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Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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1,915 dated events and 21 storylines match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1,801–1,936 of 1,936, 200 to a page.Back to highlights

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  1. Recent decades · 1976–2026

  2. 2010s
  3. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s soccer wins the 2012 NCAA national championship

    UNC defeated Penn State, 4–1, in the national final.

  4. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill UNC School of Social Work launches its Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative

    Josh Hinson launched the initiative at the UNC School of Social Work in 2013 to support resettled refugees, connecting refugee communities to interpreters, mental health screening and treatment.

  5. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s lacrosse wins the 2013 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2013 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship.

  6. Chapel Hill William J. Barber II speaks at a rally at Silent Sam on its 100th anniversary

    On the Confederate monument's 100th anniversary, William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, spoke at a rally at its foot organized by the Real Silent Sam Committee, saying the statue had never been silent.

  7. Chapel Hill The Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy begins

    The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation funded a five-year chair at UNC honoring Lambeth's retirement, and three professors were named to it from July 1, 2013.

  8. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Dean Smith is named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

    President Obama named Smith among sixteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing his 36 seasons as UNC's head basketball coach (1961-1997), two national championships, a 96 percent graduation rate among his players and his civil rights advocacy.

  9. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carol Folt is installed as chancellor at Chapel Hill

    Folt was installed as the eleventh chancellor of the university on University Day in Polk Place, the first woman to hold the post. Chief Justice Sarah Parker administered the oath, and system president Tom Ross presided and presented the chancellor's medallion.

  10. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Eric Van Loon presents his Carolina Story to the alumni association board

    The General Alumni Association published Van Loon’s My Carolina Story, given as a member of its board of directors. In it he recounts chairing the Carolina Political Union and signing the Speaker Ban lawsuit as one of a dozen students who were plaintiffs.

  11. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Willie Scroggs retires as a senior associate athletic director at UNC

    Scroggs retired at the end of June 2014 after decades overseeing athletics facilities at Carolina, including work at Carmichael Arena, Boshamer Stadium, Kenan Stadium, Woollen Gym and the Eddie Smith Field House.

  12. Award or honor · Durham Anne Firor Scott is awarded the 2013 National Humanities Medal

    Scott, a Duke University historian, received the 2013 National Humanities Medal for pioneering the study of southern women. The citation credits her research with establishing women's history as vital to understanding the American South.

  13. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Frederick Brooks retires after 51 years at UNC

    Brooks, who had supervised more than 40 doctoral students and taught into his 80s, retired from the computer science department after 51 years at the university.

  14. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Saunders Hall is renamed Carolina Hall

    UNC trustees approved the name change in May 2015; the building received its new name that August.

  15. Health or relief action · Orange County UNC Refugee Wellness begins providing mental health care under a state refugee contract

    In 2015 the UNC School of Social Work's Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative began contracting with the Refugee Office of the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide mental health services directly to refugees in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

  16. Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha are killed in Chapel Hill

    On February 10, 2015, neighbor Craig Hicks shot and killed Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, in the couple's Chapel Hill condominium. Hicks pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in June 2019 and received three consecutive life sentences without parole.

  17. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill About 2,000 people hold a vigil in UNC's Pit for Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha

    The day after the three were killed, an estimated 2,000 people gathered at the Pit on the UNC campus. Speakers included Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke, Deah's brother Farris Barakat, Chancellors Carol L. Folt and Randy Woodson, and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.

  18. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Historic District, Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Historic District grows, but the university asks to stay out

    When the committee reviewed the boundary increase and added documentation for the Chapel Hill Historic District on February 12, 2015, a member asked why the campus portion was not enlarged. Staff explained that UNC's administration had specifically asked not to be included. The committee approved the nomination with eight others.

  19. Founding or opening · Northside, Chapel Hill UNC, Self-Help, the Jackson Center and the town launch the Northside neighborhood initiative

    UNC-Chapel Hill committed a $3 million, 10-year, no-interest loan to Self-Help to buy Northside homes as they came on the market and hold them in a land bank for affordable resale or rental. The Jackson Center and the Town of Chapel Hill were partners.

  20. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina set up the Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha Memorial Award

    The university and the Dental Foundation of North Carolina established a memorial award in the names of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha, to be presented for the first time in the 2015-16 academic year.

