Jayme L. Job

1/15/2012: An ad in UND’s Dakota Student newspaper stirred up quite the controversy on this date in 1969. The ad, inviting the public to the upcoming execution of Thomas White Hawk, was purchased by a UND freshman opposed to the death penalty, who wanted to bring the execution to the attention of UND students.

1/13/2012: The UND Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on this date in 2010.

1/11/2012: E. T. Rector, president of the Fairmont Creamery Company of Omaha, Nebraska, visited Fargo on this date in 1923 to announce the city’s selection as the headquarters of the creamery’s North Dakota operations.

1/10/2012: On this date in 1923, North Dakota State Senators James McCoy and Lynn Sperry introduced a bill into the State Senate “…aimed at the Ku Klux Klan and prohibiting the wearing of a mask, regalia, or other head covering in public...” The bill, which became known as the ‘Anti-Mask Bill,’ was largely a response to Klan violence in southern states. News of the violence had created public outrage against the Klan, spurring North Dakota legislators to action. The senators hoped that by ‘de-masking’ Klan members, they would lose the anonymity that enabled them to commit such atrocious crimes.

1/9/2012: The North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from Russia was founded in Bismarck on this date in 1971. The decision to base the society in Bismarck was a simple one: the city itself was named after Otto von Bismarck, the prime minister of Prussia and the original founder and first chancellor of the German Empire.

1/8/2012: The Grand Forks Herald reported a remarkable case of premonition on this date in 1906. It was the story of Andrew McDonald, who took out an insurance policy for $3,000.

1/7/2012: A news story on this date in 1982 involved a petition by a New Salem area farmer to fix what he called the North Dakota time zone problem.

1/6/2012: North Dakota Governor Allen Olson took office on this date in 1981. The twenty-eighth Governor of the state, Olson unseated incumbent Governor Arthur Link to win the seat. Olson served two terms as the state’s Attorney General from 1972 until 1980 before deciding to run for governor.

1/2/2012: A young North Dakota girl was honored in Illinois on this date in 1955 for saving the lives of her two sisters at the start of the New Year. Both her sisters and parents were grateful that the girl, 10-year-old Toni Hundley from Mohall, North Dakota, had a habit of being a night owl, especially when it came to New Year’s Eve.

1/1/2012: North Dakota’s first full-time Lieutenant Governor took office on this date in 1982. Previously, lieutenant governors had been only part-time, acting as Presidents of the State Senate.