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4/7/2015: Following World War I, North Dakota farmers faced financial hardship. The war had created a high demand for farm products – prices rose as exports surged. Farmers enjoyed a prosperity they had never known. But when the war ended, demand rapidly decreased. Overproduction resulted in sagging prices. Farmers who had taken out mortgages and loans to buy new equipment and expand their operations found themselves unable to meet their financial obligations.

4/9/2015: Sinclair Lewis published the book Elmer Gantry in 1927. The book is about a traveling evangelist who preferred whiskey, women and wealth to saving souls. It was a controversial book, banned in some areas around the country, such as Boston, where sales of Elmer Gantry could be prosecuted under a law prohibiting 'indecent and obscene books.'"

4/14/2015: In the early 1900s, many new counties and towns were forming throughout the state and country, which also meant more post offices, which were often named after the town they served, though sometimes they were given different names – perhaps after the first postmaster.

4/23/2015: In 1803, North Dakota tribal leaders received a medal from the strange troop hauling flatboats up the Missouri. It had an image of a man on one side – his name was Jefferson, they were told – and on the other side, clasped hands and a peace pipe overlapping a hatchet. 200 years later, in 2003, these images showed up on the U.S. nickel.

4/27/2015: The deepest crisis in our nation’s history came with the Civil War, 1861-1865, when the country was split in two, North and South. After the war, veterans of the conflict came to settle in Fargo when the railway arrived in the Red River Valley. Those veterans, especially one named Smith Stimmel, became established civic leaders in Fargo.

5/6/2015: The land of North Dakota has quite a history, and no place has done as much to keep that history alive as the North Dakota Heritage Center.

5/14/2015: One month after the Spanish-American War began, American troops sailed from San Francisco to battle the Spanish at their Pacific stronghold, the Philippines. Most of the Regular Army was fighting in Cuba or Puerto Rico, so three-fourths of the 10,000 men who went to the Philippines were members of volunteer state militias – the National Guard. The 1st North Dakota Volunteer Infantry – with 36 officers and 401 men – was among them.

5/28/2015: Charges of Communist activity at North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo surfaced in the spring of 1935. In an address to the Fargo Kiwanis Club, attorney Eli Weston accused groups at the school of demonstrating “all the earmarks and resemblances of communism.” He said a recent local strike was controlled by communists, and faculty members had advised and supported the strikers. Weston said communism was being spread by faculty and students at North Dakota schools.

6/5/2015: In 1853, the army completed a survey to assess the possibility of running a railroad across what was to become North Dakota. The results showed that there was no serious obstacle. Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1864, giving it a land grant of 50 million acres.

6/17/2015: World War II ended in Europe with the surrender of Germany in May, 1945. By June of that year, it was clear that Japan could not hold out much longer. U.S. vice admiral Daniel Barbey hinted that an invasion of Japan would not wait until the end of the typhoon season. He said, “It will take more than a big wind to stop us.”