Chronology

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints Benjamin Williams a lieutenant in the second regiment

Williams sat for Johnston County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 1 the Congress named him one of the lieutenants of the second regiment, and on September 9 it made him a member of the committee of safety for the New Bern district.

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Alexander Martin lieutenant colonel of the Second North Carolina Regiment

Alexander Martin attended the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough as a delegate from Guilford County. On September 1, 1775, the Congress named the officers of its two new regiments of Continental troops, with Robert Howe as colonel and Martin as lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment.

Congress at Hillsborough appoints Hooper, Hewes and Caswell to the Continental Congress

Meeting at Hillsborough on September 2, 1775, the congress thanked William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and Richard Caswell for their service as the province's delegates at the last Continental Congress and appointed the three delegates for a further year, each to be paid five hundred pounds proclamation money.

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District

Meeting at Hillsborough, the Congress appointed Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District and Richard Caswell treasurer for the Southern District, giving them the powers the colony's treasurers had held under a 1773 act of Assembly.

The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints John Penn to the Continental Congress

Richard Caswell told the congress at Hillsborough that his new duties as treasurer for the Southern District and as a signer of the public bills of credit left him unable to serve in the Continental Congress. The congress resolved the same day that John Penn take his place beside William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, with the same powers and allowance.

People: Joseph Hewes

John Butler is commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Orange County minutemen

The third provincial congress appointed John Butler to the committee of safety for the Hillsborough District and on September 9, 1775 commissioned him lieutenant colonel of the minutemen from Orange County. He went on to lead the county's militia in the Moore's Creek Bridge campaign and became colonel of the Orange County militia in April 1776.

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions

On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough.

People: Samuel Johnston · Abner Nash · Samuel Ashe · Willie Jones

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough makes Thomas Benbury a Chowan militia major and a district committee of safety member

Thomas Benbury sat for Chowan County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 9, 1775, the Congress named him first major of the Chowan County militia under Colonel Thomas Bonner and a member of the committee of safety for the Edenton District.

General Assembly meets at Hillsborough and creates a Board of War

Meeting at Hillsborough under Governor Abner Nash, the Assembly levied a provision tax in kind to supply the army and navy, passed acts on treason trials and confiscated property, and created a five-member Board of War. The Board of War held its first meeting in Hillsborough on September 14, 1780.

People: Alexander Martin · Abner Nash · Thomas Benbury

General Assembly at Hillsborough relieves Richard Caswell of command of the state militia

After commanding the North Carolina militia in the defeat at Camden, Caswell reported to the General Assembly sitting at Hillsborough. On September 12 the Assembly took his illness into account and relieved him temporarily of command of the state militia, leaving him the separate command of the North Carolina Partisan Rangers.

Board of War, led by Alexander Martin, directs the war effort from Hillsborough

The Board of War created by the General Assembly first met at Hillsborough on September 14, 1780, with Alexander Martin, John Penn and Oroondates Davis present. Through the fall it issued orders for arms, provisions and militia from the town and ran a shoe factory there for the army, then rose in late November to sit at Halifax from December 1.

People: John Penn

Butler's militia ambushes Fanning's Loyalists at Lindley's Mill

The day after David Fanning's raid carried Governor Thomas Burke out of Hillsborough, John Butler rode with about four hundred militia to the ford where the Wilmington road crossed Cane Creek at Lindley's Mill and laid an ambush with Colonel Robert Mebane. The opening volley killed Colonel Hector McNeil, but Fanning organized a flanking attack that drove the militia from the field, and the prisoners went on to Wilmington.

Witherspoon dies at Tusculum and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery

He died penniless at the Tusculum farmhouse on the thirty-seventh anniversary of the organization of the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. His funeral was held in that church and he was buried nearby in the Nash-Strudwick plot of the Old Town Cemetery, where the congregation and townspeople paid for the obelisk over his grave.

Wright Malone is abducted and lynched near Little River

On the night of September 6, 1869, four mounted men took Wright Malone, a young Black farmer, from the coal kiln he was burning with his father near Little River in eastern Orange County. A neighbor found his body hanging from a tree on September 12, and the coroner concluded the killing had been planned in advance.

People: Wright Malone

County welfare superintendent notes Orange has no health officer or public health nurse

In a letter to the Chapel Hill Weekly, county welfare superintendent George H. Lawrence wrote that Orange County had no county health officer, no county health department and no public health nurse, and that little preventive health work was being done. He contrasted Orange with Vance County, which had a health officer, a hospital and a tuberculosis sanatorium.

Schley Grange No. 710 is chartered

Thirty residents of the Schley farming community north of Hillsborough chartered Schley Grange No. 710, one of five Orange County Granges formed in the state Grange revival of 1929 to 1931. In November the county Board of Education sold the Grange the Schley School building, empty since the county's 1928 school consolidation, for $122.

Farm women open the Orange County curb market in Carrboro

A curb market run by Orange County farm women opened in the former McCauley store in Carrboro, selling vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, sausage, preserves and canned goods. It was organized with the county home demonstration agent, with thirteen women signed on as sellers before opening.

