Sarah Walker

1/19/2015: Niels E. Hansen was born in Denmark in 1866 and grew up in South Dakota. He became a plant scientist and worked at South Dakota State University in Brookings.

1/16/2015: North Dakota's thirteenth legislative session began in January of 1913. Many of those seats in the House and Senate were held by legislators still remembered today. For example, Col. John Fraine, longtime member of the North Dakota National Guard, whose name lives on in the Fraine Barracks; Bert Ash, a well-known drum major for the First Infantry Band; D.R. Streeter, the editor of the Emmons County Record, the namesake of the town Streeter; and newspaperman Walter F. Cushing of Fargo, publisher of The Record, a historical magazine.

1/9/2015: Lynn Frazier is well-known in North Dakota political history, elected as the NPL candidate for governor in 1916 and winning reelection in 1918 and 1920. Early in 1920 there even reports from NPL organizers and newspapers about Frazier running for president. He failed to qualify for his party’s nomination in neighboring South Dakota, but on this date, a possible presidential bid was still a topic of conversation.

12/29/2014: North Dakota entered the United States as a prohibition state. That made it difficult, but not impossible to imbibe. In 1920, when the United States also passed legislation making it illegal to manufacture and sell alcohol, more reports of rum-running and busted stills filled the news.

12/26/2014: After a fire destroyed North Dakota's first capitol building on December 28, 1930, a new Capitol was constructed. Completed in 1934, it was a dramatic departure from the style of the old building. Very tall and solitary, the Capitol towered over the burgeoning city of Bismarck, standing 241 feet, 8 inches high. Being built during the Great Depression meant money was tight. Consequently, many exterior embellishments were dropped from the design.

9/12/2014: At the beginning of September of 1923, two aviators, Lieutenants Kenneth Garrett and Victor Bertrandias, both of the US Air Service, were on a "pathfinding flight" from Long Island to Seattle. Along the way, they stopped at the Agricultural College, now NDSU, to refuel. They collected fifty gallons of gas and had a chat with locals about the flight and their mission.

8/29/2014: What did North Dakota--specifically, Lisbon--and Australia have in common on this date in 1962? Both were listed among the world leaders in the production of the grain of millet.

8/22/2014: When Benjamin Harrison signed legislation turning Dakota Territory into the states of North and South Dakota on November 2, 1889, both entered the union as dry states.

8/8/2014: Lightning is a weather phenomenon that has been fascinating humankind for ages. This movement of electrical charges, on its own, has no temperature -- it is the resistance to the movement that causes heat in the materials lightning passes through. Lightning can heat the air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit – about five times hotter than the surface of the sun. A flash of lightning holds enough energy to light a 100-watt incandescent light bulb for about three months.

8/1/2014: On this date in 1912, W. H. Schien became manager of a new business he established in Valley City—a cigar factory.