1. In 1877, the first Washington State Constitutional Convention met in the city of Olympia, with 78 delegates from across the state gathering to write a constitution.

2. In 1944, the United States Army activated the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit composed almost entirely of Japanese Americans, many of whom had been forcibly removed from their homes and interned in camps during World War II. The 442nd went on to become one of the most decorated units in US military history.

3. In 1989, a massive earthquake struck the Pacific Northwest, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale and causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure throughout the region.

4. In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe made national headlines when they led a protest against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would have run through their ancestral lands and endangered their water supply.

5. In 2020, the Washington State Supreme Court found that the state's felony drug possession law was unconstitutional, declaring that it "criminalized innocent and passive non-conduct." The ruling prompted the state legislature to quickly pass a bill decriminalizing simple drug possession.