Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On July 16, 1813, a British Royal Navy fleet departed Ocracoke Island, bringing to an end a little-known episode of the War of 1812.
On July 15, 1816, Henry Gatling, inventor of an early flying machine and brother of Richard Gatling of Gatling gun fame, was born in Hertford County.
In interviews, Gatling claimed the flight of the turkey buzzard as his inspiration. The bird, he observed, could soar for long intervals with only slight wing movements. To try to mimic this method of flight, he developed a flying machine with hinged triangular wings that could be moved with wires.
On July 15, 1938, football player, painter and all around Renaissance man Ernie Barnes was born in Durham.
As a child, Barnes began to draw as an antidote to bullying. He later developed physical discipline and became captain of Durham’s then segregated Hillside High football team, receiving an athletic scholarship to what’s now N.C. Central University in 1956.
At Central Barnes studied art, but he left in 1959 before graduating to play professional football for six years.
On July 15, 1949, announcer Jim Patterson signed on Charlotte’s WBTV, the first television station in the Carolinas, two months ahead of WFMY in Greensboro, which began airing programming in September 1949.
On July 14, 1916, the worst flood in western North Carolina’s history occurred after six days of torrential rain. In one 24-hour period the region saw more than half of a normal year’s total rainfall. The 22 inches of rain that fell that day set the record for the most rainfall in a single day in the United States.
On July 14, 1879, Silas McDowell, prolific self-taught scientist and originator of the concept of the thermal belt, died.
On July 13, 1937, Vernon Rudolph began making yeast-raised doughnuts in a rented building in Winston-Salem. He used a secret recipe he had bought from a New Orleans French pastry chef. The name “Krispy Kreme” had come with the recipe, and Rudolph decided to keep it. He initially sold his glazed confections to local groceries, but when people started asking to buy his fresh, hot doughnuts, he cut a hole in the bakery’s wall and began selling them directly to customers.
On July 13, 1974, John Harris became the first person to hang glide from the 1,600-foot high rock pinnacle of Grandfather Mountain. Harris managed to convince Hugh Morton, the mountain’s owner, to let him make the daring attempt during the mountain’s annual Gathering of the Scottish Clans.