Looking back on 2001 means looking north to burning avalanches of stone and steel in New York and Washington.

Sept. 11 changed us, but so did the history that was made closer to home.

Racing legend and Kannapolis-bred Dale Earnhardt died in a crash on the track.

Jesse Helms announced he will retire after a generation in the Senate.

A court ruling ended race-based student assignment in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

Charlotte voters refused to pay for a new arena, knowing it might mean the loss of the Hornets.

And the softening economy left thousands of laid-off workers without a way to pay the rent - never mind Christmas presents.

"History always happens at home. In the long-run, it's the bedrock changes in our lives that are as important as the fiery national headlines," said Tom Hanchett, staff historian for the Levine Museum of The New South in Charlotte.

Here, a glance back at the events that wrenched, thrilled, hurt, changed and challenged the Carolinas in 2001.

The year started on a low note.

In January, the revolting drama of former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth's murder case showcased the underside of Charlotte on national television. For the death of Cherica Adams, pregnant with his son, but also for shaming Charlotte, Carruth became the city's villain. The jury acquitted him of first-degree murder, but convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder, among other charges. Carruth has 17 more years to serve.

In the pride column, one of Charlotte's biggest banks grew bigger. First Union Corp. merged with Winston-Salem-based Wachovia Corp. and became the fourth-biggest bank in terms of assets.

Down the block, literally, the larger-than-life leader of the largest consumer bank in the nation retired. Hugh McColl Jr., the CEO of Bank of America, strutted into his April retirement party in a black cowboy hat. Charlotte thanked him for building the symphony, the homeless shelter and a $600 billion bank in our back yard.

And Jesse, one of the few people in North Carolina known by his first name alone, announced in August he would not seek a sixth term. Tar Heels who revile Helms' brand of conservatism celebrated. Others choked up with the now 80-year-old senator as he explained he was getting on in years.

Age isn't stopping South Carolina's senior senator, the oldest ever. Strom Thurmond, 99, moved into a Washington hospital last month. It's unclear how much senatorial work he's doing, but he did manage to get Strom Thurmond Jr. nominated this year as South Carolina's top federal lawyer, making the 28-year-old the nation's youngest U.S. attorney.

Pat McCrory hasn't been around as long as Thurmond, but it's getting hard to remember when he wasn't mayor of Charlotte. McCrory's fourth win in November puts him on par with Charlotte's longest-serving mayors.

In October, Charlotte mourned the passing of former Mayor Pro Tem Al Rousso, the straight-talking jeweler who won his seat in 1985 following an honored American tradition: getting mad at city hall and taking a seat at the civic table. The next day Charlotte lost Herman Blumenthal, the quiet philanthropist whose name graces the performing arts center.

Voters put Larry Gauvreau, one of seven parents who sued Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools over its race-based student assignment plan, on the school board.

In July, the school board adopted a race-neutral plan, and in September a federal appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that ends the 32-year-old desegregation mandate. For the first time in a generation in fall 2002, students will be guaranteed a seat in a classroom close to home, though the plan also allows them to request a school outside their neighborhood.

Only one debate rivaled school assignment for provoking local passions. Charlotte split over the $342million arena package. Sound public investment or stupid civic handout? The plan that would have built an arena and financed six other arts and sports projects failed 57percent to 43percent on the June ballot. Soon after, the Hornets owners hit the road, looking for a city that would build the state-of-the-art arena they say NBA teams must have to compete. They're still looking.

The search is over for a new site for the Mecklenburg County Courthouse, ending a yearlong controversy that pitted fans of a more expensive East Trade Street location against those who favored the winning real estate, the corner of Fourth and McDowell streets.

The county commissioners garnered even more attention when they raised taxes by 15 percent in June, the largest increase in nine years.

That hike will hit hard. Contrary to past downturns, the region enjoyed no cushion from a national recession that left people around boardrooms and kitchen tables wondering how they would pay the bills. The second half of 2001 brought news of layoffs nearly every day. In November, the N.C. jobless rate rose to 6.1 percent while South Carolina's hovered around 5.5 percent. In Charlotte, US Airways alone cut 1,700 employees.

The airline dominated the front page on many days. The disintegration this summer of its planned merger with United Airlines was followed, after Sept. 11, by what Chairman Stephen Wolf described as "a cataclysmic falloff in revenue."

Under the dome in Raleigh, the ledger looked no cheerier. Lawmakers suffered through a nasty six-month budget battle ending in deep cuts, dozens of lost jobs and more than $1billion in tax hikes. South Carolina survived a similar exercise, but Columbia and Raleigh may have to cut still deeper in the coming year.

In Washington, North Carolina will get one more representative. The 2000 Census results, released this year, showed that legions of people have moved to the state since 1990, rendering it underrepresented in Congress. With more than 8 million residents, the N.C. congressional delegation will gain a 13th House member in the 2002 elections.

The Census also showed Charlotte grew faster than every other American city except Austin, Texas, during the 1990s, with much of the growth in University City and other communities on the city's edge. Overnight in June, Charlotte annexed 22,300 people from six border areas, subjecting them to city taxes and entitling them to city services. The Charlotte metro area - Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Lincoln, Rowan, Union and York (S.C.) counties - grew 29 percent during the '90s, to almost 1.5 million people.

Growing bigger, the region also grew more diverse. North Carolina's Hispanic population grew faster than any ethnic group, increasing by 400 percent to 378,963. About 45,000 Hispanics live in Mecklenburg County, seven times as many as a decade ago. The number of Asians tripled.

Growing also brought pains - ominous ones. The Catawba this year earned the dubious honor of the nation's 13th most-endangered river by the environmental group American Rivers. For the second year in a row, Charlotte made the American Lung Association's list of bad-air cities, ranking eighth worst in the nation.

Environmentalists clashed with developers about The Palisades, 4,145 homes that Mecklenburg commissioners in December approved for the shores of Lake Wylie.

Rapid transit is supposed to help clean the air and, by encouraging construction along train and bus lines, reduce sprawl. Construction began in April on the first line of a five-spoke, 80-mile-long system with an uptown hub. Major roadwork also began on increasingly burdened arteries: the widening of Interstate 77 in northern Mecklenburg and Independence Boulevard between Eastway Drive and Albemarle Road.

What have we learned this year? That we are bigger and more polluted and vulnerable to hardship than we knew. That we are more diverse, more complex and more resilient than we imagined. That one person - an athlete, politician, banker or small businessman, for better or worse - can change a community.

Oh, yes. We learned that you have to dial 10 numbers to phone your next-door neighbor.