Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On September 1, 1870, African-American activist Abraham Galloway died in Wilmington.Born in 1837 in what is now the town of Southport, Galloway was the son of a white ship’s pilot and an enslaved woman. He escaped to the North by ship in 1857 and became active in militant abolitionist circles.

On September 1, 1896, Bill Strother, who became nationally acclaimed as the "Human Spider", was born in Wayne County. Strother acquired his nickname in Kinston in 1915. Frustrated that handbills he ordered to advertise a real estate auction he was organizing did not arrive in time, Strother indicated to a fellow diner at a lunch counter that he’d now have to climb the courthouse walls to advertise the sale. The diner, who happened to be the editor of the Kinston Free Press, published a story about the proposed climb and thousands showed up to watch.

On August 31, 1938, historian Samuel A. Ashe died.A descendant of Governor Samuel Ashe of Pender County, Ashe was born near Wilmington in 1840 and studied at the U.S. Naval Academy. At the outbreak of the Civil War he went to work for the Confederacy as a soldier and engineer. His final assignment of the war was at the Fayetteville arsenal in 1865.

On August 31, 1823, former governor Jesse Franklin died at his home in Surry County. He was 63-years-old.

On August 31, 1886, at 9:50 PM, the largest earthquake ever recorded on the east coast of the United States destroyed homes and other property in Charleston, S.C., leaving as many as 150 dead in that city alone. Registering between 6.6 and 7.3 on the modern Richter scale, the quake cracked chimneys and plaster walls across North Carolina.

On August 30, 1983, Faison native William Thornton barreled into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard the shuttle Challenger.Born in Duplin County, Thornton received bachelors and medical degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and worked as electronics engineer before entering the Air Force. It was during his two-year tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force that he became involved in space medicine research and subsequently applied for astronaut training.

On August 30, 1986, “Somerset Homecoming” took place at Somerset Place State Historic Site in Creswell. The homecoming was the first-ever event of its kind: a reunion of descendants of the enslaved community of a large southern plantation.

Influential Black Newspaperman Robert Lee Vann was born in Hertford County August 29, 1879. He became editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation's largest weekly newspaper for African Americans. Vann used the editorial pages to advocate for various social and political reforms.