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Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis. Browse all 77 storylines. Every entry names its source. See all 667 sources.

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Entries

  1. Recent decades · 1976–2026

  2. 1980s
  3. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Jim Heavner urges limits on sales at the UNC Student Stores

    In a Village Advocate column, Heavner, president of the Village Companies, asked the university to take a hard look at the Student Stores under the Umstead Act, calling them Orange County's largest retail store. Student body president Paul Parker and university officials defended the stores, which funded financial aid.

  4. Life event · 108 Pine Street, Carrboro Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets lives in the backyard shack he calls the Mausoleum

    At 19, the Flat Duo Jets singer and guitarist was living in a shack he had fitted out behind the Romweber family house in Carrboro, sleeping beside a coffin. The house itself, where his siblings Sara and Joe also played in bands, was known for practices and police noise complaints.

  5. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Fred Battle serves on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board

    Fred Battle served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board of education from 1985 to 1989.

  6. Award or honor · Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill Jeff MacNelly is inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame

    UNC's School of Journalism inducted Jeff MacNelly, then a two-time Pulitzer winner, and five other journalists into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame at a banquet at the Carolina Inn.

  7. Construction or physical change · Cane Creek, Orange County OWASA builds a temporary impoundment on Cane Creek

    During a water shortage OWASA built a temporary impoundment at the Cane Creek site as an emergency water source, while the permanent dam was still being designed.

  8. Law, policy or court · East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Estes Drive and Burlage Circle residents reach an agreement with Hakan-Corley over the Siena Hotel

    Attorney Grainger Barrett announced an agreement between residents of the Burlage Circle and Estes Drive neighborhood and developer Hakan-Corley and Associates over the hotel planned for the former Brady's restaurant site.

  9. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Six writers read at the Hardback Cafe to raise money against the Shearon Harris nuclear plant

    Joe Ashby Porter, Jill McCorkle, Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith, Garrett Epps and Elizabeth Spencer read from their work at a $50-a-plate benefit dinner at the Hardback Cafe, raising over $2,000 for the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris. Organizers turned away 30 ticket requests because of the room's fire-code limit.

  10. Chapel Hill Jill McCorkle reads To Kill a Mockingbird at a Banned Books Week protest in the Pit

    For National Banned Books Week, UNC students and faculty read from challenged books in the Pit, in a program sponsored by the Bull's Head Bookstore with national bookseller and library associations. Jill McCorkle, then a creative writing lecturer, read from To Kill a Mockingbird with a student, Greg Meyjes; Elizabeth Spencer and Thadious M. Davis also read.

  11. Award or honor · Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill UNC gives Jeff MacNelly its Distinguished Alumnus Award

    At the University Day convocation in Memorial Hall, UNC presented Distinguished Alumnus Awards to cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, Justice Henry E. Frye, Rolfe Neill, Banks C. Talley Jr. and John A. Montgomery.

  12. Construction or physical change · Cane Creek, Orange County OWASA breaks ground for the Cane Creek dam

    OWASA held a groundbreaking for the Cane Creek Reservoir, designed by Hazen and Sawyer: a 72-foot-high, 1,350-foot earthen dam on a 760-acre site, with a 480-acre lake holding 3 billion gallons. Completion was scheduled for June 1989.

  13. Publication, speech or performance · Manning Hall, UNC Frank Wilkinson returns to speak in Manning Hall

    Wilkinson, then 74, spoke in Manning Hall on FBI surveillance and U.S. policy in Central America at an event sponsored by the Carolina Committee on Central America.

  14. Founding or opening · 1500 block of East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Siena Hotel prepares to open on East Franklin Street

    The 80-room Siena Hotel, built by the Siena Partnership of Joe Hakan and Sam Longiotti as part of a nine-acre development with the Chapel Hill Center, was scheduled to open in late October 1987.

  15. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Joe Herzenberg wins election to the Chapel Hill Town Council

    Joe Herzenberg placed third in the four-seat Town Council race at the municipal election of November 3, 1987, with 3,308 votes, behind Nancy Preston and Roosevelt Wilkerson, and said he was the first openly gay elected official in the history of North Carolina. He was sworn in at the Council's organizational meeting on December 7, 1987, with his neighbor Lightning Brown administering the oath.

  16. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Jonathan Howes is elected mayor of Chapel Hill

    Jonathan Howes, director of UNC's Center for Urban and Regional Studies, won the mayoral race with 53 percent of the vote over Julie Andresen and David Lineberger, carrying the student precincts at Greenwood and Country Club. Outgoing mayor James Wallace said the office would be in very good hands.

  17. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Hilliard Caldwell tells a Chapel Hill forum that local schools still fail Black students

    Speaking as home school coordinator for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools at a Human Rights Week forum, Caldwell said the community spent millions on education without adequate results and that few Black students reached the honor rolls. His cousin Ed Caldwell, a school board member, spoke as well.

