1643 Captain Adam Thoroughgood received a land patent for property that later became Bayville Farms.
1651 Isaac Murray and his three sons had a prosperous flax growing and processing business.
1700 John Akiss setttled and farmed in the area that later became Birdneck Point.
1852 The first Agricultural Society Fair was held at Kempsville.
1899 More than 1,500 acres of strawberries were raised in PA County.
1900 Lynnhaven oysters reached their peak population.
1919 Cotton acreage in the county increased to 2,188 acres between 1919 and 1929.
1919 C.J. Burroughs founded Bayville Farms.
1921 Two of Virginia Beach's oldest restaurants, Tandom's Pine Tree Inn and Hurd's began as oyster houses.
1922 PA County ranked third in the state in the production of sweet potatoes with 266,000 bushels.
1937 Yoder Dairy opened on Princess Anne Road in Kempsville.
1937 The Princess Anne County Cooperative Farm Bureau was established.
1964 Farming was ranked with tourism as a top industry in Virginia Beach according to the Director of the Virginia Truck Station at Diamond Springs.
1968 James Hoggard had probably the largest grain farm in Virginia Beach.
1969 W.R. "Billy" Malbon Jr., the largest feeder of hogs on the East Coast, was name "Agriculture Man of the Year".
1970 62,000 acres were being farmed in the City, which ranked first among Virginia's subdivisions in the
yield of corn, soybeans, and wheat.
1973 The agricultural industry in Virginia Beach contributed and estimated $101 million to the economy.
1976 The Virginia Beach Farmers' Market opened.
1984 The first Pungo Strawberry Festival was held.
1986 Oystering was banned in the Lynnhaven River.
1997 Steers, hogs, and lambs raised by Virginia Beach-4-H members brought in a record $100,000 at
the Virginia Beach 4-H Livestock Show and Sale Auction.
2000 Strange Crop Circles appeared in Robert W. White Jr.'s wheat field.
2003 Donald Horsley, a Virginia Beach farmer, received support for an estimated 300-acre farming
museum from city leaders and other farmers.
​
​
​
​
​
1639 A church building was in existence at Church Point or on the Lynnhaven River. It was later moved
and became Old Donation Church.
1640 The first vestry was chosen.
1662 Quakers [Society of Friends] were considered to be on the extreme left of church reformers and were
therefore persecuted. In 1662 and 1663, twenty people find for attending meetings. Richard Russell
was fined for holding meetings in his home. Quakers later built a meeting house and school on
present-day Laskin Road.
1689 Eastern Shore Chapel (lower chapel) was founded in a log cabin construction and located at the
southern end of Great Neck Road at the north fork of Wolfsnare Creek. The chapel was originally
classified as a "chapel of the ease".
1692 "The Brick Church," the second Lynnhaven Parish Church, was built near the site where present-day
Old Donation Church stands.
1693 Presbyterians met on Ed Cooper's plantation at Great Neck.
1694 The Lynnhaven Parish Vestry paid one thousand pounds of tobacco to Ebenezer Taylor for the property
on which "The Brick Church" had been built.
1695 Lynnhaven parish was established with the same boundaries as PA County's, and served as the
County's only parish for 200 years along with several smaller churches known as "chapels of ease".
1711 The Old Donation Church paten was given by Maximillion Boush and was engraved with his coat
of arms.
1716 A goblet (1712) and flagon (1716) were given to Old Donation Church as part of Queen Anne's bounty.
1726 Eastern Shore Chapel, a larger structure, was built on Cornick's Salbury Plains plantation.
1739 James Janey contracted and replaced Pungo Chapel's "first upper chapel" with a frame building
without a brick foundation.
1759 Eastern Shore Chapel's colonial silver chalice and communion pieces were made by William Grundy.
1764 The first Baptist dissenters met in a home in Pungo. They built the first structure in 17645 and later
built Oak Grove Baptist Church.
1774 Blackwater Baptist Church was established as an off shoot of Oak Grove Baptist Church.
1784 Eastern Shore Baptist Church was established. It would later be known as London Bridge
Baptist Church.
1789 Charity Methodist Church was organized in Back Bay.
1791 Nimmo Methodist Church was organized and built.
1814 Kempsville Baptist Church was established as the fourth oldest Baptist Church in PA County.
1842 Old Donation Church was abandoned.
1843 Emmanual Episcopal Church was founded.
1856 The London Bridge mission at Princess Anne County Court house became St. Johns Baptist Church.
1868 St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church was established.
1872 Former slaves broke away from old Nimmo Church and met in homes. By 1873 they met in a tiny
log cabin known as Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church.
