North Carolina's Historical Timeline
Pre-1500
North Carolina settled by Native American tribes such as the Cherokee, Catawba and Tuscarora.
1524
Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazano visits the coast of North Carolina.
1585
Sir Walter Raleigh sends small English expedition to North Carolina coast.
1587
A second group of settlers, led by John White, build a fort on Roanoke Island. White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, is the first English child born in the "New World." White returns to England for supplies.
1590
White returns to Roanoke Island to discover that the "Lost Colony" has disappeared without a trace.
1663
King Charles II grants land in the Southeast to eight Lords Proprietors, who in turn name the region "Carolina" in his honor.
1705
Bath is incorporated as the state's first town.
1710
Edward Hyde is named the first governor of the North Carolina colony.
1718
The pirate Blackbeard is killed by the British Royal Navy at "Teach's Hole" near Ocracoke.
1722
Edenton is incorporated as the first capital of the North Carolina colony.
1766
The town of Salem is established by Moravian settlers.
New Bern serves as the colonial capital until 1776.
1770
Tryon Palace is built in New Bern as the colonial capitol.
1771
An army of backcountry farmers, known as Regulators, is defeated by Governor William Tryon's militia.
1774
A group of 51 women organizes the "Edenton Tea Party" by signing a declaration not to drink English tea or wear English clothes.
The Mecklenburg Declaration signed in Charlotte declares independence from Great Britain.
1776
The North Carolina colony adopts the "Halifax Resolves," calling for independence from England.
1781
The American Army of Major General Nathanael Greene is defeated by the British Army of Lord General Cornwallis during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
1789
North Carolina becomes the 12th state of the United States of America.
1794
The North Carolina capital is moved from New Bern to Raleigh.
1795
The University of North Carolina, the nation's first public university, opens its doors in Chapel Hill.
1799
Conrad Ree discoves a 17-lb. gold nugget outside Charlotte, sparking the country's first gold rush.
1838
The United States Government initiates the tragic "Trail of Tears," driving a majority of the Cherokee tribe out of the mountains and marching them 1,200 miles to Oklahoma.
Nags Head evolves into a popular summer resort with the opening of the first Nags Head Hotel.
1840
The Greek Revival-style State Capitol is completed in downtown Raleigh.
1850
Wilimington is the largest city in North Carolina with about 13,500 residents.
1853
The first North Carolina State Fair is held in Raleigh.
1861
North Carolina becomes the last state to join the Confederacy.
1865
Fort Fisher falls to Union troops, destroying the Confederate's major supply line and hastening the end of the war.
The Battle of Bentonville is the largest and bloodiest Civil War battle fought in North Carolina.
Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrrenders his troops to Union General William Sherman at the Bennett farm in Durham.
1870
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, becomes operational.
1883
The Mast General Store opens its doors in Valle Crucis, offering everything from "cradles to caskets."
1890
James Buchanan Duke of Durham establishes the American Tobacco Company.
1891
Construction is completed on the Queen Anne Cottage-style Executive Mansion in Raleigh.
1895
George Washington Vanderbilt's 255-room Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in the United States, is built in Asheville.
1896
The Eastern Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad ("Tweetsie") is chartered.
1898
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of the largest black-owned businesses in the world, is chartered in Durham.
Pinehurst is founded as a winter resort by Boston inventor and philanthropist James Walker Tufts.
Caleb Bradham, a young New Bern pharmacist, concocts the recipe for Pepsi-Cola.
1902
The first Durham Bulls baseball team takes the field in downtown Durham.
1903
Ohio bicycle repairmen Wilbur and Orville Wright achieve the world's first successful powered airplane flight at Kill Devil Hills on December 17.
1907
The General Assembly votes to support a statewide system of high schools. Cary High School becomes the first state-assisted public high school in North Carolina.
1908
North Carolina becomes the first Southern state to adopt statewide prohibition, 12 years before the United States Congress passes the 18th Amendment.
1916
Mount Mitchell is established as North Carolina's first state park.
1917-18
The United States enters World War I. North Carolina supplies approximately 86,000 soldiers to fight in the conflict.
1918
Congress establishes Fort Bragg near Fayetteville.
1921
The General Assembly approves the issuance of $50 million in bonds to establish a state highway system.
1924
Tobacco magnate James Buchanan Duke presents a major endowment to Trinity College, which is renamed Duke University in his honor.
1927
A branch of the Federal Reserve is established in Charlotte.
1928
A bridge is constructed connecting Atlantic Beach with the mainland.
1929
Thomas Wolfe publishes Look Homeward, Angel to the chagrin of Asheville citiziens, who read right through the thinly disguised characterizations.
1934
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is established as the largest national park East of the Rocky Mountains.
1935
The North Carolina General Assembly votes to end prohibition by approving "local-option" liquor sales.
Construction begins on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
1937
Paul Green's outdoor drama, The Lost Colony, debuts in Manteo.
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is completed, extending 2,178 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.
1939
Linville Caverns opens as a tourist attraction.
1940
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicates Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
1941-45
A total of 1,137,276 North Carolinians register for the draft during World War II.
1945
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg and his wife, Paula, purchase Connemara in Flat Rock.
1953
The Atlantic Coast Conference is founded in Greensboro with charter members Duke University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina, Wake Forest, Clemson, Maryland and South Carolina.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore is established as the first national seashore in the United States.
1956
Wake Forest University is moved from Wake Forest to Winston-Salem after the school receives a substantial endowment from the R.J. Reynolds family.
1958
The Research Triangle Park is established in close proximity to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Duke University in Durham and North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
The reconstructed Tryon Palace in New Bern opens its doors to the public as North Carolina's first historic site.
1960
The first "sit-in" of the Civil Rights movement takes place at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro by four North Carolina A&T University students. The movement spreads quickly through the South.
1963
The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge connects Bodie Island to Hatteras Island.
1966
Cape Lookout National Seashore is established along North Carolina's central coast.
1972
Jesse Helms becomes the first Republican senator in North Carolina elected in the 20th century.
1973
Carowinds, the first major theme park in the Carolinas, opens along the North Carolina-South Carolina border.
1978
The American Dance Festival moves from Vermont to Durham.
1984
Level Cross native Richard Petty, the undisputed king of stock car racing, captures his 200th career victory in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona Beach on July 4th.
1987
The National Basketball Association awards Charlotte with an expansion team, the Hornets.
The last link of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Linn Cove Viaduct winding around Grandfather Mountain, is completed.
1993
The Charlotte Panthers become the 29th National Football League. By their second season, the Panthers will make the playoffs and advance to the NFC Championship Game.
1994
The Triangle is ranked as the best place to ive in the United States by Money magazine.
1996
Hurricane Fran strikes North Carolina, killing 24 people and causing an estimated $6.5 billion in damage.
Governor Jim Hunt is reelected for a record fourth term.
1997
The National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers move to the Triangle and are appropriately renamed the Carolina Hurricanes, becoming the Triangle's first major-league franchise.
1999
Pinehurst Country Club's legendary No. 2 golf course hosts the prestigious 1999 U.S. Open Tournament.
The 208-foot Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is successfully moved 1,600 feet from the encroaching surf through the use of advanced hydraulic technologies.
Exploris, the world's first global learning center, opens its doors in downtown Raleigh.
Hurricane Floyd causes devastating flooding in Eastern North Carolina.
2000
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences opens its new facility in downtown Raleigh.
2002
Elizabeth Doles becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate from North Carolina.
2004
North Carolina Senator John Edwards runs for Vice President of the United States. Edwards and running mate Senator John Kerry are defeated by incumbent President George W. Bush.
2006
The Carolina Hurricanes win their first Stanley Cup, defeating the Edmonton Oilers four games to three.
2008
With a population of 9,222,414, North Carolina becomes the fourth-fastest growing state in the United States.