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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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4 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–4.Back to highlights

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4 dated events
1993Recent decades
  1. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  2. Joe and Lucy Straley receive the first Charles M. Jones award of the local ACLU

    Award or honor · Chapel Hill

    The Chapel Hill-Carrboro chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union gave Joe and Lucy Straley, both 79, its Charles M. Jones award for their work for peace, social justice and racial integration. The award, begun that year, recognizes contributions to civil liberties and civil rights in Orange and Chatham counties.

    People: Joe Straley · Charles M. Jones

  3. Bill Thorpe petitions the council to name the post office plaza for local activists

    Protest or organizing · Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill

    Council member Bill Thorpe presented a petition to rename the Franklin Street post office plaza for Charlotte Adams and Joe and Lucy Straley, an idea born at Joe Straley's memorial service. The council chose to hold a public hearing, and its naming committee proposed naming the plaza for an ideal with plaques for local peace and justice activists.

    People: Joe Straley · Lucy Straley · Charlotte Adams

    Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

  4. Chapel Hill names the post office plaza Peace and Justice Plaza

    Naming or commemoration · Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill

    The Town Council named the space in front of the Franklin Street post office Peace and Justice Plaza, after a petition to honor Charlotte Adams and Joe and Lucy Straley. Lucy Straley, then 92, told the Daily Tar Heel the plaza had long been the couple's main backdrop for protest.

    People: Joe Straley · Bill Thorpe · Charlotte Adams

    Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

  5. Chapel Hill dedicates the Peace and Justice Plaza marker

    Naming or commemoration · Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill

    The town unveiled a granite marker at Peace and Justice Plaza, in front of the old post office on Franklin Street, naming nine local activists: Charlotte Adams, Hank Anderson, James Brittian, Joe Herzenberg, Mildred Ringwalt, Hubert Robinson, Joe Straley, Lucy Straley and Gloria Williams. The Town Council had named the plaza in 2006 and set criteria for later honorees.

    People: James Brittian · Mildred Ringwalt · Hubert Robinson · Joe Straley · Lucy Straley · Gloria Williams · Charlotte Adams

    Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

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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 1, 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