On March 17, 1865, John Sprunt Hill, an early leader in the credit union movement, was born on a farm near Faison.
Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On March 17, 1967, the Winston-Salem State University Rams bested the Southwest Missouri State University Bears 77-74 at the NCAA Division II national men’s basketball championship game in Evansville, Indiana.
In so doing, WSSU became the first historically Black college in the nation to win a national championship.
The championship was the highlight of a 30-1 season for the Rams, and represented a comeback from the Rams’ third-place finish in the CIAA tournament behind North Carolina A&T and Howard.
On March 17, 1829, Roman Catholic Bishop John England consecrated Saint Patrick Church in Fayetteville. The consecration was the first for a Catholic church in North Carolina. The following week England traveled to Beaufort County, where he dedicated St. John’s in Washington, the first Catholic church built in North Carolina.
On March 16, most likely in the 1780s, an odd and offbeat mariner from Ocracoke Island known as Quawk or Quork went to sea in his small fishing skiff despite warnings of impending foul weather. He never returned.
The sailor was said to be a loner, and was, by some accounts, the sole survivor of a shipwreck on the island. He was called Quork because of his voice, which was said to be like that of the “quawk,” the colloquial name for the black-crowned night heron.
On March 16, 1916, the last whale killed by North Carolina fisherman was caught near Cape Lookout.
On March 15, 1781, American and British forces clashed near Guilford Courthouse. The battle was the culmination of several months of hard campaigning by the armies of Nathanael Greene and Lord Charles Cornwallis.
Early in the day, Greene deployed his army in three lines. The first and second lines were North Carolina and Virginia militiamen, with Greene’s Continental soldiers composing the third. Veteran Virginia and North Carolina riflemen and Continentals were also posted on the flanks of the first line.
On March 15, 1962, archaeologists began diving on the wreck of the blockade runner Modern Greece. The wreck, which had been hidden on the sea floor for nearly 100 years, was discovered after a storm uncovered it. Divers found much of the vessel and its cargo intact. Historians and archaeologists with the state of North Carolina and U.S. Navy teamed up to recover more than 11,500 artifacts from the site.
On March 15, 1941, the General Assembly designated the dogwood as the state flower. In choosing the dogwood the General Assembly called the bloom “a radiantly beautiful flower which grows abundantly in all parts of this State.”
Four species of dogwood are native to North Carolina. Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, grows on a tree, and can be found during spring in most parts of the state, and is the flower with which most people are familiar.
On March 14, 1984, the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge was established on mainland Dare and Hyde counties to protect and preserve the forested wetland habitat called “pocosin” and its associated wildlife species.
On March 14, 1862, the Battle of New Bern was fought. The Battle was second of three major engagements in an expedition led by Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The first was at Roanoke Island in early February. After capturing the Island and securing the region, Burnside set his sights on New Bern, a strategic port.