Wind and sand he wanted, wind and sand he got

On this day in 1900: Orville Wright, uncomfortably encamped at Kitty Hawk, writes his sister:

“This is ‘just before the battle,’ sister, just before the squall begins. About two or three nights a week we have to crawl up at 10 or 11 o’clock to hold the tent down. When one of these 45-mile nor’easters strikes us, you can depend on it, there is little sleep in our camp for the night. Expect another tonight. We have passed through one which took up two or three wagon-loads of sand from the N.E. end of our tent and piled it up eight inches deep on the flying machine.

“We certainly can’t complain of the place. We came down here for wind and sand, and we have got them.”

 

Link dump stuns cocktail party with 19-point rally

— Other than the first appearance of the Miscellany link dump, what are the 10 “most significant events in North Carolina history”?

— What, you thought Wilbur and Orville flew to Kitty Hawk?

— John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone, Max Roach and Billy Taylor born here, Dizzy Gillespie educated here,  Billy Strayhorn inspired here — but all had to leave to shine.

– At last, a school named for McNair — might Murrow be next?