1. In 1820, Maine officially became a state as part of the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state while Missouri entered as a slave state.

2. In 1880, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America's most famous poets and a longtime resident of Portland, Maine, passed away at the age of 75.

3. In 1933, the York Village Fire Department, founded in 1796, officially became the first volunteer fire department in Maine to be licensed by the state.

4. In 1952, Augusta native Senator Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency of the United States at a major party's convention.

5. In 2010, Maine became the first state to pass a law banning the use of BPA, a chemical found in some plastics, in baby bottles and sippy cups. This law went into effect on January 1, 2012.