Chronology

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1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

2. 1893
   Publication, speech or performance · Person Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrate calcium carbide in Person Hall

   Chemistry professor Francis P. Venable and student William R. Kenan Jr. demonstrated the industrial uses of calcium carbide, the source of acetylene gas, in Person Hall.

3. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

4. 1926
   Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill William R. Kenan Jr. gives $275,000 for a football stadium

   Kenan announced a gift of 275,000 dollars to build Kenan Memorial Stadium in honor of his parents, William Rand and Mary Hargrave Kenan. Construction began in November 1926.

5. November 12, 1927
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Kenan Memorial Stadium opens

   Kenan Memorial Stadium, the gift of William Rand Kenan Jr., hosted its first event on November 12, 1927, when Carolina beat Davidson 27 to 0. It was formally dedicated before the Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia on November 24, when Governor Angus McLean accepted it for the state and the University.

6. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

7. 1973
   Naming or commemoration · UNC campus, Chapel Hill The William Rand Kenan Jr. Laboratories of Chemistry are dedicated

   The university dedicated the William Rand Kenan Jr. Laboratories of Chemistry, and the chemistry faculty marked the occasion with two days of short courses on their current research.

8. Recent decades · 1976–2026

9. October 2018
   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.

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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 1, 2026.