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Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke (The Star City of the South) is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The name Roanoke is said to have originated from the native American word for shell "money". The town of Big Lick was chartered in 1874. It became the town of Roanoke in 1882 and the independent city of Roanoke two years later. Its location in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 94,911. The City of Roanoke is adjacent to, but politically separate from, Roanoke County. The United States Census Bureau includes in Roanoke's metropolitan area the counties of Botetourt and Roanoke, and the cities of Salem and Roanoke. The metropolitan area's population in the past three censuses has been reported to be:
- 1980 --- 220,393

- 1990 --- 224,477

- 2000 --- 235,932

History

After the American Civil War (1861-1865), William Mahone, a civil engineer and hero of the Battle of the Crater, was the driving force in the linkage of 3 Virginia railroads to form the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia in 1870. After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control. At the foreclosure auction, the AM&O was purchased by E.W. Clark and Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia which controlled the Shenandoah Valley Railroad then under construction. The AM&O was renamed Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).. Frederick J. Kimball, a civil engineer and partner in the Clark firm, headed the new line and consolidated it with the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. For the junction for the Shenandoah and the Norfolk and Western, Kimball and his board of directors selected a small Virginia village called Big Lick, on the Roanoke River. Although the grateful citizens offered to rename their town "Kimball", on his suggestion, they agreed to go with Roanoke after the river. As the N&W brought people and jobs, the Town of Roanoke quickly became an independent city in 1884. In fact, Roanoke became a city so quickly that it earned the nickname "Magic City." Kimball, whose interest in geology was responsible for the opening of the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and West Virginia, pushed N&W lines through the wilds of West Virginia, north to Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio, and south to Durham, North Carolina and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This gave the railroad the route structure it was to use for more than 60 years. The Virginian Railway (VGN), an engineering marvel of its day, was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers Following the Roanoke River, the VGN was built through the City of Roanoke early in the 20th century. It was merged with the N&W in 1959. The opening of the coalfields made N&W prosperous and Pocahontas bituminous coal world-famous. Transported by the N&W and neighboring Virginian Railway (VGN), it fueled half the world's navies and today stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe. The N&W was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house. It was at the Norfolk & Western's Roanoke Shops, which employed thousands of craftsmen, where decades later the famed classes A, J, and Y6 locomotives would be designed, built and maintained, made the company known industry-wide for its excellence in steam power. Around 1960, N&W was the last major railroad in the United States to convert from steam to diesel motive power. However, several of its famous steam engines, including J class # 611 and A class # 1218 are now on display at the [http://www.vmt.org Virginia Museum of Transportation] in Roanoke. The steam age is also chronicled in photographs in the [http://www.linkmuseum.org/ O. Winston Link Museum] also in Roanoke. Today, Roanoke is famous for its Chili Cook-Off, Strawberry Festival, and the large red, white, and blue illuminated Mill Mountain Star on Mill Mountain, which is visible from many points in the city and neighboring valley. At the top of Mill Mountain is small zoo which features animals which require the cool mountaintop temperatures and atmosphere. Wrestler Tony Atlas is originally from Roanoke. The city's newspaper, [http://www.roanoke.com The Roanoke Times], has been published for 120 years. In 2002, it was designated the best-read daily newspaper in the country, according to the 2002 Scarborough Report. Of 162 newspapers in top U.S. metropolitan areas, The Roanoke Times ranked first in the percentage of adults who read their daily newspaper.

Geography

Tony Atlas According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 111.1 km² (42.9 mi²). 111.1 km² (42.9 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.07% water. Within the city limits is Mill Mountain, which stands detached from surrounding ranges. Its summit commands a view of twisting streams, ridges, valleys, and distant peaks.