  18. Law, policy or court · Orange County Judge Peele rules in the Hanes Hall CIA protest cases

    Judge Stanley Peele found anti-CIA protesters Dale McKinley and Graham Entwistle guilty of disorderly conduct for chaining themselves at Hanes Hall during CIA recruiting interviews and entered a prayer for judgment continued; later in 1988 he jailed McKinley for 21 days and gave Entwistle a suspended sentence for violating its terms.

  19. Chapel Hill Joe and Odell Thompson give a free concert in Gerrard Hall

    The Mebane fiddle and banjo duo played a free folk concert at 7:30 p.m. in Gerrard Hall during Graduate and Professional Student Federation Week. The federation and the UNC Curriculum in Folklore sponsored it.

  20. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Downtown Commission asks for a special tax district for downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro

    Downtown Commission president Joe Hakan asked the Chapel Hill Town Council for a special service district taxing downtown property 7 cents per $100 to help fund the commission and a free downtown trolley. The council later voted the district down.

  21. Founding or opening · 206 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Cat's Cradle opens at 206 West Franklin Street

    After its lease ran out on September 1, 1988, at 320 West Franklin Street, the small room known as the shoebox, the club held its grand reopening in February 1989 at 206 West Franklin Street, its fourth location, where it stayed until 1993.

  22. Chapel Hill Jill McCorkle speaks in the Carolina Union's Southern Writers Series at Gerrard Hall

    Jill McCorkle, author of The Cheerleader, July 7th and Tending to Virginia, gave a free evening talk in Gerrard Hall as the third speaker in the Carolina Union Forum Committee's Southern Writers Series.

  23. 1990s
  24. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill; Carrboro James Brittian leads the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP

    Brittian was president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP from December 1990 until his death at his Carrboro home in November 1993. Fred Battle served as interim president until Gene Hatley took over in February 1994.

  25. Founding or opening · McDade House, 113 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill A downtown visitors center opens in the McDade House

    A welcome center for downtown visitors, run with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Downtown Commission, opened in the McDade House on West Franklin Street in the spring of 1991. The commission also had its office in the house during the 1990s.

  26. Construction or physical change · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill Paul Green's writing cabin is moved to the North Carolina Botanical Garden

    The 16-by-18-foot log cabin where the playwright wrote was moved to the Botanical Garden and restored when its old lot was to be sold. A Paul Green Cabin Task Force pressed for the move, citing Green's study of native plants.

  27. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill UNC Housekeepers organize for pay and respect

    UNC housekeepers formed the Housekeepers Association in 1991 and brought a class-action discrimination suit against the University over pay, advancement and treatment. Led by Marsha Tinnen and Barbara Prear, they signed a settlement with UNC on November 26, 1996, that brought raises, a career training program and monthly meetings with administrators.

  28. Founding or opening · Hillsborough Walter Faribault Jr. opens Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough

    Dr. Walter Faribault Jr., a Chapel Hill physician, had opened Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough using a recipe that had been in his family for more than a hundred years. The family had cooked pork barbecue on Faribault Lane for generations, and by 1993 the business was running as a catering service.

  29. Publication, speech or performance · Greenlaw Hall, UNC Herbert Aptheker returns to speak at UNC in Greenlaw Hall

    Twenty-five years after he was kept off campus, Aptheker spoke to students and faculty in Greenlaw Hall in a visit arranged by anthropology professor Don Nonini.

  30. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Joe Hakan becomes chairman of the chamber of commerce

    Joe Hakan became chairman of the chamber's board of directors and led it out of a budget deficit, cutting salaries and staff and hiring a lower-paid director.

  31. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Jeff MacNelly pledges $25,000 toward a UNC journalism professorship honoring Jim Shumaker

    Jeff MacNelly pledged $25,000 to the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication toward the James H. Shumaker Term Professorship. Shumaker had edited the Chapel Hill Weekly when MacNelly drew for it as a student.

  32. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill The Black Cultural Center holds a reception for alumnus Randall Kenan

    UNC's Black Cultural Center held a reception for Kenan, a 1985 graduate, on the publication of his story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead; the Bull's Head Bookshop held an autograph party for the book the same day.

  33. Chapel Hill Jill McCorkle leaves her UNC creative writing lecturership to teach at Harvard

    The Daily Tar Heel reported that Jill McCorkle, a lecturer in the English department's creative writing program who taught honors writing courses for first-year students and seniors, would leave the university that fall to teach at Harvard.

  34. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County jury finds three former UNC officials discriminated against police officer Keith Edwards

    A jury ruled that former UNC officials John DeVitto, Charles Mauer and Robert Sherman had discriminated by race and gender against Keith Edwards, an 18-year veteran of the UNC police, and ordered them to pay $116,000 in damages. Alan McSurely, her lawyer, won his first jury trial with the case.

