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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. 1940s
3. May 1940
   Appointment, election or service · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC offers its faculty and laboratories to the national defense

   Twenty months before Pearl Harbor, the university president telegraphed Washington putting UNC faculty, laboratories and equipment at the government's service; the trustees confirmed the step at their August meeting.

4. September 1940
   Law, policy or court · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC makes physical training compulsory for every student

   As part of its defense program the university began requiring physical training of students in all classes from September 1940.

5. December 1941
   Founding or opening · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC forms the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps and opens a War Information Center

   In the month of Pearl Harbor the university organized a volunteer military training corps for students and set up a War Information Center.

6. winter of 1942
   Founding or opening · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC starts a pre-induction curriculum for students bound for the service

   The university set up a course of study for all students entering military service; it later grew into the College for War Training.

7. June 1942
   Construction or physical change · Swain Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill The Naval ROTC moves out of Woollen Gym and Lenoir Hall into Swain Hall

   By university decision the Naval ROTC left its quarters in Woollen Gymnasium and the basement of Lenoir Hall during June 1 to 9, 1942, and moved into Swain Hall, which its commander thought below the Navy's minimum standard.

8. September 1942
   Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Archie Royal Davis's plans for the Naval Armory are settled and building begins

   After weeks of argument with consulting architect Arthur C. Nash, Durham architect Archie Royal Davis had his design for a Georgian Revival armory approved in mid-September 1942; R. K. Stewart and Son began building it late that year for about $41,000, meant as a temporary building to be replaced after the war.

9. October 1942
   Construction or physical change · Navy Pre-Flight Armory, near the tennis courts, UNC campus, Chapel Hill The Navy Pre-Flight School's armory is completed near the campus tennis courts

   A semi-prefabricated armory and rifle range designed by Archie Royal Davis for the Pre-Flight School was finished near the tennis courts, a short walk from Navy Hall. It was a separate building from the NROTC Armory.

10. winter and spring 1943
    Founding or opening · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Pre-meteorology and aviation training units arrive at UNC

    In the first half of 1943 the university took in pre-meteorology and aviation training units, adding to the Navy programs already on campus.

11. January 1943
    Founding or opening · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill The Naval ROTC moves into its new armory on South Columbia Street

    The NROTC took over its new armory in January 1943, with classrooms in use by January 7 and a drill hall whose mezzanine served as a ship's bridge for drills. It is the first NROTC unit's building in North Carolina and has housed ROTC training ever since.

12. February 19, 1943
    Naming or commemoration · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill The NROTC holds its annual dance to open the new armory

    The Naval ROTC dedicated its armory with its annual Navy dance on the drill deck, with the Navy B-1 Band, the Black enlisted musicians stationed with the Pre-Flight School, named as the band. The drill deck stayed a favorite dance floor through the war.

13. March 1943
    Founding or opening · Navy Hall (later Jackson Hall), UNC campus, Chapel Hill Navy Hall opens as the Pre-Flight School's visitors' entrance and cadet lounge

    Designed by Archie Royal Davis and first drawn as a temporary office and hostess building, Navy Hall opened in March 1943 with offices for the Pre-Flight School and recreation rooms for cadets; the public was invited in on March 21.

14. July 1, 1943
    Founding or opening · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The Navy V-12 program opens at UNC with about 1,300 men

    The Navy's V-12 college program, which paid for future officers to finish degrees, began at UNC with an entering class of about 1,300, straining dormitory and dining space already taken up by the Pre-Flight School. It absorbed the Naval ROTC until 1945.

15. February 1944
    Closing or ending · Chapel Hill The Navy B-1 Band leaves Chapel Hill for service in Hawaii

    The B-1 Band, the first Black Navy unit whose members held a rating above messman, cook or steward, was sent from Chapel Hill to Hawaii after nearly two years of playing across the campus and town.

16. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

17. September 27, 1945
    Closing or ending · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC holds a farewell assembly for the Navy Pre-Flight School

    As the war ended the university held a formal assembly to say goodbye to the Pre-Flight School; Chancellor R. B. House had told the Navy that any peacetime Navy program should fold into the NROTC and the regular degree.

18. November 1945
    Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Navy officers move into the NROTC Armory as the V-12 program ends

    With the Pre-Flight and V-12 programs closed and remaining V-12 men absorbed into an enlarged NROTC, the Navy officers who had worked in Navy Hall moved their offices to the NROTC Armory.

19. May 1946
    Construction or physical change · Navy Pre-Flight Armory, near the tennis courts, UNC campus, Chapel Hill The old Pre-Flight Armory reopens as a Scuttlebutt snack bar and bookstore

    Instead of razing it for a dormitory, the university turned the Pre-Flight School's armory into a second Scuttlebutt, a soda fountain, bookstore and student hangout in the lower quadrangle.

