Editing Bedford, Virginia (section)

==History==

Bedford was originally known as Liberty, "named after the Colonial victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown."<ref>Bedford County Sheriff's Office,  [http://www.co.bedford.va.us/res/sheriff/county.html Welcome to Bedford County!]</ref> Founded as a village in 1782, Liberty became Bedford County's seat of government, replacing [[New London, Virginia|New London]] which had become part of the newly formed [[Campbell County, Virginia|Campbell County]]. Liberty became a town in 1839 and in 1890 changed its name to Bedford City. In 1912, Bedford reverted to town status, it resumed city status in 1968,<ref>Bedford, Virginia Online, [http://www.bedfordva.gov/about_bedford.shtml About the Town of Bedford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005005738/http://www.bedfordva.gov/about_bedford.shtml |date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref> and once more it reverted to a town in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bedford opts for being a town instead of a city|url= https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/bedford-opts-for-being-a-town-instead-of-a-city|access-date=June 5, 2023|website=VirginiaBusiness.com}}</ref>
In November 1923, the town was the site of an accidental mass poisoning in which nine men were killed after drinking apple cider served at the [[Elks National Home]]. A local farmer had produced the drink and stored in a barrel that had been used to hold a pesticide.<ref>{{cite news |title=VA Poisoned Cider Kills Nine at Elks Home |url=http://www.gendisasters.com/virginia/22902/bedford-va-poisoned-cider-kills-nine-elks-home-nov-1923 |access-date=September 23, 2020 |work=New York Times |date=November 12, 1923}}</ref>

Bedford is home to the [[National D-Day Memorial]] (despite the "National" in its name, the memorial is owned and operated by a [[private sector|non-governmental]], [[non-profit]], education foundation). The [[United States Congress]] warranted that this memorial would be the nation's [[D-Day]] Memorial and President [[Bill Clinton]] authorized this effort in September 1996. President [[George W. Bush]] dedicated this memorial as the nation's D-Day memorial on June 6, 2001. Bedford lost more residents [[per capita]] in the [[Normandy]] landings than any other American community. Nineteen of the thirty-four [[Virginia National Guard]] soldiers from Bedford who were in Company A, [[116th Infantry Regiment (United States)|116th Infantry Regiment]], [[29th Infantry Division (United States)|29th Infantry Division]] were killed on D-Day, and four more died during the rest of the Normandy campaign, two of them from other 116th companies. With a 1944 population of about 3,200, proportionally this community suffered the nation's most severe D-Day losses.<ref name=":0">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/us/23nance.html?scp=1&sq=bedford&st=cse | work=The New York Times | first=Richard | last=Goldstein | title=Ray Nance, Last of the Bedford Boys, Dies at 94 | date=April 23, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Why Bedford?|url=https://www.dday.org/the-memorial/why-bedford-the-bedford-boys.html|publisher=National D-Day Memorial Foundation|access-date=April 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927150319/https://www.dday.org/the-memorial/why-bedford-the-bedford-boys.html|archive-date=September 27, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Bedford was designated as an [[Independent city (United States)#Virginia|independent city]] in 1968, but remained the county seat of [[Bedford County, Virginia|Bedford County]]. Its status as an independent city was ended on July 1, 2013, returning to a town within Bedford County.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_5dcbc886-e1e9-11e2-a412-001a4bcf6878.html |publisher=newsadvance.com |access-date=July 21, 2013 |work=The News and Advance |first=Justin |last=Faulconer |title=Bedford Reversion to Town Becomes Official Today |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801044750/http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_5dcbc886-e1e9-11e2-a412-001a4bcf6878.html |archive-date=August 1, 2017  }}</ref>