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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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3 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–3.Back to highlights

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3 dated events
1919Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. The Forest Theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre, is built at the edge of Battle Park

    Founding or opening · Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel Hill

    The university's open-air theatre on the western edge of Battle Park dates from 1919. It now carries the name of drama professor Frederick Koch.

    Subject: Forest Theatre · Battle Park

  3. The WPA rebuilds the Forest Theatre in stone

    Construction or physical change · Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel Hill

    Works Progress Administration crews remade the amphitheatre in local stone: a screen wall along Country Club Road, curved seating following the hillside, towers for lights and sound, and a rough stone stage. The present structure dates from this rebuilding.

    Subject: Forest Theatre · Battle Park

  4. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  5. UNC dedicates the Forest Theatre to Frederick Koch

    Naming or commemoration · Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill

    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.

    Subject: Forest Theatre

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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 2, 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