1882 The Old Donation Church building burned. Through efforts of the Haygood family, a service would
continue to be held once a year in the roofless ruins.
1888 Galilee Episcopal Church, formerly Union Chapel, was established.
1890 Wood from the 1889 wreck of the Agnes Barnes was used to build Eastern Shore Chapel Mission by
the Sea near Dam Neck.
1895 East Lynnhaven Parish was founded with the congregation meeting in private homes.
1895 The Wash Woods Methodist Church was built for the cypress wood cargo of the wrecked schooner
John S. Woods.
1907 Mt. Zion Church construction was completed.
1908 The cornerstone of the First Baptist Church was laid at 17th Street and Atlantic Avenue.
1913 Construction began on the Kempsvills Amish church house.
1915 Star of the Sea Catholic Church was founded on Groves land.
1916 Old Donation Church was restored through the efforts of Richard Alfred of Emmanual Church.
1917 Lynnhaven Presbyterian Church was organized.
1924 Eastern Shore Mission by the Sea was bought by Christ Church of Norfolk and made into a camp
for girls.
1924 St. Teresa Chapel was organized. It would later become Cape Henry Chapel.
1926 The cornerstone was laid for Galilee Episcopal Church on 18th Street as a replacement for Union
Chapel.
1947 Emmanuel Episcopal Church was built.
1951 Temple Emmnanual was dedicated.
1952 The First Baptist Church was relocated from 17th Street to 35th Street.
1954 Groundbreaking was held on Laskin Road for the fourth Eastern Shore Chapel.
1956 The Galilee Episcopal Church's present-day building was constructed and it's steple erected at
40th Street and Pacific Avenue.
1957 St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church was erected under the leadership of the Rev. Peter Ireton,
Bishop of Richmond.
1968 Rock Church was established in Kempsville.
1995 Beth Chaverim Synagogue was vandalized while under construction.
1996 Ruthenian Catholics of the Byzantine Eparchy of Passaic established Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​​Civil Rights & Diversity
1844 Willis Hodges, a free Negro, was arrested for "unlawfully preaching." He was tried and unanimously
acquitted.
1859 Ebenezer Baptist Church, the oldest African American church in Virginia Beach. was established.
1864 More than 300 former slaves attended a school established at Rolleston by the American Missionary
Association.
1867 Willis Augustus Hodges was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention.
1879 Littleton Owens was elected as PA County's representative to the Virginia House of Delegates.
1920 The Jewish Lynnhaven Country Club and Golf Course was established near Willis Wayside.
1938 Robert E. W. Sparrow became PA County's first black policeman.
1941 The Virginia Beach and Princess Anne Chapters of the NAACP were formed.
1943 Seaview Beach was opened on the Chesapeake Bay as a second beach for the use of African Americans.
1944 The Virginia Beach Temple was offically established with forty-four members.
1948 Seatack Volunteer Fire Department was organized.
1949 The cornerstone for Temple Emmanual, the first formal synagogue, was laid at 25th Street.
1954 Seashore State Park was closed due to a desegregation law suit.
1955 Nelson H. Davis was sworn in as the first deputy sheriff of PA County.
1964 Reba McClanan taught the first integrated class at Virginia Beach High School.
1986 The Sugar Plum Bakery was opened, for the employment of disabled persons.
1989 A riot occurred on Labor Day at the oceanfront.
1990 The only Chinese community in Hampton Roads was opened near Newtown Road.
1990 SkillQuest, a city program offering support and services to mentally retarded adults, was opened.
1991 The City Manager ordered an investigation of the Police Department following the publication of
a newspaper series on brutality.
1995 Minister and gay activist Mel White was arrested at the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) after
protesting Pat Robertson's anti-gay stance.
1995 The Reform Jewish Temple was vandalized for a third time while under construction. Swastikas
and anti-Semantic images were etched into the building.
1996 Black parents filed complaints with the Virginia Dept. of Education's Office of Civil Rights alleging
disparity in treatment at Beach schools.
1997 Chief Emeritus Perry of the Nansemond tribe oversaw excavation of sixty-four Chesapean Indians and
their reburial ceremony at First Landing State Park.
1997 Virginia Beach Public Schools agreed to report student discipline information to the Dept. of Education
Office of Civil Rights for three years.
1998 The second annual Hampton roads Juneteenth festival celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation
was held at Mt. Trashmore.
1998 An attempted cross burning occurred at the home of an inter-racial couple.
1998 150 pagans climbed Mt. Trashmore to celebrate Halloween.