  21. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill UNC dental students hold the first DEAH DAY of service

    More than 350 students of the UNC School of Dentistry gave nearly 1,200 hours to 22 local organizations, from Habitat for Humanity in Efland to Table in Carrboro, in memory of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha. DEAH DAY stands for Directing Efforts And Honoring Deah And Yusor, and the school was still holding it in 2024.

  22. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Aziz Sancar wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Sancar, Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. The academy listed Sancar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

  23. Property or economic transaction · Davis Library, Chapel Hill Smithies and Sancar give replica Nobel medals to UNC

    At a Davis Library gathering, Oliver Smithies and Aziz Sancar presented gold-plated bronze replicas of their Nobel Prize medals to the university. Chancellor Carol Folt recounted that Sancar had led the search committee that brought Nobuyo Maeda and Smithies to UNC.

  24. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s lacrosse wins the 2016 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2016 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship.

  25. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC men’s lacrosse wins the 2016 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2016 NCAA men’s lacrosse championship.

  26. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC names scholarships for its first Black undergraduates and other "firsts"

    At University Day, UNC named existing grants and fellowships for 21 people who were firsts in its history, among them John L. Brandon, Ralph K. Frasier and LeRoy B. Frasier Jr., its first Black undergraduates.

  27. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill UNC puts Oliver Smithies's research notebooks online

    UNC released digitized copies of the research notebooks Smithies had kept since his graduate student days, while he was still working in his lab at 91.

  28. Chapel Hill William J. Barber II gives the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship

    William J. Barber II delivered UNC's 2017 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship in Moeser Auditorium, Hill Hall, speaking on the morality of citizenship.

  29. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Michael Jordan expands the Jordan Brand partnership with UNC athletics

    Jordan announced an expansion of his Jordan Brand partnership with North Carolina Tar Heels athletics in March 2017, saying that it is always great to come home.

  30. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC men’s basketball wins the 2017 NCAA national championship

    UNC defeated Gonzaga, 71–65, to win the national title.

  31. Award or honor · Chapel Hill UNC's Noteworthy Firsts program honors Karen Parker

    At a reception in Kenan Stadium, UNC honored Parker among 21 people whose names were given to need-based undergraduate awards and graduate fellowships in its Noteworthy Firsts initiative, begun by Chancellor Carol Folt in 2016.

  32. Property or economic transaction · Wilson Library, UNC campus, Chapel Hill John Blackfeather Jeffries gives his Occaneechi collection to UNC's Southern Historical Collection

    Jeffries gave the Wilson Library about 5,000 items, including photographs of Occaneechi powwows and of the replica village's construction in Hillsborough, recordings of Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo songs, and the band's petition for state acknowledgment of tribal status.

  33. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill University Archives publishes the names of 119 enslaved people who built and worked at the university

    Drawing on research by archivists, historians and students in Jim Leloudis's fall 2017 History 398 class, the archives listed 119 enslaved people who built and labored at the university from 1795 to 1865, including November Caldwell and David Barham.

  34. Closing or ending · Chapel Hill Horace Williams Airport closes

    UNC closed Horace Williams Airport on May 15, 2018, under a November 2017 trustees resolution, citing money lost running the field and at least $1 million in needed runway repairs. The airfield dated to 1928 and had trained Navy pre-flight cadets during World War II; the Carolina North campus once planned for the site had stalled.

  35. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill Silent Sam is toppled

    On the evening of August 20, 2018, the eve of fall classes, about 250 protesters pulled UNC's Confederate monument in McCorkle Place from its pedestal at around 9:20 p.m. The toppling followed a year of campaigning for removal after the 2017 Charlottesville rally, and campus authorities took the statue to an undisclosed location.

  36. Naming or commemoration · Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill The Smith Center floor is dedicated as Roy Williams Court

    UNC announced on August 2, 2018 that it would name the Dean E. Smith Center playing floor for Williams, and the floor was dedicated on August 24.

  37. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill The UNC Board of Governors gives Chapel Hill until November 15 to propose a 'lawful and lasting' plan for the monument

    Eight days after the toppling, the Board of Governors met for nearly two hours in closed session and adopted a resolution directing Chancellor Folt and the trustees to present by November 15 a plan offering 'a lawful and lasting path that protects public safety, preserves the monument and its history'. Thom Goolsby cast the lone no vote, and the board ordered an outside review of the University's handling of the August 20 protest. The trustees met the same day.

