1. In 1884, the Southern Female College was founded in Durham, now known as Duke University.

2. On May 31, 1918, the first session of the North Carolina Great War Exposition opened in Charlotte to raise money for the war effort.

3. The USS North Carolina was commissioned on May 31, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York. The battleship served in the Pacific theater during World War II and is now a museum ship in Wilmington, North Carolina.

4. On May 31, 1965, the historic Old Salem district in Winston-Salem was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

5. In 1970, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, which established guidelines for regulating drugs and other controlled substances in the state.