Jayme L. Job

12/18/2011: An act of holiday kindness was reported from Arkansas on this date in 1934, when a Bismarck mother was reunited with her ill son in Little Rock.

12/17/2011: The North Dakota Milk Stabilization Board voted to give North Dakotans an early Christmas present on this date in 1975. The five-member Board, charged with enforcing federal milk marketing orders and regulating the costs of production and consumption, voted unanimously to freeze the price of milk through February.

12/16/2011: Governor Lynn Frazier called a historic special session of the State Legislature on this date in 1919. Although billed as a meeting to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women’s suffrage, the session would be remembered as an “affront against democracy” by the Non-Partisan League.

12/15/2011: With the Christmas holiday soon approaching, many North Dakotans will soon embark on that annual pilgrimage to select the perfect Christmas tree. The first Christmas tree in North Dakota, however, was not nearly so easy to secure.

11/30/2011: Organized in May of 1932, the National Farmers’ Holiday Association sought to raise prices of American farm products by withholding products from the market and driving up demand. It was a popular idea in the American Midwest, where many state-chartered organizations sprang up.

11/25/2011: Devils Lake announced that it had surpassed its collection goals during a recent scrap metal drive on this date in 1942. Scrap drives, in which people collected and salvaged all manners of things, became a common feature of the home front during World War II.

11/24/2011: North Dakotans across the state will find themselves gathered around the holiday table today, surrounded by family, friends, and probably a whole lot of food. Seventy-five years ago, caught in the height of the Great Depression, many people found themselves grateful to have even a warm meal this Thanksgiving.

11/1/2011: Queen Marie of Romania visited North Dakota on this date in 1926, traveling through the state from Fargo to Montana. She stopped at several small towns and greeted North Dakotans, receiving several tokens of welcome along the way.

10/27/2011: Captain John Palliser, a celebrated Irish explorer and sportsman, arrived at Fort Union on this date in 1847. He had traveled to Fort Union from Independence, Missouri, on an expedition to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. Palliser would later recount his Fort Union adventures and hunting forays in his book, Solitary Rambles and Adventures of a Hunter in the Prairies.

10/20/2011: Ground was broken at Rolla, North Dakota, on this date in 1953 for the construction of the country’s only jewel bearing factory. Named the Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant, the factory would produce synthetic ruby, sapphire, ceramic, and carbide jewel bearings, which were considered critical to United States military operations during the early years of the Cold War.