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June 15, 1843 - Green Washington Caldwell is appointed superintendent of Charlotte's Mint. This doctor, former congressman and lawyer is well acquainted with the business of manufacturing coins.
The Charlotte Female Institute opens to educate young women. The school building at the corner of Ninth and College streets will be used in 1896 to start Presbyterian College for Women.
Although the Civil War has ended, Southern military leaders will not abandon their countrymen. More than 60 officers bring their skills to Charlotte.
December 15, 1874 - The last stagecoach carries mail from Charlotte to Wadesboro as railroad lines now link major cities throughout the Carolinas and the South. There is now a distillery to make liquor in Charlotte, and four dealers who sell the intoxicating spirits.
Without money to build and expand their facilities, businesses cannot grow. The Charlotte National Bank opens this year. It will lends funds, called capital, to help businesses become strong and healthy.
D.A. Tompkins arrives in Charlotte, armed with a prestigious engineering degree from New York. He believes the New South can and will emerge as the nation's industrial and textile leader.
Charlotte Sanitorium opens in a five-story building at the corner of Seventh and Church Streets. The hospital can accommodate 100 patients. It is privately owned by a group of 30 physicians and surgeons.
On December 5, Charles Wadsworth, who with his brother James operated a livery stable on North College Street, became the first person to drive a gasoline-powered car in Charlotte. As it passed along Tryon Street . . . crowds followed it, noted the Charlotte Observer in a story the next day.
Some civic leaders decide they want downtown Charlotte to resemble the brightly lit avenues of New York City. Charlotte removes the trees that grace its downtown streets. But no amount of artificial light can replace what has been lost.
April 15, 1902 - The first Coca-Cola bottled in the Carolinas is sold in Charlotte. Sales of the carbonated soft drink are modest. Three years later the sale of liquor is outlawed in Charlotte, and statewide prohibition follows in 1909.
Charlotte's Mint closes. It never again manufactured money after the Confederate soldiers left. Since 1867, is had been used to measure and analyze, or assay, gold. Now the building will be used by the Red Cross and by the Charlotte's Women's Club.
The network of railroad lines serving Charlotte grows as the Norfolk and Southern Railroad reaches from Virginia to the Queen City by way of Raleigh and Albemarle. Like spokes of a wheel, rail lines expand in eight directions from Charlotte.
April 11, 1918 - Film star Charlie Chaplin visits Charlotte to promote the sale of bonds that raise money for the war effort. He speaks for 10 minutes and raises over $20,000. Chaplin also entertains troops at Camp Greene, on Charlotte's west side.
February 17, 1936 - The Father of Bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, makes his first recording in a Charlotte warehouse. By 1939, this country music legend will become a regular guest on WBT's radio programs. He will record nearly 60 songs in Charlotte.
The 38th Evacuation Hospital, made up of Charlotte doctors and nurses, gives medical aid to the troops fighting in North Africa and Italy. After the war, Charlotte will remember her veterans by collecting donations and memorials.
May 8, 1961 - Charlotte businessman and journalist Stanford R. Brookshire begins his first of four terms as mayor. He will lead Charlotte through desegregation and preside over the re-development of downtown.
November 1, 1985 - Once the largest afternoon daily newspaper in the Carolinas, the Charlotte News ceases publication today. The last issue marks the end of a 97-year presence in the Queen City. Front page of the last Charlotte News
August 1988 - A crowd of 20,000 has to celebrate the opening of Charlotte's new $52 million coliseum on Tyvola Road. The fans are welcomed by Rev.
July 22, 1991 - NationsBank is announced as a new institution, created by the joining, or merging, of Charlotte-based North Carolina National Bank and Atlanta's C&S Sovran.
May 1992 - Light floods the Charlotte Motor Speedway and night racing begins. In the gripping race around the super-speedway track, the lead changes hands three times in the last lap. Driver Davey Allison is knocked unconscious, unaware until he wakes that he has won. Charlotte Speedway