Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
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.
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.
On May 1, 1845, North Carolina’s school for the blind, the Governor Morehead School, opened in Raleigh.
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.
On May 1, 1928, North Carolina’s first air mail delivery arrived at the small airport in Greensboro known as Lindley Field.
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.