Orange County's Black home demonstration clubs hold their first dress contest in Hillsboro

Women from every Black home demonstration club in the county modeled thirty-six dresses, suits and accessories they had made at the Hillsboro high school auditorium. By 1946 the clubs met monthly in rural communities including White Oak Grove, Jordan Grove, Cool Springs, Cedar Grove, Harmony, Ridge Road, St. Mary's, Sartin and Carr.

O. David Garvin becomes health officer of the district covering Orange County

Garvin came to the district in 1944 on assignment from the North Carolina State Board of Health and the Public Health Service during the war emergency, after a year and a half in Scotland and Richmond counties. A later account of his resignation gave his starting date as September 4, 1944.

Principal C. A. McDougle opens Lincoln High School's year under its new name

The Chapel Hill Weekly reported that Lincoln High School, the town's school for Black students, would open at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, September 12, 1949, as announced by Principal C. A. McDougle. The faculty list printed with the notice includes elementary teacher Mrs. Lucille R. McDougle and high school teacher Reginald D. Smith.

State says Chapel Hill's new tuberculosis hospital will take Black and white patients

A State Medical Care Commission spokesman said the $1,100,000 tuberculosis hospital under construction at Chapel Hill would treat Black and white patients. He noted that federal rules barred discrimination in federally aided hospitals but still allowed patients to be segregated.

Hilliard Caldwell writes the Negro Community news column for the Chapel Hill News Leader

Caldwell was named as correspondent at the head of the column, which carried news of Black Chapel Hill and asked Lincoln High School graduates to send in their college addresses for the next week's issue.

Binkley Baptist Church organizes

Fifty-six charter members established the congregation, initially worshiping on campus.

Paul F. Sharp serves as chief administrator of UNC at Chapel Hill

Sharp was chief administrative officer of the university at Chapel Hill from September 1, 1964 to February 15, 1966. His records document the state's speaker ban law and programs in medical education, and he left to become president of Drake University.

New Hope Improvement Association sues to stop the Eubanks Road landfill

Opponents of the landfill formed the New Hope Improvement Association, which drew about 500 members, and filed a lawsuit in late September 1972. The suit was denied in early October.

Chapel Hill aldermen voted to buy the Eubanks Road site for the county landfill

Three months after the Chestnut Ridge site was abandoned, the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to buy a 200-acre tract on Eubanks Road for $235,000. An unlined landfill was then built on about 80 acres of it, next to the Black Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood.

Court of Appeals lets OWASA survey Cane Creek land over owners' objections

Landowners including the estate of Nancy Armstrong had refused OWASA's surveyors access to the dam site. After a trial court ordered access on April 28, 1977, the N.C. Court of Appeals held that the authority could enter and survey before starting eminent domain proceedings.

Opponents sue in federal court, arguing the dam permit has lapsed

The Cane Creek Conservation Authority filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming OWASA's Corps permit expired on August 31, 1982 because no fill had actually been placed at the site. OWASA said its preliminary work before the deadline kept the permit valid.

People: Sam Crawford

Frank Wilkinson returns to speak in Manning Hall

Wilkinson, then 74, spoke in Manning Hall on FBI surveillance and U.S. policy in Central America at an event sponsored by the Carolina Committee on Central America.

Part of Speaker Ban controversy, 1963–1968 · 11 events

People: Frank Wilkinson

Superchunk releases its first album

The Chapel Hill band, whose early singles had launched Merge Records, issued its self-titled debut album on Matador; Merge put out the band's later albums from Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Archers of Loaf release their debut album Icky Mettle

The Chapel Hill band's first album came out on Alias Records; Merge later reissued it with bonus material.

Carrboro Board of Aldermen adopts a domestic partnership registry

The Board voted unanimously to amend the Town Code so that statements of domestic partnership could be filed with the Town Clerk, set the effective date at October 11, 1994, added a $40 registration fee, and extended the financial disclosure required of elected officials to cover their domestic partners. The Board took no action on a third proposal to extend health insurance benefits to domestic partners of town employees.

People: Mike Nelson · Jacquelyn Gist · Ellie Kinnaird

Chapel Hill building inspectors count homes destroyed and damaged by Hurricane Fran

The town's Building Inspection Department reported four homes near Airport Road, Homestead Road and Culbreth Road destroyed, 391 homes with major damage and 222 with minor damage.

Duke Forest closes and salvages timber after Hurricane Fran

Fran brought down more than 1,400 trees across 35 miles of Duke Forest roads, damaged the Bobby Ross Jr. Memorial Picnic Shelter and a research tower in the Blackwood Division, and kept parts of the forest closed for three to six months. A helicopter crew salvaged about 800,000 board feet from 163 acres within two weeks, and salvage through summer 1998 recovered 2 million board feet from 540 acres, worth about $260,000.

Orange Regional Landfill takes Hurricane Fran yard waste free as Chapel Hill faces tens of thousands of tons of debris

The Orange Regional Landfill on Eubanks Road accepted yard waste at no charge until further notice. Town Manager Cal Horton estimated Chapel Hill had 25,000 to 40,000 tons of fallen limbs and trees and said the town would eventually remove curbside debris, while urging residents to haul debris to the landfill themselves.

