Or at least it did until 1847, when the federal government retroceded those territories back to Virginia. Along with Maryland, the commonwealth had forfeited territory in January 1791 when lawmakers implemented the Residence Act, creating a national capital city overseen by Congress and comprising a total of 100 square miles, 31 of which came from a sliver of the Old Dominion. Officials had settled on the area after previously considering already existing cities like New York and Philadelphia.

Using the Potomac as a boundary, planners divided the District into two counties: Washington to the north and Alexandria to the south. The latter included much of what today we call Old Town Alexandria and Arlington County.

Taken altogether, the new federal jurisdiction was incorporated 10 years later with the passage of the Organic Act of 1801.

Alexandria earned status as an independent city—that is, a city governed separately from a county or any other larger local jurisdiction—in 1870. What remained of Alexandria County would eventually become Arlington County in 1920.

As with most real estate issues in D.C., things soon became complicated. Talk about returning the land began immediately after the District was created, and the push to do so gained momentum in the mid-1800s. By then, northern Virginia had become a major center of the slave trade, with as many as a thousand slaves passing through the Alexandria market every year.

Rumors that the capital city would abolish slavery—confirmed with the passage of the Compromise of 1850—frightened those in the business. Furthermore, concerns about a growing abolitionist movement in Virginia itself had the pro-slavery contingent pulling for the two extra votes that Alexandria County would bring to the state’s General Assembly.

Furthermore, Congress never really ended up using land on the Virginia side of the river. The Alexandria port faced competition from Georgetown, whose charter as an existing city had been left intact, and citizens of the county felt neglected. From 1840 to 1846 there was a sustained lobbying effort to press Congress to return Alexandria to Virginia.

The state government welcomed the idea; thinking the issue to be pretty clear-cut, Congress approved the retrocession on July 9, 1846. President James K. Polk signed it into law the next day.

Surprisingly, a referendum that September found that while most people living in the city of Alexandria supported the law, a majority of those in Alexandria County did not. This prompted several more months of debate, and the Virginia General Assembly didn’t accept the measure until March 13 of the following year.

As City Paper's Loose Lips reported in the Feb. 13 issue that year:

Fauntroy painted a rosy picture of the prospects for for action in both the House and the Senate during this session. He claimed the political climate has been changed by the election of a Democratic majority in the Senate last fall, many of whom owe their elections to overwhelming support from the black community (offsetting their losses among white voters) and by a weakened President [Ronald] Reagan in the White House. "The Lord only gives you a flunkin’ Reagan once in a lifetime," Fauntroy said with obvious delight.

The congressman said the lion’s share of credit for the Democrats’ return to power in the Senate belonged to the black vote in Southern states. He predicted his statehood bill would clear the Senate early in 1988, as Democrats and Republicans “begin to get uptight” about next year’s presidential race and search for ways to increase their appeal among black voters.

As we all know, that bill did pass, and Fauntroy’s beloved New Columbia was added to the Union on...

...oh, wait. Never mind.

For the complete Today in D.C. History series, click here.

Doxie McCoy, communications director for Council Chairman Vincent Gray, emailed this week in response to City Paper's cover story, "How the Gun Lobby Shot Down D.C.'s Congressional Vote," to point out that Councilmember Michael A. Brown no longer chairs the statehood committee. In fact, she noted, the committee has ceased to exist. Instead, those issues now fall under the purview of Councilmember Yvette Alexander's Committee on Aging and Community Affairs.

Council chose to fold the committee when Brown was given the reigns to Marion Barry's old Housing and Workforce Development Committee in the aftermath of Barry's censure for alleged conflict-of-interest abuses. With Barry on the outs because of ethics issues, McCoy explained, there weren't enough councilmembers to keep the committee functioning as a stand-alone entity.

She describes the move as a "procedural change" but insists that council's efforts to promote D.C. statehood and congressional voting rights will not suffer as a result.

“The council’s focus and the council's intent to raise awareness of statehood has not lessened at all,” says McCoy. “It is the Chairman’s belief that with the funding the Council restored, the statehood/voting rights work can still be done and will not suffer,” McCoy adds via email.

“Statehood and self-determination is certainly at the top of my agenda,” says Brown, the former statehood committee's former chairman. “But I know there are a lot of people that are disappointed that there is not a stand-alone committee.”

