Charleston

In most schools, you're likely to find yourself labeled as a jock, theater geek, stoner or even a loner.

But at my alma mater in West Virginia, we had a unique "Us & Them" sorting classification: you were either a “hiller” or a “creeker.”

Federal funding has been awarded to two airport authorities in West Virginia. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin made the announcement Friday.

Over $730,000 will be awarded to the Mingo County Airport Authority in Williamson and to the Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority in Charleston.

On August 11, 1958, the Congress of Racial Equality—or CORE—launched a sit-in movement at several Charleston lunch counters. Prior to this time, African-Americans in Charleston could order takeout food at many white-owned diners but were not allowed to sit down and eat.

In a referendum on August 7, 1877, West Virginia voters chose Charleston to be the permanent state capital. The capital’s location had become a running joke, as government records had been moved from Wheeling to Charleston and then back to Wheeling again, all in 14 years.The capital was on the move so much on West Virginia riverboats, it earned the nickname of “the floating capital.”

On the West Virginia Morning, in 2016, about 15 thousand people were killed by gun violence in the U.S. About 3 thousand teenagers were either injured or killed. In Charleston, West Virginia, there were 11 murders in 2016 -- eight of them occurred on the West Side of town and many of them were teens.

Historian, physician, and businessman John P. Hale died on July 11, 1902, at age 78. The great-grandson of the legendary Mary Draper Ingles, Hale was born in present Virginia before moving to the Kanawha Valley in 1840.

He earned a medical degree but decided that medicine wasn’t as lucrative as the booming salt business. By 1860, his salt works, located between Charleston and Malden, was possibly the largest in North America.

On June 30, 1904, the Kelly Axe and Tool Company acquired 53 acres of land along the Kanawha River on the West End of Charleston. It eventually became home to the world’s largest axe factory.

The company was founded in 1874 by William C. Kelly, who established his first factory in Kentucky before relocating to Indiana and then West Virginia. Kelly was attracted to the Kanawha Valley by the availability of abundant natural gas and good access to river and rail transportation.

Bishop Matthew Wesley Clair Sr. died in Covington, Kentucky, on June 28, 1943, at age 77. He was born in Monroe County to former slaves just months after the Civil War ended.

His family moved to Charleston, where Clair joined Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church. He graduated from college in 1889 and began a four-stint leading the Methodist Episcopal Church in Harpers Ferry.

"When we get on stage, I feel like that’s where we’re supposed to be… that’s what we’re supposed to be doing."

"I want to help push all music, be a part of all music. I never want to be in a box."

Looking for an internship in the state of West Virginia? One website says you can find them in Morgantown or Charleston.

GoodCall.com ranked Morgantown first and Charleston twenty-first on a list of the top cities with summer internships in the U.S. It’s part of the 2017 Best Cities for Summer Internships report compiled by the consumer research site.

Author Henry William Hoffman was born in Charleston on May 16, 1925. After his father left the family in the early 1930s, William and his only sibling, Janet, were raised primarily by a domineering but much loved grandmother. A staunch Presbyterian, Hoffman’s fiction was influenced by his religious upbringing and his studies at Hampden-Sydney College.