On April 13, Thomas Jefferson's birthday, we published our entry on the third president. (He also wrote the Declaration of Independence. And founded the University of Virginia. Maybe you've heard of him.)

Written by J. Jefferson Looney and edited by our partners at the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, this is our longest entry to date and, we think, one of our best. Why is it only coming eight years after Encyclopedia Virginia first went online? Managing Editor Brendan Wolfe explains. (Image: Library of Virginia)

More ...

May 1851: The first English edition of the Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, is published in Manchester, England.

May 1961: Arthur Ashe wins his second national tennis title at the National Interscholastic Tournament held at the University of Virginia.

May 12, 1929: Louis I. Jaffé is awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials opposing lynching in the South.

May 17, 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

May 15, 1864: About 250 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute participate in the Battle of New Market. Forty-seven are wounded and ten killed in the Confederate victory.

May 29, 1677: The female chief Cockacoeske signs the Treaty of Middle Plantation, and several tribes are reunited under her authority.

May 29, 1866: Winfield Scott, a hero of the Mexican War, a former Whig candidate for president, and the highest ranking military officer of his day, dies.