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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,368 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 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1977Recent decades
  1. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  2. Michael Simmons becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Dr. Michael Simmons, superintendent in Dillon, South Carolina, since 1974, took charge of the Orange County schools in 1977. He resigned in 1983 to lead the Johnson City, Tennessee, schools.

    People: Michael Simmons

  3. Cameron Park School is enlarged again under Superintendent Michael Simmons

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough

    A further addition to Cameron Park Elementary in Hillsborough went up in 1978, the third stage of the building, which by the early 1980s housed kindergarten through fifth grade.

    People: Michael Simmons

    Subject: Cameron Park School

  4. Orange High School's Cultural Arts Building is fitted with a heat pump system

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough

    A note to the Orange High plant table records a heat pump system in 1979 for the school's Cultural Arts Building, work that falls in Michael Simmons's term as superintendent.

    People: Michael Simmons

    Subject: Orange High School

  5. Orange County voters defeat a $17.8 million school bond backed by both superintendents

    Orange County

    Superintendents Michael Simmons of the Orange County schools and Robert Hanes of Chapel Hill-Carrboro had spoken for the bonds, saying both systems needed classrooms for growing enrollment and for students with special needs. Voters rejected them 7,447 to 4,517, and Simmons blamed the size of the issues and the economy.

  6. Dannie G. Lunsford becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Dr. Dannie G. Lunsford, who had come to the county in 1971 as principal at Efland and risen through the instruction office to associate superintendent, succeeded Michael Simmons as superintendent in July 1983.

    People: Michael Simmons

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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