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.

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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

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

myriad (adj): Great in number; innumerable http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/myriad

___________________________ 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