Hurricane Fran causes about 29,000 power outages in Chapel Hill

Trees on power lines caused about 29,000 outages in Chapel Hill; more than 12,000 residents were still without electricity on Sunday evening, September 8, and about 10,000 on Monday afternoon. Duke Power had 1,800 workers plus 1,000 on loan from other utilities in the area and expected to restore Chapel Hill by the middle or end of that week.

Hurricane Fran fells old trees on UNC's north campus

Fran brought down several roughly 200-year-old trees around New West Hall and left North Campus and Cameron Avenue covered in fallen trees, while the Davie Poplar survived. University power came back within hours, and Sitterson Hall opened as a place for people to recharge batteries, get ice and water and shower.

Mayor Rosemary Waldorf declares a state of emergency in Chapel Hill after Hurricane Fran

Waldorf declared a town state of emergency on Friday, September 6, because of storm damage and power outages, and residents were urged to stay home; UNC cancelled Friday classes at 3 a.m. She partially lifted the emergency at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10, keeping it in force where utility crews were still working.

OWASA issues a boil-water advisory after Hurricane Fran knocks out its pumping

The Orange Water and Sewer Authority told Chapel Hill and Carrboro customers to boil water from Friday evening, September 6, after its University Lake pump station lost power and the system lost pressure, and the wastewater plant flooded. The advisory was lifted at 1:50 p.m. Monday, September 9, after lab tests found no contamination; the area drew emergency water from Durham, and a conservation order was lifted soon after.

The Eno River at Hillsborough reaches its highest recorded flow during Hurricane Fran

The USGS gauge on the Eno River at Hillsborough recorded a peak of 10,800 cubic feet per second at a gauge height of 21.13 feet, the largest peak in its record until Tropical Storm Chantal in July 2025.

UNC suspends afternoon classes for a campuswide Hurricane Fran cleanup

Chancellor Michael Hooker suspended classes from noon on Wednesday so students, faculty and staff could clear storm debris. Nearly 1,000 students reported to the Old Well within the first hour, working with University forester Kirk Pelland's crews, and Coker Arboretum staff expected their cleanup to run into the winter.

People: Michael Hooker

A 70-foot oak weakened by Hurricane Fran falls on Venable Hall

A 70-foot white oak fell against Venable Hall at about 2:10 p.m., damaging handrails on the building's steps; no one was hurt. University forester Kirk Pelland said Fran's winds and Wednesday's heavy rain had left many old campus trees at risk, and Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd asked people to report damaged trees to the Grounds Division.

Carrboro aldermen take up a tree-cutter registration plan after Hurricane Fran scams

The Board of Aldermen discussed asking tree removal workers to identify themselves at town hall before starting work, after Mayor Mike Nelson cited a resident who paid $800 in advance to remove Fran-felled trees and the workers did not return. Staff were to bring a formal proposal to the next meeting.

People: Mike Nelson · Hilliard Caldwell

Chapel Hill lets Orange County commissioners pick the next construction and demolition landfill site

With the existing construction and demolition landfill expected to fill by summer 2000, the council voted 9 to 0 to let the Board of Commissioners select an in-county replacement site on its behalf, citing time pressure and the expected transfer of solid waste authority to the county.

UNC trustees approve the Carolina North plan

The Board of Trustees approved a plan for Carolina North on the Horace Williams tract, later submitted to the town with the 2009 rezoning application; the trustees adopted Carolina North design guidelines on November 19, 2008.

N.C. Cancer Hospital is dedicated

The seven-story, 315,000-square-foot N.C. Cancer Hospital, built with a 180 million dollar authorization from the General Assembly, was dedicated in September 2009. It tripled the space available for treating cancer patients at UNC.

UNC names its new field hockey stadium for Karen Shelton

The university announced that its field hockey facility would be called Karen Shelton Stadium, the first UNC playing field named in honor of a woman. The team had moved in at the start of preseason that August, and the stadium holds about 1,000 spectators.

EPA closed the Rogers Road civil rights complaint as moot

The EPA External Civil Rights Compliance Office told the Orange County attorney that Complaint No. 13R-07-R4 was closed because interlocal agreements to which the county was a party had produced a completed water and sewer extension, and because OWASA is bound by those agreements to serve Rogers Road residents who connect. The letter found no systemic issues left to investigate and made no finding of discrimination.

UNC dedicates Dorrance Field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium

The university dedicated the field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium to Dorrance before the women's game against Notre Dame, in his 43rd year of coaching at Carolina.

Chapel Hill names the Hargraves Center gym for Nate Davis

The Town Council unanimously approved naming the Northside Gym at the Hargraves Community Center for Davis, the center's director for more than three decades, and its indoor court for Fred Battle, director from 1970 to 1987.

Hilliard Caldwell dies at 88

Caldwell, who advised the Lincoln High School students who held Chapel Hill's first sit-in in 1960 and later served on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, died on September 6, 2025. The town issued a statement remembering his service and courage.