Jayme L. Job

2/1/2013: What was later called “…the most far-reaching piece of legislation ever attempted on affecting the educational liberties of the people of North Dakota” was introduced into the state legislature on this date in 1919. The bill, backed by leaders of the Non-Partisan League, would grant the governor of the state direct control over all aspects of North Dakota’s public education system, including the power to choose all textbooks, teachers, and curriculum.

1/27/2013: President Richard Nixon signed a peace agreement ending the Vietnamese War on this date in 1973.

1/26/2013: The Grand Forks All-American Turkey show began on this date in 1931.

1/15/2013: The make-up and guidelines of the North Dakota Supreme Court was originally outlined in the 1889 State Constitution. Through the years, however, amendments adopted by voters created a number of changes.

1/12/2013: A fire on this date in 1887 in Medora, North Dakota served as the final straw for many of the town’s residents. The stretch of bad luck began with the “Winter of the Blue Snow” – the brutal winter of 1886, one of the state’s worst on record.

1/10/2013: Thirteen trucks carrying Canadian cattle were forced to detour around North Dakota and cross into the U.S. through Minnesota on this date in 1978. North Dakota farmers, members of the American Agricultural Movement, were blockading the border in an effort to keep Canadian livestock out of the country and raise American farm prices. After prosperity in the early 1970s, by 1976 plummeting farm prices were forcing American farmers to take drastic measures.

1/5/2013: Minot, North Dakota, recorded its highest January temperature on this date last year. Exceeding its previous record of 59ᵒ from January 28, 1906, the thermometer climbed to 61. But the heat wave wasn’t confined to Minot; Sheridan, Wyoming, reached a surprising 67ᵒ on the same day.

1/4/2013: A legislative bill was introduced on this date in 2011 that would make North Dakota a state. Yes, that’s right: due to a small technicality in the original 1889 State Constitution, North Dakota needed a constitutional fix to secure its status as a U.S. state.

1/2/2013: North Dakota Governor William Lewis Guy left office on this date in 1973, nearly twelve years after he first began his tenure in 1961. Serving two two-year terms and two four-year terms, Guy remains the state’s longest-serving governor.

10/26/2012: TIME Magazine reported on the 1942 North Dakota harvest on this date seventy years ago. What made the harvest that fall unique enough to be reported in the pages of TIME, Life, and Newsweek magazines? Well, in addition to its enormous size, the entire harvest was completed not by farmers, but largely by college students, football players, and professors.