The North Carolina Poet Laureate is meant to advocate for the power of poetry and show how the written word impacts the hearts and minds of people everywhere.
NC History
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Born in Guilford County, North Carolina, Dolley Madison became one of the most loved of the early First Ladies of the United States.
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On Jan.
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On Aug.21, 1965, Rev.Martin Luther King Jr.
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In 1879, Thomas Edison tasked geologist William Earl Hidden with finding platinum in North Carolina to help extend the life of his light bulb.
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In the 1930s, a local distributor of Shell Oil created a new way for its brand to stand out as the top choice for car owners to fuel up.
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Known as the first child born in the New World, Virginia Dare may not have disappeared with her Roanoke kinsmen in 1590.
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Born in 1926, Andy Griffith, hails from the tiny mountain town of Mount Airy, North Carolina, which pays tribute to him and his famous show.
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L.D.Peeler began his career investing in Kentucky-based Mint-Bottle Soda Company.
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Edward Teach, better known as the pirate Blackbeard, terrorized the Atlantic in the early 18th century.
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A barren circle 40 feet in diameter lies in the pine woods of Chatham County, just south of Silver City.
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Fishing in a creek in 1799, 12-year-old Conrad Reed found a 17-pound gold nugget on his family’s farm in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.
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Brown Mountain Lights are a spectacle of mysterious lights that have been spotted moving through valleys in Pisgah National Forest for generations.
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One day in 1960, Wilber Hardee visited the state’s first McDonald’s in 1960, sat in his parked car most of the day, and watched.
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Michel Ney was a French military commander and the right-hand man of Napoleon, who dubbed him “the bravest of the brave.
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On Feb. 1, 1960, four Black North Carolina A&T freshmen sat at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro and ordered coffee.
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December marks 65 years for McAdenville as “Christmas Town USA,” with over 375 trees and most homes decorated in red, white and green lights.
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In the 1920s, a woman in a pink gown fell from the indoor balcony outside room 545 of Grove Park Inn. 100 years later, she’s still there.
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Reynolda Gardens – a 125-acre botanical masterpiece adjacent to Wake Forest University – is complete with working greenhouses, woodland trails and wildlife habitats.
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Declared a National Natural Landmark in 1974, the dunes were dangerously close to urban development until a local resident planted herself in front of the oncoming bulldozers.
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By the mid-1920s, Piggly Wiggly was the nation’s third largest grocery chain, with stores in Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington.
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Just across from downtown Wilmington on the Cape Fear River, you’ll find the USS North Carolina.
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North Carolina’s first town and port, Bath, was hardly a place to take children.
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In the late 1880s, charmed by Asheville’s beauty, railroad scion George Washington Vanderbilt II decided to build a “little mountain…
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“My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money if not my life,” wrote Wilbur Wright in 1900, referring to his irrational obsession with powered flight.
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During the Great Depression, a young entrepreneur named Vernon Rudolph purchased a unique recipe for fluffy doughnuts. In 1937, he opened shop in Winston-Salem, and the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation was born.
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In 1932, a composer and WWI veteran named Lamar Stringfield united a gaggle of musicians to form the North Carolina Symphony. By 1935, they’d performed over 140 concerts all over the state.
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From 1720 to 1870, North Carolina led the world in the production of tar, pitch and turpentine – products used to paint and seal wooden ships. From there, historians debate how the term “Tar Heel” originated.
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In 1587, after a failed first attempt, the English again tried to colonize Roanoke Island. Received peacefully by the Croatoan tribe, the English established a healthy settlement.
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“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” Carl Sandburg, one of America’s best-known, best-loved poets and writers wrote that back in 1922.