1. In 1862, the Battle of Hancock took place during the American Civil War. Union soldiers defeated Confederate troops at the Potomac River crossing in present-day Hancock, Maryland, just east of the West Virginia state line.

2. George Brett, a Hall of Fame baseball player, was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia on January 5, 1953. Brett played for the Kansas City Royals for his entire career and won a World Series with the team in 1985.

3. The West Virginia Legislature passed the West Virginia Right to Work law on January 5, 2016. The law prohibited employers from requiring employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

4. In 1932, a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia killed 78 miners. It remains the worst mining disaster in U.S. history.

5. On January 5, 1933, during the Great Depression, the West Virginia state legislature ratified the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which repealed Prohibition and allowed the sale, production, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.