Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On May 13, 1913, the town of Salem and the city of Winston merged to form the new city of Winston-Salem through the election of a new unified city board.

On May 13, 1846, United States president and North Carolina native James K. Polk signed a declaration of war on Mexico.

On May 13, 1976, the iconic Shell Service Station on East Sprague Street in Winston-Salem was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

On May 13, 1830, Zebulon Baird Vance was born in the Reems Creek area of Buncombe County. Raised in Asheville, Vance studied at the University of North Carolina.

On May 12, 1876, North Carolina’s first Jewish synagogue, the Temple of Israel, was dedicated in Wilmington.

On May 12, 1954, Clyde Hoey died in his office in the U.S. Capitol.

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old African American Vietnam veteran, was murdered in Oxford.  Marrow was approaching Robert Teel’s store to buy a Coca-Cola when he spoke to a young white woman.

On May 10, 1949, the Morehead Planetarium opened on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. It was first planetarium in the South, the first planetarium on a university campus and the sixth planetarium to be built nationwide.

On May 10, 1838, General Winfield Scott issued a proclamation to eastern Cherokees, by order of President Martin Van Buren, to evacuate their ancestral homeland.

On May 10, 1876, Julia Adeline Royster was born in Raleigh.