North Carolina History

The Man Who Destroyed the Recording Industry: On Sept. 9, 2009, Bennie Lydell Glover of Shelby was indicted in Alexandria, Virginia, for felony conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

Two years earlier Glover left work to encounter Cleveland County deputies alongside his truck. As they arrested him, the FBI was simultaneously raiding his house.

The popular assumption is that Napster, created in 1999, was chiefly responsible for the plummet in sales of recorded music. But recent accounts make clear that Glover was there first and created the most damage.

Glover, employed at Polygram’s CD pressing plant in Kings Mountain, began slipping disks out of the factory as early as 1994. He regularly took movies and video games but found a market for rap CDs, especially artists like Jay Z, Eminem, and in time Kanye West.

He would drop off bags of disks for resale at Shelby barbershops but, via Internet file-sharing, found listeners all across the country. Polygram fought back, installing increased security measures, but Glover long evaded the law, sneaking CDs out behind oversize belt buckles past wand-wielding guards.

Glover, who testified against his co-conspirator, pled guilty and served three months in prison. Meanwhile sales of recorded music shrank with total revenue cut in half in the period between 2000 and 2010.

Heroine of the American Revolution Martha Bell: On Sept. 9, 1820, Martha McFarlane McGee Bell, heroine of the American Revolution, died at her home in Randolph County. The wife of a Deep River gristmill owner, Bell and her husband were ardent supporters of American independence, and their mill became a gathering place for local patriots during the war. There is also evidence that the Continental Army used the mill to store supplies.

Bell’s credit as heroine, though, stems from an incident following the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. British General Charles Cornwallis camped at the Bells’ Mill for two days, needing to grind corn for his troops and time to rest and treat the wounded. Bell treated the British hospitably and nursed the injured in return for Cornwallis’s promise that his troops would do her property no harm. The British left without incident.

When American General “Lighthorse” Harry Lee arrived at the mill shortly after the British departed, he encouraged Bell to visit Cornwallis at his next camp on a ruse related to property damage. Bell acted as a spy for the patriots, noting details as to Cornwallis’ troops and supplies.

A monument on the grounds of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park honors Bell.

Road for Charles Kuralt Began, Ended in North Carolina: On Sept. 10, 1934, celebrated CBS journalist, television news anchor and bestselling author Charles Kuralt was born in Wilmington.

The winner of 12 Emmys and two Peabody Awards, Kuralt showed early promise as a writer. Voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by Charlotte’s Central High School class of 1951, the budding writer attended UNC, where he was editor of The Daily Tar Heel.

Kuralt’s first professional job was with the Charlotte News, where he wrote an award winning column called “Charles Kuralt’s People.” In 1957, at age 23, he became the youngest correspondent ever hired by CBS News.

A decade later, during a period of war and riots, he experimented with a good-news segment on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Called “On the Road,” the feature ran for more than 20 years. During that time, Kuralt and his crew wore out six campers, crisscrossing the country’s back roads and telling stories about ordinary Americans. He later anchored CBS News Sunday Morning before retiring in 1994.

Kuralt died in July 1997, at age 62, of complications from lupus. At his request, he was buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery on UNC’s campus.

Nation and World History

Civil Rights Bill: On Sept. 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction, a measure primarily concerned with protecting voting rights; it also established a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Sept. 10, 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. The proceedings would become a watershed moment in the discussion of sexual harassment when Anita Hill, a law professor who had previously worked under Thomas, came forward with allegations against him.

United States comes under attack: On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.

Voyager 1 becomes first man-made object to leave the solar system: On Sept. 12, 2013, Voyager 1, launched 36 years earlier, became the first man-made spacecraft ever to leave the solar system.

Attica prison standoff ends with 32 inmates and 11 hostages dead: On Sept. 13, 1971, a four-day inmates’ rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York ended as police and guards stormed the prison; the ordeal and final assault claimed the lives of 32 inmates and 11 hostages.