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The first state art museum in the country is located in Raleigh.

The University of North Carolina was the first public university in the United States to open its doors.

Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in Fayetteville on March 7, 1914.

The first English colony in America was located on Roanoke Island. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh.

The first outdoor drama in America, The Lost Colony, is staged every year in Manteo, North Carolina.

The first Pepsi was created and served in New Bern, North Carolina in 1898.

In 1955, the University of North Carolina admitted the first three African Americans undergraduates—John Brandon, and brothers John and Leroy Frasier.

The first known miniature golf course was in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Mary S. MacRae was the first of five females to register at the University of North Carolina in 1897 under policy allowing women to enroll in undergraduate courses.

On November 8, 1921, Miss Lillian Exum Clement of Asheville became the first woman elected to the General Assembly.

The first mobile computer center was operated for Douglas Aircraft Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 27, 1961.

Washington in Beaufort County was the first town in the United States to be named for President George Washington.

The first x–ray photograph was made on January 12, 1896, by Dr. Henry Louis Smith of Greensboro.

The first telephones in North Carolina were installed in Raleigh in 1879.

Cabarrus County, North Carolina was the site of America’s first gold rush.

North Carolina established the first state–supported symphony orchestra in the nation in 1946.

The nation’s first black textile mill was owned and operated by Warren C. Coleman of Concord, North Carolina.

Harriet Abigail Morrison Irwin (1828–1897) of Mecklenburg County was the first American woman to receive a patent for architectural innovation.

In 1969, Chapel Hill became the first predominately white town to elect a black mayor, Howard N. Lee.

Susie M. Sharpe became the first female chief justice of the North Carolina State Supreme Court in 1974.

In 1969, North Carolina chartered the first totally natural habitat zoo in the United States.

In 1942, Thomas Oxendine of Pembroke became the first Native American to graduate from the United States Naval Flight School.

Many people believe that North Carolina was the first state to declare independence from England with the Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775.

In 1992, Eva M. Clayton became the first woman in North Carolina history elected to Congress.

What was probably the first drawbridge built in the United States was built over the Cape Fear River.

In 1991, the North Carolina legislature elected Daniel T. Blue as the first African American Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The first cotton mill was opened in Lincoln County in 1813.

The first public school in North Carolina was opened in Rockingham County on January 20, 1840.

Sources:

Facts To Know North Carolina RNC 975.6 M

History of African Americans in North Carolina RNC 975.6 C

North Carolina Almanac and Book of Facts RNC 975.6 N

North Carolina Firsts RNC 031 Corey

Paths Toward Freedom: A Biographical History of Blacks and Indians in North Carolina By Blacks and Indians RNC 920.0756 P

http://www.dev.unc.edu/development/wgac/1001firs.htm

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/kidspg/facts.htm

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