1. In 1837, the North Carolina Supreme Court declared that enslaved people who resisted their masters could not legally be charged with a crime. This decision, in the case of State v. Mann, further entrenched the institution of slavery in the state.

2. On January 7, 1914, the city of Asheville experienced a devastating fire that destroyed much of its downtown area. Over 200 buildings were destroyed or damaged, and the fire caused over a million dollars in damages (equivalent to nearly $27 million today).

3. On January 7, 1947, the renowned author and activist Pauli Murray became the first African American to be admitted to the University of North Carolina School of Law. Murray would later play a key role in the civil rights movement, and her legal arguments would help pave the way for the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

4. In 1960, a group of African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University staged a sit-in protest at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro. This protest, and others like it across the country, helped catalyze the civil rights movement and bring attention to the issue of racial segregation in public spaces.

5. On January 7, 2019, former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory announced that he would not run for the state's open US Senate seat in 2020. McCrory had served as governor from 2013 to 2017, and was a controversial figure due to his support for controversial legislation like the state's "bathroom bill," which restricted transgender individuals' access to certain public restrooms.