On March 21, 1840, work was completed on the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. A week later, the Raleigh depot received 20 bales of cotton from Petersburg, Virginia, the line’s first commercial shipment on record. In June 1840, a “Grand Celebration” was held in Raleigh to commemorate two milestones, the new railroad and the new State Capitol.
Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On March 21, 1949, the Freedom Riders surrendered at the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough and were sent to segregated chain gangs.
On March 20, 1793, Samuel Spencer died.
Spencer was a member of North Carolina’s colonial assembly, the state’s de facto executive during the Revolutionary War, a trustee of the University of North Carolina, a colonel in the militia and a superior court judge. He voted against the new federal constitution because it did not yet have a Bill of Rights.
On March 20, 1862, Malinda Blalock disguised herself as a young man and enlisted in the Confederate army. Malinda and her husband Keith were Unionists from Watauga County. Keith was pressured by recruiters to join the Confederate army, which he did with the intention of deserting into federal lines at the first opportunity.
On March 19, 1865, at Bentonville, a Confederate army led by Gen. Joseph Johnston attacked the left wing of Union Gen. William Sherman’s army. General Robert E. Lee directed the Confederates to make a stand in North Carolina to prevent Sherman from joining General Ulysses S. Grant in front of Lee’s army at Petersburg, Virginia.
On March 19, 1946, George Holloman, a pioneer in the field of aeronautical engineering and unmanned flight, died in a plane crash.
The Northampton County native developed a keen interest in radio early on. After graduating high school, Holloman went to work with the Marconi Company, later the Radio Corporation of America, developing radio designs.
On March 18, 1942, flight operations began at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Craven County with the landing of a Grumman J2F “Duck” amphibian.
The base was established just a few years earlier, after the Marine Corps conducted a search up and down the U.S. East Coast for a suitable site for an air station. After Congressman Graham Barden helped secure $40 million for construction in 1941, the base grew quickly, becoming a self-contained city of 20,000 within a few months.
On March 17, 1775, Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company purchased much of the land that is now Kentucky and Tennessee from the Cherokee through a treaty signed at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River.
On March 18, 2003, a sting operation resulted in the recovery of North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights from a group of antiques dealers.