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Astronaut Scott Carpenter prepares for his Project Mercury flight in 1962 as fellow Astronaut Walter Schirra and Planetarium instructor Dr. James Batten look on. Photo from the Morehead Planetarium

On May 10, 1949, the Morehead Planetarium opened on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. It was first planetarium in the South, the first planetarium on a university campus and the sixth planetarium to be built nationwide.

The planetarium was primarily a gift of John Motley Morehead III, an 1891 graduate and founder of Union Carbide Corporation. Construction took 17 months and cost $3 million, making the building the most expensive in the state at the time. It was supervised by Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapely and designed by the architects who worked on the Jefferson Memorial.

From the late 1950s to the late 1970s, the planetarium became a hub of NASA’s astronaut training program. The facility was used primarily to help astronauts learn to navigate by the stars in case computerized navigation systems failed. The program ended largely because of advances in the technology of those navigation systems.

In 1973, the planetarium added an observatory with a telescope managed by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and, in 1984, it became one of the first planetariums in the nation to use computer animation in its shows.

For more about North Carolina’s history, arts and culture, visit Cultural Resources online. To receive these updates automatically each day, subscribe by email using the box on the right and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

An internment camp in Hot Springs built like a German village

On May 9, 1942, the U.S. Coast Guard sank German U-boat 352 off the Outer Banks. Thirteen German sailors died and 33 were plucked from the water. They were taken to Fort Bragg and confined as prisoners of war. During the course of the war thousands of POWs—mostly German and Italians—were captured and sent to camps in North Carolina.

POWs captured from the sinking on U-352

Most POWs were brought to North Carolina from abroad. Fritz Teichmann was a member of the German Luftwaffe (the air corps) and was captured in Sicily in July 1943. He was held as a POW at Camp Butner in Granville County. Giuseppe Pagliarulo, a soldier in Benito Mussolini’s Italian army, was captured in Tunisia in North Africa in May 1943 and held at Camp Sutton in Monroe.

So many POWs were brought to the state that men were sent from larger military bases to smaller branch camps. These smaller camps housed up to 500 men each and were located in 16 communities around the Tar Heel state, including Whiteville, Roanoke Rapids, Williamston and Hendersonville. From there, they were placed on compulsory work details and sent out to cut pulpwood, dig ditches, wash dishes and pick apples. Their employers—farmers, loggers and restaurant owners—knew of the camps but otherwise their presence was relatively secret.

ncpedia: RT @digpres411: Every grave at @FtBraggNC being photographed, georeferenced in effort to maintain military cemeteries. http://t.co/bNTI359w…

ncpedia: Learn about Thomas Hart Benton's brawl with Andrew Jackson. http://t.co/ScGVZRo3Qe #DNCB @uncpressblog

ncpedia: Thanks for letting us know! RT @LibScienceList @ncpedia You are a Most Social Media Friendly State Library for 2013!! http://t.co/KaBYRcei8G

An ACC football trophy from 1968

On May 8, 1953, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) was created during the meeting of representatives from the Southern Conference in Greensboro. The initial members of the conference were Clemson, Duke, the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina, N.C. State, the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest. The University of Virginia was accepted as a member later that year. Wallace Wade, the former Duke football coach who was commissioner of the Southern Conference, agreed to serve as the ACC’s interim commissioner as well.  Jim Weaver, the athletic director at Wake Forest, was named commissioner the following year.

The seven schools decided to pull out of the Southern Conference for two primary reasons. First, the Southern Conference’s 17-institution membership was making scheduling games in all sports very difficult. Additionally, the Southern Conference had banned post-season bowl games due to gambling and financial scandals, but some of the schools disputed the ban. The nascent conference elected to allow schools to play in bowl games as long as they did not profit greatly from the participation.

A number of new names were proposed for the new conference including Dixie, Tobacco, Blue-Gray, and the Southern Seven. Duke’s Eddie Cameron ultimately suggested the name that stuck: the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Other related resources:

• Sports-related articles on NCpedia
• The N.C. Sports Hall of Fame at the N.C. Museum of History

For more about North Carolina’s history, arts and culture, visit Cultural Resources online. To receive these updates automatically each day, make sure you subscribe by email using the box on the right, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

ncpedia: RT @ncculture: #OnThisDay in #NC #history (1942): 77 Army and Navy nurses were captured in the Philippines: http://t.co/DwU7uSyj8s #WWII