1. On October 8, 1872, the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper was first published in Deadwood, South Dakota. The paper covered news and events in the Black Hills region of the state, which was experiencing a gold rush at the time.

2. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River near Pierre, South Dakota. The dam was a major construction project during the Great Depression and provided hydroelectric power and irrigation water to the surrounding area.

3. On October 8, 1943, South Dakota native and World War II hero Joe Foss shot down five Japanese planes in a single day, becoming the first American pilot to achieve such a feat. Foss went on to serve as governor of South Dakota from 1955 to 1959.

4. In 1990, the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota was completed, nearly 40 years after work began on the massive sculpture. The memorial, which depicts the Lakota leader Crazy Horse on horseback, is one of the largest sculptures in the world.

5. On October 8, 2013, a blizzard hit western South Dakota, dumping up to four feet of snow in some areas and killing tens of thousands of cattle. The storm was one of the worst natural disasters in the state's history and had significant economic impacts on the ranching industry.