North Carolina Timeline

Timeline

  • 1586 – Sir Walter Raleigh made a second attempt to establish a second English colony on Roanoke Island; Virginia Dare was born the first English child to be christened on American soil.
  • 1590– White returned to Roanoke to find no settlers and only the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree.  The settlers were never found.
  • 1705 – Bath was the first town to be established in North Carolina.
  • 1712 – The Carolinas were divided into two colonies.
  • 1715 – Marriages were to be recorded by either the Secretary of State or in the county register of deeds.
  • 1718 – Blackbeard the pirate was killed off the North Carolina Coast.
  • 1719 – South Carolina became a Royal Colony.
  • 1729 – North Carolina became a Royal Colony.
  • 1776 – The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge was the first American Revolution battle to be fought in North Carolina; North Carolina was the first state to vote in favor of Independence.
  • 1780 – Battle of Kings Mountain was waged with the Patriot Militia defeating the Loyalist Militia.
  • 1781 – British general Cornwallis 2,100 men defeated American general Greene’s 4,500 men at the Battle of Guildford Courthouse; however, the British suffered such severe injuries it was a strategic victory for the Americans and stopped the British recruitment hopes in the state.
  • 1789 – North Carolina became the 12th state and one of the original 13 colonies; University of North Carolina received its charter and became the first public University in the U.S.
  • 1790 Population : 393,751
  • 1794 – The capital moved from New Bern to Raleigh.
  • 1799 – The border between North Carolina and Tennessee was established.
  • 1800 Population : 478,103
  • 1810 Population : 556,526
  • 1820 Population : 638,829
  • 1830 Population : 737,987
  • 1830s – The Cherokee Indians are forced from their homes by the U.S. government in what is known as the “Trail of Tears”; many of the Cherokee hid in the mountains of North Carolina.
  • 1840 Population : 753,419
  • 1840 –The Wilmington and Weldon and the Raleigh and Gaston Railroads were completed.
  • 1850 Population : 869,039
  • 1851 – Ministers were required to file a marriage return and have it recorded in the county marriage register; Adam Crooks and Jesse McBride who were antislavery preachers were run out of the state.
  • 1856 – Running from Goldsboro to Charlotte, the North Carolina Railroad were completed.
  • 1860 Population : 992,622
  • 1861 May 21 – North Carolina left the Union by vote to “undo” the act that brought them into the U.S; around 30,000 North Carolinians were killed during the war.
  • 1866 – Over 9,000 former slaves recorded their marriages in county records; marriage bonds are abolished, replaced with licenses and certificates; dower rights were reinstated.
  • 1868 Jul 4 – North Carolina is readmitted back into the Union.
  • 1870 Population : 1,071,361
  • 1876 Nov 28  — Local rule reestablished
  • 1872 – Parents names were required on marriage certificates.
  • 1878 – A Cherokee reservation was formed in Western North Carolina.
  • 1880 Population : 1,399,750
  • Late 1800s – The textile and furniture industries grew rapidly in North Carolina.
  • 1890 Population : 1,617,949
  • 1895 Dec 24 — George Vanderbilt opens the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC to his family and friends.
  • 1897 – A bill that would have given North Carolina women the right to vote was proposed, but is sent to a committee on insane asylums and was never passed.
  • 1898 — Pepsi was invented and then served in New Bern.
  • 1900 Population : 1,893,810
  • 1903 – The Wright brothers made their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
  • 1908 Aug — Bessemer City Train Wreck
  • 1910 Population : 2,206,287
  • 1914 Mar 7 — Babe Ruth hits his first home room in Fayetteville, NC
  • 1918 Oct — Supreme Court Upholds NC Prohibition law
  • 1920 Population : 2,559,123
  • 1920 – 19th amendment gives women full suffrage.
  • 1928 Aug — Three Buildings collapse in Shelby, NC
  • 1929 – The Loray Mill strike in Gastonia did not achieve its goals, but it caused controversy propelling the labor movement.
  • 1930 Population : 3,170,276
  • 1940 Population : 3,571,623
  • 1941 Dec 7 — Pearl Harbor Day; Blog Post: December 7, 1941 Through Your Ancestors’ Eyes