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9/18/2014: On this date in 1889, with only thirteen days remaining before the election to approve the state Constitution and choose North Dakota’s first state officials and legislators, the political parties were working at a frenzied pace.

9/19/2014: Most modern-day people have never seen a prairie chicken, but there was a time, long ago, when prairie chickens thrived on North Dakota’s grasslands.

10/31/2014: To hear the word curling brings to mind images of hair-dos and electric curling irons, or maybe even bacon sizzling in a pan, but to winter sports enthusiasts in the North Country, the word curling brings forth memories of rinks, the skip (or captain), 40-pound granite stones, and the whisking brooms sweeping the polished ice to win the bonspiel.

11/3/2014: Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1804-1805 on the Missouri River. On this date in 1804, they established Fort Mandan. The Mandan Indians had been very hospitable, and the fort was named for the friendly tribe.

11/6/2014: During World War I, North Dakotans from all walks of life joined the army. Among them were two brothers from near Rolla in Rollette County – Clarence and Lyle Davis, who enlisted in Company G, Second Infantry, North Dakota National Guard, on July 13, 1917. They were immediately called into federal service.

4/8/2014: Modern people think of spring as the season of fresh air and flowers blooming and lovely breezes wafting through budding trees after the snows of winter have fully melted away. But those who lived in cities prior to 1910 had to consider other aromas of spring.

4/16/2014: During World War I, Herbert Hoover, the U.S. Food Administrator, “ordered greater production of all farm products . . . particularly of wheat,” because the nation’s soldiers and allies needed bread to sustain them. President Woodrow Wilson told farmers to “Raise wheat.” North Dakota Governor Lynn Frazier asked farmers to “plant every acre possible to wheat.”

4/18/2014: Ping-pong sounds like the game itself. The small celluloid ball “pings ” from the paddle and “pongs” off the table.

4/30/2014: In the late 1940s, an unusual public service campaign was initiated in the form of a train. The Freedom Train was red, white, and blue, and it carried an exhibit of more than one hundred historic documents and items, including the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. The US Attorney General said project had the goal of "combat(ing) alien ideologies and reawaken(ing) in the American people the reverence we know them to have for the American way of life."

5/5/2014: Some people like to chew gum. Some do not. This basic truism has been around for a long time.