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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1820s
3. 1826 to 1831
   Life event · Chapel Hill Caroline Lee Hentz befriends and tutors the poet George Moses Horton in Chapel Hill

   While her husband Nicholas Hentz taught languages at the university, Caroline Lee Hentz befriended the enslaved poet George Moses Horton, tutored him in grammar and helped edit his work. She sent some of his poems to the Lancaster Gazette in her Massachusetts hometown, which printed them in 1829.

4. 1840s
5. 1845
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Trustees bar students from bringing their own enslaved servants to the university

   After 1845 the trustees prohibited students from bringing enslaved people of their own to Chapel Hill. The university went on hiring enslaved college servants by the year from local slaveholders.

6. 1860s
7. 1865
   Violence or armed conflict · Chapel Hill Wilson Caldwell walks out with President Swain under a white flag to meet approaching Union troops

   When Union troops approached Chapel Hill in 1865, Wilson Caldwell walked out under a white flag with President David L. Swain, Judge W. H. Battle and others to meet the incoming cavalry and seek protection for the town and the university.

8. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

9. 1870s
10. 1875
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill George Tayloe Winston joins the faculty of the reopened university

    Winston, a Cornell graduate who had also studied at UNC, came to Chapel Hill in 1875 as professor of Latin and German when the university reopened.

11. 1890s
12. 1897
    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill The Old Well rotunda is built

    University president Edwin Alderman had the well's wooden cover replaced in 1897 with a rotunda of eight fluted Doric columns under a dome, modeled on the Temple of Love at Versailles and designed by registrar Eugene Lewis Harris.

13. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

14. 1900s
15. 1900-1909
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Eben Alexander becomes the university's first dean of the faculty

    Back from diplomatic service in Greece, Eben Alexander was named the first dean of the faculty under President Francis P. Venable in 1900, heading the College of Liberal Arts and graduate studies and supervising the library until poor health forced a leave in 1909.

16. 1903–1919
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Charles T. Woollen becomes the first director of the university band

    Charles T. Woollen, a university administrator, became the first director of the university band in 1903 and led it until 1919. The band first performed at a university baseball game in 1904 and was giving concerts on the Alumni Building steps by 1906.

17. 1910s
18. 1910
    Chapel Hill Marvin H. Stacy becomes professor of civil engineering

    Stacy, a 1902 graduate who had stayed on to teach mathematics and taken a master's degree in 1904, went to Cornell for graduate study, then returned to teach civil engineering and was made professor in 1910.

19. 1912
    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill The university names a new McCorkle Place residence hall for Kemp Plummer Battle

    In 1912 the university named a new residence hall on McCorkle Place for Battle, its president from 1876 to 1891. It was one section of a three-part dormitory whose other sections honored J. Johnston Pettigrew and Zebulon B. Vance.

20. 1913
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Barbara Bynum Henderson of Chapel Hill becomes president of the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina

    Barbara Bynum Henderson, wife of UNC professor Archibald Henderson, organized the Equal Suffrage League of North Carolina and was elected its president, bringing the woman suffrage campaign to Chapel Hill. She was reelected unanimously in 1915.

21. 1914
    Chapel Hill The 1914 Yackety Yack is dedicated to chemistry professor Charles H. Herty

    The editors of the university yearbook dedicated the 1914 Yackety Yack to Herty because he stood for service to his region. Colleagues recalled that he urged students to use chemistry to do something for the state or the country.

22. 1919
    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill, Phillips Hall Phillips Hall opens, named for three Phillips family teachers

    Phillips Hall opened on the Chapel Hill campus in 1919, honoring three members of the Phillips family who taught at the university in the nineteenth century: James Phillips, his son Charles Phillips and his grandson William Battle Phillips.

23. 1920s
24. 1922
    Chapel Hill Mangum Dormitory opens, named for three members of the Mangum family

    The university opened Mangum Dormitory in 1922, naming it for Senator Willie Person Mangum, his nephew Willie Person Mangum Jr., and Professor Adolphus Williamson Mangum.

