This Week In History

This Week In North Carolina History

Zebulon Baird Vance: 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. After setting up a law practice in Asheville, he launched his political career. Known for his personality and oratorical skills, Vance served as a state senator, U.S. congressman and governor.

Initially an opponent of secession, Vance cast his lot with his state and region after President Abraham Lincoln’s call to arms. Vance raised his own company and was later elected colonel of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment.

Though the war raged on, politics was never far from Vance’s mind. The Conservative Party selected the popular colonel as its candidate for governor in 1862. The election resulted in an overwhelming victory for Vance.

On his birthday in 1865, Vance was arrested in Statesville by federal cavalry as he attempted to flee the approaching Union army. He was imprisoned in Washington, D.C., for two months. No charges were ever brought and he was eventually released. On May 13, 1961, Vance’s 131st birthday, the Gov. Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace State Historic Site in Weaverville was dedicated and opened to the public.

North Carolina Granite Company: On May 14, 1889, the North Carolina Granite Company was founded in Surry County by Thomas Woodroffe. It has been in continuous operation since. Now known as the North Carolina Granite Corporation, it is the world’s largest open-faced granite quarry.

The site has produced granite for many high rise buildings and even for the Singapore subway system. Its granite has been used to create several notable structures including the Fort Knox Bullion Depository in Kentucky, the Wright Brothers Monument at Kitty Hawk, the Centennial Olympic Plaza in Atlanta and the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The granite is also popular for curbing, especially in northern states that use salt in winter, since salt breaks down concrete curbs in short order. Other uses for the product include tombstones and mausoleums. Waste granite, the small bits that are left over from extraction and from fabrication, is crushed for road construction and landscape use.

Located on the Ararat River near Mt. Airy, the active quarry covers more than 200 acres and is estimated to have enough granite to continue extracting it at the current rate for 500 more years. The quarry is the source of Mt. Airy’s” Granite City” nickname.

Henry Beard Delany: On May 15, 1918, Henry Beard Delany became the first black Episcopal bishop in North Carolina and only the second in the United States.

A native Georgian who grew up in Florida, Delany came to North Carolina in 1881 when he enrolled at what’s now St. Augustine’s University. He remained at the school teaching courses, overseeing facility construction, serving as vice principal and, after he was ordained an Episcopal priest, as the school chaplain.

Delany was elected bishop “in charge of Negro work” and served in that capacity broadly across North and South Carolina.

His work is credited with the improvement of the quality of life among African Americans in the South. At his death, he was memorialized as having risen: to a position of eminence in which he had won not only the esteem of his white colleagues throughout the country but also their love.

Two of Delany’s daughters became famous in the 1990s for their book Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. The book was later adapted into a play and a film.

This Week In Nation and World History

Berlin Blockade: On May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

Pope John Paul II: On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca (MEH’-met AH’-lee AH’-juh).

Reggie Jackson: On May 13, 1983, right fielder Reggie Jackson became the first major league baseball player to strike out 2,000 times. He would eventually retire with a total of 2,597 strikeouts and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Edward Jenner: On May 14, 1796, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, gave the first vaccination against smallpox to 8-year-old James Phipps. While he did not discover vaccination, he was the first person to confer scientific status on the procedure and to pursue its scientific investigation. His work is widely considered the foundation of immunology. On May 17, 1954, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.

Mount St. Helens: On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.