On November 4, 1782, John Branch, governor of North Carolina, was born in Halifax.
During the period Branch was raised in Halifax, the town was center of North Carolina’s political life. In fact, another prominent politician of the era, John Eaton, was born just a few years after Branch in the same area. Both men would go on to serve in Andrew Jackson’s cabinet and as governors of Florida.
On November 4, 1988, the original Charlotte Hornets franchise played its first game, a 113-93 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
On November 4, 1950, Charles Frazier was born in Asheville. Growing up, Frazier has admitted, he was “a great reader of junk.” When he was introduced by a friend to some of the better works of American literature he was hooked. After earning his Ph.D., he traveled widely and co-wrote a Sierra Club travel guide to the Andes region.
On November 3, 1936, Thad Eure was elected to his first term as North Carolina’s Secretary of State. Eure would go on to hold the post for 13 terms, serving in the job for a total of 53 years.
Born in Gates County in 1899, Eure served as mayor of Winton and a member of the General Assembly before he decided to run for Secretary of State in 1931 at the behest of Governor O. Max Gardner.
On November 2, 1984, Velma Barfield, from Cumberland County, became the first woman in the nation executed by lethal injection. She was convicted of first-degree murder for the arsenic poisoning of her boyfriend, Stuart Taylor, in 1978.
On November 2, 1795, James Knox Polk, the 11th president of the United States, was born on a farm just south of what is today Charlotte. Polk moved to Tennessee in 1806 but returned to his home state to attend the University of North Carolina.
On November 1, 1945, the Lake Lure Rest and Rehabilitation Center in Rutherford County closed.