20. June 1947
    Naming or commemoration · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill A bronze plaque honoring Lt. George Howard Jr. is placed at the Naval Armory

    A plaque to naval officer Lt. George Howard Jr. was put up under the armory's portico, where it still hangs.

21. September 18, 1948
    Founding or opening · Navy Hall (later Jackson Hall), UNC campus, Chapel Hill The Monogram Club opens the former Navy Hall to all students

    After the war Navy Hall went to the Monogram Club of letter athletes; when it sat underused the university paid to renovate it, and on September 18, 1948 it reopened to every student with a basement dining room and the Circus Room lounge.

22. October 6, 1948
    Closing or ending · Navy Pre-Flight Armory, near the tennis courts, UNC campus, Chapel Hill The university tears down the old Pre-Flight Armory on the day it was to meet student defenders

    University officials bulldozed the former Pre-Flight Armory, then the Emerson Scuttlebutt, on the same day they were due to meet students petitioning to keep it, and did not come to the meeting. The administration said refreshments would move to the Monogram Club.

23. 1950s
24. early 1950s
    Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill The Navy installs an "Attack Teacher" submarine-hunting trainer in the armory basement

    A mock warship interior with sonar room, bridge and plotting room was built into the armory basement to train midshipmen in antisubmarine work; it was still in use around 1970.

25. 1960s
26. 1961
    Construction or physical change · Navy Hall (later Jackson Hall), UNC campus, Chapel Hill The former Navy Hall becomes the Faculty Club

    Because the Monogram Club building was again underused, the university turned it over to a Faculty Club in 1961.

27. November 1961
    Protest or organizing · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Student Peace Union symbols are painted on UNC's military buildings and the armory gun

    In one of the first antiwar acts on campus, someone painted the Student Peace Union insignia on several military buildings and on the antiaircraft gun in front of the Naval Armory.

28. 1962-1963
    Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Failing roof trusses at the Naval Armory are replaced with steel

    In 1962 three of the armory's wooden roof trusses failed from a design flaw and poor 1942 lumber, and scaffolding held up the drill hall roof; Clancy and Theys Construction swapped in steel trusses one at a time, finishing in 1963 at a cost of about $25,500.

29. April 22, 1965
    Protest or organizing · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill "Get out of Vietnam" is painted on the gun outside the Naval Armory

    Overnight, someone lettered an antiwar slogan on the antiaircraft gun on the armory lawn; NROTC officers called it a childish prank.

30. February 5, 1969
    Law, policy or court · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC faculty publicly debate dropping ROTC, and a Faculty Council committee is named

    An open faculty discussion of removing ROTC led to a Faculty Council committee under historian George V. Taylor, which proposed a Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense to take in naval and aerospace science while keeping ROTC as an option.

31. 1970s
32. May 5, 1970
    Protest or organizing · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Antiwar marchers lower the Naval Armory flag for the Kent State dead

    During a 2,000-student march against the Cambodia invasion, protesters took down the flag at the armory to half staff for the students killed at Kent State; NROTC students pushed back and raised it again before the march moved on to South Building.

33. December 3, 1970
    Protest or organizing · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Students march on the Naval Armory and serve an eviction notice on the NROTC

    Led by two 1969 West Point graduates, student protesters marched to the armory and served a mock eviction notice, arguing the revised ROTC curriculum only made military training easier to accept.

34. 1971
    Construction or physical change · Navy Hall (later Jackson Hall), UNC campus, Chapel Hill The former Navy Hall becomes UNC's admissions office

    The university moved its admissions office into the old Navy Hall, then the Faculty Club, in 1971; it was renamed Jackson Hall in 1992.

35. Recent decades · 1976–2026

36. 1979
    Founding or opening · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill N.C. State students join UNC's Naval ROTC in a joint program

    NC State University joined UNC's NROTC unit in a shared program in 1979, before starting its own unit in 1988.

37. 1990s
38. 1994-1995
    Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill UNC renovates the Naval Armory to house all three ROTC branches

    After a 1993 push from the Army and Air Force units, the university chose to keep the aging armory and spent more than $400,000 refitting it for Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC, closing the rifle range, cleaning up lead found there, and enclosing much of the drill deck for offices.

39. October 1996
    Closing or ending · Scuttlebutt, Cameron Avenue and South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill UNC tears down the Scuttlebutt, the wartime Navy canteen

    The Scuttlebutt snack bar at Cameron Avenue and South Columbia Street, built as a Pre-Flight School canteen, was razed after more than fifty years of feeding students.

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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.