1. On November 16, 1776, the North Carolina provincial congress authorized the formation of three regiments of soldiers to support the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
2. In 1794, the first Baptist church in Raleigh, North Carolina was organized on November 16.
3. On November 16, 1862, a Confederate raiding party led by General J.E.B. Stuart entered Republican-held Fairfax Court House, Virginia, on their way to scout Union Army positions during the Civil War.
4. On this day in 1928, Governor Angus W. McLean signed a law that made the cardinal North Carolina's official state bird.
5. In 1972, Sam Ervin, the Democratic Senator from North Carolina, was returned to the Senate by a large margin despite his role in the Watergate hearings that took place earlier that year.