Economic Statistics: Roanoke MSA

The Roanoke, VA MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Virginia as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of June, 2003. Note: Since a state constitutional change in 1871, all cities in Virginia are independent cities and they are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents for the purpose of defining MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order, and not by size. The Roanoke, VA MSA includes:
- Botetourt County
- Craig County
- Franklin County
- Roanoke County
- [http://www.roanokegov.com/ City of Roanoke]
- City of Salem

Landmarks & Points of Interest

City of Salem
- [http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/ Blue Ridge Parkway]
- [http://www.grandintheatre.com/ Grandin Theatre]
- [http://www.hotelroanoke.com/ Hotel Roanoke]
- Mill Mountain Star [http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/VAROAstar.html]
- [http://www.mmzoo.org/ Mill Mountain Zoo]
- [http://www.hollyeats.com/RoanokeWeinerStand.htm Roanoke Weiner Stand]
- [http://www.texastavern-inc.com/ Texas Tavern]
- [http://www.local1132.org/firestations.htm/ Roanoke's Historical Fire Station #1]

Arts, History & Culture in Roanoke


- [http://www.explorepark.org/ Virginia's Explore Park]
- [http://www.vmt.org/ Virginia Museum of Transportation]
- [http://www.artmuseumroanoke.org/ Art Museum of Western Virginia]
- [http://www.history-museum.org/ History Museum of Western Virginia]
- [http://www.smwv.org/ Science Museum of Western Virginia]
- [http://www.harrisonmuseum.org/ Harrison Museum of African-American Culture]
- [http://www.rso.com/ Roanoke Symphony Orchestra]
- [http://www.operaroanoke.org/ Opera Roanoke]
- [http://www.millmountain.org/ Mill Mountain Theatre]
- [http://www.linkmuseum.org/ O. Winston Link Museum]
- [http://www.jeffcenter.org/shaftman.htm/ Jefferson Center]

Speciality Histories about Roanoke


- [http://www.forgotten-roanoke.com/ Downtown Roanoke's history revealed]
- [http://www.roanokefirefighters.blogspot.com/ The History of the Roanoke Fire Department in progress from the 1880's to present, with current news and links]
- [http://www.local1132.org/timeline.htm/ The Maurice Wiseman Project - History of the Roanoke Fire Service]
- [http://members.cox.net/oldroanoke/ Old Roanoke - A photographic history of Roanoke Virginia]
- [http://members.cox.net/lendys/ The Lendy's Web Page]
- [http://roanoke-starcity.tripod.com Roanoke - Star City] Category:Cities in Virginia

Independent city

An independent city is a city that does not form part of another local government entity. As a formal term it is mainly used in the U.S. state of Virginia, however there are equivalent entities in a number of other jurisdictions throughout the world. Independent cities should not be confused with city-states (such as Singapore), which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other nation-state.

United States

In the United States, an independent city is a city that does not belong to any particular county. Because counties have historically been a strong institution in local government in most of the United States, independent cities are relatively rare outside of Virginia (see below), whose state constitution makes them a special case. The U.S. Census Bureau uses counties as its base unit for presentation of statistical information, and treats independent cities as county equivalents for those purposes.

Virginia

Of the 43 or so independent cities in the United States, 39 are in Virginia. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as "cities" have also been "independent cities" since 1871. Other municipalities, even though they may be more populous than some existing independent cities, are incorporated as "towns", and as such form part of a county. An independent city in Virginia may serve as the county seat of an adjacent county, even though the city by definition is not part of that county. Several Virginia counties, whose origins go back to the original eight shires of the colony formed in 1634, have the word city in their names; however, politically they are counties. Examples are Charles City County and James City County.
List of Virginia's independent cities
The independent cities in Virginia are (as of December, 2004):
- Alexandria
- Bedford (also the seat of Bedford County)
- Bristol
- Buena Vista
- Charlottesville (also the seat of Albemarle County)
- Chesapeake (formed through the merger of the City of South Norfolk and Norfolk County)
- Colonial Heights
- Covington (also the seat of Alleghany County)
- Danville
- Emporia (also the seat of Greensville County)
- Fairfax (also the seat of Fairfax County)
- Falls Church
- Franklin
- Fredericksburg
- Galax
- Hampton (formed through the merger of the Town of Phoebus and Elizabeth City County)
- Harrisonburg (also the seat of Rockingham County)
- Hopewell
- Lexington (also the seat of Rockbridge County)
- Lynchburg
- Manassas
- Manassas Park
- Martinsville
- Newport News (consolidated with the City of Warwick, itself formerly Warwick County)
- Norfolk
- Norton
- Petersburg
- Poquoson
- Portsmouth
- Radford
- Richmond
- Roanoke
- Salem (also the seat of Roanoke County)
- Staunton (also the seat of Augusta County)
- Suffolk (formed by the merger of the Towns of Suffolk, Holland, and Whaleyville, with the City of Nansemond)
- Virginia Beach (formed by the merger of the Town of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County)
- Waynesboro
- Williamsburg (also the seat of James City County)
- Winchester (also the seat of Frederick County) Note that while most counties and cities in Virginia with similar names are contiguous, the independent city of Richmond is located nowhere near Richmond County. The latter is located in the state's Northern Neck region, about 50 miles distant from the city.
Arlington County
Arlington County, commonly referred to as just "Arlington", is not an independent city. However, it is often thought of as a city because it is fully urbanized, is close in size to other independent cities in the state, and includes no municipalities within its borders.
Former cities
See also: Lost Counties, Cities and Towns of Virginia. Former independent cities that were long extant in Virginia include:
- Clifton Forge, which gave up its city charter in 2001, and is now an incorporated town in Alleghany County.
- Manchester, which was consolidated by mutual agreement with the City of Richmond in 1910.
- South Boston, which gave up its city charter in 1994, and is now an incorporated town in Halifax County.
- South Norfolk, which merged with Norfolk County in 1963 to form the City of Chesapeake. Two other independent cities existed for a short time:
- Nansemond, created from the former Nansemond County in 1972, was merged in 1974 with the then-City of Suffolk and three unincorporated towns within the county's former boundaries to form today's City of Suffolk.
- Warwick, which was formed from the former Warwick County in 1952, was in 1958 consolidated by mutual agreement with the newly-expanded City of Newport News.

