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12/14/2007: People out east were a more than a little surprised on this date in 1878 to see an illustration of the Bismarck Opera House in the latest edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine. Many of those readers didn’t even know that Bismarck existed; much less that it had an Opera House!

12/15/2007: Today is Bill of Rights Day. It was on this day in history that the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791 in Virginia, and in 1967, the Minot Daily News ran an article expressing the importance of this day.

12/23/2007: On this date in 1874, the Bismarck Daily Tribune reported a young cinnamon bear named Kate was living aboard a Missouri River steamboat.

12/25/2007: There are the twelve days of Christmas, the eight days of Hanukkah, and the seven days of Kwanzaa, but can you imagine twenty days of Christmas? Some wait all year for a single day of celebration with family and friends, but not too long ago some of North Dakota’s earliest setters were stretching Christmas to its limit. The traditional Norwegian Christmas is not one, but twenty days of celebration!

12/29/2007: In December, 1932, Emil Johnson was traveling toward Minot in a refrigerator car when three men entered, robbed him and kicked him off the train.

1/1/2008: In the start of a new year, it is nice to step back and think about what has happened and what is to come. Many cities publish information summing up events and statistics of the old year. On the first day of 1948, the Fargo Forum published a forty page newspaper, filled with description of the previous year's progress and with predictions for the coming year in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

1/4/2008: She was called “A force to be reckoned with,” and found success on the world stage, but Alma Mehus hadn’t fallen far from the tree". On this date in 1934, the Dickinson Press reported the great success of one North Dakota woman’s musical career.

1/6/2008: North Dakota State University is closely associated with the city of Fargo, and to most North Dakotans it is unsurprising that one of the state’s largest educational institutions would be located in North Dakota’s largest city. However, Fargo only acquired NDSU after a pitched battle with Valley City.

1/8/2008: 2008 marks the beginning of the Bicentennial Commemoration on the birth of Abraham Lincoln and among the more important actions of President Lincoln, especially in regard to Dakota Territory, was the signing of the Homestead Act in 1864. On this date in 1914 the Jamestown Sun announced the death or Nelson E. Nelson, the recipient of the first homestead for what is now North Dakota.

1/11/2008: For many Americans, the Lawrence Welk Show conjures up fond memories of a bygone era. Many remember the bubbles floating across the stage and the big band led by Mr. Welk himself. An integral part of Americana, the Lawrence Welk Show is still on air in a syndicated format some 50 years after first being televised. In addition to our fond memories of Mr. Welk, we also remember the Welk Musical Family, or the show’s singers and band members. One member of this family, Tom Netherton, was a regular on the show starting in 1973, and was featured on the Lawrence Welk Show until Mr. Welk retired in 1982. What we may not remember is that Tom Netherton started his professional musical career not with Lawrence Welk, but with another famous North Dakotan, Harold Shafer at the Medora Musical.