Jayme L. Job

4/8/2013: Recent events relating to the relationship between NDSU and the state’s Board of Higher Education have thrown a spotlight on earlier turbulent events in the school’s history. The ‘Purge of ‘37’ has been revisited the most often, a time when the school, then called the North Dakota Agricultural College, lost its accreditation, and the accreditation of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks was also threatened. During the infamous purge, Governor William Langer unjustly fired seven popular faculty members.

4/7/2013: Classrooms at the North Dakota Agricultural College sat cold and empty on this date in 1943. Twelve of the college’s engineers and two janitors had gone on strike.

4/6/2013: William McClelland arrived in North Dakota in 1921. The native New Yorker had been hired as superintendent of the state’s Training School, a juvenile reformatory outside of Mandan.

4/4/2013: Residents along the Red River battled severe flood waters on this date in 1943, as muddy water poured into houses and businesses. Riverside residential areas of Fargo and Moorhead faced the worst of the crisis, with nearly three hundred families forced from their homes.

4/3/2013: Few North Dakotans have likely heard of Jefferson Kidder, although most have heard of Kidder County, which was named for the 19th century North Dakotan. Kidder’s many and varied roles ranged from Lieutenant Governor to State Senator, and ran from his native Vermont to the wilds of Minnesota and Dakota Territory. His son was killed in action under Custer, and his grandson went on to become one of the greatest lawmen of the Old West, but Kidder himself made his name in politics.

4/2/2013: A tragic shooting rocked the small town of Zap, North Dakota, in April of 1941. The shooter, a local farmer and father of eight, was considered a hard-working husband and family man before financial trouble and a minor dispute pushed him over the edge.

4/1/2013: When the United States entered World War II near the close of 1941, few Americans realized the extent to which everyday life would change. North Dakota braced itself by preparing to increase crop and animal production in the coming years. Much of Europe was already facing massive shortages, and rationing had become the order of the day in Great Britain.

3/19/2013: Ruth Meiers, North Dakota’s thirty-third Lieutenant Governor, passed away in office on this date in 1987. The state’s first female Lieutenant Governor, Meiers was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer in September of 1986. Despite the diagnosis, she continued to serve in office until her death six months later.

3/14/2013: The upbeat weather forecast announced on this date in 1941 proved fatal to dozens along the Red River Valley. North Dakota forecasters predicted light local snows and a possible cold wave for the weekend, but by Saturday night, a deadly blizzard had moved south from Canada and tore through the eastern part of the state, leaving over sixty dead. The enormous number of deaths was largely blamed on the weather forecast, which led many people to make weekend travel plans.

3/13/2013: The finishing touches were being put onto the brand-new Fargo Theater on this date in 1926, only days before its much anticipated opening. Isaac Ruben, co-owner of Finkelstein and Ruben Theatres Company, arrived in town to direct last-minute installations.