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1965 - Attack on Justice

January 25, 1965 - A dynamite blast destroys the car that belongs to Julius Chambers. Luckily, he is not hurt. Chambers is the attorney who recently filed legal action against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board on behalf of the Swann family. He will be the target of violence again.

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1941 - U. S. Joins War

December 8, 1941- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Congress agree: The U.S. must declare war on Japan. Two days later, we will declare war on Germany and Italy as well. The U.S. has entered World War II. For nearly four years, its effects will be felt in every community across the country. More than 20,000 men and women from Mecklenburg County will serve in the U.S. military during the war. 

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1960 - King Richard

February 28, 1960 - On a half-mile dirt track at the Charlotte Fairgrounds, 22-year-old Richard Petty wins his first race. He will go on to become the winningest driver in the history of stock car racing, known as NASCAR. 

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1975 - Case Closed

July 11, 1975  - It has been seven long years since Julius Chambers first filed the legal case, Swann vs. the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Integration has worked for one year. Judge James B. McMillan is confident it will continue to do so and gives control of the schools back to the board. The judge who had endured threats against his life officially closes the case. The city that made integration work has earned another place in America's history books.

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1942 - Evac Hospital

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. The money will fund the building of Freedom Park in 1948.Freedom Park

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1917 - Training Soldiers

Mayor Frank McNinch and other officials convince the federal government to build a military training facility west of downtown Charlotte. Camp Greene is named for General Nathanael Greene, who defended Mecklenburg from British attack during the Revolutionary War. Living and working in 1,000 tents and barracks, some 60,000 soldiers will pass through Charlotte. Some will train as pilots, others will learn to repair airplanes.Camp Greene

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1928 - The Fifth Mecklenburg County Courthouse

The Fifth Courthouse was located at 700 East Trade Street next to the new City Hall. . . . It was designed by noted architect Louis H. Asbury, a Charlotte native who also built the Myers Park United Methodist Church. . . . The Courthouse is an imposing, three-story, rectangular limestone building, topped with a recessed structure that served as the county's jail until the 1960's. from Courthouses of Mecklenburg County, 1766-2007 (Mecklenburg County, 2007)

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1932 - Music Easing Sorrow

Even though the country is in the midst of a terrible economic downturn, the performing arts survive. The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is founded. It will be followed in 1948 by the city's opera company. These and other cultural organizations will entertain and enrich the lives of Charlotteans for years to come.

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1917 - Russian Revolution

March 12, 1917 - It is a time of great upheaval in world politics. The Russian Revolution begins when Czar Nicholas II is forced to resign, or abdicate. A new political party will be in power by autumn: the Bolsheviks, who will come to be known as Communists. They will change Russia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In years to come, the U.S.S.R. and the United States will become enemies.

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1919 - Trolley Strike

 August 25, 1919 - Five men are killed and several more are wounded by police protecting Charlotte's streetcar barns against trolley workers who have walked off the job in a labor dispute, called a strike. Two weeks earlier streetcar operators demanded higher wages and group representation by a union. When the Southern Public Utilities Company hired replacement workers, called strikebreakers, violence began. The trolley strike is the worst violence in Charlotte's labor history. 

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