1. North Carolina officially became a state on August 1, 1775. A state constitution was created and adopted on this day, marking the beginning of North Carolina's status as an independent state within the United States of America.

2. The first steam locomotive in North Carolina arrived in Wilmington on August 1, 1836. The locomotive, named the "North Carolina," was designed to replace horse-drawn railway cars and marked the beginning of a new era of transportation in the state.

3. On August 1, 1955, the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham opened its doors. The theatre, which was built in 1926, became a popular venue for movies, concerts, and other events, and played an important role in the cultural life of the city.

4. August 1, 1960 marked the beginning of one of the most significant periods in the history of the civil rights movement in North Carolina. A group of six black college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, sparking a wave of sit-ins and protests throughout the state and across the country.

5. On August 1, 1981, the Duke University Medical Center announced that a team of its doctors had successfully implanted an artificial heart into a patient. The patient, a 54-year-old man named Tom Goad, was the second person in the world to receive an artificial heart and lived for 10 days following the surgery.