1999 The Tidewater Native American Support Group celebrated its first anniversary with a pow-wow
at Mt. Trashmore.
1999 The Friendship Patrol was formed to make the Atlantic Avenue area more peaceful and family friendly.
1999 Bowing to public criticism, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] removed a billboard
advertisement in Virginia Beach that featured a bloody cow's head.
1999 Carolyn Lincoln was inducted as the first black woman president of the Virginia Beach Council of
Civic Organizations.
2000 The Philippine Cultural Center, the first of its kind on the Eastern Seaboard, was opened.
2000 Lt. Col. Frank Butts of Camp Pendleton was the first black brigade commander appointed in the
Virginia Army National Guard.
2000 The 2000 federal census reported that Virginia beach was the top Virginia city in terms of Asian
population.
2000 Virginia Beach ranked #2 among 64 cities in terms of the United Kingdom ancestry of its citizens.
2003 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] protested the killing of geese at Stumpy Lake.
​
​
​
1879 The Sandbridge Gunning Club was formed.
1905 The first public library was opened in B.P. Holland's store on 7th Street. Library cards cost 25 cents.
1912 Construction of the Princess Anne Country Club began.
1912 James M. Jordan Jr. became the first man to ride a surfboard on the east coast.
1920 The first salt water swimming pool was opened as Seaside Park Casino.
1926 Members of the London Bridge Baptist Church formed the Purity Squad to help track down
bootleggers.
1926 The new Ocean Casino was built.
1926 The first Miss Virginia Pageant in the state was held at Seaside Park.
1929 The Cavalier Beach Club opened.
1929 The Virginia Beach News (weekly) began publication, produced by the Virginia Beach Princess Anne
Printing and Publishing Company.
1931 The Association for Research and Enlightenment [ARE] was formed.
1933 Ocean Breeze Beach opened for African Americans on Lake Joyce.
1942 The Dunes Club was in operation as a night club and gambling casino. It closed in 1953.
1951 The Civitan Club of Virginia Beach was chartered.
1954 The Virginia Beach Kiwanis Club was chartered.
1955 The annual Lotus Festival began at Tabernacle Methodist Church.
1956 The first Boardwalk Art Show was held.
1958 The Virginia Beach Civic Center [Dome] was built on Pacific Avenue.
1962 The East Coast Surfing Championship was established.
1971 The Virginia Beach Arts Center was established.
1971 Mount Trashmore opened as a city park.
1973 The first Neptune Festival was held.
1974 Virginia Beach officially became a sister-city to Moss, Norway.
1976 The first Shakespeare by the Sea Festival was held.
1981 The Virginia Beach Maritime Historical Museum opened in the Old Coast Guard Station.
1981 The Virginia Beach Community Orchestra was formed and would later become the Virginia Beach
Symphony.
1986 The Virginia Marine Science Museum opened and would later be renamed the Virginia Aquarium.
1992 Virginia Beach became a sister-city to Miyazaki, Japan.
1993 Kids Cove playground was built by volunteers.
1995 The Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum opened in DeWitt Cottage.
1996 The Virginia Beach Amphitheater opened.
1999 Virginia Beach invited Bangor, Ireland to become a sister-city.
​
​
​
​
1699 Lynnhaven Bay was terrorized by the pirate ship Alexander, and the following year by the French
pirate ship La Paix.
1837 The Edmund Ruffin Silk Society was formed to honor agrarian reformer Edmund Ruffin for his
unusual idea of locally producing silk cloth.
1860 There were fourteen manufacturing establishments in PA County with an annual cost of labor
$4,500 and an annual value of products of $5,7600.
1880 Marshal Parks established the Seaside Hotel and Land Company to facilitate the purchase of lots
with oceanfront property from farmers.
1883 Small and modest, the Virginia Beach Hotel was the first hotel to open in Virginia Beach.
1900 There were three general stores in Virginia Beach: Sorrey's and Holland's on 17th Street and
Etheridge's on Cypress Avenue.
1912 Seaside Amusement Park extending from 31st Street to 33rd Street opened.
1923 The Malbon Brothers Hog Farm was established.
1927 The Cavalier Hotel opened.
1928 After approval of a $250,000 bond issue, the concrete boardwalk was extended for 35th Street
to 50th Street.
1949 Dominick and Alice Ciola founded Ciola's Italian Restaurant.
1952 Oceanfront lots sold for $2,700 at Sandbridge and the following year Dewey Corbett, a Texan,
built the first year-round residence there at $9,000.