  35. Founding or opening · 111 South Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill Lizzie Mae Collins opens Lizzie Mae's Southern Kitchen

    Lizzie Mae Collins opened a restaurant serving Southern cooking and gave jobs to people she knew who were trying to leave crime and drug use behind. By late 1993 she told the Daily Tar Heel the business was struggling and she was running the kitchen alone.

  36. Founding or opening · 206 West Main Street, Carrboro Maggie's Muffins moves to West Main Street and becomes Maggie's Cafe and Espresso

    Jane Hamborsky's bakery, open on Weaver Street since 1989, moved to "the corner of Main and Main" in Carrboro in September 1992 and renamed itself Maggie's Cafe and Espresso. The larger space let it add lunch.

  37. Appointment, election or service · Carrboro Hank Anderson serves on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen

    Anderson was elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in 1993 and re-elected in 1997, and the board chose him as mayor pro tem in 1994 and again in 1997. He served until his death in October 1998.

  38. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill NAACP task force begins a study of UNC's employee grievance procedure

    A task force chaired by Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP president James Brittian held its first meeting to evaluate UNC's grievance and appeals procedure and employee relations counseling, aiming to change state law for workers across the UNC system. Former UNC personnel director Jack Gunnells was its operations director.

  39. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Town Council funds the Midway Development Commission

    The council unanimously approved a $6,000 grant to promote Black-owned businesses and housing in the Midway district between Chapel Hill and Carrboro. James Brittian, NAACP president and the commission's project development coordinator, said the money would bring in millions.

  40. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill UNC Trustees approve a freestanding Black Cultural Center on the Coker site

    On July 23, 1993, the UNC Board of Trustees approved building a freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center on the Coker Woods site between Coker Hall and the Bell Tower. Supporters had wanted the Wilson-Dey site on the main quad, and student leaders accepted the Coker site that November.

  41. Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill Chancellor Paul Hardin confers an honorary doctor of laws on President Bill Clinton

    After his speech at UNC's Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, President Clinton received an honorary doctorate of law from Chancellor Paul Hardin.

  42. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC and Chapel Hill celebrate their bicentennial

    UNC marked 200 years since the laying of Old East's cornerstone with a Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, where President Bill Clinton spoke to about 45,000 people. The town dedicated Michael Brown's mural of the October 12, 1793, lot auction at the Franklin Street post office.

  43. Award or honor · Chapel Hill Joe and Lucy Straley receive the first Charles M. Jones award of the local ACLU

    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.

  44. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill High School Perry Deane Young speaks at Chapel Hill High School after gay-authored books are pulled from a reading list

    After four gay- and lesbian-authored books were pulled from an English teacher’s multicultural reading list at Chapel Hill High School, Young and author Susan Johnson spoke at an evening program there and joined a panel. The Orange Lesbian and Gay Association and Many Voices, One Community sponsored it.

  45. Construction or physical change · 120 East Main Street, Carrboro Merge Records has its office in Carrboro

    Merge Records had its office in Carrboro on Main Street, a few steps from the Armadillo Grill, where Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance ran the label. Merge had started in Ballance's spare room in Chapel Hill, and in 2001 McCaughan and Ballance bought a building in downtown Durham for it.

  46. Award or honor · 1500 Fordham Boulevard, Chapel Hill Owens 501 Diner is honored for turning a former gas station into a diner

    The Chapel Hill Appearance Commission recognized Owens 501 Diner at a Town Council meeting for the creative reuse of a commercial building, a rehabilitated gas station made into a diner. The diner was advertising for staff in all positions in November 1992.

  47. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Museum is organized in the former town library

    In 1995 a museum study committee proposed a town museum for the former public library at 523 East Franklin Street, and in November the town council agreed to negotiate a rent-free lease with Chapel Hill Museum Inc. The nonprofit museum opened its first exhibit to the public in February 1998.

  48. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Randall Kenan returns to UNC as a visiting professor

    Kenan, who decided on a writing career in UNC English classes, came back to Chapel Hill in 1995 as a visiting professor, and read that February in the Second Sunday series at Wilson Library.

  49. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Annie Dillard is UNC's Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence

    Dillard spent a week at UNC in the English department's Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence program, meeting creative writing students and giving a free public reading in Memorial Hall on February 1. The Daily Tar Heel reported a full house.

  50. Founding or opening · Carrboro Carrboro Branch Library opens at McDougle School

    The Carrboro Branch of the Orange County Public Library opened in McDougle Middle School in May 1995, sharing space with the school library and open after school hours and on Sundays. Books circulated from May 1 and the ribbon was cut on May 21, with the Friends of the Carrboro Library having raised $2,000 toward its $46,000 budget.

