On October 12, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, ten months into his 1,000 days in office, spoke to a crowd of 30,000 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
On October 11, 1947, as the newly created United Nations debated the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, North Carolinian Herschel Johnson was at the center of the deliberations.
On October 10, 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed R. D. W. Connor as the first Archivist of the United States.
On October 10, 1917, Thelonious Monk was born in Rocky Mount. Though Monk lived most of his life in Manhattan, his North Carolina roots ran deep.
On October 9, 1866, Governor William Walton Kitchin was born near Scotland Neck.
On October 9, 1837, the steamship Home ran into a powerful hurricane that became known as the “Racer’s Storm.” The ship was en route from New York to Charleston and was operating with a damaged boiler.