Andrew Alexis Varvel

After midnight, on this date in 1952, Spike Jones and his City Slickers were still playing their notorious “Musical Depreciation Revue of 1952” for over seven thousand fans at the UND Fieldhouse.

On this date in 1968, North Dakota State University's student newspaper, The Spectrum, carried a report about police raiding a keg party, but it very well could have been an April Fool’s joke.

On this date in 1993, the Bismarck Tribune reported that Agnes Geelan had died three days earlier in a Fargo nursing home. One biographer called her “one of North Dakota's grand ladies.” Another called her “debater extraordinary.” Another called her “a North Dakota legend.”

On this date in 1912, the University of North Dakota's student newspaper, The Student, reported on a lecture given the previous Saturday by Dr. Robert Charles Wallace, a geology professor at the University of Manitoba. Although Dr. Wallace was a renowned expert on mineralogy, his topic was not about geology. The title was “Ideals of University Co-operation.” This speech would prefigure his future career in university administration. Indeed, he would become one of the most eminent university administrators in Canadian history.

This week in 1956, prominent Democrat Bill Lanier sent a letter by air mail to Senator William “Wild Bill” Langer. He wrote: “Just a short note to straighten out some of the habitual garbled reporting of the Fargo Forum.

On this evening in 1925, the Men's Conference at the University of North Dakota held a long stormy session. The topic was cigarette smoking. Despite UND's official ban on smoking, there had been a laissez-faire attitude toward enforcement.

This week in 1906, students and faculty at the University of North Dakota crowded into the armory to listen to a lecture from famous author and war correspondent Jack London.

On this date in 1910, students at the University of North Dakota were studying for their final exams. Registration Day on that year's calendar was February 8, so they were also considering classes to take during the upcoming spring semester.

On this date in 1908, the Grand Forks Herald's front page blared the following headline: “VALLEY CITY GETS NEXT MEETING OF THE EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.”

New Years' Day in 1908 was also the first day of the North Dakota Educational Association's annual meeting. Its auxiliary organization – the “department of county superintendents” – held its own meeting nearby. The major topic of the day was a scarcity of teachers. Comments from a number of the superintendents appeared in the Grand Forks Herald.