On April 23, 1985, former U.S. Senator and Watergate Committee chairman Sam J. Ervin, Jr., died of respiratory failure at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. He was 88.
Born in Morganton, Ervin graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1917 before serving in France during World War I. After earning a law degree from Harvard University in 1922, he returned to his hometown to practice law and, years later, still described himself as an “old country lawyer.”
On April 23, 1864, Robert Frederick Hoke, then only 27-years-old, became the youngest major general in the Confederate States Army. He was promoted days after leading a successful campaign to recapture Plymouth in Washington County.
On April 23, 1932, the Administration Building of what’s now Wingate University was destroyed by fire.
On April 22, 1953, the General Assembly established the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association program to advance the study of North Carolina history in public and private schools.
On April 22, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated L. Quincy Mumford for the post of Librarian of Congress. Mumford was the eleventh person to hold the office and the first trained as a professional librarian.
Born near Ayden in Pitt County in December 1903, Mumford began his education in a one-room schoolhouse and continued at Duke, where received an M.A. in English in 1928. He earned a B.S. in library science from Columbia the following year.
On April 22, 1861, the U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville surrendered to a force of state militia troops roughly a month before North Carolina seceded from the United States.
At the time of the firing on Fort Sumter 10 days earlier, the Fayetteville Arsenal was guarded by a company of the Second U.S. Artillery. On April 22, the U.S. soldiers were confronted with a large force of nearly 1,000 state militia troops reinforced with artillery.
On April 21, 1864, the state salt works in New Hanover County were attacked by Federal forces and about a third of the site was destroyed.
An important ingredient for the preservation of the meat, salt was essential for the security of the food supply during the era. Salt works were established in Currituck County and near Morehead City, though both were captured by federal troops who controlled much of northeastern North Carolina by the end of 1863.
On April 21, 1941, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia dedicated the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in front of a crowd nearly 10,000 local residents.
On April 21, 1972, Charlotte-born Charles M. Duke became the youngest man to walk on the moon at age 36.