  38. Construction or physical change · 1609 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Ground is broken for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center

    Aziz and Gwen Sancar broke ground at 1609 East Franklin Street on a 1.7-acre center with a 9,700-square-foot community hall and a two-story guesthouse for Turkish students and scholars.

  39. Naming or commemoration · Karen Shelton Stadium, Chapel Hill 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.

  40. Goldsboro William J. Barber II is named a MacArthur Fellow

    The MacArthur Foundation named William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.

  41. Naming or commemoration · Kenan Memorial Stadium, Chapel Hill UNC moves Kenan Stadium's honor from William R. Kenan Sr. to his son

    Chancellor Carol Folt announced that, after talking with the family, the university would change the stadium plaques to remove the honor to William R. Kenan Sr., who led a white supremacist unit in the 1898 Wilmington massacre, and focus instead on the donor, William R. Kenan Jr.

  42. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC field hockey wins the 2018 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2018 NCAA field hockey title.

  43. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill UNC trustees vote to house the monument in a new $5.3 million University History and Education Center

    At a special meeting the Board of Trustees approved a four-part plan for the Board of Governors: relocate the statue and tablets into a new free-standing building at the former Odum Village site on south campus, add a McCorkle Place gateway with plaques, and continue contextualizing campus history. The center was priced at $5.3 million with $800,000 a year to operate; Folt said police advised that the statue could not safely return to McCorkle Place.

  44. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill The Board of Governors rejects the history center and appoints a task force with a March 15 deadline

    After a nearly three-hour closed session the Board of Governors declined the trustees' $5.3 million history center, citing cost and public safety, and named five of its members to work with Folt and the trustees on a new proposal by March 15, 2019. Folt said the plan 'hasn't satisfied anyone' and that the campus would now look at off-campus options.

  45. Appointment, election or service · McCorkle Place, Chapel Hill Folt orders the Silent Sam pedestal removed and announces she will step down

    Folt ordered the removal on the Monday and announced in a campuswide email that she would resign, saying the remaining parts of the monument threatened the safety of the community. The university said at 1 a.m. on Tuesday that removal had begun, and by 2:40 a.m. a crew had taken the last of the base from the quad.

  46. Naming or commemoration · Dorrance Field, Chapel Hill 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.

  47. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC field hockey wins the 2019 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2019 NCAA field hockey title.

  48. Law, policy or court · Orange County The UNC System gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans with a $2.5 million trust in a same-day consent judgment

    The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System and Board of Governors over the monument and a consent judgment was entered the same day in Orange County Superior Court. The System handed over the statue, to be kept outside the fourteen counties with a System campus, and endowed a $2.5 million charitable trust from non-state funds for its care and display. Board chair Randy Ramsey said the deal let the University 'move forward'.

  49. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Kevin M. Guskiewicz is named UNC-Chapel Hill's twelfth chancellor

    The UNC System Board of Governors voted to make Guskiewicz chancellor, effective that day. He had been interim chancellor since February 6, 2019, was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from January 2016 and had taught at Chapel Hill since 1995. He marked the start with a $5 million investment for the university to study its past.

  50. 2020s
  51. Naming or commemoration · Hamilton Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Renaming of Hamilton Hall is recommended

    After a reevaluation of Hamilton's career, the building housing UNC's History Department was recommended for a name change. Critics pointed to his white supremacist Reconstruction scholarship and to a manuscript collection gathered from white families.

  52. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Tressie McMillan Cottom joins the faculty of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science

    Sociologist and author Tressie McMillan Cottom joined the UNC School of Information and Library Science as an associate professor and became a senior faculty researcher in the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.

  53. Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Judge Allen Baddour voids the Silent Sam settlement in Hillsborough for lack of standing

    At a hearing in Hillsborough, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had no standing to bring the suit and set aside the consent judgment and the $2.5 million trust. Five UNC students and a faculty member represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had sought to intervene; their motion was denied but the judge took up the standing question they raised.

