North Carolina History

Central Prison Opens in Raleigh: On Jan. 6, 1870, Central Prison opened in Raleigh. The first three prisoners—one man and two women—had been convicted of robbery in Johnston County. Prior to the prison’s opening, North Carolina did not have a central, state-operated prison and instead relied on the counties to manage inmates. Central Prison’s construction was proposed as early as 1846 but did not begin until the adoption of the North Carolina Constitution of 1868 as part of Reconstruction.

A committee appointed by the General Assembly originally chose a tract in Chatham County for the prison, but the legislature opted for a site near downtown Raleigh. Prisoners were housed in temporary structures until the first permanent building was completed in 1884.

Though inmates accounted for most of the labor used to build the 1884 structure, some outside help was brought in, perhaps most notably stone carver W.O. Wolfe, the father of novelist Thomas Wolfe. The prison complex underwent extensive renovations in the 1940s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and today is the intake site for all-male felons over the age of 22 with sentences longer than 20 years.

Public Schools Prospered under Calvin Wiley: On Jan. 7, 1839, the legislature passed an act to establish North Carolina’s common school system. The law authorized counties to hold elections in which voters approve or reject new taxes for public schools.

As a result of the law, voters in 61 of the 68 counties that then existed in the state chose to support school taxes in the elections later that year. The remaining seven counties soon followed course, and by 1846, every county had at least one public school. Initially, counties only received enough money to pay a teacher for two or three months of the year, and students of all ages were taught in a single class.

There was little regulation in the state’s schools until the election of Calvin Wiley as the state’s first superintendent of public schools in 1853. Wiley had a deep interest in public education, even going so far as to publish the state’s first standard textbook at his own expense.

During his tenure as superintendent, Wiley and his staff were able to raise North Carolina’s educational system to what many considered to be the most efficient in the South within a relatively short amount of time. Several elementary, middle, and high schools around the state are named in his honor.

Gertrude McKee, Groundbreaking Lawmaker

Among the most prominent North Carolinians of her day, McKee brought to the legislature a wealth of experience in public affairs.

Born and raised in Dillsboro in Jackson County, she was the daughter of the town’s founder. Her family also long operated the High Hampton Inn, among the leading resorts in the region. McKee’s first involvement in politics came in 1928 when she worked on a campaign for Congress.

After being elected to the state Senate seat from the 32nd District in 1930 and taking her seat in 1931, she jokingly referred to her 49 male colleagues as her children. As chair of the public welfare committee, she took a special interest in child labor laws and old-age assistance. Voters returned her to the Senate four times, and there was even talk of her becoming North Carolina’s first female governor.

McKee died in 1948, three weeks after being elected to a fourth Senate term.

Slapstick Comic, TV Pioneer Soupy Sales: On Jan. 8, 1926, children’s show television host Soupy Sales, noted for taking pies in the face, was born Milton Supman in Franklinton.

Sales’ father, Irving, immigrated to America from Hungary in 1894. Irving operated a dry goods store, which was then a line of work common to Jews in small-town North Carolina. His son, the funnyman, later quipped that his father supplied all the sheets needed by the local Ku Klux Klan.

The Supman family eventually relocated to West Virginia, where Milton graduated from Marshall University. After a stint in the South Pacific during World War II, Supman took a new name and entered show business. Soupy came from a family nickname, Soup Man, and Sales from a famous vaudeville performer.

Sales first became successful on local shows in Detroit and Los Angeles. In 1964, his show moved to New York and was picked up by ABC. His broad slapstick humor involved live performers and puppets, notably White Fang and Black Tooth. Though targeted mostly at kids, the show appealed to adults as well and featured the stars of the day like Frank Sinatra, who asked to be plastered with a cream pie.

Later in life Sales was a regular on game shows such as Hollywood Squares and Match Game. He died in 2009.

Thomasville Chair, Fit for Paul Bunyan: On Jan. 9, 1951, the cornerstone of the “World’s Largest Chair” was laid in downtown Thomasville. The purpose of the chair was to recognize the significant role that Thomasville, then home to Thomasville Furniture, and the entire foothills region played in the furniture industry.

The big chair actually wasn’t Thomasville’s first. That monument was built in September 1922, and at 16 feet, six inches tall was fabricated by Thomasville Furniture Company from the materials it took to make 100 normal chairs.

A victim to the elements, the wooden structure was scrapped in 1936, and it wasn’t until the formation of the local chamber of commerce in 1948 that interest in reviving the roadside landmark was revived. A team of designers drew up plans, and the decision was made to build this giant chair out of concrete and steel.

A Winston-Salem company fashioned a steel skeleton, which was covered with a wire mesh outlining the design and topped with a half-inch layer mixture of cement and granite. That in turn was painted to make the chair look like furniture.

The sculpture took six months to complete and today stands proudly at 30 feet tall.

Campus Hijinks at Davidson Involved X-rays, 1896: On Jan. 12, 1896, three students at Davidson College experimented with x-rays.

Six days earlier, the Associated Press announced that German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered a new form of radiation. While experimenting with cathode rays, he discovered that mysterious “x”-rays passed through a variety of objects. He put his hand in front of the rays and saw the silhouette of his bones. At the time, many physics labs had the equipment to duplicate the x-ray. Henry Louis Smith, a physics professor and future president at Davidson, was the first professional in North Carolina to work with x-rays.

It was a group of Smith’s students who appear to have been the first people in the state to perform x-ray experiments. Three juniors professed to have bribed a janitor to let them into the building housing the physics equipment less than a week after Roentgen’s announcement reached America.

The students placed objects on photographic paper taking photographs, then called roentgenograms, of objects including an eggshell with a button in it, a rubber-covered magnifying glass, a cadaver’s finger, pins, cartridges, and paperclips.

Years passed before the students’ escapade was made public. The original x-ray images are now housed in the Davidson College Archives.

Nation and World History

Trump supporters storm Capitol to stop certification of Biden victory. On Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their way into the Capitol to interrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, forcing lawmakers into hiding; most of the rioters had come from a nearby rally where Trump urged them to “fight like hell.” A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to breach a barricaded doorway inside the Capitol. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, injured while confronting the rioters, suffered a stroke the next day and died from natural causes, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said. Congress reconvened hours later to finish certifying the election result.

In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)

Hydrogen bomb announcement. On Jan. 7, 1953, President Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

Lyndon Johnson declares ‘war on poverty.’ On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”

Mississippi secedes from the Union. On Jan. 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.

Thomas Paine publishes ‘Common Sense.’ On Jan. 10, 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence from British rule.

Jan. 11, Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument. On Jan. 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon National Monument (it became a national park in 1919).

Jan. 12, Motown Records is founded in Detroit. On Jan. 12, 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records (originally Tamla Records) in Detroit.

Jan. 13, Trump becomes first president to be impeached twice. On Jan. 13, 2021, President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House over the violent Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol, becoming the only president to be twice impeached; ten Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” (Trump would again be acquitted by the Senate in a vote after his term was over.)