25. 1922
    Chapel Hill Manly Residence Hall is completed and named for Charles and Matthias Manly

    Manly Residence Hall, finished in 1922, carries the names of Charles Manly, a trustee from 1821 to 1868 and governor from 1849 to 1851, and his brother Matthias Manly, a judge and trustee from 1874 to 1881.

26. 1923
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Albert Coates joins the law faculty at Chapel Hill

    Coates, a university graduate with a Harvard law degree, joined the law faculty in 1923. The schools he ran for police officers and sheriffs grew into the Institute of Government.

27. 1924–1926
    Chapel Hill Gerald W. Johnson heads the university's newly independent journalism department

    After Louis Graves left in 1924, the university expanded journalism into an independent department with Johnson, an editorial writer, at its head. He left for the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1926.

28. 1930s
29. 1933
    Chapel Hill Dean Isaac Hall Manning resigns after President Graham overrules his Jewish quota

    Manning limited the admission of Jewish medical students. When Morris Krasny, a rejected Jewish applicant, appealed, President Frank Porter Graham ordered him admitted, and Manning resigned rather than change his decision.

30. 1935
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Walter Spearman joins the UNC journalism faculty

    Spearman, a 1929 UNC graduate and former Daily Tar Heel editor, returned to Chapel Hill after five years at the Charlotte News to teach journalism at the university.

31. 1936
    Life event · Chapel Hill Betty Smith comes to Chapel Hill with the Federal Theatre Project

    The Federal Theater sent Smith to Chapel Hill in 1936 to work with Frederick H. Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. She stayed when the federal project expired, helped Koch compile American Folk Plays and took his classes for him in his absence.

32. 1937
    Naming or commemoration · Woollen Gymnasium, UNC, Chapel Hill The university names its new gymnasium for Charles T. Woollen

    The university named its new gymnasium for Charles T. Woollen, its longtime registrar, business manager and comptroller, who had advocated for the building and helped oversee its construction. He died the following year.

33. 1938
    Chapel Hill Stacy Residence Hall is completed and named for Marvin H. Stacy

    Stacy Residence Hall was finished in 1938 and named for Marvin Hendrix Stacy, the dean and acting president who died of influenza in 1919.

34. 1939
    Naming or commemoration · Alexander Residence Hall, Chapel Hill Alexander Residence Hall is built and named for Eben Alexander

    A men's dormitory built at the university in 1939 with funds from the New Deal's Public Works Administration was named for Eben Alexander, the former professor of Greek and first dean of the faculty.

35. 1939
    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill MacNider Hall is completed as the first building of the medical school complex

    The first building constructed in UNC's medical school complex was completed in 1939 and named for MacNider, then dean.

36. 1940s
37. 1940
    Chapel Hill Henry P. Brandis Jr. joins the UNC law faculty

    After two state tax posts, Brandis, the Institute of Government's first full-time staff member, joined the university's law school faculty in 1940. He became its dean in 1949 and a Graham Kenan Professor of Law in 1965, and retired in 1972.

38. 1943
    Life event · Chapel Hill Daphne Athas graduates from UNC

    Athas graduated from the university in 1943 after studying writing with Betty Smith and Phillips Russell.

39. 1943
    Kessing Pool, Chapel Hill Kessing Pool opens behind Woollen Gymnasium for Pre-Flight swimming training

    An outdoor pool behind Woollen Gymnasium opened in 1943 for the Navy Pre-Flight School's aquatic training and was named for Oliver Owen Kessing, the school's first commanding officer. Thousands of servicemen trained in it, among them Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.

40. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

41. 1946
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Katherine Kennedy Carmichael succeeds Inez Koonce Stacy as dean of women

    Carmichael, who held a Vanderbilt doctorate in British literature, became dean of women at Chapel Hill in 1946, succeeding Inez Koonce Stacy, adviser to women from 1919 and dean of women from 1942. She also taught an introductory literature course for the English department.

42. 1946
    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Morehead gives the university a million dollars for a planetarium

    In 1946 Morehead presented the university with one million dollars to build a planetarium and put the proposal to the Board of Trustees. The building opened in 1949.

43. 1947-1962
    Chapel Hill J. Spencer Love serves as a university trustee

    The founder of Burlington Mills sat on the University of North Carolina's board of trustees from 1947 until his death in 1962.

