The Virginian-Pilot Archives

03/02/2020

Forty years ago, record snowfall brought chaos to Hampton Roads.

Oh, the circus was here too.

Do you remember the Circus Blizzard?

The weather had yo-yoed between winter and spring several times by the end of February 1980.

02/24/2020

In the early days of the space program, before modern computers, Katherine Johnson’s precise trajectory calculations — done with pencil and paper, or chalk and blackboard — put John Glenn and other astronauts into orbit and brought them safely home. Most didn't know her name until "Hidden Figures" was published and adapted into a film.

Katherine Johnson, the former NASA Langley Research mathematician whose work helped take the U.S. into space, died Monday morning.

01/28/2020

After being held hostage for 444 days in Iran, Navy Cmdr. Donald A. Sharer returned home to Chesapeake. Thousands of friends, relatives and supporters turned out for a hero's welcome at the Chesapeake Civic Center on Jan. 28, 1981.

After being held hostage for 444 days in Iran, Navy Cmdr. Donald A. Sharer returned home to Chesapeake. Thousands of friends, relatives and supporters turned out for a hero’s welcome at the Chesapeake Civic Center on Jan. 28, 1981. Following the ceremony, Sharer thanked well-wishers who gathered i...

01/23/2020

Some news about us.

Tribune Publishing plans to lease back the space temporarily for newspaper operations until it finds a new space for its workers.

01/23/2020

Louis Cousins was 15 when a photographer snapped the frame that would come to be the defining image of the battle over school desegregation in Norfolk.

For years, he was largely quiet about the experience, even with family. But as he grew older, he thought it more important that people remember what happened.

01/17/2020

Did you participate in the 1960 sit-in movement?

We’re looking for people who participated in the protests, counter-protests or worked in the stores and remember that time.

The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press are looking for reader-submitted stories from people who participated or witnessed local events in the 1960 "sit-in" movement. Protesters, often college students, worked to integrate restaurants and stores that only served white customers.

01/15/2020

Crews begin the demolition of The Belvedere Hotel at 36th Street and Atlantic Avenue, Jan. 15, 2020.

01/15/2020

So many memories.

A demolition crew started to knock down the walls of The Belvedere Hotel at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Wednesday morning. The 50-room motor lodge was built in 1969 and was one of the oldest hotels at the beach.

01/13/2020

The brothers were just toddlers – Duane was 3 and Gregg 2 – when their father, Willis Turner Allman, was murdered the night after Christmas in 1949.

Long before the Allman brothers lived the rock star life, they survived a childhood scarred by tragedy: they were just toddlers when their father was murdered the night after Christmas in 1949.

01/08/2020

An aircraft on a secret mission for the Russians crashed into the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City almost 75 years ago.

For decades it was kept secret.

Museum to commemorate secret mission between Russians and US at Elizabeth City Coast Guard base during World War II

01/08/2020

It's Girl Scout cookie season!

A look back at when these treats first appeared in Tidewater.

Girl Scout cookies were first delivered across the Tidewater region 81 years ago this week.

01/02/2020

Happy 2020!
Sharing one of our more popular photos.
As the calendar flipped to a new year, disaster struck Norfolk. It was just past midnight on Jan. 1, 1918, when a fire engulfed the Monticello Hotel and three nearby buildings on Granby Street. As firefighters turned their hoses onto the blaze, below-freezing temperatures caused the water from the fire hoses to freeze on contact with the building, wires and firefighting equipment. Water froze as it fell on the clothing of the firefighters, and icicles hung from their hair and garments . Fire departments from Portsmouth and Suffolk, Marines from their barracks and aviators from the Naval Base all joined in the battle . Firemen suffered exposure, cuts from broken glass and partial asphyxiation, and one firefighter was crushed to death when he was caught beneath burning timbers in the hotel. The fire was called the greatest fire in the history of the city, according to reports published in papers at the time. Photo by Virginian-Pilot photographer Charles Borjes c/o The Sargeant Memorial Collection.