Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On January 12, 1896, three students at Davidson College experimented with x-rays.
On January 11, 1740, Revolutionary War colonel and state legislator Thomas Robeson was born in Bladen County.Robeson first entered politics as a member of the Third Provincial Congress, held at Hillsborough in August 1775. During that session, he was appointed colonel of the Bladen militia. He served in the Fourth Provincial Congress at Halifax the following year and was a member of the First Assembly at New Bern in 1777.
A circa 1946-1948 portrait of Smith fromthe Library of Congress.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown on her wedding day in 1911.
On January 11, 1887, education advocate Calvin Henderson Wiley died. Born in Guilford County in 1818, Wiley practiced law, edited a newspaper, and wrote novels before entering the political realm. He was representing Guilford County in 1852 when he was instrumental in passing the legislation that created a state superintendent who oversaw all public schools in the state. Leaving the General Assembly later that year, Wiley was selected as North Carolina’s first superintendent, an office he held until April 1865.
On January 10, 1936, the first state highway marker was dedicated. The first marker was placed in the small Granville County town of Stovall to commemorate the life of John Penn, an early political leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence.Though not authorized until 1935, the program has its roots in the 1903 legislation creating the North Carolina Historical Commission, which noted the lack of markers “commemorating the services of eminent sons of the state, or marking the sites of historic events.”
On January 10, 1924, popular jazz drummer Max Roach was born in Pasquotank County. Shortly after moving to New York City with his family in 1928, Roach began to study piano with his aunt. He showed an early aptitude for music and played in jazz bands throughout high school.
On January 10, 1934, the Dow Chemical Company and the Ethyl Corporation began extracting bromine from seawater on a neck of land near Wilmington. Bromine was used in photography and chemical warfare, but its primary use was in Ethyl, an anti-knock compound in gasoline.
On January 9, 1859, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal opened, connecting Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake Bay, providing a vital economic link between North Carolina and Virginia.The canal was first proposed by William Byrd II in 1728, but engineering complications held up the project. The full canal was 75 miles long, but only 14 of those cut through the land. Of those miles, only five are in North Carolina, essentially bisecting Currituck County at Coinjock. The rest of the canal followed natural channels and dredged rivers.