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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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11 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–11.Back to highlights

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11 dated events
1926Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. William R. Kenan Jr. gives $275,000 for a football stadium

    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill

    Kenan announced a gift of 275,000 dollars to build Kenan Memorial Stadium in honor of his parents, William Rand and Mary Hargrave Kenan. Construction began in November 1926.

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  3. Kenan Memorial Stadium opens

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Kenan Memorial Stadium, the gift of William Rand Kenan Jr., hosted its first event on November 12, 1927, when Carolina beat Davidson 27 to 0. It was formally dedicated before the Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia on November 24, when Governor Angus McLean accepted it for the state and the University.

    People: William Rand Kenan · William Rand Kenan Jr. · John Sprunt Hill

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  4. Frank Porter Graham is inaugurated as president in Kenan Stadium

    Appointment, election or service · Kenan Memorial Stadium, UNC, Chapel Hill

    On Armistice Day, delegates from campuses across the country attended a full-dress ceremony in the stadium. In an address of more than an hour and a quarter, Graham restated the university's freedom to teach and to report findings whatever powerful lobbies thought, and praised Chase. It was the last such inauguration for the Chapel Hill campus alone.

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  5. Governor Broughton speaks at a Pre-Flight School graduation in Kenan Stadium

    Publication, speech or performance · Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill

    Broughton and UNC president Frank Porter Graham both spoke at Navy Pre-Flight School graduation exercises in Kenan Stadium on June 2, 1943.

    Part of The Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, 1942–1945 · 10 events

    People: Frank Porter Graham

    Subject: Kenan Stadium · Navy Pre-Flight School

  6. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  7. President John F. Kennedy speaks at UNC

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    President John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree at UNC's University Day ceremony, held on the University's 168th birthday, and spoke to an estimated 32,000 people in Kenan Stadium. He pledged that Americans would be neither Red nor dead, and announced a $1 million federal materials research contract for UNC.

    People: William C. Friday · John F. Kennedy

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  8. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  9. UNC and Chapel Hill celebrate their bicentennial

    Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill

    UNC marked 200 years since the laying of Old East's cornerstone with a Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, where President Bill Clinton spoke to about 45,000 people. The town dedicated Michael Brown's mural of the October 12, 1793, lot auction at the Franklin Street post office.

    Part of The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795 · 37 events

    Subject: Old East · Kenan Stadium

  10. Bunting's Tar Heels beat sixth-ranked Florida State 41-9 at home

    Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill

    In Carolina's 2001 home opener, moved after the September 11 attacks postponed the SMU game, Bunting's team beat Bobby Bowden's Florida State 41-9 for his first win as head coach.

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  11. UNC dedicates the William E. Scroggs locker room at Kenan Stadium

    Naming or commemoration · Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill

    Lacrosse alumni and the Educational Foundation paid to refurbish the men's lacrosse locker room at the old Kenan Field House, and it was dedicated in Scroggs's name before lacrosse alumni and fans.

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  12. UNC's Noteworthy Firsts program honors Karen Parker

    Award or honor · Chapel Hill

    At a reception in Kenan Stadium, UNC honored Parker among 21 people whose names were given to need-based undergraduate awards and graduate fellowships in its Noteworthy Firsts initiative, begun by Chancellor Carol Folt in 2016.

    People: Carol L. Folt

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  13. UNC moves Kenan Stadium's honor from William R. Kenan Sr. to his son

    Naming or commemoration · Kenan Memorial Stadium, Chapel Hill

    Chancellor Carol Folt announced that, after talking with the family, the university would change the stadium plaques to remove the honor to William R. Kenan Sr., who led a white supremacist unit in the 1898 Wilmington massacre, and focus instead on the donor, William R. Kenan Jr.

    People: Carol L. Folt

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

  14. Mia Hamm gives UNC's spring Commencement address in Kenan Stadium

    Publication, speech or performance · Kenan Stadium, UNC-Chapel Hill

    Former Tar Heel soccer player Mia Hamm, class of 1994, delivered the 2025 Commencement address to 6,829 graduates in Kenan Stadium.

    Subject: Kenan Stadium

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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 1, 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