1. In 1895, the Missouri School of Journalism was founded at the University of Missouri in Columbia, making it the first school of its kind in the world.

2. In 1984, the famous Kansas City Royals baseball player George Brett signed a $3 million contract, which was the most lucrative in baseball history at the time.

3. On March 27, 1860, a fire broke out in St. Joseph, Missouri, destroying more than 2,000 buildings and causing millions of dollars in damages.

4. In 1820, Missouri became a state, marking the first time that the United States was divided into slave and free territories.

5. On this day in 1998, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Styron died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Styron was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia, but spent much of his adult life living in Connecticut and New York.