Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On April 29, 1956, the first Chimney Rock Hill Climb took place. Hill climbing is an uphill motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock.

Organized by the Morse family, then owners of the Chimney Rock Park, and the Sports Car Club of America, the hill climb ran in the spring and sometimes the fall of each year. While the length of the course changed over the years from the 2.7 miles during the early years to 1.8 miles during the latter years, the goal of the race always was to be crowned “King of the Hill.”

On April 28, 1911, Cancetto Farmica died in Laurinburg.

Farmica, a musician, was murdered by a fellow carnival worker after an argument when he was hit in the head with a tent stake.

On April 28, 1993, Jim Valvano died of cancer at the age of 47. Valvano was born in Queens, New York, played basketball at Rutgers University and had several coaching positions before coming to North Carolina State as head coach in 1980. In a series of inspiring and improbable last minute victories, he led the Wolfpack to the championship of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament in 1983. Sports Illustrated included the achievement as one of the top 10 sporting events of the 20th century.

On April 27, 1855, Benjamin N. Duke was born on the Duke family farm north of Durham.

Often sickly as a child, Duke didn’t let his health get in the way of helping with the family tobacco business that began shortly after the end of the Civil War. He became a partner in the business when it was incorporated in 1878, and became treasurer of the American Tobacco Company in 1890 when the Duke organization became part of that enterprise.

On April 27, 1916, Hall of Fame baseball player Enos Slaughter was born near Roxboro to a farm family.

As a child, Slaughter honed his strength and skill with farm work, hunting rabbits with rocks and playing sports. He also began to develop a lifelong passion for baseball by watching Durham Bulls games. Slaughter began his pro career with a St. Louis Cardinals farm team, the Martinsville Redbirds, and it was while playing with the Virginia team that his tireless hustle earned him the nickname “Country.”

On April 27, 1935, Hugh Hammond Bennett of Anson County became director of the Soil Conservation Service, a position he held until his retirement in 1952.  “Big Hugh,” as he came to be known, grew up in the drainage basin of the Pee Dee River and became aware of the woeful effects of soil erosion at an early age. He is widely credited with selling the benefits of soil conservation to a dubious public.

On August 26, 1942, the first African American troops in the United States Marine Corps arrrived at Montford Point at Camp Lejeune.

Before President Harry Truman’s 1948 executive order that ended segregation in the armed forces, blacks who served did so in segregated units, like the one at Montford Point. In the era of strict segregation, interaction between white and black Marines during training was practically nonexistent.

On April 26, 1865, the largest troop surrender of the Civil War took place on farm of James and Nancy Bennitt in what was then Orange County.

Ten days earlier two worn adversaries, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, along with their escorts, rode out to meet and negotiate the terms for the surrender. By chance, the Bennitt farm was located halfway between the Union forces positioned in Raleigh and the Confederate forces encamped in and around Greensboro.

On April 26, 1956, at the port of Newark, New Jersey, Malcolm McLean watched as a giant crane swung his newly invented shipping containers onto a ship. As the ship steamed off toward Houston, Texas, the era of container shipping had begun.

Born in 1914 in Robeson County, McLean rose from humble roots to build a business empire. He began by driving a truck as a teenager and owned one of America’s largest transportation companies by the time he was in his mid-30s.