1. In 1854, the first official territorial governor of Nebraska, Francis Burt, passed away just five days after taking office due to illness. He remains the only territorial governor to have died in office.

2. On October 4, 1909, Nebraska Governor George L. Sheldon declared a state of emergency in the town of Kearney due to an outbreak of typhoid fever. The disease had spread rapidly throughout the community, leading to multiple fatalities.

3. The University of Nebraska Cornhuskers played their first football game of the 1913 season on October 4th, defeating the Haskell Indian Institute 38-0. The Cornhuskers would go on to finish the season with a record of 8-1-0.

4. In 1960, the Nebraska Legislature approved a measure allowing for the construction of a new state Capitol building. The current Capitol, which was completed in 1932, had become too small to accommodate the increasing size of state government.

5. On October 4, 1995, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating the Prairie Chicken as the official state bird of Nebraska. The Prairie Chicken, also known as the Greater Prairie Chicken, is a grouse native to the Great Plains region of North America.