Other states

Some states have created independent cities in order to cater for the special requirements of governing their largest cities and/or capitals:
- The City of Baltimore, Maryland, has been separate from Baltimore County since 1851.
- The City of St. Louis, Missouri, was separated from St. Louis County in 1876.
- The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City, Nevada, absorbed all of the former Ormsby County in 1969.

Other entities similar to independent cities

An independent city should not be confused with
- A consolidated city-county (such as San Francisco or Philadelphia), in which both city and county government has been merged.
- A completely urbanized county such as Arlington, Virginia
- The City of New York, which is a sui generis jurisdiction: the city is made up of five boroughs, each of which is territorially contiguous with a county.
- Cities and towns in New England, which traditionally have very strong governments, with counties having correspondingly lesser importance. Today, most New England counties have almost no governmental institutions or roles associated with them (aside from serving as a basis for court districts). However, somewhat like the ceremonial counties of England, counties in New England still have a nominal existence, and so no city or town in New England is truly separate from a county. The U.S. Census Bureau still uses counties, and not cities or towns, as its base unit of statistical measurement in New England.
- Washington, D.C., which, like the capitals of many other countries (see below), has a special status. It is not part of any state; instead, it comprises the entirety of the District of Columbia, which, in accordance with Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. When founded, the District was in fact divided into two counties and two independent cities. Alexandria County (now Arlington County and the independent city of Alexandria) was given back to Virginia in 1846, while the three remaining entities (the City of Washington, Georgetown City and Washington County) were merged into a consolidated government by an act of Congress in 1871 and Georgetown was formally abolished as a city entity by another act in 1895. Congress has established a home rule government for the city, although city laws can be overridden by Congress. This is fairly rare, however, and so in practice the city operates much like other independent cities in the United States.

Canada

In the Canadian province of Ontario, the same type of city is referred to as a single-tier municipality.

Europe

Austria

In Austria, a similar concept is the Statutarstadt.

Germany

:See also: List of German urban districts. In Germany, different states have either the Stadtkreis ("Urban District") or Kreisfreie Stadt (literally, "District-Free City"). Examples of German independent cities are:
- Flensburg
- Neuburg an der Donau
- Salzgitter

Hungary

:See also: List of towns in Hungary In Hungary 23 of the cities are "cities with county rights", these cities have equal rights with the 19 counties of Hungary.

United Kingdom

Some cities in the United Kingdom are a unitary authority, and could be considered to be independent cities. In the UK, however, "city" has no inherent status; city status depends on a grant from the monarch and merely confers on the place so-designated the right to call itself a city.

Republic of China

Under the administrative division system of the Republic of China (effectively controlling Taiwan and islands since 1949), some cities are directly administered by the Executive Yuan, some are administered by provinces, and some are subordinate to counties. The centrally-adminsitered and province-administered ones are like independent cities under this definition.

National capitals

A number of countries have made their national capitals into separate entities. For example Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is outside of the country's system of counties, as is the capital of Romania, Bucharest. The capital of the United States is not within any of the 50 states.

Federal capitals

In countries with a federal structure, the federal capital is usually separate from other jurisdictions in the country, and frequently has a unique system of government. Examples include:
- The Australian capital, Canberra, is situated in the Australian Capital Territory
- Brasília, Caracas, and Mexico City, the capitals of Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico respectively, are each located in a Federal District.

See also


- County borough
- Unitary authority Category:Cities Category:Lists of cities Category:Independent cities ko:독립시 ja:独立市

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the original thirteen states of the United States that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, and is part of the South. It is one of four states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be colonized permanently by England. Virginia's U.S. postal abbreviation is VA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Va. Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia at the time of the founding of the United States; but the former was admitted to the Union as a separate state in 1792, while the latter broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, more than any other state. Five of them were re-elected to a second term: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor round out the list of American Presidents from the Commonwealth of Virginia. (Harrison and Taylor died while in office.)

History

Native Americans

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, among Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html]

Virginia Colony: 1607–1776

At the end of the 16th century, when Great Britain began to colonize North America, Virginia was the name that Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually applying to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. It swiftly financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony, in 1607, which settlement was founded by Captian Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609. Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned (not the first time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the time of the Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.

A new state

In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack. In the autumn of 1781, American troops trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula in the famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war and securing the former colonies' independence, even though sporadic fighting continued for two years. Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1790 both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War

Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union to become the Confederacy during the Civil War. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.

20th century

When Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as Governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.

Law and government

The capital is Richmond: the current Governor is Mark Warner, a Democrat. Tim Kaine, also a Democrat, is the governor-elect. Previous capitals included Jamestown (1609–1699) and Williamsburg (1699–1780). The Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the Governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the General Assembly is made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favour of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary. Virginia currently functions under the 1970 Constitution of Virginia. It is the state's ninth constitution. Under the Constitution, the State Government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make all state laws. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the state's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia. The executive branch comprises the Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc) and take office in January of the following year. The Governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as Commander-in-Chief of the State Militia. State law forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms. The Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the Governor. The Attorney General is chief legal advisor to the Governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the state and the head of the Department of Law. The Attorney General is second in the line of succession to the Governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes Governor. The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the Governor:
- Governor's Chief of Staff
- Secretary of Administration
- Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
- Secretary of Commerce and Trade
- Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Finance
- Secretary of Health and Human Resources
- Secretary of Natural Resources
- Secretary of Public Safety
- Secretary of Technology
- Secretary of Transportation
- Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth (although, as with all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court involving substantial questions of U.S. Constitution law or constitutional rights). The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system. The 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their own governments, usually a county board of supervisors or city council which choose a city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political chief administrator under the council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, Virginia, which has a popularly-elected Mayor who serves as chief executive separate from the city council.

Political control

After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a strong majority position of state and federal offices for over 85 years. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thereafter, Republicans made substantial gains, and for a time, controlled both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as the Governorship from 1994 until 2002.
- Republicans hold both seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, hold a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, and a Republican is Virginia's Lieutenant Governor-Elect. A republican is also temporarily serving as attorney general having been appointed to fill the seat left by Jerry Kilgore. However, the recent election for attorney general to fill the open seat has not been decided and a recount will occur to determine the election.
- Democrats control the remaining 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Governor and Governor-Elect are both Democrats. The Democrats have steadily been gaining seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and may soon take control, however the State Senate will likely remain under Republican Leadership. Incumbent Virginia governors cannot run for re-election under the state constitution and In the November 2005 election, the race to succeed Democratic Governor Mark Warner, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine beat Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County), and State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester) (longtime Republican) running as an independent. Kaine will become governor of the state at his inauguration on January 14, 2006.

Geography

2006 2006 Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west. The Chesapeake Bay divides the state, with the eastern portion (called 'the Eastern Shore of Virginia'), a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the state. Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following 5 regions:
- Tidewater - Stretching from the Atlantic coast to the fall line
- Piedmont - East of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Tidewater Region
- Blue Ridge Mountains - East of the Appalachian Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountain Region
- Valley and Ridge - Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley Region
- Appalachian Plateau - West of the Appalachian Mountains Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies much closer to New York and New England than to the rural western panhandle of its own state. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to 8 state capitals than it is to Richmond.