  51. Closing or ending · 121 (later 125) South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill UNC razes the Michie House, the last private home on campus, for parking

    Demolition crews took down Sallie Markham Michie's house at South Columbia Street and Cameron Avenue three weeks after a judge ordered it sold to UNC by eminent domain. Michie had willed it to the DAR and the Magna Carta Dames on condition it never go to the University; the state paid the two groups $550,000.

  52. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Allan Gurganus is a visiting scholar at UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities

    Gurganus spent 1996 as a visiting fellow of UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities and presented at the institute's symposium Echoes of Home, Imitations of Return in Hill Hall that October.

  53. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Black public works employees bring a discrimination charge against the Town of Chapel Hill

    The Black Public Works Association, with the NAACP's help, filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination in promotions, pay and training in Chapel Hill's Public Works Department, where about 75 of some 110 employees were Black and none were managers. The EEOC assigned an investigator in the summer of 1996.

  54. Storyline · 13 events · Chapel Hill Hurricane Fran, September

    Hurricane Fran crossed the county overnight on 5 to 6 September 1996, felling thousands of trees, cutting power to about 29,000 Chapel Hill customers and pushing the Eno at Hillsborough to its highest recorded flow. Chapel Hill declared an emergency, OWASA issued a boil-water advisory, UNC suspended classes for a campus cleanup, and Duke Forest spent two years salvaging timber.

  55. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill The Village Companies sells WCHL to Curtis Media Group

    The Village Companies sold WCHL, then the smallest of its dozen or so media outlets, to Curtis Media Group, which paired it with Durham's WDNC and moved it out of Chapel Hill.

  56. Award or honor · Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Frances Hargraves carries the Olympic torch down Franklin Street

    The 1996 Olympic torch relay passed through Chapel Hill and Carrboro on its way to Atlanta. Frances Hargraves, 82, a retired special education teacher chosen as one of five Chapel Hill Community Heroes, took the flame from Chuck Stone at Columbia Street and carried it down Franklin Street.

  57. Law, policy or court · McDade House, 113 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Historic District Commission approves tearing down the McDade House after a one-year delay

    Chapel Hill's Historic District Commission granted University Baptist Church a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the brick McDade House, the last house still standing on that end of Franklin Street, but held off demolition for a year so preservationists could try to save it.

  58. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill East Chapel Hill High School opens

    East Chapel Hill High School opened on August 20, 1996, to relieve crowding at Chapel Hill High School, with construction still under way around it. It enrolled grades nine through eleven that first year, most of them transfers from Chapel Hill High, and held an opening celebration on November 17.

  59. Disaster or outbreak · Countywide Hurricane Fran strikes Orange County

    Hurricane Fran came ashore on the night of September 5, 1996 and crossed to the Triangle overnight. In Chapel Hill winds topped 70 mph, falling trees caused about 29,000 power outages and UNC cancelled classes, and the Eno at Hillsborough hit a record flow. No one in Orange County was killed.

  60. Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill Hurricane Fran causes about 29,000 power outages in Chapel Hill

    Trees on power lines caused about 29,000 outages in Chapel Hill; more than 12,000 residents were still without electricity on Sunday evening, September 8, and about 10,000 on Monday afternoon. Duke Power had 1,800 workers plus 1,000 on loan from other utilities in the area and expected to restore Chapel Hill by the middle or end of that week.

  61. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf declares a state of emergency in Chapel Hill after Hurricane Fran

    Waldorf declared a town state of emergency on Friday, September 6, because of storm damage and power outages, and residents were urged to stay home; UNC cancelled Friday classes at 3 a.m. She partially lifted the emergency at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10, keeping it in force where utility crews were still working.

  62. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill; Carrboro OWASA issues a boil-water advisory after Hurricane Fran knocks out its pumping

    The Orange Water and Sewer Authority told Chapel Hill and Carrboro customers to boil water from Friday evening, September 6, after its University Lake pump station lost power and the system lost pressure, and the wastewater plant flooded. The advisory was lifted at 1:50 p.m. Monday, September 9, after lab tests found no contamination; the area drew emergency water from Durham, and a conservation order was lifted soon after.

  63. Health or relief action · UNC campus, Chapel Hill UNC suspends afternoon classes for a campuswide Hurricane Fran cleanup

    Chancellor Michael Hooker suspended classes from noon on Wednesday so students, faculty and staff could clear storm debris. Nearly 1,000 students reported to the Old Well within the first hour, working with University forester Kirk Pelland's crews, and Coker Arboretum staff expected their cleanup to run into the winter.

  64. Disaster or outbreak · Venable Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill A 70-foot oak weakened by Hurricane Fran falls on Venable Hall

    A 70-foot white oak fell against Venable Hall at about 2:10 p.m., damaging handrails on the building's steps; no one was hurt. University forester Kirk Pelland said Fran's winds and Wednesday's heavy rain had left many old campus trees at risk, and Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd asked people to report damaged trees to the Grounds Division.

