Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On August 13, 1914, Madelon Battle Hancock, the most decorated nurse to serve with the Allied Forces in World War I, left for service in Antwerp, Belgium, with the first British Hospital Unit.Hancock grew up in Asheville where her father, Westray Battle, was a prominent physician and outspoken community leader. In 1904, she married Mortimer Hancock, an officer in the British Army, and after graduating from the Presbyterian Hospital School for Nursing in New York City in 1905, moved with him to England.

On August 12, 1881, movie producer and director Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Massachusetts where his family was vacationing for the summer. The DeMille roots, though, were deeply embedded in eastern North Carolina and Cecil (not yet “C. B.”) grew up in Washington along the Pamlico River.The DeMilles were a show business family. Cecil’s father was playwright Henry C. DeMille, a leading figure in New York drama circles, and his niece, Agnes, was a dancer who spent her last years teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

On August 12, 1989, the Plott Hound was officially designated as the State Dog.One of only four dog breeds native to the United States, the breed was developed in Haywood County by the Plott family. The foundation stock for the dogs that became Plott Hounds came to America with Johannes George Plott in 1750.

On August 12, 1788, Andrew Jackson challenged Colonel Waightstill Avery to a duel. The challenge was issued while both lawyers were serving in court in Jonesborough, one of three seats of the Morgan District Superior Court in western North Carolina prior to the establishment of Tennessee.

On August 11, 1875, prominent politician William A. Graham died. He was born in September 1804 in Lincoln County. Graham’s father was a Revolutionary War soldier and a pioneer in the region’s iron industry.

On August 11, 1854, Governor Robert B. Glenn was born in Rockingham County.After being educated at Davidson College and Richmond Hill Law School, Glenn practiced law in Rockingham and Stokes Counties. His entry into politics came in 1880 when he was elected to a single term in the General Assembly, representing Stokes County.

On August 11, 1913, Keith Blalock died while operating a hand car on a mountain railroad. He was the husband of Malinda Blalock, who was North Carolina’s only known female Civil War soldier.

On August 11, 1909, off the coast of Cape Hatteras, telegraph operator Theodore Haubner called for help from the steamship, S. S. Arapahoe. He was momentarily confused because a new telegraph code “SOS” had recently been ratified by the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference to replace the old “CQD”, and he wondered which signal he should send. He sent both.Haubner’s transmission was the first recorded American use of “SOS” to call for help.

On August 10, 1942, pilots from North Carolina’s first Civil Air Patrol (CAP) base at Skyco on Roanoke Island began making patrols.

On August 10, 1866, acclaimed fish biologist Eugene Willis Gudger was born in Waynesville. His ancestors were some of the earliest settlers west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.Gudger’s interest in natural history began as a boy, when a family friend gave him a subscription to St. Nicholas magazine and a copy of Jacob Abbott’s book Land and Water. After attending Emory and Henry College and the University of Nashville, he earned his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins.