On February 7, 1978, the Graham-based fast food chain Biscuitville filed to register a trademark for the first time.
Now based in Greensboro, the chain got its start as Pizzaville in 1966 when former flour salesman Maurice Jennings began selling take-out pizzas from two bread and milk stores that he owned in Burlington. The chain expanded to six stores across the Triad region and southern Virginia.
On February 7, 1862, Federal ships bombarded Fort Bartow, part of the Confederate defenses on Roanoke Island. One of three Confederate earthen forts on the west side of the island, Fort Bartow mounted nine guns. The other two garrisons were Fort Huger and Fort Blanchard.
The three forts were designed to protect the mainland from Federal invasion and to complement obstructions placed in the channel. Of the three forts, Bartow was the only one actively engaged in what would become known as the Battle of Roanoke Island.
On February 6, 1971, Mike’s Grocery, a mom-and-pop store in Wilmington, was firebombed and burned. It’s unclear who was responsible for the arson, which came after a week of increasing racial tension and violence over the desegregation of the city’s high schools.
On February 6, 1963, the General Assembly met in the Legislative Building on Jones Street for the first time. The Assembly had previously met in the State Capitol—now a state historic site—on Union Square since 1840.
On February 6, 2010, Swain County’s six-mile “Road to Nowhere” was officially abandoned by the federal government.
On February 6, 1832, Elizabeth City congressman William Shepard petitioned the House of Representatives for a light station to help guide sailors to safety by the mouth of the Roanoke River.
Two years later, Congress appropriated $10,000 for a lightship to operate on the Albemarle Sound. The ship operated through the Civil War, but was replaced by a screw-pile lighthouse that operated on whale oil in 1867. That structure, in turn, was damaged by fire and ice in the 1880s.
An image of William Holland Thomas from the N.C. Museum of History
On February 5, 1944, William Carey Lee, the “Father of the Airborne,” suffered a heart attack that ended his military career.
Born in Dunn in 1895, Lee volunteered for the United States Army during World War I. After the war, he remained in the army and, in 1939, was assigned to the Chief of the Army’s office in Washington, D.C. There he became part of a maverick group of army officers advocating for the development of an airborne army infantry force.
(Image: Office at the N.C. Equal Suffrage Association headquarters, 116 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, N.C, ca. 1910s. L-R: Gertrude Weil; Palmer Jerman (a page) with dog; Sallie Dortch, volunteer chair; Cornelia Petty Jerman, chair of the state ratification committee. A “Votes for Women” grosgrain ribbon is tacked to the desk. Image from the Gertrude Weil Papers, PC.1488.50, folder 4, State Archives.)