1. On April 3, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Banking Act into law, which aimed to stabilize the banking system during the Great Depression. While not specific to West Virginia, many banks in the state were able to reopen thanks to the act.

2. In 1865, Confederate General John C. Breckinridge visited Charleston, West Virginia. Breckinridge had been Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan, but resigned when he joined the Confederate army during the Civil War.

3. On April 3, 1882, West Virginia University was founded in Morgantown. The university has since grown to become a major research institution and a point of pride for the state.

4. In 1923, the West Virginia legislature passed the state's first silicosis law. The law provided compensation to workers who developed lung disease from exposure to silica dust in mines and other workplaces.

5. On April 3, 1956, the West Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution urging Congress to investigate Soviet espionage in the United States. The resolution was part of a larger wave of anti-Communist sentiment that swept the country during the Cold War.