Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On August 8, 1974, the CIA and U.S. Navy recovered a portion of the Soviet submarine K-129 from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. The sub, armed with three nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, had sunk six years earlier.The operation, known as Project Azorian and personally approved by President Richard Nixon, was largely the brainchild of Carl E. Duckett, a Swannanoa native and the CIA’s deputy director for science and technology at the time.

On August 21, 1829, Priestley Hinton Mangum, Jr. was born in Wake County.Educated at Wake Forest College, Mangum would be little known today but for a revolutionary erosion control technique he pioneered in 1881 that became known as the Mangum Terrace.

On September 4, 1748, sailors from two Spanish ships came ashore and attacked the town of Brunswick. Terrified at the sight of Spanish ships in the Cape Fear River, the residents of the port town gathered as many of their possessions as possible and fled.

On October 21, 1851, Burke County legislator William Waightstill Avery called the life’s work of Samuel Fleming of Yancey County, his rival in the General Assembly, a “fraud.”The argument started over a court case in which Fleming was battling over the estate of his deceased wife with her family. Avery, then a prominent attorney and political figure, was representing Fleming’s wife’s family.

On July 25, 1981, N.C. State University professor and writer Guy Owen died at the age of 56.Born in Clarkton in Bladen County, Owen grew up on a tobacco farm. Years of clerking at his father’s general store provided the author with much eventual grist for his creative mill.

On December 31, 1862, the USS Monitor, sank during a storm off the coast of Cape Hatteras. Four officers and twelve crewmen were lost.

On December 31, 1900, renowned sculptor Selma Burke was born in Mooresville.Fascinated by African ritual objects and other sculptural pieces, Burke made sculpture by shaping white clay from her parents' farm as a child. After being educated at what is now Winston-Salem State University and trained as a nurse at St. Agnes Hospital Nursing School in Raleigh, Burke moved to New York City to work as a private nurse.

On December 31, 1990, Brasstown residents began their tradition of the “Possum Drop” when Clay Logan dropped a ceramic possum from the roof of his convenience store.The tradition began because local human inhabitants call the Clay County village the “Opossum Capital of the World.” While this claim may be difficult to prove, the town has become known internationally from news coverage of its offbeat approach to ringing in the New Year.

On December 31, 1906, Holiness preacher Gaston Barnabas Cashwell opened a revival in a tobacco warehouse in the Harnett County town of Dunn.

On December 30, 1833, the North Carolina General Assembly approved the charter for the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad Company.