Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On June 1, 1898, Biltmore Estate owner George Washington Vanderbilt wed American socialite Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in a civil ceremony in Paris.

On June 1, 1944, the first case of polio, in what would become a devastating epidemic, was diagnosed in Catawba County. Within 24 hours, six cases were identified in the county and 68 others in the region.

On May 31, 2003, fugitive Eric Rudolph was captured in Murphy. Indicted in 2000 for deadly bombings in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympics and in Birmingham in 1998, Rudolph fled into North Carolina’s Nantahala Forest.

On May 31, 1870, Richmond County inventor James Lytch was awarded a patent for the Eclipse Lytch Cottonseed Planter. Exhibited at agricultural fairs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, Lytch’s planter became the instrument of choice in the South.

On May 30, 1803, Lunsford Lane was born into slavery in the household of Sherwood Haywood, a Raleigh banker.

On May 30, 1971, Gertrude Weil died at the age of 91.

On May 30, 1935, “America’s Town Meeting of the Air” debuted on the radio. The show, America’s first political talk program, was hosted by Washington, N.C., native, George V. Denny, Jr.

On May 29, 1893, the first Waldensian settlers arrived in Burke County. The Waldenses are a Christian sect founded in the 12th century. For many years the group was confined to a rugged area in the Cottian Alps along the boundary between Italy and France.

On May 29, 1831, much of Fayetteville burned to the ground.