This Month in North Carolina History includes short sketches by North Carolina Collection staff tying significant events in North Carolina history to the month in which they occurred. The essays often include images from or links to North Carolina Collection material related to the event. Many of the sketches were written between 2005 and 2011. Staff still add essays, although with less frequency.
January
January 1716: North Carolina’s “Blue Laws”
January 1795: The University of North Carolina
January 1849: Dorothea Dix Hospital
January 1870: North Carolina State Penitentiary Opens
January 1890: Creation of the American Tobacco Company
January 1958: The Lumbees Face the Klan
January 1961: Bombs Over Goldsboro
February
February 1881: The Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
February 1885: North Carolina Recognizes the Lumbee
February 1891: Founding of University of North Carolina at Greensboro
February 1927: “The Old North State”
February 1948: Piedmont Airlines’ First Passenger Flight
February 1971: The Wilmington Ten
March
March 1781: Battle of Guilford Courthouse
March 1825: Lafayette visits Fayetteville
March 1840: Wilmington & Weldon Railroad
March 1863: The Salisbury Bread Riot
March 1865: Executions Spark the Lowry War
March 1916: The End of North Carolina Whaling
March 1948: The Death of Zelda Fitzgerald
April
April 1776: The Halifax Resolves
April 1854: The Fayetteville and Western Plank Road
April 1899: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
April 1924: American Painter Kenneth Noland Born in Asheville
April 1947: Journey of Reconciliation
April 1960: Creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
May
May 1868: The Death of Tom Dooley
May 1888: William Henry Belk Opens His First Store in Monroe, NC
May 1898: The Death of Ensign Worth Bagley
May 1906: Stuart W. Cramer and Air Conditioning
May 1908: Statewide Prohibition
May 1925: Carolina Coal Company Mine Explosion
May 1972: First Presidential Primary
June
June 1756: Birth of William Richardson Davie
June 1791: George Washington Visits Salem, NC
June 1859: James Buchanan visits the University of North Carolina
June 1870: The “Kirk-Holden” War
June 1929: Strike at Loray Mill
June 1959: Textile Strike and Trials in Henderson
July
July 1813: Otway Burns and the Snap Dragon
July 1833: Frankie Silver Hanged
July 1885: John Richard (Romulus) Brinkley
July 1916: Western North Carolina Floods
July 1937: Krispy Kreme Opens in Winston-Salem
July 1963: The North Carolina Fund
August
August 1751: North Carolina’s First Newspaper
August 1831: North Carolina and Nat Turner
August 1887: The Goophered Grapevine
August 1920: North Carolina and the Women’s Suffrage Amendment
August 1956: Grandfather Mountain Highland Games
August 1957: Igor Bensen and the “Gyrocopter”
September
September 1711: The Death of John Lawson
September 1802: Spaight-Stanly Duel
September 1862: The Birth of O. Henry
September 1898: Biltmore Forest School
September 1940: Dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
September 1987: The Blue Ridge Parkway
October
October 1853: The North Carolina State Fair
October 1864: Rose O’Neal Greenhow
October 1896: Rural Free Delivery
October 1918: North Carolina and the “Blue Death”
October 1942: The Southern Conference on Race Relations and the “Durham Manifesto”
October 1960: The Andy Griffith Show
November
November 1718 : Death of Blackbeard
November 1753: Moravians Come to Bethabara
November 1765: The Stamp Act Crisis in North Carolina
November 1879: Colored Industrial Association Fair
November 1920: Lillian Exum Clement
November 3, 1979: Greensboro Killings
November 1997: Cherokee Casino Opens
December
December: Jonkonnu in North Carolina
December 18, 1776: North Carolina Constitution
December 1789: North Carolina Cedes Western Lands to the Federal Government
December 1865: Henry Martin Tupper and the Founding of Shaw University
