On December 6, 1968, James Taylor released his first and self-titled album.
Released by Apple Records, the album featured “Carolina in My Mind,” one of the Taylor’s most recognized songs. Taylor recorded the album between July and October 1968 at Trident Studios in London. The Beatles were recording The White Album during the same time in the same studios, and McCartney and George Harrison were both featured on versions of “Carolina in My Mind.”
On December 6, 1955, Russian immigrant Dr. Igor Bensen made the world’s first gyrocopter flight at Kill Devil Hills.
On December 5, 1854, the first lots of Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington were sold.
Oakdale, Wilmington’s first municipal burial ground, is one of the most beautiful and scenic graveyards in the Old North State. It remains the town’s largest cemetery, and is noted for the abundance of prominent Wilmingtonians and other North Carolinians who are buried there.
On December 5, 1962, a U.S. district court dismissed a suit against two Greensboro hospitals challenging “separate but equal” treatment in private, non-profit hospitals. The case was ultimately overturned on appeal.
The suit, now known as Simkins v. Cone, was brought by African American medical professionals and their patients against the Moses H. Cone Memorial and Wesley Long Community Hospitals. Their objective was to gain admission privileges for themselves and their patients.
On December 5, 1902, the Hall of History—predecessor of the North Carolina Museum of History—opened in a small room inside the old Agriculture Building in downtown Raleigh. “Curiosities” collected from across the state by former newspaperman Frederick Augustus Olds and historical artifacts from the State Museum (now the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences) filled the Hall’s walls and exhibit cases, constituting the core of its collection.
On December 4, 1994, Charlotte Smith, then a member of the UNC Tar Heels women’s basketball team, became the second collegiate women’s player ever to dunk. The first dunk had come nearly 10 years earlier when West Virginia University player Georgeann Wells accomplished the feat in a game against the University of Charleston.
Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery.
On December 4, 1837, a branch of the United States Mint opened in Charlotte.