1958 The first shopping center in Virginia Beach, Aragona Village Shopping Center, was opened.
1960 Pembroke Mall opened.
1964 The City of Virginia Beach Industrial Development Authority came into existence as a political
subdivision through an act of the state legislature.
1968 Retail sales from all hotels and motels in Virginia Beach totaled $10,580,348.
1976 The Christian Broadcasting Network [CBN] announced that it would construct a $23 million
communications complex and corporate headquarters in Virginia Beach.
1980 The Pavilion, an $18 million convention center, was opened on 19th Street.
1980 Lynnhaven Mall opened as the largest shopping center between Washington D.C. and Atlanta.
1982 The Lake Gaston water Supply Project began with the Virginia Beach City Council setting a goal
to solve long-term water supply problems.
1983 Columbus Center, an 11-story Pembroke office tower, was built.
1986 Virginia Beach boasted more than 125 shopping centers representing more than $1.6 billion in retail sales.
1988 The first workers checked in at Lillian Vernon.
1989 Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] broke ground for a new plant. With 500 workers,
it would be the city's third largest private employer.
1996 Construction of the 76-mile long Lake Gaston pipeline began.
2000 Virginia Beach ranked #62 out of 187 as one of the best places to retire by Retirement Places Rated.
2000 Oceana Naval Air Station, the largest employer in Virginia Beach, had a payroll of over $600 million.
2000 Meetings at the Pavilion and convention hotels produced $68.2 million in gross revenues.
2000 Grou0nd was broken for Town Center, located in Virginia Beach's Central Business District.
2001 Virginia Beach was ranked #2 out of 100 cities as one of "The 10 Best Cities for Families" by
Child Magazine.
2002 The Norfolk-Virginia Beach metro area was ranked #6 out of 50 as one of "Hottest Cities for
Business Relocation and Expansion by Expansion Management magazine.
2002 Ladies Home Journal ranked Virginia Beach #1 out of 57 locations for qualities women care about:
low crime, lifestyle, education, jobs, health and child care.
2002 Virginia Beach received an Outstanding Achievement Award for its "Preserving Our Common
Ground" program as part of the City Livability Awards Program sponsored by the U.S. Conference
of Mayors.
​
1691 Lower Norfolk County was separated into Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties, the later named for
Anne, the youngest daughter of King James II.
1706 Grace Sherwood was tried for witchcraft.
1727 The Virginia Assembly passes an act authorizing the construction of a light house at Cape Henry.
1777 A reward was offered for the arrest of five leaders of a band known for murdering a city inhabitant,
an act that led to Phillips Rebellion.
1783 Kempsville was incorporated as a town.
1819 John J. Burroughs became Deputy Clerk of Court.
1830 John Barnes Woodhouse represented PA County in the Virginia House of Delegates.
1861 Henry Wise won a special election to represent PA County at the Virginia Secession Convention.
1867 Willis Augustus Hodges represented PA County at the Vieginia Constitutional Convestion.
1898 The last hanging by court order was carried out in PA County.
1906 The Town of Virginia Beach was incorporated.
1923 The first annexation of county land by the Town of Virginia Beach occurred.
1924 Norfolk supplied water to Virginia Beach with a water line cost of $200,000.
1926 The Town of Virginia Beach voted to approve a $250,000 bond issue to construct a concrete bulkhead.
1935 The school budget was $17,125.
1938 The Virginia Beach Town Council voted to employ the services of the Virginia Beach Life Guard Patrol.
1952 Virginia Beach was incorporated as a city.
1959 Norfolk annexed 13.5 square miles of PA County.
1962 A voter referendum approved the merger of PA County and the City of Virginia Beach and the following
year the County and the City merged to form a new city.
1974 The Virginia Beach Mayor's Committee on the Handicapped was established.
1976 Meyera Oberndorf was elected as the first female City Council member.
1986 The City Council established the "Green Line", marking a southern limit to development in the city.
1988 The position of mayor became eligible for election by popular vote.
1989 The Virginia Beach Center for the Arts opened.
1991 The Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission was established.
1993 The City of Virginia Beach began using closed circuit television as an active approach to address
public safety.
1993 The new Virginia Beach Judicial Center opened for tours.
1994 Louisa Strayhorn was sworn in as the first African-American woman to serve on the Virginia
Beach City Council.
