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Orange County Indexed

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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5 dated events match your filters.

UNC Computer Science.Open the sourceAll sources

Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1962Civil rights era
  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  2. Frederick Brooks gives a guest lecture at UNC

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    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. Sitterson Hall, the new computer science building, is dedicated on University Day

    Naming or commemoration · Sitterson Hall, Chapel Hill

    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. Hurricane Fran fells old trees on UNC's north campus

    Disaster or outbreak · UNC campus, Chapel Hill

    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.

    Subject: McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

  6. UNC opens a second computer science building named for Brooks

    Founding or opening · Brooks Computer Science Building, Chapel Hill

    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. Frederick Brooks retires after 51 years at UNC

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill

    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.

Suggest a correction to an entry →

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.

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