44. 1950s
45. 1951–1955
    Storyline · 18 events · Chapel Hill Desegregating the University of North Carolina

    After a 1951 federal court decision in McKissick v. Carmichael, five Black students began law school classes at UNC on June 22, 1951. In September 1955, again under court order, LeRoy and Ralph Frasier and John Lewis Brandon of Durham registered as the university's first Black undergraduates.

46. 1953
    Chapel Hill Carroll Hall is built and named for Dudley D. Carroll

    The university completed the main building of its business school in 1953 and named it Carroll Hall for the School of Commerce's first dean. It became home to the journalism school in 1999.

47. 1953
    Naming or commemoration · Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill UNC dedicates the Forest Theatre to Frederick Koch

    In 1953 the university dedicated the stone amphitheatre in Battle Park to Koch, who had developed the site of the 1916 Shakespeare tercentenary dramas into a permanent theatre after he joined the faculty. The stone stage and seating had been rebuilt with Works Progress Administration funds in 1940.

48. 1954
    Chapel Hill First four-year class graduates from the UNC School of Medicine

    In 1954 the UNC School of Medicine graduated its first class of students to complete all four years of medical training. The university's new dental and nursing schools graduated their first classes the same year.

49. 1955
    Life event · UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill Edward O. Diggs becomes UNC's first Black medical graduate

    Edward O. Diggs graduated from the UNC School of Medicine in 1955, the first African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from the university. James Slade, the school's second Black student, had enrolled in 1953.

50. 1956
    Construction or physical change · Coker Arboretum, near Morehead Planetarium, UNC, Chapel Hill The Susan Graham memorial fountain is moved from Franklin Street to the edge of Coker Arboretum

    The 1922 memorial fountain was taken from the Franklin Street curb near the Methodist church and set up at the edge of Coker Arboretum near Morehead Planetarium.

51. 1960s
52. 1961
    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill UNC considers the Jordan Reservoir for its water and Okun argues for Cane Creek

    While Okun was on sabbatical in 1961 the university began considering the Jordan Reservoir as a water source; on his return he persuaded the board that Cane Creek, which his students had studied in the 1950s, was the better site.

53. 1963
    Construction or physical change · Coker Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill UNC completes Coker Hall and names it for William C. Coker

    The university completed a new building in 1963 and named it Coker Hall for William Chambers Coker, Kenan professor of botany and long-time head of the buildings and grounds committee.

54. 1964–1971
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Isaac M. Taylor serves as dean of the UNC School of Medicine

    Taylor succeeded W. Reece Berryhill as dean in 1964. Student enrollment, faculty and research funding grew during his deanship, and a ten-year capital building program began that produced Berryhill Hall, the first phase of the Health Sciences Library, and the Brinkhous-Bullitt and Burnett-Womack Buildings.

55. 1965
    Morrison Residence Hall, Chapel Hill Morrison Residence Hall opens, named for Cameron Morrison

    The university completed Morrison Residence Hall, a men's dormitory, in 1965 and named it for former governor Cameron Morrison, an influential trustee who had backed the university's expansion program in the 1920s.

56. 1965
    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC names its Chapel Hill gymnasium for William D. Carmichael Jr.

    Four years after his death the university named the gymnasium at Chapel Hill for Carmichael. NCpedia lists buildings named for him on three campuses, the television building at Greensboro, the gymnasium at Raleigh and the auditorium at Chapel Hill.

57. March 31, 1966
    Law, policy or court · U.S. District Court, Greensboro Students and the two speakers file Dickson v. Sitterson against the Speaker Ban

    Minutes after Sitterson refused the students' request, Paul Dickson and eleven other student leaders, joined by Wilkinson and Aptheker as plaintiffs, sued Sitterson, President William C. Friday and the trustees in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Attorney McNeill Smith took the case without fee.

58. 1968
    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC names its new bookstore building for Josephus Daniels

    In 1968 the university named its newly completed bookstore, which housed the Book Exchange and other student services, for Josephus Daniels, class of 1885 and a long-time trustee.

59. August 1968
    Disaster or outbreak · Chapel Hill Drought drops University Lake to a sixth of its normal level and forces water rationing

    With the lake nearly empty, the university spent about $100,000 on a pipe connecting Chapel Hill to Durham's water system and bought Durham water. Lawn watering and car washing were banned under penalty of fine, and there was concern that classes would be suspended before levels recovered by the end of 1969.

60. 1969
    Appointment, election or service · UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Blyden Jackson joins UNC's English department and becomes its first tenured Black professor

    Blyden Jackson joined the UNC-Chapel Hill English department in 1969 and became the university's first tenured Black faculty member. He established the study of African American literature at Carolina and later served as assistant dean of the Graduate School, working to recruit Black faculty and students.

61. 1969
    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill Taylor Hall is completed and named for Dean Isaac M. Taylor

    The University completed a medical school building in Chapel Hill in 1969 that honors Isaac Taylor, then dean of the School of Medicine.

62. 1970s
63. 1970
    Naming or commemoration · UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill Berryhill Hall is completed and named for W. Reece Berryhill

    The University completed a medical school building in Chapel Hill in 1970 and named it for W. Reece Berryhill, who had been dean of the School of Medicine since 1941.

64. 1970–1973
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Daniel Okun serves as chair of the UNC faculty

    Okun was chair of the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1970 to 1973, while still heading his department.

65. 1972–1980
    Chapel Hill Walter Royal Davis serves as a UNC trustee

    Davis sat on the university's board of trustees and in the 1970s argued that proceeds from the state's sale of the university's utilities should go to the university.

66. Recent decades · 1976–2026

67. 1978
    Award or honor · Chapel Hill Walter Spearman receives the Thomas Jefferson Award

    Spearman received the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1978, near the end of a teaching career in which students admired his defense of freedom of speech and of the press.

68. 1980s
69. 1980
    Chapel Hill William F. Little receives the Thomas Jefferson Award

    Little received the university's Thomas Jefferson Award in 1980.

70. 1981
    Fetzer Gymnasium, Chapel Hill Fetzer Gymnasium is completed on the campus

    The University completed a gymnasium named for Robert A. Fetzer, its director of athletics from 1923 to 1952.

71. 1983
    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill The Brinkhous-Bullitt Building is named for two pathology chairs

    The University named its 1973 pathology building for Kenneth M. Brinkhous and his predecessor James B. Bullitt, who between them chaired the Department of Pathology from 1913 to 1973.

72. 1984
    Davis Library, Chapel Hill Davis Library opens

    The university's new library building, named the Walter Royal Davis Library for the trustee and benefactor, opened in Chapel Hill.

73. 1990s
74. 1992
    Naming or commemoration · UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill UNC renames its admissions building Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson

    The university renamed the former Navy Hall and Monogram Club building on Country Club Road, home of the admissions office since 1972, as Blyden and Roberta Jackson Hall. The Jacksons had retired from teaching in 1981.

75. 1993
    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill The George Watts Hill Alumni Center opens on Stadium Drive

    The General Alumni Association dedicated its new Alumni Center on Stadium Drive in 1993, and the university named it for George Watts Hill, who had pledged a $3.5 million challenge grant when the building campaign began.

76. 2000s
77. 2004
    Award or honor · UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Charles E. Daye receives the Thomas Jefferson Award

    Law professor Charles E. Daye won the Thomas Jefferson Award in 2004, the year after he co-authored a brief that helped persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve affirmative action in college and university admissions.

78. 2010s
79. October 12, 2011
    Naming or commemoration · McCorkle Place wall at Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Speaker Ban marker dedicated at the McCorkle Place wall

    On University Day a bronze marker naming the twelve student plaintiffs was dedicated at the wall where Wilkinson and Aptheker spoke, a gift of Anne Dickson Fogleman and Robert Dickson.

80. 2014
    Chapel Hill Students call for William L. Saunders's name to come off Saunders Hall

    The Real Silent Sam Coalition, a student group, began a campaign to remove Saunders's name from the building because of his leadership in the Ku Klux Klan. The trustees renamed it Carolina Hall in May 2015.

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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.