Richmond Virginia History & Facts

Richmond is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond Region. Richmond was incorporated in 1742 and has been an independent city since 1871. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 204,214; in 2020, the population had grown to 226,610, making Richmond the fourth-most populous city in Virginia. The Richmond Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,260,029, the third-most populous metro in the state.

Richmond is at the fall line of the James River, 44 mi (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 mi (106 km) east of Charlottesville, 91 mi (146 km) east of Lynchburg and 92 mi (148 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 and encircled by Interstate 295, Virginia State Route 150 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Chesterfield to the south, Varina to the southeast, Sandston to the east, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west and Mechanicsville to the northeast.

The site of Richmond had been an important village of the Powhatan Confederacy, and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611. The present city of Richmond was founded in 1737. It became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780, replacing Williamsburg. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church, and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. It entered the 20th century with one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems. The Jackson Ward neighborhood is a traditional hub of African-American commerce and culture.

After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established in April 1607, at Jamestown, Virginia, Captain Christopher Newport led explorers northwest up the James River to an inhabited area within the Powhatan Nation.

The earliest European settlement in Central Virginia was in 1611 at Henricus, where the Falling Creek empties into the James River. In 1619 early Virginia Company settlers struggling to establish viable moneymaking industries established the Falling Creek Ironworks. After decades of conflicts between the Powhatan and the settlers, the Falls of the James saw more White settlement in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

The Battle of Bloody Run was fought near Richmond in 1656, after an influx of Manahoacs and Nahyssans from the North.

Richmond is located at 37°32′N 77°28′W (37.538, −77.462). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62 sq mi (160 km2), of which 60 sq mi (160 km2) is land and 2.7 sq mi (7.0 km2) of it (4.3%) is water. The city is in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the James River's highest navigable point. The Piedmont region is characterized by relatively low, rolling hills, and lies between the low, flat Tidewater region and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Significant bodies of water in the region include the James River, the Appomattox River, and the Chickahominy River.

Famous Peoples From Richmond Virginia

Constance Wu

(born March 22, 1982) is an American actress. Wu was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She has earned several accolades, including nominations for a Golden Globe Award, four Critics' Choice Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two TCA Awards.

Wu starred as Jessica Huang in the ABC television comedy Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020), which was her breakthrough role and earned her four nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. She was further lauded for her role as Rachel Chu in the romantic comedy-drama film Crazy Rich Asians (2018) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, among others; she became the first actress of Asian descent in over 40 years and the fourth overall to be nominated for the former category. She subsequently starred in the crime drama film Hustlers (2019).

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