Demographics

As of 2004, Virginia's population was estimated to be 7,459,827. The state had a foreign-born population of 679,500 (9.1% of the state population), of which an estimated 100,000 were illegal aliens (15% of the foreign-born). The state's population increased by 1.3 million between 1990 and 2004, a growth of 21% Race and Ancestry
The racial makeup of the state:
- 70.2% White non-Hispanic
- 19.6% Black
- 4.7% Hispanic
- 3.7% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 2% Mixed race The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African American (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%). Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion (about half) of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked the state's tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent. Today Blacks are concentrated in the eastern and southern tidewater and piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was most dominant. The western mountains are populated primarily by people of British and American ancestry. People of German descent are present in sizable numbers in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. And due to recent immigration, there is a rapidly growing population of Hispanics (particularly Central Americans) and Asians in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. 6.5% of Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 11.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are:
- Christian – 84%
  - Protestant – 69%
    - Baptist – 32%
    - Methodist – 8%
    - Episcopal – 3%
    - Presbyterian – 3%
    - Other Protestant or general Protestant – 23%
  - Roman Catholic – 14%
  - Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 2%
- Non-Religious – 12%

Economy

Virginia's economy has long been regarded as one of the better-balanced in the United States with diverse sources of income, including military installations concentrated in the Hampton Roads area, tobacco and peanut farming all through Southside Virginia, manufacturing and transportation, and the location of Northern Virginia as a bedroom community for the federal government and its vendors. Virginia, arguably the wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, recovered from the civil war and the Great Depression much faster than the rest of the south. Today it is still significantly wealthier than the rest of the south, although much of that is from the northern influence around Washington D.C.

Transportation

Northern Virginia Virginia is served by a network of Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited access tollways, bridges, tunnels, and three bridge-tunnel complexes. The [http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/ Springfield Interchange Project] (also known as "The Mixing Bowl") and the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, two of the country's largest highway improvement projects, are taking place in the state ten miles apart. Major airports are located in these areas: Northern Virginia (Reagan-National and Dulles), Richmond-Petersburg (Richmond), Virginia Peninsula (Newport News), South Hampton Roads (Norfolk), and the Roanoke Valley (Roanoke). Virginia has extensive waterways. In addition to the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay, navigable rivers include the Elizabeth River at Hampton Roads, the James River, the York River, the Rappahannock River, and the Potomac River. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passes through eastern Virginia. Virginia has Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C. The Washington Metro serves Northern Virginia as far west as Fairfax County.

Sports

Virginia is by far the most populous U.S. state without a major professional sports league franchise. The reasons for this include the close proximity of Washington, D.C. which has franchises in all four major sports, and the lack of any dominant city or market within the state. An attempt to bring a National Hockey League expansion franchise to Hampton Roads in the 1990s was rejected by the NHL. A proposal to relocate the Montreal Expos to Northern Virginia was considered by Major League Baseball, but MLB eventually settled on the national capital as the Expos' new home. Virginia is home to many minor league clubs, especially in baseball and soccer.

Baseball


- Bluefield Orioles (Appalachian League)
- Bristol White Sox (Appalachian League)
- Danville Braves (Appalachian League)
- Lynchburg Hillcats (Carolina League)
- Norfolk Tides (International League)
- Potomac Nationals (Carolina League)
- Pulaski Blue Jays (Appalachian League)
- Richmond Braves (International League)
- Salem Avalanche (Carolina League)
- [http://www.winchesterroyals.com Winchester Royals] ([http://www.valleyleaguebaseball.com Valley League])

Basketball


- Roanoke Dazzle (NBDL)

Ice hockey


- Norfolk Admirals (AHL)
- Richmond RiverDogs (UHL)
- Roanoke Valley Vipers (UHL)

Indoor football


- Richmond Bandits (AIFL)

Soccer


- Chesapeke Athletic (Super Y-League)
- Hampton Roads Piranhas (W-League)
- Northern Virginia Majestics (W-League)
- Northern Virginia Royals (USL Second Division)
- Richmond Kickers (USL First Division)
- Richmond Kickers Destiny (W-League)
- Richmond Kickers Future (Premier Development League)
- Virginia Beach Mariners (USL First Division)
- Virginia Beach Submariners (Premier Development League)
- Williamsburg Legacy (Premier Development League)

