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2/20/2015: There are 53 counties in North Dakota today, but early on, the map of the state changed frequently. The first counties were established when region was still a territory. Additional counties were added, carved up or divided, which was often a point of contention. Have you ever heard of Burbank County? How about Stevenson? Both existed at one point.

2/23/2015: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Smith-Hughes Act into law on this day in 1917. This was the first national vocational education act, and it established state boards of vocational education be created in order to appropriate funds received by the federal government. The act came about partly in response to the pressures concerning the nation’s food supply as a result of the breakout of World War I. And although the act stresses the creation of agricultural curriculum in the nation’s schools, it also led to the creation of home economics programs.

2/25/2015: In 1916, a very special car was turning heads: a Studebaker gold chassis. The car was constructed with more than 250 ounces of pure gold. It was built at a cost of more than $25,000 dollars. The car proved a sensation at the New York automobile show in January of 1916.

2/27/2015: A Reciprocal Trade Agreement enacted by Congress in 1934 gave the President the authority to negotiate international trade agreements. But not all areas of the economy benefited equally from the arrangement.

3/3/2015: Beginning in the 1870s, many Norwegian immigrants established Lutheran congregations in North Dakota. Only the men voted and managed those congregations. The women were organized by the pastors into the women's society - in Norwegian called the KVINDEFORENING. [kvin-eh-for-eh-ning]. By the 1930s it was renamed the Ladies' Aid Society. In some places the women organized their societies before the men did. Then the women urged the men to start the congregations.

3/5/2015: From the 1870s through the 1930s many Norwegian-American Lutheran congregations held summer schools for religious education. They were called RELIGIONSKOLER [reh-lih-ggeh-oon-skoh-ler], religion schools, parochial schools or Norse schools. One, two or three congregations would participate in running these schools from four to six weeks.

4/3/2015: In 1935, Major Edward Bowes began airing a radio show with that would make history. The Major Bowes' Amateur Hour was a popular talent contest. In its first year, more than thirty thousand acts auditioned. One of the successful acts was the "Hoboken Four." The act was made up of Fred Tamburro, Jimmy Petro, Patty Prince, and Frank Sinatra. The act won that year, and went on a vaudeville tour. Frank Sinatra later left to make it on his own.

4/8/2015: Arthur Clark Huidekoper was a rancher and cowboy of great renown around the turn of the century in North Dakota. From Pennsylvania originally, he was enticed out to the western portion of North Dakota, where he set up a ranch and business alongside contemporary, famed rancher Marquis de Mores.

4/10/2015: “’V’ for Victory,” was the famous motto of Winston Churchill as he rallied international support for winning World War II. North Dakotans answered the call and willingly rationed vital goods needed to win the war.

4/13/2015: Thomas Jefferson once said, “I like the dreams of the future better than the dreams of the past.” There is no doubt that Jefferson was a dreamer. One of his dreams was the purchase of a massive area of land we know as the Louisiana Purchase. But not everyone shared his vision. There was strong opposition to his proposal, even among some of Jefferson’s fellow Republicans.