Brown says he’d like to see the committee return in another session of the Council. “Just because there may not be a committee per se, doesn’t mean folks are not fighting for this every day.”

Asked about the former committee's legacy, Brown says, “We clearly kept the issue on the forefront. Not having a committee may harm that, but the Committee on Aging and Community affairs can still host those kind of hearings related to statehood. I think people would love to see the progress, though, of a stand-alone committee.”

The biggest challenge to the statehood and voting rights movement isn’t the abolition of the committee in the Council, according to Brown. Rather, it's Mayor Adrian Fenty’s FY2011 budget proposal that almost gutted the whole statehood budget line item.

“I was very disappointed that the Mayor’s budget didn’t include any money for statehood activities,” Brown says. “I think that says a lot about where the Mayor’s priorities are.”

You just killed your sixth PBR
And surely you can't drive a car
A bike's your resort?
Heck no, says the Court
You might as well sleep at the bar

The Council made up for lost time
By voting that weed ain't a crime
Get in on the icky
By being a sickie
(No love for you folks in your prime)

And speaking of lives that are charmed
Don't worry! Kal Penn wasn't harmed!
The star of the Castle
Was given a hassle
By some dude who's stupid, but armed

The House bill's untimely demise
Struck many as quite the surprise
The gun-control laws
Got stuck in the jaws
Of serious N.R.A. guys

And speaking of talk about rail
The prez wants high speed up to scale
Not in the sound bites:
D.C. voting rights
Despite what showed up in the mail

The 42 notes that Astor in Adams Morgan is now serving a vegan-pizza option.

Who Murdered Robert Wone? has a rundown of Joe Price and Dylan Ward's activism in their careers. Price's career is particularly detailed. Who knew that Price once had lunch with Julian Bond?

Congress Heights On The Rise is thinking about liquor stores: "Does anyone know if any of the ANCs or community groups have tried to work with the liquor stores to rebrand their storefronts? Perhaps a little less 'trash' and a little more 'class'? Something to better reflect a more neighborhood vibe?"

Bloomingdale (for now) has some cool pictures from this past weekend's marathon.

Prince of Petworth gets a little excited over his latest find–the Brass Knob's warehouse. It has doors. Lots of them.

Black Plastic Bag just about (I think) wraps up our awesome coverage of SXSW.

The D.C. Police Department is making these guns and ammo seizures a regular feature on its website. As if before that annoying gun amendment to the D.C. Voting Rights Bill was added, guns weren't a problem—at least not a problem worth documenting on an almost daily basis. But kudos to the department for doing it. The more transparency the better.

Full rundown of recent gun seizures after the jump.

According to the latest D.C. Police Department press release:

*"Shortly after 1 pm, on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, a handgun was turned over to members assigned to the department’s Second District."

*"At approximately 8:57 pm, on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were executing a search warrant in the 500 block of 50^th Place, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun and several live rounds of ammunition. No arrest has been made in this case. This case remains under investigation."

*"At approximately 9:35 am, on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were conducting an investigation in the 1100 block of 48^th Place, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun and several live rounds of ammunition. The two suspects in this case have been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

*"Shortly before 1 am on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were conducting an investigation in the 4600 block of Benning Road, SE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun with several live rounds of ammunition. The suspect in this case has been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

*"Shortly after 6 pm on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Fifth District were conducting a traffic stop in the 1800 block of Corcoran Street, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a BB gun. The suspects in this case have been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

The D.C. Police Department continues its sly campaign to make everyone—especially Republicans—aware that there are guns, guns, guns floating around the city. In today's edition, a handgun gets turned in to 2D, a BB gun is recovered, and plenty of ammo is found.

According to a D.C. Police Department press release:

*Shortly after 1 pm, on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, a handgun was turned over to members assigned to the department’s Second District."

*"At approximately 8:57 pm, on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were executing a search warrant in the 500 block of 50^th Place, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun and several live rounds of ammunition. No arrest has been made in this case. This case remains under investigation."

*"At approximately 9:35 am, on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were conducting an investigation in the 1100 block of 48^th Place, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun and several live rounds of ammunition. The two suspects in this case have been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

*"Shortly before 1 am on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were conducting an investigation in the 4600 block of Benning Road, SE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a handgun with several live rounds of ammunition. The suspect in this case has been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

*"Shortly after 6 pm on Wednesday, March 5, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Fifth District were conducting a traffic stop in the 1800 block of Corcoran Street, NE. During the course of their investigation, they recovered a BB gun. The suspects in this case have been arrested and charged with Carrying a Pistol Without a License."

