EDITORS, NEWS DIRECTORS:  The following includes at least one
student winner from your area.  The top two winners in each category
will represent Virginia in the national competition.


	1996 VIRGINIA WINNERS CHOSEN IN NATIONAL HISTORY DAY
COMPETITION

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 5 -- A group of Virginia students
in grades 6-12 has been chosen to represent the state in the
National History Day competition this month.
	The winners were chosen from some 300 regional winners who
competed at the University of Virginia May 11, displaying and
performing projects on the theme of "Taking a Stand in History."
	The students competing at U.Va. were selected from several
thousand Virginia students who entered regional competitions around
the state.  The top two winners in each of several categories are
invited to go on to the National History Day event June 9-13 at the
University of Maryland.
	Entries in the contest ranged from historical papers, to
individual and group performances, to media presentations.  Projects
were judged in two divisions -- junior (grades 6-8) and senior
(grades 9-12) -- by professional historians, education leaders and
state and local officials.
	The annual state contest is sponsored by U.Va.'s College of
Arts and Sciences and Curry School of Education and by the Virginia
Society of History Teachers.
###
June 4, 1996
	For additional information please contact the state
coordinators, history professor emeritus Robert Cross at (804)
977-4708, or education professor Clifford Bennett at (804)
924-0841.  Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at
(804) 924-7550.