic Coast
of the Southern United States
. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains
and the Chesapeake Bay
, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna.
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina).
1607 English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1609 Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
1609 Bermuda is first settled by survivors of the English ship Sea Venture ''en route'' to Virginia.
1614 In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
1619 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).
1677 Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives.
1754 French and Indian War: in the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.
1773 America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia