1. Nebraska became a state on May 5, 1867, after President Andrew Johnson signed the bill admitting it as the 37th state in the Union.

2. On May 5, 1891, the first ever Pan-American Exposition was opened in Omaha, Nebraska. The exposition was intended to promote trade and cultural exchange between the United States and Latin American countries.

3. In 1925, on May 5, the first radio station in Nebraska, KFWT, was established in Hastings. It was later renamed KHAS and is still in operation today.

4. May 5, 1937, marked the opening of the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. The sports center is home to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's basketball and volleyball teams.

5. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Gordon Cooper made history by becoming the first human to spend more than a day in space. Cooper's spacecraft, named Faith 7, orbited the Earth 22 times before he safely landed in the Pacific Ocean. Cooper was born and raised in Shawnee, Oklahoma, but later moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, after his retirement from NASA.