Important cities and towns

Under the laws in effect in Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county. Of the 43 independent cities in the United States, 39 are in Virginia. The complete list of Virginia independent cities follows: Some other municipalities are incorporated towns, which are not independent of a county, but rather, located within one of the 95 counties in Virginia. These incorporated towns include: Finally, Arlington County, which lies across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is a completely urbanized community, much like a city, but remains organized as a county, and has no towns within its borders. There are also hundreds of other unincorporated communities (sometimes informally called villages or towns) in Virginia.

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information


- State motto: "Sic semper tyrannis." (Thus always to tyrants.)
- State bird: Cardinal
- State dog: American Foxhound
- State flower: Dogwood
- State tree: Dogwood
- State insect: Tiger swallowtail
- State bat: Virginia Big-Eared Bat
- State song: none; the former state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," was retired in 1997 because some found its lyrics to be racially offensive
- State dance: Square dance
- State boat: Chesapeake Bay deadrise
- State fish: Brook trout
- State shell: Oyster
- State fossil: Chesapecten Jeffersonius
- State beverage: Milk USS Virginia was named in honor of this state.

See also


- List of school divisions in Virginia
- Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia

Other places

There are also places named Virginia in the States of Illinois and Minnesota: see
- Virginia, Illinois.
- Virginia, Minnesota.

External links


- [http://www.virginia.gov State Government website]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/raleigh.htm Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh : 1584]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va01.htm The First Charter of Virginia; April 10, 1606]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va02.htm The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va03.htm The Third Charter of Virginia; March 12, 1611]
- [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51000.html U.S. Census Bureau]
- [http://www.vahistorical.org Virginia Historical Society]
- [http://www.historical-markers.org Virginia's Historical Markers]
- [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/ Geography of Virginia]
- [http://www.fathersforvirginia.org/ Fathers for Virginia]
- Category:States of the United States ko:버지니아 주 ja:バージニア州

1882

1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 2 - John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.
- February 2 - The Knights of Columbus are formed in New Haven, Connecticut
- February 3 - P. T. Barnum purchases the elephant Jumbo
- February 7 - In Mississippi City the last heavyweight boxing championship bareknuckle fight takes place.
- February 14 - Llanelli Conservative Association founded.
- March 2 – Robert Maclean fails to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor
- March 22 - Polygamy is outlawed by the U.S. Congress
- March 24 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).
- March 29 - The Knights of Columbus are established.
- March - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian claims to be the 'Reformer of Islam or Majaddid' of 14th Century.
- April 3 - Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
- May 2 – Charles Stewart Parnell released
- May 6 - "Invincibles", militant Irish republicans kill Lord Frederick Cavendish, chief secretary for Ireland and permanent undersecretary T.H. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin
- May 20 - Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
- June 6 - A cyclone is the Arabian Sea causes flooding in Bombay harbor - about 100.000 dead
- June 30 – Assassin Charles Guiteau hanged
- July 11 - British troops occupy Alexandria and Suez Canal
- July 26 - Boers establish the republic of Stellaland in southern Africa.
- August 5 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
- August 20 - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow.
- September 5 - The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
- September 13 - British troops occupy Cairo - Egypt becomes British protectorate
- October 16 - The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
- November 16 - Royal Navy HMS Flirt destroys Abari village in Niger

Month/day unknown


- Nikola Tesla conceives rotating magnetic field principle and uses it to invent the alternating current generator/motor
- First Polar Year, an international scientific program.
- Ferdinand von Lindemann publishes his proof of the transcendentality of pi
- Married Women's Property Act in Britain enables women to buy, own and sell property and to keep their own earnings
- Zulu king Cetshwayo returns to South Africa
- Peace treaty between Paraguay and Uruguay
- The British Chartered Institute of Patent Agents is founded.
- Personal Liberty League established to oppose temperance movement in United States.
- Carolyn Merrick elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Births