  65. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Carrboro aldermen take up a tree-cutter registration plan after Hurricane Fran scams

    The Board of Aldermen discussed asking tree removal workers to identify themselves at town hall before starting work, after Mayor Mike Nelson cited a resident who paid $800 in advance to remove Fran-felled trees and the workers did not return. Staff were to bring a formal proposal to the next meeting.

  66. Statistic or record · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill building inspectors count homes destroyed and damaged by Hurricane Fran

    The town's Building Inspection Department reported four homes near Airport Road, Homestead Road and Culbreth Road destroyed, 391 homes with major damage and 222 with minor damage.

  67. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill; Orange Regional Landfill Orange Regional Landfill takes Hurricane Fran yard waste free as Chapel Hill faces tens of thousands of tons of debris

    The Orange Regional Landfill on Eubanks Road accepted yard waste at no charge until further notice. Town Manager Cal Horton estimated Chapel Hill had 25,000 to 40,000 tons of fallen limbs and trees and said the town would eventually remove curbside debris, while urging residents to haul debris to the landfill themselves.

  68. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Allan Gurganus and Marly Youmans sign books to fund a Habitat for Humanity house

    Hillsborough novelist Allan Gurganus and Carrboro author Marly Youmans signed books at the Intimate Bookshop in Eastgate, with 15 percent of the evening's sales going to a new Habitat for Humanity house sponsored by seven fraternities and sororities and four parishes.

  69. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill UNC Housekeepers’ settlement is reached

    UNC administrators and leaders of the UNC Housekeepers Association signed a mediated agreement on November 26, 1996, meant to end the housekeepers' 5 1/2-year-old discrimination suit. Housekeepers had approved it 212 to 1; it included back pay for about 340 workers, a career training program and regular meetings with administrators.

  70. Law, policy or court · McDade House, 113 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill's Town Council votes to move the McDade House to a town parking lot

    After months of debate, the Town Council voted unanimously to move the McDade House off University Baptist Church's land to Parking Lot 5, between Franklin, Church and Rosemary streets, to save it from demolition.

  71. Property or economic transaction · 100 North Greensboro Street, Carrboro Carrboro aldermen vote to buy the Carrboro Baptist Church property

    After months of talks, the Board of Aldermen voted 5 to 2 to buy the church at Greensboro and Main streets, with room for the police and recreation departments. The town remade it as the Century Center, with the sanctuary as a hall seating about 250.

  72. Construction or physical change · McDade House, 113 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The McDade House is taken apart brick by brick and carted away from West Franklin Street

    When it could not be moved whole before the church's deadline, the McDade House was dismantled piece by piece under a plan approved by the Historic District Commission and paid for by real estate appraiser Tom Heffner. The work finished on July 11, 1997, and the parts went into storage in Franklinton to await rebuilding on the town lot.

  73. Carrboro Diana McDuffee leads the vote for Carrboro aldermen

    Running for the first time as an incumbent after her 1995 appointment, McDuffee led seven candidates with 1,755 votes. Fellow incumbents Jacquelyn Gist and Hank Anderson were also re-elected, and Allen Spalt was the only newcomer.

  74. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Former UNC police officer C. E. Swain sues the university

    Alan McSurely filed suit for C. E. Swain, a fired UNC police officer, alleging discrimination and violation of his constitutional rights; Swain said he came under pressure after ticketing the daughter of trustee Billy Armfield. The two asked the Black Student Movement for support the next day.

  75. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Project HomeStart opens

    Project HomeStart, transitional housing for homeless families on Homestead Road, opened in 1998 as a joint project of the Inter-Faith Council and the Orange County/Durham Coalition for Battered Women. By October it housed five families; it now runs as IFC's HomeStart shelter for women and families.

  76. Founding or opening · 110 East Main Street, Carrboro Kevin Callaghan opens Acme Food and Beverage Company at 110 East Main Street in Carrboro

    Acme opened in the old Lloyd-Ray Hardware building about March 1998; that November its owner, Kevin Callaghan, joined the yearly RSVVP restaurant fundraiser for the first time. By 2005 it was known for cooking with local and organic ingredients.

  77. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Annie Dillard joins the Rubin writers panel at the North Carolina Literary Festival

    At the North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC, Dillard sat on a panel of writers who had studied under Louis Rubin, with Lee Smith, Katie Letcher Lyle, Margaret Gibson, Sylvia Wilkinson and Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, in Hamilton Hall.

  78. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Elizabeth Spencer reads in Memorial Hall at the North Carolina Literary Festival

    Spencer gave a program in Memorial Hall on the Saturday of the North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC, sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South.

