Skip to content

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.

Search and filters

Search and filters · 1 active

6 dated events match your filters.

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

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

6 dated events
1931Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower is dedicated at UNC

    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill, Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower

    The bell tower given by John Motley Morehead III and Rufus Lenoir Patterson II was dedicated to the university on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1931, with Governor O. Max Gardner giving the dedication address. Morehead had proposed a tower to President Harry Woodburn Chase in the 1920s and been turned down on three sites.

    People: Harry Woodburn Chase · O. Max Gardner

  3. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  4. Morehead creates the foundation behind his Chapel Hill gifts

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    In 1945 Morehead created the Morehead Foundation to pay for the Morehead Building on the campus at Chapel Hill and to establish the scholarship that carries his name.

    Subject: Morehead Planetarium

  5. Morehead gives the university a million dollars for a planetarium

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    In 1946 Morehead presented the university with one million dollars to build a planetarium and put the proposal to the Board of Trustees. The building opened in 1949.

    Subject: Morehead Planetarium

  6. Morehead Planetarium is dedicated

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Morehead Planetarium was dedicated at UNC on May 10, 1949.

    People: John Motley Morehead III

    Subject: Morehead Planetarium

  7. The first Morehead scholars are selected

    Award or honor · Chapel Hill

    The scholarship Morehead endowed at Chapel Hill made its first selections in 1951.

  8. Morehead gives the sundial in front of the planetarium

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill, Morehead Planetarium

    In 1956 Morehead funded the sundial set in front of the planetarium building in Chapel Hill.

    Subject: Morehead Planetarium

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