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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 7,313 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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3 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 7,313 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–3.Back to highlights

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3 dated events
1939Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. Maurice Julian opens a shoe store on East Franklin Street

    Founding or opening · Julian's shoe store, 167 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    Julian started out selling shoes at 167 East Franklin, in the space James R. Ellis's dress shop had left.

    People: Maurice Julian

  3. Maurice Julian opens The College Shop, a men's clothing store

    Founding or opening · The College Shop, 140 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    Julian moved into the space Durham Dairy Products had left at 140 East Franklin and opened a men's clothing store he called The College Shop.

    People: Maurice Julian

  4. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  5. Alexander Julian opens Alexander's Ambition on Franklin Street

    Founding or opening · Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

    At 21, while his parents were away for a month, Alexander Julian leased a Franklin Street storefront across the street from his father Maurice Julian's store and opened his own shop, Alexander's Ambition.

    People: Maurice Julian

Suggest a correction to an entry →

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 3, 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