  79. George Watts Hill Alumni Center, Chapel Hill State and university leaders welcome UNC President Molly Broad at a dinner in Chapel Hill

    On the eve of her inauguration as the 15th president of the UNC system, hundreds of state and university leaders, including Gov. Jim Hunt and former presidents Bill Friday and C. D. Spangler, gathered at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center to welcome Molly Corbett Broad.

  80. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Northside Gymnasium opens at Hargraves Park

    Chapel Hill's Northside Gymnasium at William H. Hargraves Park, beside the Hargraves Center on North Roberson Street, opened to the public on June 15, 1998. Construction began April 21, 1997, paid for in part with parks bonds voters approved in November 1996, and the gym was dedicated on September 16, 1998.

  81. Construction or physical change · 408 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill Mama Dip's Kitchen moves across West Rosemary Street into a new building at number 408

    Mildred "Mama Dip" Council's restaurant, serving Southern country cooking since 1976, moved from across the street into a new building at 408 West Rosemary Street in February 1999.

  82. Appointment, election or service · Carrboro Hilliard Caldwell announces he will not seek another term as a Carrboro alderman

    Caldwell said he would not run again and named controlled growth as the board's major achievement. The Daily Tar Heel counted 16 years of service under four Carrboro mayors.

  83. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill UNC President Molly Broad names William McCoy to lead Chapel Hill after Chancellor Hooker's death

    After Chancellor Michael Hooker died of cancer in June 1999, UNC system president Molly Broad appointed William O. McCoy, who had served as acting chancellor during Hooker's medical leave, to lead UNC-Chapel Hill until a permanent chancellor was chosen.

  84. Carrboro Carrboro aldermen vote 4-3 against renaming themselves the Board of Councillors

    After months of debate over gender-neutral language, the board rejected a resolution, authorized by a charter change from the General Assembly, to become the Carrboro Board of Councillors. Diana McDuffee, Joal Broun and Alex Zaffron voted for the change.

  85. 2000s
  86. Disaster or outbreak · 103-105 East Main Street, Carrboro Fire guts the Jade Palace restaurant on East Main Street in Carrboro

    A midday fire ripped through the building at 103 East Main Street that housed Jenny and Francis Chan's Jade Palace, leaving the restaurant's future in doubt. The Chans reopened, and the restaurant was still at that address in 2007.

  87. Appointment, election or service · Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill The Board of Governors elects James Moeser chancellor at the Carolina Inn

    At a Board of Governors meeting in the Carolina Inn ballroom, UNC system president Molly Broad introduced University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor James Moeser, and the board unanimously elected him the ninth chancellor at Chapel Hill, ending an eight-month search.

  88. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Chapel Hill Transit becomes fare-free

    Chapel Hill Transit stopped charging fares on January 2, 2002, and added 11 buses and new routes. Under the funding agreement, UNC paid about 40 percent of the cost and Chapel Hill and Carrboro split the rest by population.

  89. Life event · Chapel Hill Frances Hargraves dies at her Caldwell Street home

    Frances Neal Hargraves, a retired Chapel Hill-Carrboro teacher and community volunteer, died at her home on Caldwell Street. Her funeral at St. Paul AME Church, where she had taught Sunday school for 53 years, filled the church and its annex, and the church planned a memorial garden in her name.

  90. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill VilCom takes over WCHL's operations and brings the station back to Chapel Hill

    Curtis Media kept ownership, but Heavner's VilCom took charge of the station's operations, planned a move to VilCom Circle in Chapel Hill by November 1 and an all-news and talk format, and aimed to make WCHL again the reference point for news of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

  91. Carrboro Carrboro switches its town vehicles to biodiesel fuel

    Carrboro began running its diesel town vehicles on B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel, and looked to move to pure biodiesel. Alderman Diana McDuffee had first proposed the fuel after meeting delegates from towns using it at a conference in Seattle.

  92. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Elizabeth Spencer gives the Thomas Wolfe Prize lecture at UNC

    Spencer received UNC's third Thomas Wolfe Prize, given by the English department to writers with distinguished bodies of work, and gave the free public Thomas Wolfe Lecture in the Hanes Art Center auditorium.

  93. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Mel and Zora Rashkis Elementary School is dedicated

    Hundreds of students, parents and residents attended the dedication of the district's newest elementary school, which opened that August. The school board named it for Mel and Zora Rashkis for their work with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools since they moved to the area in 1962.

  94. Chapel Hill Jeffery Beam forms the Save the West House Coalition

    Beam, an assistant in the Couch Biology Library, organized faculty and town residents to keep West House, the 1935 house behind Hanes Art Center, from demolition for the planned Arts Common.

  95. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill The Sonja Haynes Stone Center celebrates its grand opening

    After more than a decade of organizing, the freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History opened in Coker Woods with a four-day celebration. A Friday candlelight procession from the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery preceded Saturday's dedication by Chancellor James Moeser before more than 500 guests.

