Christina Sunwall

2/12/2015: Dr. William Jayne owed much of his political success to President Abraham Lincoln.

1/21/2015: As Abraham Lincoln watched the theatre stage, John Wilkes Booth crept from the shadows behind, drew his derringer pistol, and fired. Mortally wounded, the president slumped forward, never to regain consciousness.

1/7/2015: Danish settlements were founded across North Dakota, but the largest and best-known were in the northwest portion of the state. By 1910, this region held one-quarter of all Danes in North Dakota. Their presence remains highly visible even today. Names like Denmark Township leave little doubt as to its original occupants, and the Danish windmill in Kenmare continues to draw tourists. However, a small stone monument north of Kenmare may be less familiar. This monument was erected in 1952 to honor Brorson, a Danish folk school, and its principal, Jens Dixon.

10/28/2014: War shapes a man; his ideas and values. This was no less true of Warren Christopher, the 63rd Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton.

6/26/2014: Small Town makes it Big. Big hamburger that is. Thirty-two years ago, on this date in 1982, Rutland, North Dakota claimed title to Home of the World’s Largest Hamburger.

6/6/2014: Hazel McCulloch was a remarkable woman. A history instructor at Minot State Teachers College for over four decades, she was noted by her students as an intelligent, caring, and inspiring instructor. Her unique brilliance wowed students, including the hundreds of navy cadets training at Minot State Teachers College as part of the V-12 program, a program created to train naval officers for America’s fleet during WWII.

5/29/2013: Levon West, also known as Ivan Dmitri, grew up on the prairies of North Dakota. While studying business and economics at the University of Minnesota, a chance meeting with printmaker and illustrator Joseph Pennell in 1925 convinced Levon West to instead pursue a career in etching.

12/21/2012: In the summer of 1906, racial tensions exploded throughout America over the Brownsville Raid. Members of the all-black 25thArmy Regiment stationed at Fort Brown, Texas, were falsely accused of killing one citizen and injuring two police officers in an unprovoked attack. In a miscarriage of justice, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the 167 black infantrymen dishonorably discharged, including six Medal of Honor recipients.

10/23/2012: Even though North Dakota has one of the smallest populations in the United States, it has produced at least nine aces – fighter pilots with five or more confirmed combat kills. Most are incredible stories of daring and skill over weeks or months of dangerous combat. But that was not the case for North Dakota native Captain Laurence “Scrappy” Blumer. He shot down five German fighters in only fifteen minutes; earning him the title “Fastest Ace in a Day.”

5/14/2012: On this day, May 14, 2001, the Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, David Windibiziri, addressed the congregation of Trinity Lutheran Church, north of Kenmare, ND. Although raised in the traditional religious beliefs of his home in Nigeria, Archbishop Windibiziri had as a teenager converted to Christianity and attended the Lutheran Seminary in St. Paul, MN before being ordained as a pastor in 1972.