On May 3, 1918, Stephen Beauregard Weeks died at age 53. A native of Pasquotank County, Weeks became the state’s first professionally-trained historian to earn his living specifically from his skills as a historian.
Weeks graduated second in his class at UNC in 1886. He went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees from the school’s Department of English before entering Johns Hopkins University to focus on history. There he learned primary source research and historical objectivity.
On May 3, 1856, the last recorded duel among North Carolinians, and one of the last duels in the South, was fought. Joseph Flanner and William Crawford Wilkings, both of Wilmington, battled just across the border in South Carolina. The duel resulted in Wilkings’ death.
On May 2, 1863, Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was wounded by several volleys of gunfire from the 18th North Carolina Troops during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.
On May 2, 1892, in Spray (now Eden), Canadian chemist Thomas L. Willson accidentally produced calcium carbide and acetylene with an electric-arc furnace. In August, Willson applied for a patent for the new process.
On May 1, 1845, North Carolina’s school for the blind, the Governor Morehead School, opened in Raleigh. Originally conceived by Governor John Motley Morehead in 1843, the school became a reality in January 1845, when the General Assembly approved an act to provide for the education of deaf and blind persons.
On May 1, 1935, the state Senate approved a bill making lethal gas the method of execution in North Carolina. It replaced electrocution, which was used until that time.
Dr. Charles Peterson, a Spruce Pine physician who served as a member of the General Assembly during the first half of the 20th century, was the primary advocate for the change. The Raleigh News & Observer described bringing about the change as his “pet project.”
On May 1, 1928, North Carolina’s first air mail delivery arrived at the small airport in Greensboro known as Lindley Field.
Pitcairn Aviation was given a contract to fly an air mail delivery route between New York and New Orleans, and Greensboro was one of five stops along the route. Pilot Sid Malloy landed at 8:15 p.m. with two bags of mail and took three bags of mail with him when he left for his next stop in Atlanta.
On April 29, 1864, 43-year-old Pvt. Howell Turnage, of Company I, 35th United States Colored Troops, died from the effects of chronic diarrhea while incarcerated at the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.