1996 The City of Virginia Beach received an award as the most innovative local government in America.
1996 The expanded Virginia Beach Marine Science Museum opened to record attendance.
1998 The Lake Gaston water supply project became fully operational.
1999 The Virginia Beach City Council signed a contract for the 31st Street redevelopment project.
1999 Delegate Glenn R. Croshaw the last Democratic legislator to represent Virginia Beach, was defeated.
2000 The City launched "e-government" to deliver city services to citizens over the internet.
2002 Ron Villanueva was elected as the first Filipino member of City Council.
2003 Virginia Beach was the first city in Virginia to eliminate automotive decals and use a motor vehicle
database to track payment of the local car [personal property] tax.
2003 The Commonwealth of Virginia vs. John A. Muhammad trial was scheduled to be held in Virginia Beach.
​
1692 A school was established at Ferry Farm.
1715 The second Lynnhaven Parish Church was turned into a school with Gilbert Holoday as headmaster.
1766 Rev. Robers Dickson provided in his will for the establishment of Dickson's Free School for poor male
orphans. The school was the first of its kind in PA County.
1846 Blossom Hill School was built in Creeds. It was the first school built in PA County under the Virginia
Free Schools Act.
1847 Voters approved a "free school system" plan.
1858 The Tabernacle Methodist Church Sabbatical School was organized in Sandbridge with Tilly
Whitehurst as superintendent.
1863 The American Missionary Society sent teachers to PA County to help educate blacks.
1870 Edgar B. Macon was named the first superintendent of PA County schools'
1885 Charity Neck School was built.
1904 Cooke School opened as the first public school, located in the attic of the Driftwood Cottage.
1907 A town hall was built to house a school, jail and volunteer fire department.
1912 Oceana High School graduated its first class.
1915 A portion of Charity Neck School was moved to Asbury Methodist Church by black community
leaders to serve a a school for black children. It was renamed Pleasant Ridge School.
1920 The first agricultural high school opened in Oceana.
1921 Court House Elementary School's brick building was completed.
1922 The first Princess Anne County School Board was formed.
1923 The Skinner School for African-American children opened near the present-day entrance to
Thoroughgood.
1924 The Everett School was established.
1925 The Princess Anne Training School Association was formed by black parents and teachers.
1930 Atlantic University was founded by Edgar Cayce.
1937 The Princess Anne Training School was erected as the first high school for balck students in PA County
1946 The first classes for the Kempsville Mennonite School were held in the home of Francis B. Miller.
1952 Virginia Beach High School was built as a replacement for Oceana High School.
1954 Princess Anne High School was opened.
1961 Virginia Wesleyan College was opened.
1965 Reba McClanan taught the first integrated class at Virginia Beach High School.
1969 The Virginia Beach Public School System's planetarium was opened.
1971 Tidewater Community College began using eleven barracks at Camp Pendleton as a temporary Virginia
Beach campus location.
1971 Cape Henry Collegiate School opened. Formerly the Everett School, it was the oldest continuous
private school in Virginia Beach.
1972 Virginia Beach approved $4.7 million to build the Tidewater Community College campus.
1972 A year-round school pilot program was approved for Windsor Woods, Plaza, Holland and Windsor Oaks
Elementary Schools.
1973 Summer and fall kindergarten programs began.
1979 Dr. Richard Gottier was named CBN University's first president.
1988 The ODU/NSU Graduate Center was opened at the intersection of Virginia Beach Blvd. and Little Neck Rd.
1989 The Open Campus High School program was established.
1990 CBN University changed its name to Regent University.
1993 The Virginia General Assembly approved a charter change for Virginia Beach to allow for an
elected school board.
1993 Norfolk Catholic High School moved from Granby Street in Norfolk to Princess Anne Road in Virginia
Beach and was dedicated as Catholic High School.
1999 The Friends School held a ceremony for its first high school graduating class.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
1607 The Powhatan Indians lived in houses that were barrel-vaulted frameworks of saplings with coverings
of mats (doubled in winter) or, for those of higher status, bark slabs.
1607 A cross commemorating the First landing was erected at Cape Henry.
1680 The Adam Thoroughgood House was built.
1695 The first Princess Anne courthouse was built.
1715 Wolfsnare Plantation was built by Matthew Pallet.
1730 The courthouse, the first to be made of brick in PA County, was moved to Ferry Farm.
1742 Lynnhaven House was built.
1751 The courthouse stocks and pillory were removed from the Ferry Farm to New Town where they remained
until 1778.
1754 Eastern Shore Chapel was constructed of brick.
1760 Upper Wolfsnare was built.
1764 Pembroke Manor was built.
1778 The courthouse was moved to Kempe's Landing.
1779 Pleasant Hall was built.
1800 The Francis Land House was built.
1822 The courthouse was completed at its present-day location at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center and
opened to the public two years later.
1830 Ferry Plantation House was built.
1874 The first Cape Henry Lifesaving Station was built.
1878 The first Seatack Lifesaving Station was built.
1881 A new cast iron lighthouse was erected at Cape Henry.
1888 The first wooden boardwalk was built.
1888 The Infant Sanitarium, the first hospital in Virginia Beach, was founded on Atlantic Avenue.
1891 The original Norwegian Lady statue was erected.
1895 The DeWitt Cottage was built.
1908 The Greystone Manor/Masury House was built.
1925 The first fire station was built on the corner of 24th Street and Pacific Avenue.
1926 Work on a concrete boardwalk and seawall was begun, financed by a bond issue of $250,000.
1937 A stone statue in the shape of an arrowhead to commemorate the exploits of Danial Boone wan unveiled.
1938 The concrete boardwalk was joined by two wooden bulkheads, one of the Cavalier Shores property
built in 1938, and the Sea Pines bulkhead, built in 1939, joining the concrete boardwalk at 39th Street
and extending to the Cavalier Hotel property.
1948 Virginia Beach Hospital opened at 25th street and Arctic Avenue.
1958 The Cooke House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, was built
1962 A bronze replacement for the original wooden Norwegian Lady statue was dedicated.
1965 The Virginia Beach General Hospital was built and opened for patient care.
1971 The William W. Oliver Sr. family presented Lynnhaven House to the Association for the Preservation
Virginia Antiquities [APVA]
1994 The Alan B. Shepard Civic Center, better known as The Dome, was demolished.
1996 Ferry Plantation House was obtained by the City of Virginia Beach.
1999 Mayor Meyra Oberndorf cut the ribbon opening the Bayside History Trail on the anniversary of
Grace Sherwood's ducking in 1706.
​
​
​
​
​
​Military
1607 Captain Christopher Newport's party was attacked by natives near Cape Henry.
1775 Princess Anne militiamen helped to defeat Lord Dunmore at the Battle of Great Bridge.
1781 The Battle off the Capes, a major naval engagement between the British and the French was fought off
Cape Charles and Cape Henry, and marked the turning point of the American Revolution.
1807 A battle between the U.S. Frigate Chesapeake and the English vessel Leopard took place off Lynnhaven
Inlet. The incident was part of the events that led to the outbreak of the War of 1812
1813 A British company in search of supplies was driven back by local militiamen near Seatack.
1861 Union forces used the Eastern Shore Chapel as a stable for their horses and occupied PA County
a years later.
1873 The U.S. Signal Corps opened a weather station at Cape Henry.
1905 the Confederate monument was unveiled at Princess Anne Courthouse.
1913 The first contingent of Virginia Nation Guard troops arrived at the State Rifle Range.
1914 Fort Story, named for John P. Story, an artillery expert, was opened. Called the "American Gibraltar,"
it was the first military base in Virginia Beach.
1914 The USS Paulding CG-17 ran aground in Lynnhaven Inlet.
1940 Dam Neck was organized as an anti-aircraft school.
1941 The State Rifle Range, formerly known as the State Military Reservation was renamed Camp Pendleton.
1941 The U.S. Navy took over the Cavalier Hotel to billet troops.
1941 The Virginia Beach USO began operation in the Infant Santarium.
1941 The runway at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station Creeds was completed.
1941 Ann armed guard school at Little Creek began training gun crews on merchant ships.
1942 Tankers Rochester and Oakmar were torpedoed and sunk off the Virginia Beach coastline
1942 The tanker Tiger was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank off the coast of the Dam Neck
Training Center.
1943 The Naval Auxillary Air Station Oceana was commissioned.
1944 Camp Ashby, in the Thalia section of Virginia Beach Boulevard, was a prisoner of war camp and held
6,000 prisoners over two years.
1945 The Swiftscout was the last torpedoing and sinking off the Virginia Beach coastline.
1963 The Virginia Beach Convention Center was renamed the Alan B. Shepard Civic Center in honor of the
first American in space who was a local resident.
1971 The Flame of Hope on Oceana Boulevard was dedicated as a memorial to American POW/MIAs from
the Vietnam Conflict.
