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Orange County Indexed

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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7 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–7.Back to highlights

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7 dated events
1879Reconstruction and the New South
  1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  2. Charles B. Aycock edits the Ledger in Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill

    Aycock, then a university student, took over as editor of the weekly Chapel Hill Ledger in 1879, succeeding Cornelia Phillips Spencer. The paper ran until 1880.

  3. Cornelia Phillips Spencer edits the Chapel Hill Weekly Ledger

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    For some months in 1879 Cornelia Phillips Spencer edited the Chapel Hill Weekly Ledger, with students R. P. Pell and Francis D. Winston as assistants. The book calls her the county's only woman editor; Charles B. Aycock took over from her.

    People: Charles B. Aycock

  4. Seniors begin the class tree and Class Day custom

    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill

    The class of 1880, led by its president Thomas H. Battle, planted a sugar maple at the edge of the Forbidden Ground after Class Day speeches that included one by Charles B. Aycock. Later classes kept the custom, planting a water oak in 1882 and a white pine in 1883.

    People: Charles B. Aycock · Locke Craig

  5. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  6. Aycock School is built at Cedar Grove and named for the governor

    Cedar Grove

    The county built the original eight-room Aycock School at Cedar Grove on land bought from Carl C. McDade and named it for former governor Charles B. Aycock.

    Subject: Aycock School

  7. UNC opens a residence hall named for Charles B. Aycock

    Chapel Hill, Aycock Residence Hall

    The university occupied Aycock Residence Hall on the Lower Quad in 1924. The name stood until the trustees removed it in July 2020, citing his racist views and actions.

  8. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  9. UNC trustees vote to remove Josephus Daniels’s name from the student stores building

    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill

    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.

    People: Thomas Ruffin · Julian S. Carr · Charles B. Aycock

  10. UNC renames Aycock Residence Hall for Hortense McClinton

    Naming or commemoration · Hortense McClinton Residence Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill

    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.

    People: Kevin M. Guskiewicz · Charles B. Aycock

    Subject: Carr Building (Henry Owl Building)

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

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.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026