Chronology

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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. 1962
   Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Frederick Brooks gives a guest lecture at UNC

   While working on IBM's System/360, Brooks visited UNC for an interview and a guest lecture, Ten Research Problems in Computer Science, which impressed the administration and led to the new department.

3. Recent decades · 1976–2026

4. October 12, 1987
   Naming or commemoration · Sitterson Hall, Chapel Hill Sitterson Hall, the new computer science building, is dedicated on University Day

   The Department of Computer Science moved into its new building over the summer of 1987, and the formal dedication of Sitterson Hall, named for former chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, was held on University Day with Sitterson present and former governor Hunt giving the main address.

5. September 6, 1996
   Disaster or outbreak · UNC campus, Chapel Hill Hurricane Fran fells old trees on UNC's north campus

   Fran brought down several roughly 200-year-old trees around New West Hall and left North Campus and Cameron Avenue covered in fallen trees, while the Davie Poplar survived. University power came back within hours, and Sitterson Hall opened as a place for people to recharge batteries, get ice and water and shower.

6. 2008
   Founding or opening · Brooks Computer Science Building, Chapel Hill UNC opens a second computer science building named for Brooks

   UNC built a second computer science building beside Sitterson Hall and named it for Brooks, who was still working in the department; he kept his office in Sitterson Hall.

7. 2015
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Frederick Brooks retires after 51 years at UNC

   Brooks, who had supervised more than 40 doctoral students and taught into his 80s, retired from the computer science department after 51 years at the university.

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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.