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2/7/2007: North Dakotans voted to repeal the state’s ban on lotteries in November of 2002, paving the way for the state legislature to establish a lottery in March of 2003. On this date, February, 7th 1890, an investigation was just winding up that would undo plans that would have established a lottery in ND back then.

2/6/2007: According to the newspaper accounts, Ella O’Keefe appears to have been a likeable person who spent most of her time traveling from place to place on transportation furnished by local or county authorities. It appears that Ella had a problem.

2/12/2007: An interesting incident was reported by the Fargo Forum to have occurred on this day in 1907, which also happens to be Lincoln’s birthday. Apparently, a couple of visitors to the Cass County Courthouse were upset to find that the county did in fact recognize Lincoln’s birthday as a legal holiday, and Cass County lost $1.00 in business to neighboring Clay County because of it.

2/15/2007: Controversy has surrounded the story of Sakakawea for decades – what tribe she belonged to, when and how she died, and where she was buried. Many historians maintain she died at a young age and is buried at Fort Manuel Lisa, south of Mandan. Others believe Sakakawea lived a long life on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. It is said she was buried at Ft. Hall, Idaho.

2/14/2007: Today is Valentine’s Day and store windows are decorated in red and pink and the finest restaurants are booked with dinner reservations for two. It is a day for love. For a certain group of young men at the University of North Dakota in 1902, however, today must not have been the day of love for which they had hoped. Just eight days later, on February 22, the ten men, who described themselves as “turned-down, heart-pierced young men,” would come together to form the Varsity Bachelor Club.

2/18/2007: On this date in 1871 Alfred F. Bomberger was born in Pennsylvania and twenty-two years later he was to die on the gallows at Cando. Indicted by a Grand Jury for the murder of six members of the family of Daniel Krieder near Cando on July 7, 1893, he subsequently pleaded guilty at his trial and his hanging occurred on January 19, 1894.

2/17/2007: A clever con was reported from Grand Forks on this day in 1910. Months earlier, a man arrived in the city claiming to be an automobile expert.

2/19/2007: The board of trustees of the North Dakota Agricultural College approved a resolution creating a summer school program on this day in 1896.

2/20/2007: The professional historians at our colleges and universities and of course the State Historical Society do a great job of unearthing and preserving our state’s history, and passing it along to the rest of us…in the classroom, at the State Heritage Center, at one of our historical sights or in several other ways. But there have been many North Dakotans who, although they are not directly employed in the history business, do a great job in preserving and telling our story. One of those people is Roy P. Johnson, who was born on May Day, 1899 and died on this date, February 20th, 1963.

2/24/2007: A North Dakota police officer by the name of Ole Anderson was on his way to Minneapolis on this day in 1910 at the request of young woman that he had met nineteen years earlier.