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Each day, The News & Observer is looking back at some of our headlines on August and September dates in previous years. Here is a collection of what happened — the newsworthy, the interesting or the just plain strange.
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A daily look at some of The News & Observer headlines on this date in past years.
On this day in 2014, the Durham Bulls introduced the world to the rump-shaking soul of their infield — a quartet of brazenly ridiculous groundskeepers sporting dark shades and golf shirts tucked inside khaki shorts, waving their behinds like middle-aged dads at a father-daughter dance.
Video of the hip-wiggling grounds crew dancing to Taylor Swift went mega-viral, drawing admirers around the Triangle and across the ocean.
“Dayum!” raved one of them.
“White boys got some butts!” another cheered.
They even made The Sporting News.
For the first time since the grisly 1970 triple slaying, news media were allowed to walk through but not photograph the house where convicted murderer Jeffrey McDonald lived with his slain family on Fort Bragg. Among the items they saw: a watch worn by his 5-year-old daughter, a Mickey Mouse statue and a child’s drawing of a flower with her name misspelled “Kimberlery.”
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A 13-year-old boy nicknamed “Mr. Moneybags” waited for a judge to decide his fate after stealing $2,500 of his uncle’s tobacco money and passing it out around town while enjoying a wild spending spree. The teen from Mt. Olive gave out large bills while buying hot dogs, cigarette lighters and a shoe shine, telling everyone “Keep the change.”
In 1926, Wrightsville Beach announced that “great preparations” were taken for fun times on Labor Day, including the Oceanic Hotel staying open for the holiday for the first time in many years.
The Weidermeyer Orchestra would play two concerts a day, while dancers could glide around the Lumina Pavilion and the less-musical could enjoy movies on the large screen installed right in the ocean waves.
Beach boosters invited visitors from 200 miles away, offering them easy access on “concrete roads” and reduced train fares.
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Among the other attractions being advertised: fishing and “surf bathing.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2026 at 5:00 AM.