Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On October 19, 1948, President Harry S. Truman visited Raleigh and delivered the main address at the unveiling of the “Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation” monument on Union Square, which surrounds the State Capitol.
On October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered more than 8,000 troops to a combined Franco-American force at Yorktown. The surrender came on the heels of much fighting in North Carolina. From January to March 1781, Cornwallis’s army pursued troops—including some local militia—under Daniel Morgan around the state. He continued chasing Morgan’s successor Nathanael Greene, in what became known as the “Race to the Dan.”
On October 19, 1874, R.J. Reynolds purchased his first lot, next to rail lines in Winston, from the Moravian Church.
Born into a prosperous Virginia tobacco family, Reynolds started what he called the “Little Red Factory” in 1874 with just $7,500 and some college and business school under his belt. A year later, the factory and its 12 workers had produced 150,000 pounds of southern flat plug chewing tobacco.
Asheville author Thomas Wolfe turned his observations of growing up in his mother's boarding house, the "Old Kentucky Home" into his best known novel Look Homeward, Angel. His mother's boardinghouse is now the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, one of 27 state historic sites.
On October 18, 1853, the first North Carolina State Fair opened in Raleigh just south of downtown.
On October 17, 1859, Lewis Leary was fatally wounded during John Brown’s raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
Originally from Fayetteville, Leary was a free mulatto who came from a family of saddle-makers. Leary moved to Oberlin, Ohio, in search of economic opportunity and because the town was considered to be among the most racially progressive in America. Once there, he gravitated toward the growing abolitionist movement and joined the Anti-Slavery Society.
On October 17, 1862, the contract was signed to build the Confederate ironclad gunboat CSS Neuse.
Football star Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, native of Asheville, played for UNC 1946 to 1949 before going on to play for the Washington Football Team (formerly Washington Redskins). He was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1963.
On October 16, 1976, Rick Dees’ song “Disco Duck” hit number one on the Billboard charts. At the time of the novelty hit, Dees was working as a disk jockey at a radio station in Memphis, Tenn.