  96. Founding or opening · Carrboro The Carrboro Cybrary opens in the Century Center

    The Cybrary, a branch of the Orange County Public Library focused on computer and Internet access, opened in Room 5 of the Carrboro Century Center with five computer stations, current books and a paperback exchange. The Town of Carrboro provided the space. It closed on January 31, 2025, when its services moved to the Southern Branch Library.

  97. Closing or ending · 301 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Vis Art Video closes its West Franklin Street store

    Owner Andrea Kubachko said in March 2004 that the Vis Art Video store at 301 West Franklin Street would close at the end of August, when its five-year lease ran out, citing high rent and slow business.

  98. Publication, speech or performance · Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill John Dee Holeman plays a free blues concert at Graham Memorial

    John Dee Holeman, accompanied by Billy Stevens, played a free noon concert at Graham Memorial on September 30, 2004, in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence's Thursdays on the Terrace series. Many of that semester's concerts tied in with William Ferris's course on Southern music.

  99. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill Allan Gurganus speaks at the Festival for a Better Future rally on McCorkle Place

    Gurganus was a featured speaker, with law dean Gene Nichol and state Senator Ellie Kinnaird, at the Festival for a Better Future, a pre-election rally sponsored by several campus organizations on McCorkle Place.

  100. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill renames Airport Road as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

    At a ceremony beginning outside Town Hall, Airport Road became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the small Martin Luther King Street became Jackie Robinson Street. Fred Battle, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, had led the push for the change after noticing that the only public facilities named for Black people were in Black neighborhoods.

  101. Protest or organizing · Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill Bill Thorpe petitions the council to name the post office plaza for local activists

    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.

  102. Naming or commemoration · Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill names the post office plaza Peace and Justice Plaza

    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.

  103. Construction or physical change · West House, near Hanes Art Center, Chapel Hill UNC tears down West House for the Arts Common

    The university demolished West House after more than two years of effort by the Save the West House Coalition to keep or move it. The trustees had voted for demolition in September 2004, and the Council of State gave final approval in July 2006.

  104. Founding or opening · 301 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Chipotle Mexican Grill opens in the old Vis Art Video building on West Franklin Street

    Chipotle opened with a ribbon-cutting at 301 West Franklin Street after more than a year of delays. Part of the wait came from cleaning solvent left in the soil from the site's years as a dry cleaner.

  105. Publication, speech or performance · Hillsborough Lee Smith, Randall Kenan and Allan Gurganus gather with other authors at Brick Alley Books

    Kenan, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus shared stories at a gathering of authors at Brick Alley Books in Hillsborough. The Daily Tar Heel used the evening to report on the town as a home for writers, quoting Smith, Gurganus, Kenan, poet laureate Mike Troy and photographer Elizabeth Matheson.

  106. Closing or ending · 157-A East Franklin Street (Amber Alley), Chapel Hill The Rathskeller on Amber Alley closes over unpaid taxes

    Owner Francis Henry shut the Rathskeller in December 2007 after it failed to pay withholding taxes, ending a restaurant Ted Danziger had opened in 1948. Its contents were sold at auction in February 2008.

  107. Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill Eve Carson, UNC’s Student Body President, is killed

    Eve Marie Carson, 22, UNC's student body president and a Morehead-Cain Scholar from Athens, Georgia, was abducted from her Chapel Hill home early on March 5, 2008, robbed and shot on Hillcrest Road near campus. Demario Atwater pleaded guilty in 2010, and a Hillsborough jury convicted Laurence Lovette on December 20, 2011.

  108. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Fred Battle steps down as president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP

    Fred Battle announced his resignation as president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP after almost fifteen years in the post, during which he helped revive the branch. First vice president Eugene Farrar was to succeed him on June 1.

  109. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Allan Gurganus speaks at Holden Thorp's installation as chancellor

    At the University Day ceremony on Polk Place installing Holden Thorp as UNC's tenth chancellor, Gurganus, who had known Thorp since childhood, spoke before Thorp's address and hailed a North Carolinian as chancellor.

  110. Construction or physical change · West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill The Greenbridge condominium towers topped out on West Rosemary Street

    The 10-story and 7-story Greenbridge towers, with 98 condominium units, rose on the former Black business block that had held the Mason Motel. Northside residents opposed the project in an open letter, and restaurant owner Mildred "Mama Dip" Council said rising property values threatened her business.

  111. 2010s
  112. Founding or opening · Carrboro Plaza, Carrboro El Centro Hispano opens a Carrboro office

    El Centro Hispano, founded in Durham in 1992, added a Carrboro office in 2010 after El Centro Latino closed. It planned a resources office, legal and tax clinic, tutoring, ESL classes and an HIV prevention program at Carrboro Plaza on N.C. 54, beside a new Latino Community Credit Union branch.

