1. On June 24, 1880, the University of Washington was established in Seattle. Originally called the Territorial University of Washington, it was the first public higher education institution in the state.

2. In 1939, the Grand Coulee Dam in central Washington began generating electricity for the first time. The dam, which spans the Columbia River, was a massive construction project that employed over 10,000 workers during the Great Depression.

3. On June 24, 1985, a bomb exploded outside the Boeing Aerospace Company plant in Kent, Washington. The blast damaged several buildings and injured one person. The perpetrator was never caught.

4. In 2005, the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team drafted UCLA star point guard Russell Westbrook as the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft. Westbrook would go on to be a nine-time NBA All-Star and win the league's MVP award in 2017.

5. On June 24, 2011, the Washington State Legislature passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Washington was the seventh state in the US to legalize same-sex marriage, and the law went into effect on December 6, 2012.