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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. March 5, 1917
   Law, policy or court · General Assembly, Raleigh; UNC, Chapel Hill The legislature passes a $3 million bond issue that funds university buildings

   In the last hours of the 1917 session the house passed a $3 million bond issue, with only 14 of 120 votes against, for state institutions and public schools, giving the university $100,000 a year for five years for new buildings and repairs. Baptist leaders denounced the haste and the aid to state colleges.

3. October 22, 1917
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough Hillsborough men enlist in a Home Guard detachment of the state militia

   Answering Gov. Bickett's call, the Council of Defense chose 25 men on October 20, 1917, and they enlisted for the duration at the Hillsborough court house on October 22 and 24, electing Shepperd Strudwick first lieutenant. The county bought their uniforms, and they drilled twice a week until the influenza ban on meetings.

4. University Day, October 1917
   Publication, speech or performance · Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill Governor Bickett gives a wartime University Day address

   A month after the term opened, Governor Thomas W. Bickett spoke at University Day in a chilly Memorial Hall, denouncing slackers. Marshals led the academic procession through ranks of uniformed men.

5. June 5, 1918
   Award or honor · Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill A subdued wartime commencement honors the governor, Senator Overman and the Rev. W. D. Moss

   With about a third of the class of 1918 already in camps, the university gave honorary degrees to Governor Bickett, Senator Lee S. Overman, Edwin Mims and the Presbyterian pastor W. D. Moss. Frederic C. Howe, immigration commissioner at New York, gave the address.

6. February 15, 1919
   Closing or ending · Orange County The Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense is discharged

   Gov. Bickett advised in February 1919 that the legislature would not fund the Council of Defense, and on February 15 the state chairman gave all members of the Woman's Committee an honorable discharge, ending the county organization.

7. July 16, 1919
   Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough Hillsborough holds the county homecoming celebration for returned soldiers

   On July 16, 1919, about 15,000 people came to Hillsborough to welcome home Orange County's soldiers and sailors, with a parade, Gov. Bickett's address at the court house and a dinner for about a thousand guests in Cameron Park. J. Cheshire Webb chaired the celebration, and the county Red Cross voted $300 toward its cost, money the celebration fund turned out not to need.

8. September 1919
   Publication, speech or performance · UNC, Chapel Hill Some 300 county officials meet at the University as the State and County Council

   Two weeks before classes, about 300 school board members, county commissioners, superintendents, health and welfare officers and juvenile judges from 76 counties met on campus to compare work under the new state welfare and school laws. Governor Thomas W. Bickett gave the welcome.

9. November 2, 1920
   Appointment, election or service · Countywide Orange County women vote in a presidential election after the Nineteenth Amendment

   Orange County women could vote for president for the first time on November 2, 1920, after registering by October 23 without paying a poll tax. In an October 15 speech at the Chapel Hill high school auditorium, Governor Thomas Bickett said women should cast their votes. Literacy tests and hostile registrars kept many Black women off the rolls.

10. November 5, 1920
    Law, policy or court · UNC, Chapel Hill Trustees let Chase ask for a six-year building program

    On November 5 Governor Bickett and the trustees' executive committee reversed an earlier two-year limit and let Chase plan every building needed for six years. Near the end of November he gave the State Budget Commission a $5.6 million list: dormitories for about 1,275 men, a law building, classroom buildings, a gymnasium, a women's building and faculty houses.

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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.