1973 A C-9 Nightingale carrying four American POWs touched down as NAS Oceana.
1976 The first Navy woman jet pilot soloed in an A-4L Skyhawk.
1981 Twenty-four goats were purchased to "mow" the grass in the weapons compound area at NAS Oceana.
1988 The Tidewater Veterans Memorial was built and dedicated to all U.S. war veterans.
1999 A fly-over of F-18 Hornets symbolized the reassignment of this aircraft from Ceicil Field to NAS Ocena.
2001 Virginia Beach African-American resident Col. Bert W. Holmes Jr was promoted to Brigadier General
in the Virginia Dept. of Military Affairs by Gov. James Gilmore.
​
​
​
​
​1724 A severe tropical storm known as the "Great gust of 1724" struck the Chesapeake Bay area.
1780 Early Settlers had referred to an area of land approximately five miles from Cape Henry to the Lynnhaven
Inlet as the Desert. An act in 1780 ensured the Desert would remain a public domain.
1806 The great coastal hurricane of 1806 struck Virginia Beach.
1850 Local lore attributed the name Sandbridge to a physical feature, "a sand bridge built over a long to the
beach.
1918 PA County had approximately 108,000 acres of forest or woodland, 60% of the total land area,
and approximately 11,000 acres (6%) of waste or brush land.
1918 The Chesapeake Bay froze and ice extended to the beach.
1920 According to the 1920 federal census, Virginia Beach land was classified as: total land area,
178,560 acres; land in farms, 94, 544; improved land in farms, 60,235; woodland in farms, 28,734;
and land in farms, 84,016.
1933 The Cape Henry Syndicate deeded 1,00- acres to the state forming the nucleus of Seashore
State Park. An additional 2,670 acres of land was acquired to add to the park, resulting in twenty-five
miles of trails cleared by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
1935 A record fog lasting fourteen days was recorded at Cape Henry.
1938 Two years after it opened to the public, 2,373 acres were purchased to enlarge Seashore State Park.
1938 The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established with 4,600 acres.
1962 The "Ash Wednesday Storm" brought 20 to 30 foot waves, over seven foot tides, and damaged
1,000 automobiles. It destroyed the dunes at the Fleet Combat Training Center in Dam Neck.
1966 Gov. Mills E. Godwin approved an allocation of $1 million to develop False Cape State Park. Barbour's
Hill, a 976 acre tract, was bought for $800,000 for the proposed park. Two years later the park's area
totaled 4,321 acres.
1968 The Rudee Inlet Authority opened Rudee Inlet for boating.
1979 The Virginia Beach City Council passed the Chesapeake Beach Dune Protection Law.
1980 Passage through the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge to False Cape was terminated.
1981 Munden Point Park, a 100-acre waterfront recreational park, was opened.
1982 The Coastal Primary Sand Dunes Act was passed requiring permits to balance development, protection,
and preservation of coastal features.
1986 The first locally developed comprehensive water trail system in Virginia was established in Virginia Beach.
1990 1,886 acres were acquired for the North Landing River Natural Area Preserve.
1991 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service receive $3 million to start buying 6,340 acres of forested swamps,
farmland, and marshes for the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge and the following year Congress approved
$1.8 million to expand the refuge.
1995 Seashore State Park was renamed First Landing State Park.
1998 The Sandbridge sand replenishment project pumped 1.1 million cubic yards of sand onto 5.3 miles of beach.
2003 The $9 million Sandbridge sand replenishment project was completed with2 million cubic yards of sand.
2003 Hurricane Isabel caused heavy damage to the fishing piers at 15th Street and Lynnhaven Inlet.
​
​
​
​
1585 Chesopioc, the principal village of the Chesapean Indians, was located near Great Neck Point.
1607 Captain Gabriel Archer and Mathew Morton were wounded by Chesapean Indians during the first night
after the landing at Cape Henry.
1607 Cape Henry was named in honor of King James' son Henry, the prince of Wales.
1607 The first landing at Cape Henry included 104 English men and boys who arrived on the ships Godspeed,
Susan Constant, and Discovery.
1607 By the summer of 1607, Powhatan had exterminated the Chesapean Indians and remainder were absorbed
into the Nansemond tribe.
1635 Adam Thoroughgood was awarded 5,350 acres along the western shore of the Lynnhaven River as
headrights for 105 indentured servants
1641 Early settler Daniel Gookin's son Joseph acquired 640 acres that later became PA County.
1649 William Moseley immigrated and settled on the northern side of the Eastern branch of the Elizabeth River.
1650 The James Kemp family established Kempe's Landing, present-day Kempsville.
1718 Edward Teach is said to have used Blackbeard's Island in Lake Joyce as a hiding place prior to his death.
1746 The Nansemond Indians sold their tribal lands, thought to be in the vicinity of Back Bay.
1775 Lord Dunmore invaded PA County.
1791 John McComb Jr., master architect of the post-colonial style, was assigned as a bricklayer for the Cape
Henry Lighthouse. A year later, Laban Goffigan was named the first keeper of the light.