  54. Publication, speech or performance · Carroll Hall, Chapel Hill David Zucchino discusses Wilmington's Lie in UNC's Nelson Benton Lecture

    David Zucchino, a UNC journalism alumnus and former lecturer at the school, spoke about his book Wilmington's Lie, on the 1898 Wilmington coup, in the Carroll Hall auditorium.

  55. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz formally charges the Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward

    The commission, formed in 2019 and co-chaired by Jim Leloudis and Patricia Parker, was charged with researching the university's history with race and recommending how to reckon with it.

  56. Publication, speech or performance · Cheek-Clark Building, UNC Exhibit honoring housekeeping and facilities staff opens in the renovated Cheek-Clark Building

    A lobby exhibit in the renovated Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark Building presents the lives of Cheek, Clark and groundskeeper William Hubbard with a timeline of the university's housekeeping and facilities work.

  57. Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill COVID-19 transforms Orange County

    Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency on March 13, 2020, and the county and its three towns ordered residents to stay home from March 27. UNC moved undergraduate classes online in August 2020 after campus clusters. The county emergency, extended more than a dozen times, expired on May 1, 2022.

  58. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools launches Food for Students meal distribution

    CHCCS, the Town of Chapel Hill, PORCH and volunteers began handing out free meals to students as schools closed, starting from about 20 sites. By December 21, 2020 the program had distributed more than 900,000 meals from 37 sites.

  59. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declare a COVID-19 state of emergency

    Orange County government and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency to prepare for COVID-19, allowing emergency procedures and funding. The county declaration, extended more than a dozen times, stayed in force until May 1, 2022.

  60. Closing or ending · Orange County Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools close under a statewide order

    Governor Roy Cooper closed all North Carolina public schools for at least two weeks from Monday, March 16, 2020, shutting both Orange County districts. CHCCS then began online classes for grades 6-12 and sent learning packets home for grades K-5 at the end of March while serving meals to students.

  61. Closing or ending · Orange County Public Library, Hillsborough Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelf

    With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.

  62. Disaster or outbreak · Orange County Orange County Health Department identifies the county's first COVID-19 cases

    The health department announced that Orange County residents had tested positive for COVID-19 at the State Laboratory of Public Health and were isolating at home. Health Director Quintana Stewart said the response was shifting from containment to mitigation.

  63. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home order

    Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.

  64. Law, policy or court · Orange County Governor Cooper's statewide stay-at-home order takes effect

    Executive Order 121, signed March 27, 2020, took effect at 5 p.m. on March 30 and ordered North Carolinians to stay home except for essential work and activities, capping gatherings at 10 people. Orange County's joint order had begun three days earlier.

  65. Storyline · 31 events · Orange County COVID-19 in Orange County

    From the first cases in March 2020 to the last emergency measures in 2022: closures, remote school, the health department's response, mutual aid, and the pandemic's unequal weight.

  66. Health or relief action · Carrboro Mutual Aid Carrboro opens a COVID-19 solidarity fund for workers

    Mutual Aid Carrboro partnered with NC Piedmont DSA to raise money for workers sent home without pay, running a solidarity fund for emergencies such as evictions and utility shutoffs. Applications were offered in Spanish, English and Chinese, with interpreter lines for Karen, Burmese and Kinyarwanda speakers.

  67. Disaster or outbreak · Orange County Orange County reports its first COVID-19 death

    The health department reported that a resident in their 70s under hospice care at PruittHealth-Carolina Point, one of two long-term care facilities with outbreaks, had died of COVID-19 complications. The county then had 104 confirmed cases, and PruittHealth had at least 86 positive cases among residents and staff.

  68. Health or relief action · Orange County Orange County and the towns launch a Housing Helpline for emergency rental aid

    Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough opened a Housing Helpline in April 2020 to connect residents with emergency rent, utility and deposit assistance. The county's Emergency Housing Assistance program paid out $2.5 million to 1,005 residents in 2020, and an Eviction Diversion Program followed in July 2020.

  69. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill Public Library Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 households

    PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.

  70. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County requires face coverings

    Orange County and its towns extended the local state of emergency through August 31, 2020 and required face coverings from 5 p.m. on June 12 when people could not keep six feet apart.