January-April


- January 6 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian poet and political figure (d. 1965)
- January 6 - Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)
- January 17 - Noah Beery, American actor (d. 1946)
- January 18 - A. A. Milne, British author (d. 1956)
- January 25 - Virginia Woolf, English writer (d. 1941)
- January 30 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (d. 1945)
- February 1 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
- February 2 - James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)
- February 15 - John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
- February 26 - Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (d. 1968)
- February 28 - Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
- March 10 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer (d. 1973)
- March 14 - Waclaw Sierpinski Polish mathematician (d. 1969)
- March 15 - Jim Lightbody, American runner (d. 1953)
- March 21 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor (d. 1971)
- March 23 - Emmy Noether, German mathematician (d. 1935)
- April 17 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (d. 1951)
- April 18 - Isabel J. Cox, First Lady of Canada (d. 1985)
- April 18 - Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (d. 1977)
- April 21 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)

May-December


- May 6 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II (d. 1951)
- May 9 - Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (d. 1967)
- May 9 - George Barker, American painter (d. 1965)
- May 13 - Georges Braque, French painter (d. 1963)
- May 19 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister (d. 1967)
- May 20 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
- May 30 - Wyndham Halswelle, British runner (d. 1915)
- June 9 - Bobby Kerr, Canadian sprinter (d. 1963)
- June 15 - Ion Antonescu, Romanian prime minister and dictator (d. 1946)
- June 17 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
- August 14 - Gisela Richter, English art historian (d. 1972)
- August 17 - Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood movie mogul (d. 1974)
- August 25 - Sean T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland (d. 1966)
- August 26 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
- October 5 - Robert Goddard, American rocket scientist (d. 1945)
- October 6 - Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (d. 1937)
- October 14 - Eamon de Valera, Taoiseach and third President of Ireland (d. 1975)
- October 14 - Charlie Parker, English cricketer (d. 1959)
- November 11 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
- December 9 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d. 1949)
- December 11 - Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil Indian poet (d. 1921)
- December 11 - Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
- December 16 - Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)

Deaths


- January 13 - Juraj Dobrila, Croatian bishop (b. 1812)
- March 24 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (b. 1807)
- April 3 - Jesse James, American Western outlaw (b. 1847)
- April 10 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (b. 1828)
- April 19 - Charles Darwin, British naturalist (b. 1809)
- April 27 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and writer (b. 1803)
- June 25 - François Jouffroy, French sculptor (b. 1806)
- July 4 - Joseph Brackett, Shaker religious leader and composer (b. 1797)
- July 16 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)
- December 3 - Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1811)
- December 6 - Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (b. 1819) Category:1882 ko:1882년 ms:1882 simple:1882 th:พ.ศ. 2425

Blue Ridge Mountains

Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains, United States, are ancient granitic and metamorphosed volcanic formations, some exceeding one billion years in age. The slow, steady forces of wind, water, and chemical decomposition have reduced the Blue Ridge from Sierra-like proportions to the low profile of an old mountain range. By comparison, humans have been associated with this land only about 9,000 years. The Blue Ridge Parkway extends 469 miles (750 km) along the crests of the Southern Appalachians and links two eastern national parks: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. In many places along the Blue Ridge Parkway, there are metamorphic rocks (gneiss) with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake. Although the term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, in which range Grandfather Mountain is the highest peak, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains, the Great Balsams, the Roans, and other mountain ranges. The range itself extends north into Pennsylvania; New Jersey, where it is known as the Kittatinnies; and lastly into New York where it becomes the Shawangunks. The highest peak in the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian chain is Mt. Mitchell (North Carolina) at 6,684 feet (2037 m). There are 39 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet; by comparison, the northern portion of the Appalachian chain contains only one 6,000 foot peak, New Hampshire's Mt. Washington. The Brushy Mountains in North Carolina are a "lost" spur of the Blue Ridge mountains. Category:Mountain ranges of the United States



2000

This article is about the year 2000. For other uses of 2000, see 2000 (number) or 2000 (breakdancing move). 2000 (MM) is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001. This is due to the fact that the first century began with the year 1, and there does not exist a year zero. The first century (or first 100 years AD) was from January 1, in the year one (1 AD) through December 31, in the year one-hundred (100 AD). The second century began on January 1, in the year one-hundred and one (101 AD). The year 2000 is also marked as:
- The International Year for a Culture of Peace.
- The World Mathematical Year. See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January


- January 1 - Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
- January 5-January 8 - The 2000 al-Qaida Summit
- January 6 - The last remaining Pyrenean Ibex is found dead.
- January 10 - America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
- January 11 - the armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria.
- January 11 - The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.
- January 14 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village.
- January 16 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
- January 24 - God's Army, Karen militia group led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, take 700 hostages at a Thai hospital near the Burmese border.
- January 30 - St. Louis Rams 23 defeat the Tennessee Titans 16 to win the Super_Bowl_XXXIV
- January 30 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. Within a day, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
- January 31 - Dr. Harold Shipman in sentenced to life in prison for murder of at least 15 of his patients out of 365 suspected victims.

February


- February 4 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.
- February 6 - Tarja Halonen is elected the first Finnish female president.
- February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.
- February 14 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

March


- March 1 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
- March 2 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
- March 8 - Tokyo train disaster.
- March 9 - FBI arrests suspected purveyor of art forgeries, Ely Sakhai, in New York City.
- March 10 - The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048. ([http://dynamic.nasdaq.com/dynamic/IndexChart.asp?symbol=IXIC&desc=NASDAQ+Composite&sec=nasdaq&site=nasdaq&months=84])
- March 18 - 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
- March 20 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
- March 21 - Pope John Paul II began the first office visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.
- March 21 - US Supreme Court ruled the goverment lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, throwing out the Clinton administration's main anti-smoking initiative.
- March 26 - Presidential elections in Russia: Vladimir Putin elected President.
- March 30 - America's Cup 2000 retained by Team New Zealand near Auckland. Prada Challenge 2000 lost 0-5 in a "best-of-9".

April

April.]]
- April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
- April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
- April 5 - Yoshiro Mori replaces Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Trepang completes being recycled.
- April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
- April 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
- April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
- April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.

May


- May 3 - A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
- May 3 - Computer pioneer Datapoint Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London.
- May 13 - In Enschede a heavy fireworks explosion kills 20 and leaves an entire neighborhood in ruins.
- May 18 - Boo.com collapses due to lack of funds after six months.
- May 25 - Israel withdraws IDF troops from southern Lebanon after 22 years.
- May 28 - The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.

June


- June 1 - Mark Mendlan, professional wrestler known by his ring name "Kid Gorgeous," is killed while wrestling at a show in New Hampshire.
- June 7 - U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the 4th circuit ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp.
- June 10 - The New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 to win the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 10 - The 2000 European Football Championship begins, hosted jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
- June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
- June 23 - Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in Childers, Queensland, Australia, kills 15 people.
- June 30 - During a set of the band Pearl Jam at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, 9 die and 26 are injured in the crowd.

July

July
- July 2 - France beat Italy 2-1 to win the 2000 European Football Championship with a golden goal.
- July 2 - Presidential election of Mexico. Vicente Fox wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
- July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline
- July 10 - Death of Denis O Conor Donn, died 10th July 2000, aged 88; succeded by his son, Desmond as The O Connor Donn
- July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party
- July 25 - A Concorde carrying Air France Flight 4590 crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.

August


- August 1 - The Santa Cruz Operation announced that it will sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, to Caldera Systems,Inc.
- August 8 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
- August 12 - The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
- August 14 - The first comic of Megatokyo goes online. This webcomic will later become one of the most popular comics on the web (in terms of page views) and spawn numerous imitators.
- August 25 - the Emulex hoax - wire services publish fraudulent bad news about Emulex
- August 27 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.

September


- September 5 - Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
- September 6 - In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
- September 6 - The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense
- September 7–14 - The UK fuel protests take place, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
- September 8 - Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization.
- September 15 - The 2000 Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia.
- September 16 - Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
- September 24 - The American Family Association begins lobbying the U.S. Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding the controversial book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young
- September 26 - Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.
- September 28 - Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount. Palestinian civil disorder increases into the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
- September 29 - The Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland is closed.

October


- October 2 NBC Today Show expanded it to three hours (7:00–10:00 A.M. Eastern Time/Pacific Time; 6:00–9:00 A.M. Central Time/Mountain Time)
- October 5 - President Slobodan Milošević leaves office after widespread demonstrations throughout Serbia and the withdrawal of Russian support.
- October 11 - 250 million gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. Considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- October 12 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers who placed a small boat laden with explosives along-side the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew memb