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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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5 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1926Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. Kay Kyser takes over the UNC campus band from Hal Kemp

    Appointment, election or service · Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill

    Kay Kyser, a UNC student and cheerleader who could not read music, took over leadership of the campus dance band in 1926 when Hal Kemp graduated. The new band held its first rehearsal in Gerrard Hall.

    Subject: Gerrard Hall

  3. Kay Kyser's band closes the May Frolics dances in the Tin Can

    Publication, speech or performance · Tin Can, UNC, Chapel Hill

    Kay Kyser and his orchestra, made up of former UNC students, played the formal dance that closed the fourth annual May Frolics in the Tin Can. The band also gave a benefit concert in Memorial Hall the next afternoon.

    Subject: Memorial Hall

  4. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  5. Kay Kyser leads a rained-out pep rally in Memorial Hall

    Publication, speech or performance · Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill

    When rain cancelled the outdoor rally and torchlight parade before the Texas game, Kay Kyser, his wife Georgia Carroll and coach Carl Snavely entertained more than 1,800 students in a packed Memorial Hall.

    People: Carl Snavely

    Subject: Memorial Hall

  6. Kay Kyser retires from show business and settles in Chapel Hill

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    Kay Kyser left radio and television and returned with his wife Georgia to Chapel Hill, where he lived on East Franklin Street for the rest of his life.

  7. Kay Kyser helps raise the money to put WUNC-TV on the air

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    Kay Kyser toured the state with William C. Friday and Billy Carmichael Jr. to raise money for UNC's educational television station, which went on the air from Chapel Hill in January 1955.

    People: William C. Friday · William D. Carmichael Jr.

    Subject: WUNC radio and television

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 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