Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the sole designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers and one of two providers of submarines for the United States Navy. Founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Co. in 1886, Newport News Shipbuilding has built more than 800 ships, including both naval and commercial ships. Located in the city of Newport News, Virginia, its facilities span more than 550 acres (2.2 km2).
Newport News is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city in the United States. The city is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River to the river's mouth on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The Virginia Peninsula is located in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.
Collis Potter Huntington was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading who invested in Theodore Judah's idea to build the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor.
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Newport News on July 16, 1952. Located on the Virginia Peninsula on the northern bank of the James River between Hampton Roads and Jamestown, the area consisted primarily of farms and small unincorporated villages until the arrival of the Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881 and development led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington.
Walter A. Post was the first mayor of Newport News, Virginia.
Edwin Bancroft Henderson, was an American educator and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pioneer. The "Father of Black Basketball", introduced basketball to African Americans in Washington, D.C., in 1904, and was Washington's first male African American physical education teacher. From 1926 until his retirement in 1954, Henderson served as director of health and physical education for Washington, D.C.'s black schools. An athlete and team player rather than a star, Henderson both taught physical education to African Americans and organized athletic activities in Washington, D.C., and Fairfax County, Virginia, where his grandmother lived and where he returned with his wife in 1910 to raise their family. A prolific letter writer both to newspapers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and Alabama, Henderson also helped organize the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP and twice served as President of the Virginia NAACP in the 1950s.
The Apprentice School is a four to eight-year apprenticeship vocational school founded in 1919 and operated by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News in the U.S. state of Virginia. The school trains students for careers in the shipbuilding industry. The school announced in April 2021 that it would begin awarding associate degrees in twenty-six maritime programs to its students beginning in 2023. Additionally, students can also earn associate degrees through a partnership with Virginia Peninsula Community College and bachelor degrees through a partnership with Old Dominion University. The school's athletic teams compete under the nickname of 'Builders' and competes with other small colleges.
Newport News High School was a high school located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. It was located at 3100 Huntington Avenue and operated by Newport News Public Schools.
Newport News station was an Amtrak inter-city train station in Newport News, Virginia. When it closed, it was the southern terminus of two daily Northeast Regional round trips. It has a single side platform adjacent to a large CSX rail yard. An Amtrak Thruway motorcoach connection to Norfolk station effectively doubles the frequency between each station and Washington. It was replaced by the Newport News Transportation Center.
Skiffe's Creek is located in James City County and the independent city of Newport News in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. It is a tributary of the James River.
Newport News has a long history dating back to the days of Jamestown, Virginia. The area which is now the city of Newport News has existed under different names and forms including Elizabeth Cittie, Warwick River Shire, Warwick County, Virginia, Warwick City, and the current independent city of Newport News.
The East End is an area of the independent city of Newport News, Virginia, located in the older portion of the port city near the harbor of Hampton Roads.
Huntington is the surname of three prominent families from the United States of America. The first was active in the eastern region; the second played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement, and pioneered and founded the State of Utah with Brigham Young; the third was active on both coasts and the regions linking them. All three lines descend from Simon Huntington and his wife, Margaret Baret Huntington, who immigrated to America from Norwich, England, in 1633.
James Clyde Morris was an American civic leader in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia. His career spanned 32 years of public service.
The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an important new pathway for coal mined in West Virginia to reach the harbor of Hampton Roads for coastal and export shipping on collier ships.
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII) is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States as well as a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. HII, ranked No. 375 on the Fortune 500, was formed on 31 March 2011, as a divestiture from Northrop Grumman.
Flora Lonette Davis Crittenden was an American educator and civil rights activist in Virginia turned politician. She worked as a teacher and guidance counselor in Newport News, Virginia public schools for 32 years, then in 1986 was elected to the Newport News City Council where she served for four years. In 1993 she was elected a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Newport News, Virginia, and served for eleven years. In 2000, she became chair of the board of Christopher Newport University. A science and math magnet middle school in Newport News is named for her.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Newport News, Virginia, United States.
The Virginia Interscholastic Association was an educational and extracurricular organization formed in 1954 by African American secondary school principals and administrators to provide African American high school students in Virginia with athletic, artistic, academic, and leadership opportunities unavailable to them in segregated schools. From April 1954 to August 1969, over 100 schools participated with the VIA and approximately 40,000 students became members of the organization. Once defunded, the VIA merged with the Virginia High School League (VHSL). The distinguished alumni of the VIA include Mary Winston Jackson, one of the three women featured in the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and the film of the same title, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, and basketball’s Bobby Dandridge. The VIA served schools that were seen as a "beacon of hope" by many students.
