1. In 1863, West Virginia officially became the 35th state of the United States. It was formed as a result of several counties in Virginia seceding from the state during the American Civil War due to their loyalty to the Union.

2. On January 6, 1911, the West Virginia Capitol building was destroyed by a fire caused by an electrical short circuit. The building was rebuilt and dedicated in 1932.

3. In 1928, the first fully automatic traffic light in the United States was installed in Morgantown, West Virginia. The invention was created by a local resident and engineer named William L. Potts.

4. On January 6, 1960, the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was designated as an emergency fallout shelter in the event of a nuclear war. The shelter was built underneath the hotel, and was designed to house members of Congress in the case of an attack.

5. On January 6, 2014, the Elk River chemical spill occurred in Charleston, West Virginia. A storage tank owned by Freedom Industries leaked thousands of gallons of MCHM, a chemical used in coal processing, into the river, contaminating the water supply for over 300,000 residents in the area.