History

Kure Beach was incorporated in 1947 when it was a "T" city with K Avenue running down the center of town from east to west, and U.S. 421 going north and south creating a "T".

Kure Beach was a major part of the Civil War battle fought at Fort Fisher in 1865. Hans Kure purchased 900 acres at Federal Point back in 1885 and in 1923 L. C. Kure built the first public fishing pier on the island.

In the 1930's the Dow Chemical Plant was built and operated in Kure Beach for many years. During World War II the Shipyard in Wilmington increased the population of Kure Beach. The Fort Fisher Air Force Base was to the South of the town and served as an Anti-Aircraft Training center in the 1940's.

After the war many vacation homes were constructed in the area forcing Kure Beach to seek Incorporation in 1946.

For more on the history of Kure Beach click here.

North Carolina History

Ancient times

The Eastern half of the state was underwater, and giant megalodon sharks roamed the waters. On land, there were wooly mammoths and mastodons. Archaeologists believe the first Native Americans crossed into the New World from Siberia some 12,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Prior to 1500

Approximately 30 Native American tribes are scattered across North Carolina. Chief among these are the Cherokee, the Catawba, the Tuscarora, and the Croatans. Native Americans build the Town Creek Indian Mound.

• 1524: Italian explorer Giovanni de Varrazano is the first European to visit North Carolina.
• 1540: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto explores the southwestern part of the state in search of gold.
• 1584-1586: Sir Walter Raleigh sends several shiploads of people to establish the New World's first English colony on North Carolina's Roanoke Island. The colonists are forced to return to England due to hardships.
• 1587 - July 2: John White establishes a second English colony at Roanoke.
     ◊ August 18: Virginia Dare is born, becoming the first English child christened on American soil.
     ◊ August 22: White returns to England for more supplies.
• 1590 - White returns to Roanoke to find that the settlers have all disappeared. The word "CROATOAN" is found carved into a tree. The fate of "The Lost Colony" remains one of the state's most enduring mysteries.
  
  
• 1607; First permanent English colony in North America established at Jamestown, VA.
• 1620; Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.

• 1705: Bath, the first town in North Carolina, is built.
• 1712: The territory of Carolina is divided into North and South, each having its own governor.
• 1760 October 25: George II dies after a 33-year reign at 77 and George III begins a disastrous 60-year reign.
• 1764, April 5: Sugar Act passed. This is the first serious dispute between the colonies and Great Britain.
• 1765, March 22: Stamp Act passed.
• 1766, March 18: George III signs bill to rescind Stamp Act rescind Stamp Act.
• 1767, June 29 - The Townshend Revenue Act passed by Parliament The Act imposes duties on tea, glass, paint, oil, lead and paper imported into the colonies. The estimated revenue is £40,000 per annum. Charles, Champagne Charley, Townsend is Chancellor of the Exchequer. Townshend said, "These colonies are children of the mother country. They were planted by our care and nurtured by us. They will not grudge us their mite to help with the heavy burden we bear." James Habersham warns the British, "If you persist in your right to tax the colonists, you will drive them to rebellion."
• 1770, January 19 & 20: The battle of Golden Hill New York is the first clash between British forces and colonists.
• 1770, March 5; Boston Massacre, British troops fire into a rioting mob killing five men and wounding six. Three men die instantly and two die later of wounds. The British Captain and his men are tried for murder and acquitted. The prosecutor is Robert Treat Paine and the defense attorneys are John Adams and Josiah Quincy.
• 1775 to 1781: American Revolution in North Carolina.
  • 1776, February 27: The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge is the first battle of the American Revolution to be fought in North Carolina.
  • April 12; North Carolina becomes the first state to vote in favor of independence.
  • July 4; the 13 colonies to declare independence from Britain. The Signers to the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina are: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and John Penn.
  • October 7, 1780; Battle of King´s Mountain , North Carolina.
  • March 15, 1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
  • October 19, 1781: General Cornwallis surrenders.
  • 1781 Dec; When news reaches London of Washington´s defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the British Parliament resolves to bring the war to an end.
  • 1783: The Treaty of Paris is signed formally ending the American War of Independence. The United States was bounded by British Canada on the north, Spanish Florida on the south, and the Mississippi River on the west.
• 1789: November 21: North Carolina becomes the 12th state of the United States of America.
• 1793; Eli Whitney invents cotton gin.
• 1804: The "Walton War" is fought between residents of Georgia and North Carolina.
• 1828: North Carolina Native Andrew Jackson becomes the 7th president of the United States.
• 1830s: The U. S. government forces Cherokee Indians from their homes in what becomes known as the "Trail of Tears". Many Cherokee hide in the mountains of North Carolina.
• 1845: James Polk becomes the 11th president of the United States.
• 1861-1865; War between the States (Civil War) in North Carolina.
  • 1861-1865: Some 40,000 North Carolinians are killed over the course of the war.
  • 1865 March 19-21: The Battle of Bentonville becomes the bloodiest battle fought in North Carolina. The Confederates are defeated by Union troops.
  • 1865 April 15: Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th president of the United States.
  • 1865 April 26: A large number of Confederates surrender at Bennett Place, outside of Durham, North Carolina.
  • 1865 May 6: The last Confederate troops in North Carolina surrender.
  • 1865 May 26: Civel War ends; when General Kirby Smith surrendered Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.
• 1868: July 4: North Carolina is readmitted to the Union.
• Late 1800s: The textile and furniture industries grow rapidly in North Carolina.
• 1896; Plessy v. Ferguson decision by U.S. Supreme Court establishes "separate but equal" doctrine in racial policy.
• 1898, February 15; The USS Maine (ACR-1) exploded and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba.
• 1898; Spanish-American War.
• 1903: The Wright brothers make man's first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
     Wright brothers National Memorial.
• 1923: L.C. Kure builds the Kure Beach Fishing Peir.
• 1929 - 1940; The Great Depression and New Deal.
• The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States is associated with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The depression had devastating effects in both the industrialized countries and those which exported raw materials.
• The New Deal is the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to a sequence of programs and promises he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving relief, reform and recovery to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression.
• 1931, September 18, Japan invades Manchuria.
• 1939 - 1945 World War II. [More Information]
• Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) versus Allies (U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia).
• 1939: Germany invades Poland.


• 1941, December 7: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
• 1945, April 12: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia.
• 1945, May 8: Victory in Europe, V-E Day.
• 1945, September 2: Victory over Japan, V-J Day Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri (BB-63).
  
• 1950 - 1953; The Korean War is fought in Korea.

Although there had been attempts to settle the Cape Fear region in the 1600s, the first permanent English settlers established themselves in the area in the 1720s. The town of Wilmington was incorporated in 1739. A number of the first settlers of the region came from South Carolina and Barbados. Slavery came early to the region, as landowners used slave labor to exploit the region's natural resources. The forest provided the region's major industries through the 18th and most of the 19th century: naval stores and lumber fueled the economy both before and after the American Revolution.

Captain William Gordon Rutherfurd , (1765 - 14 January 1818), who commanded HMS Swiftsure in Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, was born in Wilmington.

Thomas Peters , an early founder of Sierra Leone, escaped from slavery in Wilmington during the American Revolution.