  71. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County Schools votes to open the school year online

    The Orange County Schools board voted unanimously to begin the 2020-21 year with remote-only classes for at least the first four weeks, on the recommendation of Superintendent Monique Felder.

  72. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC trustees vote to remove Josephus Daniels’s name from the student stores building

    On July 29, 2020 the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted 11 to 2 to remove four names from campus buildings, among them Josephus Daniels. The Daniels Building became UNC Student Stores, and the names of Charles Brantley Aycock, Julian Shakespeare Carr and Thomas Ruffin Sr. were removed at the same meeting.

  73. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools extends online-only classes into

    The CHCCS board unanimously accepted interim Superintendent Jim Causby's recommendation to keep classes virtual through at least January 15, 2021. On December 18, 2020 the board kept remote learning in place through at least February.

  74. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Mike Fox retires as UNC head baseball coach

    Fox retired after 22 seasons leading the Tar Heels, with a 948-406-1 record at UNC and seven College World Series trips. His longtime assistant Scott Forbes was named the program's 25th head coach.

  75. Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill UNC reopening produces a COVID-19 outbreak

    UNC-Chapel Hill began in-person classes on August 10, 2020, reported four COVID-19 clusters in residence halls, private student housing and a fraternity within days, and on August 17 announced that undergraduate classes would move online from August 19. Campus test positivity rose from 2.8 percent to 13.6 percent in one week.

  76. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Tressie McMillan Cottom wins a MacArthur Fellowship

    The MacArthur Foundation named McMillan Cottom a 2020 fellow for her work as a sociologist, writer and public scholar on race, gender, education and digital technology, including her books Lower Ed and Thick. She was an associate professor at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

  77. Naming or commemoration · Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, UNC School of Law, Chapel Hill UNC School of Law dedicates a portrait of Charles E. Daye

    The law school held a virtual dedication for a commissioned portrait of Professor Emeritus Charles E. Daye by the Durham artist William Paul Thomas, attended by close to 300 people. The portrait hangs on the fifth floor of Van Hecke-Wettach Hall.

  78. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill African, African American, and Diaspora Studies faculty ask the university to take Battle's name off Battle Hall

    Faculty of the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, whose offices are in Battle Hall, petitioned to remove Kemp Plummer Battle's name, citing his enslaving of people, his support for secession and his promotion of white supremacy. The university's Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward endorsed the request.

  79. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Family and community march to remember James Cates on the 50th anniversary

    A candlelit march went from Hargraves Community Center to St. Joseph CME Church and down Franklin Street to Peace and Justice Plaza, where the Town of Chapel Hill invited residents to leave flowers and messages for the Cates family. Mayor Pam Hemminger pledged to work with the family and UNC to investigate the killing.

  80. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill James Cates Remembrance Coalition proposes naming Student Stores for Cates

    A coalition of Cates's family, historian Danita Mason-Hogans and community members proposed renaming UNC's Student Stores building in his honor. The building had not been renamed as of 2024.

  81. Award or honor · Chapel Hill UNC-Chapel Hill awards William E. Leuchtenburg an honorary degree

    UNC-Chapel Hill conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters on Leuchtenburg, its Kenan professor emeritus of history, in 2021.

  82. Health or relief action · Friday Conference Center, Chapel Hill UNC Health opens a large vaccination clinic at the Friday Center

    UNC Health opened its largest appointment-only COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, starting with people 75 and older. Staff expected about 600 patients a day in the first week and up to 1,500 a day at full capacity.

  83. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County Schools students return to classrooms

    Kindergarten and first-grade students returned for hybrid in-person classes on January 25, 2021. Students in grades 2-12 followed in two rotating cohorts on March 8 and March 15, a month earlier than planned, after Senate Bill 37 required districts to offer in-person instruction.

  84. Health or relief action · Orange County Health department vaccinates its first recipients at drive-through clinics

    By early January 2021 the Orange County Health Department had vaccinated about 1,000 Phase 1a personnel at drive-through clinics in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill and opened sign-ups for residents 75 and older, more than 4,200 of whom registered.

  85. Publication, speech or performance · Orange County Orange County Health Department launches a health equity website

    The health department launched a health equity webpage to stay accountable to residents on racial equity, citing the county commissioners' June 16, 2020 declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis.

  86. Statistic or record · Orange County Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reported

    Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove.

