1. In 1789, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered on January 26, making it the oldest public university in the United States.

2. On January 26, 1861, North Carolina voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy during the Civil War.

3. The Wright Brothers, who invented the airplane, made their first powered flight on December 17, 1903, but they made their first flight outside of Ohio on January 26, 1904, in North Carolina.

4. In 1960, the sit-in movement began in Greensboro when four North Carolina A&T State University students sat down at the Woolworth's lunch counter. This event is considered a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement.

5. On January 26, 1986, Charlotte resident John Hinckley, Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and three others in 1981.