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11/5/2006: The first flax fiber mill in North Dakota was still under construction today in 1899, but the Record promised that the mill would introduce a new industrial era for the state.

11/12/2006: A young North Dakota telegraph operator received his “own tragic message” on this day in 1913.

4/24/2017: There have been two Williams counties in North Dakota. The first was created in 1873 south of the Missouri River. In 1891, the state legislature created a new Williams County in the northwest corner of the state. The name honors Erastus Appelman Williams, an early North Dakota politician who served in both the territorial and state legislatures. On this date in 1896, the Williston Graphic announced that Williams County was the place to be. At the time, the county encompassed nearly 4,500 square miles with about three million acres of good farming and grazing land.

4/27/2017: At 5:13 on April 18th, 1906, San Francisco experienced a violent earthquake. The rumbling that woke the city lasted about a minute. Buildings toppled. Gas and water lines broke. But the quake was just the beginning. Fires broke out and burned for three days as firefighters couldn’t get water from the broken hydrants. When it was over, five hundred blocks of the city lay in ruins. The San Francisco earthquake was one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history.

5/4/2017: Rats have been a problem for farmers ever since there have been farmers. On this date in 1916, farmers in the Minot area were complaining about rats. The Ward County Independent reported that this was a recent development. Farmers reported that one day they didn’t have any rats at all, but the next day there were large numbers. The rats had apparently multiplied at an alarming rate, infesting large expanse of territory.

5/8/2017: Today it’s expected that politicians will take advantage of air travel for political campaigns, but that was not always the case. On this date in 1920, Arthur Townley made the surprising announcement that he was going to campaign on behalf of the Nonpartisan League by air.

5/11/2017: In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act. The bill intended to decrease federal control of Indian reservations and give them more autonomy. In 1936 in North Dakota, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara came together to form their own constitution, creating the Three Affiliated Tribes.

5/29/2017: Today is Memorial Day, a time to honor the heroes who gave their lives to ensure our freedom. It was originally known as Decoration Day, honoring those who fought in the Civil War, but as the ranks of surviving veterans slowly dwindled, the name was changed in 1899 to Memorial Day, honoring the many who had passed on since the end of the war, and also those who died in the Spanish American War.

6/2/2017: Nowadays, if you want to build a new structure, you must first hire land surveyors to inspect the land and find the best way to construct your building. While today we think of land surveying as a profession involving complicated math and devices, the concept has been around for thousands of years to plan architecture and establish boundaries. For Stonehenge, the builders used simple rope and peg geometry to determine how to build the iconic structure. In medieval Europe, towns and villages would simply have groups of people walk the determined borders many times and memorize them. While neither of these techniques were difficult, they are still considered land surveying and paved the way for the profession we know today.

6/19/2017: As the United States entered World War II, North Dakota ranchers were busy supplying beef to the armed forces. At the same time, they tried to keep meat on the tables of American families. It was an enormous task. But on this date in 1943, ranchers ran into a major obstacle when five packing plants in Chicago suspended operations.