  113. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County commissioners raised the landfill tipping fee to pay for Rogers Road remediation

    Commissioners raised the tipping fee from $52 to $57 a ton to create a remediation fund of about $50,000 to $60,000 a year for water and sewer connections, cleanup of illegal dumping and a community center in Rogers Road. The county also moved $750,000 out of its solid waste reserve for the same purpose. Chapel Hill and Carrboro objected to the timing of the fee.

  114. Law, policy or court · Northside and Pine Knolls, Chapel Hill Council adopts the Northside and Pine Knolls community plan

    The council approved three resolutions under the plan, amending both conservation districts with building rules effective February 1, 2012 and a four-vehicle-per-lot parking limit effective September 1, 2012.

  115. Closing or ending · Chapel Hill Rogers Road landfill closes

    The landfill closed at noon on Saturday, June 29, 2013 after 41 years, with a ceremony at which Rogers Road residents symbolically locked the service entrance. The closure plan called for a synthetic cap covered with soil and vegetation, vented so that the county's methane recovery system, which feeds power to UNC buildings, could keep running.

  116. Law, policy or court · Rogers Road Chapel Hill extended its extraterritorial jurisdiction over the Historic Rogers Road area

    Because none of the neighborhood lay inside Chapel Hill's limits, the town could not legally spend money on its sewer, so the council held a public hearing set for October 15, 2014 on bringing its part of the area under the town's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Afterward the neighborhood was split between Carrboro and Chapel Hill's ETJ.

  117. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County voters approve a $5 million affordable housing bond

    More than 65 percent of voters approved $5 million in bonds for affordable housing, alongside a $120 million school bond that passed with 75.5 percent.

  118. Chapel Hill UNC leaders warn Governor Cooper that Silent Sam may be pulled down

    UNC System President Margaret Spellings, Chancellor Carol Folt and the chairs of the Board of Governors and the campus trustees wrote to Governor Roy Cooper that police believed an attempt to pull down Silent Sam could come at any time. Cooper answered that state law let the university remove the monument if its leaders saw a real risk to public safety.

  119. Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough A mural for Billy Strayhorn is painted on South Churton Street

    Max Dowdle painted an eleven by thirty five foot mural called Take the A Train on the side of 226 South Churton Street, the building that houses the record store and bar Volume. Volume's owner Tony Lopez proposed it, the Tourism Development Authority paid for it, and the Arts Council and the Historic District Commission approved it.

  120. 2020s
  121. Health or relief action · Chapel Hill Public Library Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 households

    PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.

  122. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill James Cates Remembrance Coalition proposes naming Student Stores for Cates

    A coalition of Cates's family, historian Danita Mason-Hogans and community members proposed renaming UNC's Student Stores building in his honor. The building had not been renamed as of 2024.

  123. Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough and Mebane The News of Orange merges with the Mebane Enterprise

    Womack Publishing announced on January 3, 2024, that its weeklies The News of Orange County and the Mebane Enterprise would merge at the end of January. The combined paper, with a section for Mebane, covers Mebane, Hillsborough and Efland from the News of Orange office in Hillsborough, and the Mebane office closed.

  124. Construction or physical change · Trinity Court, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill breaks ground on the Trinity Court redevelopment

    Trinity Court, 40 public housing units built in 1975 and vacated in 2018 for structural problems, is being rebuilt with Community Housing Partners as 54 affordable apartments after an April 2022 rezoning and an October 2022 tax credit award. Leasing began in winter 2026.

  125. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Anson Dorrance announces his retirement as UNC women's soccer coach

    Dorrance told his team he was retiring after 45 seasons with the women's program, days before the season opener; associate head coach Damon Nahas became interim head coach. His women's teams went 934-88-53 and won 21 NCAA titles.

  126. Naming or commemoration · The Pit, UNC-Chapel Hill Student groups hold a memorial for James Cates in the Pit

    The Southern Student Action Coalition, the Black Student Movement, the Community Justice, Abolition and Anti-Racism Collective and the UNC NAACP held a memorial at the Pit, where speakers criticized the wording and placement of the 2022 plaque.

  127. Life event · Carrboro Hilliard Caldwell dies at 88

    Caldwell, who advised the Lincoln High School students who held Chapel Hill's first sit-in in 1960 and later served on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, died on September 6, 2025. The town issued a statement remembering his service and courage.

  128. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill State law removes Chapel Hill's zoning control over UNC projects

    The Regulatory Reform Act of 2025 became law without the governor's signature, making UNC System projects in Orange County subject only to state rules and leaving the town a consultation role on utilities, stormwater, traffic and similar matters.

  129. Naming or commemoration · UNC-Chapel Hill Students and residents mark 55 years since the killing of James Cates

    The Carolina NAACP chapter and the Black Student Movement held a remembrance for Cates on campus, and student leaders again called the 2022 plaque's passive wording inadequate.

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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 4, 2026.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026