1. On December 22, 1852, the first public library in Washington territory, the Washington Library Association, was founded in Olympia.

2. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Aid Road Act on December 22, 1916, which provided federal funding for highways and marked the beginning of the U.S. interstate highway system.

3. On December 22, 1944, the Hanford Site, located in southeastern Washington, produced the first nuclear reactor-produced plutonium, which was used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

4. The Seattle Seahawks played their first home playoff game on December 22, 1984, where they defeated the Los Angeles Raiders at the Kingdome.

5. On December 22, 2011, the Washington State Liquor Control Board approved the privatization of liquor sales, ending a 78-year monopoly on alcohol sales by the state.