1607 Jamestown the first permanent European settlement in the New World was established.
1612 John Rolfe began the cultivation of tobacco.
1613 Pocahontas is captured and held for ransom. She would later marry Englishman Thomas Rolfe.
1614 Pocohonatas married John Rolfe after converting to christianity.
1624 Virginia becomes a royal colony.
1676 Nathaniel Bacon led an unsuccessful rebellion which ended in his death.
1693 the college of William and Mary was founded.
1698 Williamsburg becomes the capital.
1754 George Washington led Virginia troops against French forces in the Ohio Valley.
1765 Patrick Henry presented the Virginia Resolutions.
1775 Patrick Henry gave his Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech.
1776 Thomas Jefferson from Virginia writes the Declaration of Independence.
1780 Benedict Arnold led a force of 27 British troops into the James River.
1781 British General Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown thus effectively ending the Revolutionary War.
1788 After a lengthy debate. Virginia ratified the Constitution.
1789 Virginian George Washington is elected the first President of the United States.
1801 Thomas Jefferson is elected the third President of the United States.
1807 The British frigate HMS Leopard attacked the USS Chesapeake off the Virginia capes.
1831 The Nat Turner slave rebellion occurred.
1859 John Brown seizes the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to start a scale slave rebellion. He was hung.
1861 Virginia secedes from the Union and joins the Confederate States and the Civil War begins.
1861 First Battleof Manassas.
1862 The Battle of the Merrimac and Monitor took place at Hampton Roads.
1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain, Second Battle of Manasas, Battle of Fredericksburg.
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville.
1863 West Virginia breaks away from Virginia and forms its own state.
1864 Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Cold Harbor, Battle of Petersburg.
1865 The Union captures Petersburg Richmond was evacuated.
1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders to the Union Army at Appomattox signaling the end of the Civil War.
1870 Virginia is readmitted to the Union.
1943 The Pentagon building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, is opened in Arlington.
1964 The world's first Atomic powered aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise was launched at Newport News.
2001 The Pentagon is crashed into by a hijacked passenger jet as part of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.