History

As with all lighthouses, they only gave warnings of landfall at night; what about the other half of the 24 hours? What about storms that caused most of our shipwrecks, day and night, month after month? Enter the United States Life-Saving Service, one of the least-known yet most fascinating facets of American history.

Virginia is the only U.S. state that hoists a flag bearing the image of a woman's bare breast. The reason for this has everything to do with the evolution and changing appearance of the state's seal.

If you’ve ever wished for another road to the Outer Banks, you’re not alone. The feasibility of an alternate route that follows the coastline has been debated and studied for decades.

Explore local history by bike while riding through the Historic District of South Norfolk on May 20.

The Poppy Wall of Honor will be on display at Virginia Beach's Military Aviation Museum beginning Friday, May 19, through June 14.

While Great Bridge native Ron Phelps may have been an electrical engineer by trade, his best-loved avocation has been his unfaltering fervor for reenacting history, especially local history.

The Hampton History Museum is hosting a free lecture Monday evening, “Nobody Knows My Name: Remembering the Middle Passage and Confronting America’s Amnesia about Slavery and its ‘Aftermath.’”

Preservation Virginia, a private nonprofit in Richmond that maintains and saves historic sites, released its annual list of endangered buildings and sites on Tuesday.

Historic St. Luke’s Church in Isle of Wight County near Smithfield hosts frequent cemetery preservation workshops to teach volunteers how to properly maintain the tombstone inscriptions in their ancient churchyard.

The free service will be available between 4 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday to folks who are at least 21 and celebrating with alcohol. Rides that cost over $15 will be offered at a reduced rate.

Archaeologists have found a submerged gravestone in Dry Tortugas National Park near the Florida Keys, and they say the discovery could also mean there’s a cemetery and hospital in the area.

Secretariat won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont in record times that still stand. He's being celebrated with special exhibits in the Triple Crown cities of Louisville, Baltimore and New York — as well as Secretariat’s birth state of Virginia.

Once a vibrant coastal resort on the north side of Norfolk, Ocean View later became a district blighted by booze halls and vice. Over time, gentrification crept in, the roughness faded and the indoor smoking went away. But so did some of the neighborhood's most iconic watering holes.

North Carolina historian Tim Tyson was one of the few people to ever interview Carolyn Bryant Donham about the encounter that led to the lynching of Emmett Till 68 years ago. His 2017 book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” revealed Donham’s stunning statement that she had lied about the circumstances of what happened between her and Till in 1955 — details that set off a chain of events ending with his murder.

A mud-crusted wallet, buried beneath 25 years worth of foliage, turned out to be the find of a lifetime for a Virginia Beach man and metal detecting hobbyist.

Journalist David Grann happened upon the tale of the HMS Wager, which wrecked off Chile in 1741 during a treasure-hunting mission. A few dozen people survived, and it was one castaway's journal that gripped him. The story, Grann says, is “a story about the disintegration of a floating civilization.”

NONFICTION: How a depraved lout turned the KKK into a force in Jazz Age Indiana. "A Fever in the Heartland:The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them" by Timothy Egan; Viking (432 pages, $30) ——— Let's face it. Timothy Egan could probably write a three-volume history of marshmallows and it would be a gripping thrill ride. His "Fever in the Heartland" is not ...

Fort Monroe Authority plans to begin work next year on landscaping on the surrounding memorial park and plaza and parking improvements along Fenwick Road. Officials hope for the landscaping to be completed in 2025 and the memorial by 2028.

Sarah Thorowgood proved more than capable of managing herself in 1600s Virginia.

On the morning of April 19, 1989, a horrific explosion and fire ripped through No. 2 gun turret of the Norfolk-based battleship USS Iowa.

In the weeks after he became the last POW of the Vietnam War released, Robert T. White received a homecoming in Williamsburg.

Hampton City Council voted 5-1 Wednesday to move the cannon from where it currently stands in the middle of Victoria Boulevard, at the intersection with Bridge Street, to a plot of land on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Great Berkley Fire. Rather than attempting to give an account of the incident, we’ll leave it to our former colleague – the one and only – George Tucker to tell the story.

The traveling photo exhibit, “I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970,” will be on display at the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center through May 27.

Portsmouth played a significant role in the dismantling of the Sugar Hill neighborhood. Now, the city wants to right the wrongs of the past by returning the land to the Black families it was taken from. But one of the questions still up for debate is whether returning the land would be helpful at all.

The roller coaster reached the top of its climb. It was all set to drop from a height of 210 feet – to fall at over 70 mph. Fabio’s golden mane lifted perfectly by the air and smiles beamed from the faces of the riders. It dropped. And then … a goose.

To culminate the bicentennial, owner Cheryl Lyon along with a team of helpers published a book on the history of Silver Lake.