1906 Bernard P. Holland, who had come to PA County as a railroad employee, was sworn in as the first
Mayor of Virginia Beach.
1913 Abe Doumar opened an ice cream cone vending location on the Boardwalk.
1921 The Law and Order League and the Purity Squad were formed to help capture moonshiners.
1921 President William G. Harding played golf at the Princess Anne Country Club.
1925 Edgar Cayce moved to Virginia Beach.
1926 The Lesner Bridge was named after John A. Lesner, a member of the Virginia State Senate from
Norfolk (1908 - 1915; 1923 - 1939).
1935 "Aunt" Betsy Ward died. An ex-slave, she was believed to be the oldest resident of PA County at an
estimated age of 103.
1960 Two friends, William Deal and Ammon Tharp, formed a band that would later be known as Bill Deal
and the Rhondels.
1961 Louise Luxford Elementary School was named in honor of a woman who served in the PA County
School System for 44 years.
1963 Pete Smith and Bob Holland opened the Smith and Holland Surf Shop.
1973 Louise Venable Kyle published the Witch of Pungo.
1973 Virginia Beach resident Jeremiah Denton was the first Vietnam POW to step on free soil.
1986 John Perry was elected as the first African-American City Council member.
1988 Meyera Oberndorf, the City's first directly elected mayor, was sworn into office.
1991 Discovery astronaut/pilot Cmdr. Kenneth S. Reightler returned to Virginia Beach for a public appearance.
1991 Skip Wilkins was inducted into the National Wheelchair Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
1996 Judge Sidney S. Kellam died. Appointed a Circuit Court Judge in 1960, he was appointed to the
federal bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. He was a Virginia delegate to the Democratic
National Convention in 1952, and a member of the Virginia Democratic National committee in 1967,
He served as King Neptune during the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival in 1979.
2000 Rudy Boesch, a former Nave SEAL, was a contestant on the TV reality show, Survivor.
​
​
1600 The first road, an old Indian trail, led from Long Creek east of Lynnhaven Inlet to Knotts Island.
1637 Three toll ferries were in existence was well as a log bridge that connected the glebe area to
Thoroughgood's property.
1883 Marshall Parkes formed the Virginia Beach Railroad and Improvement Company, a small gauge
railroad between Norfolk and Virginia Beach, to develop the beachfront as a resort.
1891 The Norwegian bark Dictator sank off 40th Street. There were only 10 survivors.
1900 The Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad became the Norfolk and Southern Railroad.
1902 The Chesapeake Transit Company built a standard gauge electric railroad from Cape Henry to
Virginia Beach, the northern route.
1905 The Anti-Turnpike Good Roads Association of princess Anne and Norfolk counties was formed'
1921 Virginia Beach Boulevard became the City's first hard-paved [concrete] road, linking the resort
with Norfolk.
1928 Tourists in Pullman cars from Chicago could step off their train in front of the Cavalier Hotel.
1928 Shore Drive was opened to relieve congestion on Virginia Beach Boulevard.
1928 The Cavalier Hotel inaugurated a short-lived drive on the beachfront between the hotel and Kill Devil
Hills - 60 miles (4 hours) long.
1935 Princess Anne #104, a gas-powered railbus faster than the electric cars it replaced, was introduced
by the Norfolk & Southern Railroad.
1935 Pacific Avenue was slated to be paved between 16th and 218th Streets.
1940 Work began on a bridge over Rudee Inlet at 2nd Street.
1940 Train service to Munden Point was ended.
1947 The only stoplight in the city was located at 17th Street.
1947 The last Norfolk & Southern railbus pulled out of Union Station in Norfolk ending rail service to
Virginia Beach.
1948 The Virginia Beach Chamber of Commerce erected a "Welcome to Virginia Beach" sign at the
intersection of Virginia Beach Boulevard and Laskin Road.
1967 A fourteen-mile stretch south of Sandbridge was designated a public highway.
1971 The Virginia Beach/Norfolk Expressway [Route 44, now a part of I-264] was opened.
1971 John Sears, Chairman of the Virginia Metropolitan Area Transportation Study Commission, proposed
a mass transit rail system between Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
1995 The 25-cent toll was removed from the Virginia Beach/Norfolk Expressway.
​
​
​