Virginia Beach is a resort city on the Atlantic Ocean about 200 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., 100 miles southeast of Richmond, Virginia and 200 miles northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina.

The British admiral Christopher Newport and his crew including John Smith landed in the present city of Virginia Beach on April 26th, 1607. The sight was so beautiful to the new explorers that Master George Percy wrote, ‘Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitations than Virginia’.

The land was claimed by the British and named it Cape Henry after prince James of England. It would take another 14 years before present day Virginia Beach would be settled.

Because of the abundance of fish in the Chesapeake Bay area, the fishing industry was one of the first commercial activity.
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Virginia became a U.S. state on June 25 1788, as the 10th state. Virginia was one of the original 13 British colonies.

In 1584 Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Sir Walter Raleigh to set up the first English colony in North America and named in honor of Queen Elizabeth I of England, known as the Virgin Queen. His attempts failed.

The first English settlers arrived in the region in 1607 when the vessels Sarah Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery landed at Jamestown. All North America not Spanish or French was then called Virginia. Although many settlers died that winter from starvation, Captain John Smith was successful in establishing the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown thanks in part to new ships arriving in early spring with food and supplies.

In 1612 John Rolfe of Jamestown began planting tobacco which became the leading industry in Virginia.
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