Posted in On This Day, tagged honey buns, last meals, nc death penalty, ricky lee sanderson on January 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1998: By accident, the execution of Ricky Lee Sanderson, 38-year-old murderer, brings to an end the era of the gas chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh. Although many states have already replaced gas with the more clinical method of lethal injection, North Carolina will make the change out of concern for [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged capital punishment, central prison raleigh, kermit smith, nc wesleyan college, white on black crime on January 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1995: Fourteen years after being convicted of the rape and murder of a N.C. Wesleyan College cheerleader, Kermit Smith is executed by lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh. Smith becomes the first white person in North Carolina — and the second in the nation the Supreme Court reinstated the death [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged bob dylan, charlotte coliseum, it's alright, ma, polly paddock, richard nixon, watergate on January 17, 2013 | 1 Comment »
On this day in 1974: Having set off an Elvis-level ticket-buying frenzy, Bob Dylan makes his first visit to Charlotte at a time when Watergate is threatening the Nixon presidency. Reports the Observer’s Polly Paddock from the original Charlotte Coliseum: “The high point of the night had to come with ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged david duke, ferebee taylor, free speech at unc, ku klux klan on January 16, 2013 | 1 Comment »
On this day in 1975: Black hecklers prevent David Duke, a little-known Ku Klux Klansman from Louisiana, from speaking at the University of North Carolina’s Memorial Auditorium. Chancellor Ferebee Taylor calls the incident “a transgression of one of the highest and noblest traditions of this institution.” Duke will go on to form the National Association [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged aaron burr, cape hatteras nc, gov joseph alston, theodosia burr alston on December 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1812: A ship bearing Theodosia Burr Alston, 28-year-old daughter of former vice president Aaron Burr, is lost at sea, most likely to a storm off Cape Hatteras. She and her husband, South Carolina Gov. Joseph Alston, had just lost their 10-year-old son to malaria, and she was eager to leave their [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged brant rock mass, Guglielmo Marconi, outer banks nc, radio invention, reginald fessenden, thomas edison on December 24, 2012 | 1 Comment »
On this day in 1906: A decade after Guglielmo Marconi of Italy sent the first radio signal, Reginald Fessenden makes the first voice transmission. From a station in Brant Rock, Mass., he broadcasts to ships at sea a program of two musical selections (including his own violin rendition of “O, Holy Night”), a Scripture reading [...]
Posted in History, Just A Bite, On This Day, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on December 17, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Following the Constitutional mandate that they gather on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of the month, the state’s 15 electors met at the old state Capitol building earlier today and cast their votes. The outcome of their balloting was as expected. Reflecting the Republican ticket’s victory in the popular vote here, the electors [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged goldsboro four, goldsboro nc, Philip Berrigan, seymour johnson air force base on December 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1993: Four protesters, including longtime peace activist Philip Berrigan, slip onto Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro and symbolically attack an F-15E Strike Eagle jet with hammers and bottles of blood. Arrested some 100 times, the 70-year-old Berrigan has spent a total of six years in jail. He and the [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged fred olds, nc hall of history, nc museum of history, nc museum of natural history on December 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1902: The Hall of History, later known as the N.C. Museum of History, opens in Raleigh. Overseeing the museum is “Colonel” Fred Olds, who has combined his personal collection of memorabilia with that passively accumulated by the N.C. Museum of Natural History. Olds, former city editor of the News & Observer, [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged nc tornadoes on November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1988: An unprecedented late-fall tornado rips through the Raleigh area and parts of Eastern North Carolina, killing four and injuring 157. Tornado season is generally April through early June, but a rare combination of low pressure, warm air and moisture broke with meteorological convention.
