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12/17/2012: Mrs. Lydia Richards was a widowed schoolmarm teaching at the Longfellow School in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1901.

12/18/2012: Cities across America began switching from gas streetlights, which used gas made from coal, to electric streetlights in the 1880s and 1890s. Wabash, Indiana, led the way in 1880, and major cities established arc street lighting systems over the course of the next twenty years.

1/4/2013: A legislative bill was introduced on this date in 2011 that would make North Dakota a state. Yes, that’s right: due to a small technicality in the original 1889 State Constitution, North Dakota needed a constitutional fix to secure its status as a U.S. state.

1/5/2013: Minot, North Dakota, recorded its highest January temperature on this date last year. Exceeding its previous record of 59ᵒ from January 28, 1906, the thermometer climbed to 61. But the heat wave wasn’t confined to Minot; Sheridan, Wyoming, reached a surprising 67ᵒ on the same day.

1/7/2013: North Dakota State University is today an integral part of the city of Fargo. Yet that was not always the case. It was this month, January of 1889 that marked the beginning of a pitched battle between Valley City and Fargo over the location of the agricultural college, which later evolved into NDSU. Valley City won the first skirmish when the Territorial legislature passed a bill granting them the school. However, Fargo’s citizens refused to give up.

1/15/2013: The make-up and guidelines of the North Dakota Supreme Court was originally outlined in the 1889 State Constitution. Through the years, however, amendments adopted by voters created a number of changes.

1/17/2013: Today’s story is going to be light, sweet, and crude. That’s because it’s about North Dakota oil, which is considered to be light, sweet crude – being low in sulfur.

1/22/2013: Prior to the Great Depression, the1920s roared by, as people experienced an economic boom like none before. However, such was not the case for many farmers and ranchers, who dealt with dropping prices and instability throughout the decade.

1/23/2013: In January of 1953, a bit of propaganda from the Korean War came to North Dakota. The Jamestown Sun published an article, which also appeared in other state newspapers. It began: “It’s a long way from Puncham and Chorwon, Korea to Jamestown and Bergen, North Dakota, or so most easy-going North Dakotans feel. But on the other hand, how many Communists do you think there are in our state? We thought maybe a couple, surely no more. But what started out to be a feature story…has turned out to be shocking realism right at our own back door.”

1/26/2013: The Grand Forks All-American Turkey show began on this date in 1931.