National Virginia Day Date in the current year: September 14, 2025

Virginia is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States. Situated between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachians, it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Virginia’s nickname, the Old Dominion, refers to its status as the first permanent English colony in North America. Virginia is also known as the “Mother of Presidents” because eight U.S. presidents were from there, including four of the first five: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, and Woodrow Wilson.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the territory that is now Virginia was home to numerous Native American tribes. However, three-fourths of Virginia’s Native population died from Old World diseases during the European colonization of the 17th century.

Several European expeditions explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century, including a group of Spanish Jesuits (the Ajacán Mission) and a British expedition led by Walter Raleigh. Captain Arthur Barlowe’s report on the latter expedition first used the name “Virginia”.

However, Raleigh’s attempts to establish an English colony on Roanoke Island, now part of North Carolina, were unsuccessful. In 1606, King James I issued a charter for a new colony in Virginia to the Virginia Company of London. The first group of settlers arrived in the New World in 1607 and established Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. In 1624, the Virginia Company was dissolved, and Virginia became a Crown colony.

Anti-colonial sentiments first arose in Virginia shortly after the French and Indian War ended in 1763. In 1773, Virginia began coordinating its actions with other colonies through its Committee of Correspondence. The colony sent delegates to the Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in 1774.

When the American Revolutionary War broke out, many Virginians joined the Continental Army and revolutionary militias. Virginia became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation the predecessor to the U.S. Constitution, in 1777. After the war, James Madison’s Virginia Plan played an important role in drafting the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention.

The U.S. Constitution was sent to the states for ratification in September 1787. The Virginia Ratifying Convention met in Richmond in June 1788 and unanimously ratified the Constitution on June 25. Thus, Virginia became the 10th state to join the Union.

In 2017, National Day Calendar launched its National State Days project, which recognizes all states in the order in which they joined the Union, rather than on their actual admission anniversaries. The celebrations begin on July 13 with National Delaware Day, since Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. National Virginia Day is on September 14.