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5/18/2015: In May of 1930, F. A. Maser, proprietor the Glen Ullin Pharmacy, placed an ad in the local newspaper stating that he had received a limited number of new cameras and rolls of film from Kodak, and that he would be giving these cameras away to any lucky girls or boys who turned twelve in that year. The cameras were free, to be given away in the month of May until the stock ran out. "Boys and Girls who want to get in on this treat of Mr. Maser and the Eastman Kodak company must act at once," the ad proclaimed.

5/25/2015: Originally, Memorial Day was a known as Decoration Day, a day that the graves of those who died on the battlefields of the War of the Rebellion were decorated with flowers. In 1882, in Jamestown, there were no soldiers’ graves to decorate.

5/27/2015: In May, 1865, one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers passed in review following the Civil War. After the Washington, D.C. parade, most of them mustered out, returning to civilian life. But they were not about to forget their service, or their fallen comrades.

6/10/2015: Polio has plagued mankind through much of known history. An Egyptian carving from 1400 BCE depicts a man with a withered leg. Some scientists believe this is an early portrayal of a polio victim. Polio was a relatively uncommon disease through the 1800s. A theory proposes that before then, children were exposed to low levels of polio through contaminated water, developing resistance to the disease, but that went away with improved sanitary conditions.

6/15/2015: Arlington National Cemetery is considered America’s most hallowed ground. It is located on land that was once belonged to George Custis, adopted son of George Washington. Custis built a house where he kept many of Washington’s prized possessions. He left the property to his daughter. When she married a promising young West Point graduate named Robert E. Lee, the house became known as the Custis-Lee Mansion. It was their home until the outbreak of the Civil War.

1/28/2015: In 1908, the North Dakota we know and love today was different. There were no cars, no phones, no computers. There were lanterns and letters home. There was hard work. Sometimes, there was just a claim, a farm, and a man.

2/3/2015: The chokecherry is not an unlovely fruit, once you get past its throat-rattling name. The chokecherry shrub, or tree, bears long clusters of white flowers and bitter-tasting dark-red or blackish fruit. Nonetheless, chokecherries became North Dakota’s official state fruit, in 2007.

2/4/2015: James W. Foley was born in St. Louis on this date in 1874. His family moved to North Dakota and settled at Fort Abraham Lincoln. His father went on to Medora where he worked for the Marquis de Mores and became friends with Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt said Foley was one of the few in the badlands devoted to reading. When young James Foley visited his father in Medora, he made the acquaintance of the future president. He also fell in love with the wild Badlands.

2/10/2015: In 1917, as World War I loomed, Americans prepared for war. Among the challenges was aviation. Aircraft were relatively new, with Orville and Wilbur Wright having just flown in the first recorded controlled, powered flight in December 1903. But the field had developed quickly, becoming an important wartime priority. To meet the demand for pilots, the Aero Club of America pledged to concentrate efforts until the U-S had "one thousand trained aviators."

2/19/2015: On this date in 1953, citizens of Rolla were thinking about jewels – to be more precise, they were thinking about a jewel bearing factory. The new Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant in Rolla was under construction. It would produce synthetic rubies, sapphires and ceramics -- critical components in highly sensitive instruments used by the military during the early and middle years of the Cold War.