1 of 6 | The New Hampshire State House, completed in 1866, is in the capital of Concord. On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first American state to adopt its own constitution. File Photo by Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress
Jan. 5 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1776, New Hampshire became the first American state to adopt its own constitution. The document marked a shift toward representative government and away from top-down British royal rule. The Granite State later replaced the document with its current constitution in 1784.
In 1914, the Ford Motor Co. increased its pay from $2.34 for a 9-hour day to $5 for 8 hours of work. It was a radical move in an attempt to better retain employees after introducing the assembly line.
In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States.
In 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay.
File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
In 1933, former President Calvin Coolidge died of coronary thrombosis at his Northampton, Mass., home at the age of 60.
In 1948, the first color newsreel, filmed at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif., was released by Warner Brothers-Pathe.
In 1982, a series of landslides killed up to 33 people after heavy rain in the San Francisco Bay area.
In 1993, the state of Washington hanged serial child-killer Westley Allan Dodd in the nation’s first gallows execution in 28 years.
In 1996, a U.S. government shutdown ended after 21 days when Congress passed a stopgap spending measure that would allow federal employees to return to work. President Bill Clinton signed the bill the next day.
In 1998, U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., of Sonny and Cher fame, was killed when he hit a tree while skiing at South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
In 2002, a 15-year-old student pilot, flying alone, was killed in the crash of his single-engine Cessna into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla.
In 2005, Eris was discovered. It was considered the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system until a year later when Pluto was downgraded from being a planet.
In 2008, tribal violence following a disputed Kenya presidential election claimed almost 500 lives, officials said. Turmoil exploded after incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who had a wide early lead.
File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
In 2013, a cold wave that sent temperatures far below average in northern India was blamed for at least 129 deaths. Many of the victims were homeless.
In 2019, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople granted independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, formally separating it from Moscow for the first time since the 17th century.
In 2025, New York City became the first U.S. city to introduce a congestion charge — $9 for Manhattan’s business district. President Donald Trump failed to kill the toll in a lawsuit.
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
