Derek Dahlsad

8/10/2013: A shady fellow found an unattended car on this date in 1925 and took it for a joy ride. Unfortunately, the car thief hadn't noticed the two passengers in back.

8/4/2013: On the afternoon of August 4, 1920, the telephone rang in the Bismarck home of Mrs. Frank McCormick. The caller had terrible news: Mrs. McCormick's young son Emmett had been hit by a train and killed.

7/17/2013: In 1934, controversial Governor William "Wild Bill" Langer was convicted of misappropriating federal resources for political reasons by promoting his political party, the Non-Partisan League, to federal workers in the state capital. This was a felony, and state law declared that no one could be Governor if convicted of a felony.

7/15/2013: In 1875, an investment group of forty New England families purchased almost 28,000 acres of land in Cass County, North Dakota. This created the Amenia and Sharon Land Company, named for the towns of Amenia, New York, and Sharon, Connecticut. The Company sent their largest shareholder, Eben W Chaffee, to establish a bonanza farm and run the business. Understanding how fertile the land was, he ran the company as one enormous farming operation.

7/5/2013: Steamboat pilots on the Missouri River watched the horizon with great concern on June 30, 1879. Dark storm clouds were gathering, and by afternoon the rain had nearly reached the river near Bismarck.

6/8/2013: Poor roads and unreliable transportation made it hard for country doctors to reach their patients … especially back in 1917. On this date that year, the Bismarck Tribune reported one doctor had set an unofficial record on a rainy June day.

6/5/2013: The drought of 1936 came with the most severe heat wave North Dakota had ever seen. Temperatures hit record highs and very little moisture fell in the Dakotas. But when it started to rain the following year, on June 3rd, 1937, it looked like the drought was over.

6/2/2013: Transporting the enormous crops of the bonanza farms to market was a expensive and critical part of farming in the late 1800s. On this date in 1893, the bonanza farmers of The Amenia and Sharon Land Company incorporated the Red River Valley and Western Railroad to replace their slow horse-drawn wagons. 12 miles of track were built to connect Addison and Chafee, North Dakota.

5/23/2013: On this date in 1922, the city of Sacramento California opened the week-long "Days of '49" celebration with a "longest beard in the United States" competition. The title of "King of the Whiskerinos" went to Hans Langseth, of Barney, North Dakota, who won the contest easily with his 17-foot-long beard.

5/7/2013: Bank robberies began an upward climb during the 1920s, causing state bank associations across the Midwest, from Texas to North Dakota, to offer their own "wanted dead or alive" rewards for bank robbers. A bank robbery in Tuttle, North Dakota shows just how sophisticated bank robbers had gotten in 1921.