  87. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students return for hybrid classes

    The CHCCS board voted unanimously on March 4, 2021 to begin hybrid in-person instruction on March 22, nearly a month before the April 19 start it had approved in February. Students attended in cohorts two days a week, and roughly half could remain fully remote.

  88. Appointment, election or service · Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill Roy Williams announces his retirement at the Smith Center

    Williams, 70, announced his retirement at a Smith Center news conference after 33 seasons as a college head coach, with 903 wins and three NCAA titles at UNC.

  89. Health or relief action · Rogers Road Community Center, Chapel Hill Pop-up vaccine clinic held at the Rogers Road Community Center

    The Orange County Health Department held a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Rogers Road Community Center for Hispanic and Asian American residents, many of whom do not speak English, after local volunteers asked for one and printed flyers in several languages.

  90. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC field hockey wins the 2020 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2020 NCAA field hockey title. The postponed 2020 championship was played in spring 2021.

  91. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Jenny Levy is elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame

    UNC announced that Levy had been chosen for the 2021 class of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in her 26th season at Carolina, with a record of 373 wins and 117 losses and two NCAA titles at that point.

  92. Award or honor David Zucchino wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

    UNC alumnus David Zucchino won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. It was his second Pulitzer.

  93. Founding or opening · Hillsborough Orange County Public Library reopens its Main Library building

    After more than a year of closure and appointment-only curbside pickup, the Main Library reopened with distancing measures under the county's plan to reopen facilities through July 2021. In Carrboro the branch at McDougle School closed on June 13 and the Cybrary opened for browsing on August 6.

  94. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County reinstates an indoor mask mandate

    As the delta variant spread, Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough required masks inside buildings and businesses from 5 p.m. on August 11, 2021.

  95. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill The history and race commission holds a public webinar on the Unsung Founders Memorial

    The Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward opened a two-part webinar series, Unsung Founders Memorial: Past and Present, with members of the Class of 2002 committee and statements from artist Do Ho Suh.

  96. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Public Library webinar marks the 51st anniversary of the Cates killing

    The Chapel Hill Public Library hosted a webinar in which family and friends, including state Senator Valerie Foushee, a first cousin of Cates, reflected on his life and on the failures that followed his death.

  97. Naming or commemoration · Hortense McClinton Residence Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill UNC renames Aycock Residence Hall for Hortense McClinton

    On the chancellor's recommendation the trustees voted to put McClinton's name on the residence hall that had carried Governor Charles B. Aycock's name until it was removed in July 2020. The Carr Building became the Henry Owl Building the same day.

  98. Naming or commemoration · Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill UNC names its athletics media center for Woody Durham

    UNC Athletics and the Rams Club named the media and communications center beside the Dean E. Smith Center the Woody Durham Media and Communications Center, with trustee approval, and recognized his family at halftime of the February 16 men's basketball game against Pittsburgh.

  99. Life event · Chapel Hill Walter R. Mears dies in Chapel Hill

    Walter R. Mears, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press political reporter, died at his Chapel Hill apartment on March 3, 2022. He had made his home in Chapel Hill after retiring in 2001 and had taught journalism at UNC for a time. A memorial service was held in Chapel Hill on March 24.

  100. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County lifts its indoor mask mandate

    Orange County and its three towns ended the indoor mask requirement on March 7, 2022. UNC-Chapel Hill lifted its campus mandate the same day, and Orange County Schools planned to make masks optional on March 10.

  101. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Justice Department opens a cold-case investigation into the Cates killing

    The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the killing under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and its cold-case initiative for racially motivated killings before 1980. Cates's cousins Nate Davis and Valerie Foushee welcomed the review.

  102. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Danita Mason-Hogans receives a national fellowship for a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and UNC

    The Oral History Association named her one of eleven year-long fellows funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Her project is a critical oral history of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina.

  103. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County's COVID-19 state of emergency expires

    The county's COVID-19 emergency declaration, in force since March 13, 2020 and extended more than a dozen times, expired at 5 p.m. on May 1, 2022, making it the longest-running state of emergency in county history.

