Chronology

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1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

2. 1880
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Francis P. Venable is offered the chair of chemistry at the university

   Venable, a University of Virginia chemistry graduate then studying in Germany, was offered the university's chair of chemistry in 1880. He taught at Chapel Hill until he retired in 1930.

3. 1883
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Venable co-founds the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society

   Venable was a co-founder and the first president of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, a society of university scientists named for the geologist Elisha Mitchell.

4. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

5. 1900–1914
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Francis P. Venable serves as president of the university

   Elected president in 1900, Venable enlarged the student body, faculty and campus and built an administration for a growing institution. He asked for leave in 1913 and resigned in 1914, returning to teaching and research.

6. 1925
   Naming or commemoration · UNC campus, Chapel Hill The new chemistry building, Venable Hall, is dedicated

   The university dedicated its new chemistry building in 1925 and named it Venable Hall while Venable was still teaching there.

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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 4, 2026.