Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On October 3, 1960, the first episode of The Andy Griffith Show aired on CBS Television. The program starred Mount Airy native Andy Griffith and focused on life in the fictional community of Mayberry, North Carolina, said to be have been modeled after Griffith’s hometown.
On October 2, 1961, The Battleship NORTH CAROLINA came to Wilmington. The mighty ship opened to the public just a couple of weeks later.
On October 2, 1866, 17-year-old Robert Logan Patton filled a pillow case with bread, sweet potatoes and his belongings and ran away from his Burke County home.
On October 2, 1981, journalist and humorist Harry Golden died. Golden achieved wide fame as publisher of The Carolina Israelite, which he issued between 1944 and 1968 from Charlotte to an international audience.
On October 1, 1918, the Tarboro Town Council passed an ordinance making it illegal for unpasteurized milk or cream to be sold within the town limits. The ordinance also established a municipal milk plant—the first of its kind in the nation—where local producers could bring their milk to be pasteurized, processed and sold.
On October 1, 1706, the first town lots in Bath were recorded and acknowledged in court. The lots belonged to Christopher Gale, the first Chief Justice of the colony. Bath, incorporated in 1705, is North Carolina’s oldest town.
On September 30, 1922, Camp Bragg—the U.S. War Department’s World War I-era field artillery training facility near Fayetteville—was re-designated Fort Bragg and made a permanent Army post.
On September 30, 1970, the last NASCAR race on a dirt track was held in Raleigh at the State Fairgrounds, Richard Petty took away the day’s top prize, in what was billed as the Home State 200.
Dirt track racing appeared in the South just prior to World War I. When the N.C. State Fair moved to its present site in 1928, the increasingly popular sport came with it. As a premier venue with access to fairgoers from across the state, the speedway boosted the racing phenomenon.
On September 29, 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to John Hope Franklin of Durham.
On September 29, 1865, five months after the close of the Civil War, the “Convention of the Freedmen of North Carolina,” a statewide assembly of African Americans, gathered at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Raleigh. The convention lasted four days with 106 men in attendance.