"Some D.C. officials said it was ironic that the Senate bill granted the city full representation in the House while also overruling the District's decisions on a key local issue."

With that in mind, the D.C. Police did something unusual yesterday evening. The department started reporting on weapons officers recovered.

The department issued a press release:

"Shortly after 8:00 pm, on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were executing a search warrant in the 3500 block of East Capitol Street, SE. During the execution of this search warrant, two suspects were apprehended without incident and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with several live rounds of ammunition were recovered. Both suspects in this case were charged with 'Carrying a Pistol Without a License,' among other charges.

At approximately 9:13 pm, on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, members assigned to the department’s Sixth District were conducting a traffic stop in the 4200 block of Edson Place, NE. During the course of their investigation they recovered an assault weapon with several live rounds of ammunition. The suspects in this case were arrested and charged with 'Carrying a Pistol Without a License.'"

Is the D.C. Police trying to send a message to congress?

1:44 pm: Sen. Joseph Lieberman enters statement from Sen. Orrin Hatch into the record. Lieberman talked about how nearly 600,000 Americans who live in the District of Columbia contribute to our society in various ways but get not representation. Lieberman yields the floor. Here's the release from Lieberman's office.

1:47: Chamber still waiting for someone else to come forward and talk.

1:49: Still waiting–how rude!

Update 2:01: Doesn't anyone want to come to the floor and talk about D.C. voting rights? Such apathy! That's the problem, I say.

Update 2:02: Some liveblog this is turning out to be.

Update 2:13: There's some fine classical piano playing on C-SPAN 2 right now. Crank it. It promises to go on as long as it takes someone to come to the Senate floor and say something, perhaps about D.C. voting rights.

Update 2:25: This liveblog is dead, apparently as dead as D.C. voting rights themselves (itself?). The classical piano on C-SPAN 2 is getting really annoying. But if I hit mute, then I won't be able to hear if someone else comes to the floor to talk about D.C. voting rights. Talk about a Hobson's choice. Or a dilemma. Or a Catch-22, or something along those lines.

Update 2:30: A sign of life! Talking from the Senate floor is the Hon. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. So what does this guy have to say about D.C. voting rights? Well, not much–he's talking about the late Sen. Claiborne Pell. From Alexander, we're learning a bit about the history of scholarships, as a way of contextualizing the contribution made by the great Pell grant.

Update 2:32: Alexander is talking about education in the United States circa World War II. How's he going to steer this monologue toward D.C. voting rights? Stay tuned. Or, better yet, don't!

Update 2:34: Alexander has always wondered why, if the Pell grant is a great idea for college, we don't have a system for Kindergarten through the 12th grade. Any minute, any minute now–this guy's going to launch into a discussion of voting rights!

Update 2:36: Alexander asks that his remarks from 2004 on "Pell grants for kids" be entered into the record of today's Senate proceedings.

Update 2:41: With Alexander having yielded the floor, we're back to lively classical piano riffing on C-SPAN 2. Could be Chopin.

Update 2:50: Byrd is front and center! The West Virginia Dem is talking about how he's watched this great institution (the Senate) weather various storms, including "strife and uncertainty." It, he says, has "served our country so well because great and courageous senators have always been willing to stay the course through thick and thin and keep the faith." More cliches than a big-league pitcher, there.

2:52: "It has been said that this institution–meaning the United States Senate–has a life of its own."–Sen. Robert Byrd.

2:53: More Byrd praising the great institution of the United States Senate. Great people in the Senate. List of great senators includes Byrd's mentors–Russell, Johnson, Mansfield, among others, of course. Including Goldwater and Gramm. Howard Baker and Mark Hatfield, too.

2:55: Byrd calls Ted Kennedy "dearest friend."

2:56: More from Byrd on Senate being a "great institution."

2:59: In recent years, says Byrd, the chamber has become "bitterly partisan." "If anyone thinks that I am exaggerating, I give just one example: The filibuster...."

3:08: Byrd says he's had a "wonderful 50 years" serving in the Senate.