  104. Naming or commemoration · Hortense McClinton Residence Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill Hortense McClinton Residence Hall is dedicated

    UNC dedicated Hortense McClinton Residence Hall and the Henry Owl Building in a ceremony, and the School of Social Work held a dinner for McClinton, then 103, that launched a legacy scholarship in her name.

  105. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s lacrosse wins the 2022 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2022 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship.

  106. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC announces a permanent memorial to James Cates in the Pit

    Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz announced that a permanent memorial to Cates would be installed in the Pit later in 2022, developed with students, faculty, staff and the Cates family, approved by the Board of Trustees and supported by the Town of Chapel Hill.

  107. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC field hockey wins the 2022 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2022 NCAA field hockey title.

  108. Naming or commemoration · The Pit, UNC-Chapel Hill UNC dedicates the James L. Cates Jr. Memorial in the Pit

    On the 52nd anniversary of his death, UNC dedicated a black lectern-style marker near the spot where Cates was stabbed, with an inscription from the University and the Town of Chapel Hill. Speakers included Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Congresswoman-elect Valerie Foushee for the family, student body president Taliajah Vann and BSM president Julia Clark.

  109. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Karen Shelton announces her retirement as UNC field hockey coach

    Shelton retired after 42 seasons with a record of 745 wins, 172 losses and 9 ties and 10 NCAA championships, the last won by an unbeaten 2022 team. She is the winningest coach in the sport's history.

  110. Chapel Hill Daniel Wallace gives UNC's Winter Commencement address

    Novelist and English professor Daniel Wallace was the speaker at UNC's Winter Commencement in the Dean E. Smith Center.

  111. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill UNC raises housekeepers' pay by 90 cents an hour

    Guskiewicz told the campus by email that housekeeping salaries would rise, with the amount set by position and experience and back pay to November 21, 2022. Housekeepers, who had asked for $20 an hour and an end to parking fees, called the raise a slap in the face and rallied outside South Building in February 2023.

  112. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill David Zucchino teaches International Reporting at UNC as an adjunct instructor

    Two-time Pulitzer winner David Zucchino returned to UNC as an adjunct instructor to teach a course in international reporting, run as a working newsroom.

  113. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Erin Matson succeeds Karen Shelton as UNC field hockey coach

    UNC named Matson, who had graduated a month earlier after playing on four championship teams, the fifth head coach in program history and only the second since the early 1980s.

  114. Competition or sporting achievement · Dorrance Field, Chapel Hill Jenny Levy wins her 400th game at Dorrance Field

    UNC beat Boston College 16 to 5 at Dorrance Field for Levy's 400th career victory, all of them at Carolina, in her 28th season. She was the sixth head coach in any division of the sport to reach 400 wins.

  115. Award or honor · Chapel Hill UNC awards Alexander Julian an honorary Doctor of Arts

    At Spring Commencement, UNC-Chapel Hill gave Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native who entered with the Class of 1969 and designed the argyle basketball uniforms, an honorary Doctor of Arts, one of six honorary degrees that year.

  116. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s tennis wins the 2023 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the NCAA women’s team tennis championship.

  117. Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill Zijie Yan, a UNC professor, is killed on campus

    On August 28, 2023, Zijie Yan, an associate professor, was shot and killed in UNC's Caudill Labs, and the campus locked down for about three hours. Graduate student Tailei Qi was arrested that afternoon and charged with first-degree murder; the case had not come to trial by March 2026.

  118. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC's Faculty Council adopts a resolution in memory of Zijie Yan

    At its first meeting of the year the Faculty Council held a moment of silence for Zijie Yan and adopted Resolution 2023-5 in his memory by unanimous consent, after it was read aloud in English and in Mandarin. The resolution was sent to his family.

  119. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC field hockey wins the 2023 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2023 NCAA field hockey title.

  120. Property or economic transaction · Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill UNC Libraries endows the Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Fellowship

    An endowment from John Powell created a UNC University Libraries fellowship in Hall's name for graduate students researching the American South, with preference for projects using oral history sources.

  121. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Guskiewicz leaves the Chapel Hill chancellorship

    He announced on December 8, 2023 that he would step down after nearly five years leading the campus, and January 12, 2024 was his last day. He became president of Michigan State University on March 4, 2024.

  122. Naming or commemoration · Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill The Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill is listed in the National Register

    On February 7, 2024 the National Park Service listed the Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

  123. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenway

    The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal.

