Stephens City, Virginia, the second-oldest municipality in the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, is located in southern Frederick County,
with an estimated population of 1,503 in 2009. The town was founded in
the early 1730s by German immigrant Peter Stephens and was chartered by
Peter's son, Lewis, on September 1, 1758. In the late 1850s, free
blacks began a settlement about a mile east of town which became known
as Crossroads which lasted until the Civil War began, when some fled
but others were forced to fight for the South. In June 1864, Union
Major Joseph K. Stearns of the 1st New York Cavalry arrived under
orders to burn it down, but spared it after seeing the remaining
population consisted mostly of women, children and the elderly. Over
the course of its existence, it has been renamed five times, almost
winding up as "Pantops". The construction of Interstate 81 passed just
to the east of the town in the early 1960s. In 1992, a large section of
the town, called the Newtown-Stephensburg Historic District, was listed
on the National Register of Historic Places. Stephens City celebrated
its 250th anniversary on September 1, 2008.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephens_City%2C_Virginia>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1774:
In response to the British Parliament enacting the Intolerable Acts,
representatives from twelve of Britain's North American colonies
convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in
Philadelphia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Continental_Congress>
1905:
Under the mediation of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt , the
Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Portsmouth at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, US.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth>
1914:
World War I: The First Battle of the Marne began with French forces
engaging the advancing German army at the Marne River near Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne>
1945:
Cold War: Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected to Canada with
over 100 documents on Soviet espionage activities and sleeper agents.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko>
1972:
The Palestinian militant group Black September took hostage eleven
Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Summer Games in Munich,
West Germany; all of the hostages were killed less than 24 hours later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre>
1991:
The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples,
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, came into force.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_and_Tribal_Peoples_Convention%2C_1989>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
myriad (adj):
Great in number; innumerable
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/myriad>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel
nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have
to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am.
--Caspar David Friedrich
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich>