Head over to the North Carolina Newspapers collection for a new feature: This Day in North Carolina.  Users can now easily pull up all of the newspapers from the collection that were published on this day in years past.  Today’s search — December 5 — brings up ten different issues, ranging in date from 1826 to 1997.  It’s fascinating reading.  Here’s a sample of what we found:

Many people may not realize that North Carolina has been in the lottery business for centuries.  On December 5, 1826, the Catawba Journal published an announcement for a lottery to fund a history of North Carolina.

On December 5, 1941, just two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Southern Pines Pilot published an exclusive interview with the Prime Minister of Canada, talking about the Canadian war effort.

On December 5, 1942, the Carolina Times led with a big headline announcing that the city of Raleigh had just hired on African American policeman.

On December 5, 1988, Black Ink published an analysis of Jesse Jackson’s presidential candidacy.

Stay tuned for news and updates on the North Carolina Newspapers project, including a NC Newspapers Twitter feed to be released in January.