  124. Chapel Hill A $10 million gift creates the O.B. Hardison Scholarship at UNC

    Stephen Israel, a 1966 graduate whose life was changed by Hardison's courses, gave $10 million for undergraduate humanities scholarships named for his former professor.

  125. Founding or opening · Orange County Interlibrary loan returns through UNC-Chapel Hill

    Working with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Orange County Public Library restored interlibrary loan during the 2024–25 fiscal year at no cost to patrons. The county had charged $1 plus library costs, raised the fee to $3 in October 2013 and cut it from $4 back to $3 in 2018 before the service lapsed.

  126. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Anson Dorrance announces his retirement as UNC women's soccer coach

    Dorrance told his team he was retiring after 45 seasons with the women's program, days before the season opener; associate head coach Damon Nahas became interim head coach. His women's teams went 934-88-53 and won 21 NCAA titles.

  127. Naming or commemoration · The Pit, UNC-Chapel Hill Student groups hold a memorial for James Cates in the Pit

    The Southern Student Action Coalition, the Black Student Movement, the Community Justice, Abolition and Anti-Racism Collective and the UNC NAACP held a memorial at the Pit, where speakers criticized the wording and placement of the 2022 plaque.

  128. Competition or sporting achievement · Cary, North Carolina; UNC–Chapel Hill team UNC women’s soccer wins the 2024 NCAA national championship

    UNC defeated Wake Forest, 1–0, in the national final.

  129. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Kathleen DuVal wins the Bancroft Prize

    UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the Bancroft Prize for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America. She was the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor in UNC's history department.

  130. Chapel Hill William J. Barber II gives the Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture at UNC

    William J. Barber II spoke on poverty and inequality at the UNC School of Social Work's Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building to nearly 300 people, with about 750 more online.

  131. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Chuck Stone receives a posthumous Pulitzer Prize special citation

    The Pulitzer Prize Board gave Stone, the former Walter Spearman Professor of journalism at UNC, a special citation for his civil rights reporting, his work as the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News and his part in founding the National Association of Black Journalists.

  132. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Kathleen DuVal wins the Pulitzer Prize for History

    UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, a history of Native American nations over a thousand years. She taught early American and American Indian history at UNC-Chapel Hill.

  133. Publication, speech or performance · Kenan Stadium, UNC-Chapel Hill Mia Hamm gives UNC's spring Commencement address in Kenan Stadium

    Former Tar Heel soccer player Mia Hamm, class of 1994, delivered the 2025 Commencement address to 6,829 graduates in Kenan Stadium.

  134. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill UNC women’s lacrosse wins the 2025 NCAA national championship

    UNC won the 2025 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship.

  135. Naming or commemoration · Caudill Laboratories, UNC-Chapel Hill A memorial garden and bench for Zijie Yan are dedicated at Caudill Labs

    Two years after his death, UNC dedicated a memorial site in the Caudill Labs courtyard with a garden, a bench made from a 250-year-old campus post oak, and a plaque in English and Mandarin. His doctoral adviser Doug Chrisey gave the first memorial lecture in his honor the same afternoon.

  136. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill State law removes Chapel Hill's zoning control over UNC projects

    The Regulatory Reform Act of 2025 became law without the governor's signature, making UNC System projects in Orange County subject only to state rules and leaving the town a consultation role on utilities, stormwater, traffic and similar matters.

  137. Naming or commemoration · UNC-Chapel Hill Students and residents mark 55 years since the killing of James Cates

    The Carolina NAACP chapter and the Black Student Movement held a remembrance for Cates on campus, and student leaders again called the 2022 plaque's passive wording inadequate.

  138. Publication, speech or performance · Horace Williams tract, Chapel Hill UNC announces a campus extension at Carolina North

    The university announced plans for a mixed-use extension on about 230 acres around the former Horace Williams Airport, with student and workforce housing, research space and retail, calling it the largest expansion since 1793; groundbreaking is expected in summer 2027.

  139. Naming or commemoration · UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill UNC says a new residence hall will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson

    UNC-Chapel Hill announced that one of two new residence halls, to be built on the site of the former Jackson Hall that housed undergraduate admissions, will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson. The two halls will add about 730 beds.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.

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