[6] The Orange County seat of Hillsborough was founded in 1754 on land where the Great Indian Trading Path crossed the Eno River.

Originally to be named Orange, it was named Corbin Town (for Francis Corbin, a member of the governor's council and one of Granville's land agents), and renamed Childsburgh (in honor of Thomas Child, the attorney general for North Carolina from 1751 to 1760 and another one of Granville's land agents) in 1759.

Located in the Piedmont region, Hillsborough was the site of a colonial court, and the scene of some pre-Revolutionary War tensions.

[7] Several thousand people from North Carolina, mainly from Orange, Anson, and Granville counties in the western region, were extremely dissatisfied with the wealthy colonial officials whom they considered cruel, arbitrary, tyrannical, and corrupt.

With specie scarce, many inland farmers were cash poor and unable to pay their taxes; they resented the consequent seizure of their property.

As the western districts were under-represented in the colonial legislature, the farmers could not obtain redress by legislative means.

Ultimately, the frustrated farmers took to arms and closed the court in Hillsborough, dragging those they saw as corrupt officials through the streets and cracking the church bell.

[8] Hillsborough served as a military base by British General Charles Cornwallis in late February 1781.

William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was buried in the Presbyterian Church cemetery in October 1790.

[9] Beginning instruction of undergraduates in 1795, UNC is the oldest public university in the United States and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century.

During the war, North Carolina Governor David Lowry Swain persuaded Confederate President Jefferson Davis to exempt some UNC students from the draft, so the university was among the few in the Confederacy that managed to stay open.

When student numbers did not recover rapidly enough, the university closed for a period during Reconstruction, from December 1, 1870, to September 6, 1875.

While camped in Raleigh after his March to the Sea, Union General William T. Sherman offered an armistice to Johnston, who agreed to meet to discuss terms of surrender.

Bill France and the early founders of NASCAR bought land to build a one-mile oval track at Hillsborough, but opposition from local religious leaders prevented the track from being built in the town and NASCAR officials built the large speedway Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama.

[18] Small amendments to allow "infrequent" visits failed to placate the student body, especially when the university's board of trustees overruled new Chancellor Paul Frederick Sharp's decision to allow speaking invitations to Marxist speaker Herbert Aptheker and civil liberties activist Frank Wilkinson.

[19] A group of UNC students, along with Aptheker and Williamson, filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court based on the right to free speech.

[20] In 1968, a year after its public schools became fully integrated, Chapel Hill elected Howard Lee as mayor.

FY 2008-09 Orange County had the second highest property tax rate in NC at 0.998 per $100 of valuation.

For FY 2009-10 after the 2009 Orange County revaluation, the rate is now ninth highest in the state at 0.858 per $100 of valuation.

This trend predates the recent swing toward the Democrats in counties dominated by college towns.

The last Republican to win the county at a presidential level was Herbert Hoover in 1928[30] – when opposition to the Catholicism of Democratic nominee Al Smith was a powerful force among voters.

In October 2002, Carrboro was among the first municipalities in the South to pass resolutions opposing the Iraq War and the USA PATRIOT Act.

This was the highest vote against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage of any county in the United States, even higher than San Francisco in 2008.

The flagship station for PBS North Carolina, WUNC-TV, is licensed to Chapel Hill.

UNC Chapel Hill's student-run newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, offers extensive coverage of news in Orange County.