- During his Christmas Day sermon in 1903, Archbishop John Ireland announced that Minneapolis was to become home to a large and impressive new Catholic church that would share the seat of the archdiocese with the Cathedral of St. Paul. The church, named the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was popularly known as the Pro-Cathedral of Minneapolis. It cost one million dollars to build and held its first Mass in 1914. In 1926, the Catholic Church designated the pro-cathedral the Basilica of Saint Mary, making it the first basilica in the United States.
- Virginia (Wikipedia)
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. It borders Kentucky to the west, Tennessee to the south-west, North Carolina to the south, West Virginia to the north-west, and Maryland to the north. The state’s capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach. With a population of 8.8 million, it is the 12th-most populous and 15th-most densely populated state. More than one-third of Virginia’s population lives in Northern Virginia, which includes the most populous jurisdiction in the state, Fairfax County.