1) In 1783, the Virginia General Assembly ratified the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the Revolutionary War and recognizing the independence of the United States from Great Britain.

2) In 1808, Thomas Ruffin was born in Amelia County, Virginia. Ruffin was a prominent lawyer and judge who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court, where he played a key role in establishing the doctrine of corporate personhood.

3) On December 23, 1864, Union General George Stoneman led a raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. The raid was ineffective, and Stoneman and his men suffered heavy casualties.

4) In 1897, Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas. Earhart is perhaps best known for her attempts to fly around the world, and she became the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932. However, she also spent time in Virginia, where she studied at Columbia University's Teachers College.

5) On December 23, 2016, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Governor Terry McAuliffe's order to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons was unconstitutional. The ruling received widespread attention and was seen as a setback for efforts to restore voting rights to ex-convicts across the country.