Search results for

3/28/2013: As the boys back home went off to the First World War, those left behind on the home front did what they could to help with the war effort. On this date, the Courier Democrat newspaper in Langdon reported on a knitting rally attended by approximately 80 knitters, including a good number of beginners.

4/1/2013: When the United States entered World War II near the close of 1941, few Americans realized the extent to which everyday life would change. North Dakota braced itself by preparing to increase crop and animal production in the coming years. Much of Europe was already facing massive shortages, and rationing had become the order of the day in Great Britain.

4/2/2013: A tragic shooting rocked the small town of Zap, North Dakota, in April of 1941. The shooter, a local farmer and father of eight, was considered a hard-working husband and family man before financial trouble and a minor dispute pushed him over the edge.

4/5/2013: On this date in 1922, the Fargo Forum sports pages told about NDSU’s baseball team and its eagerness to get outdoors for spring practice. The winter snows were gone, but the baseball diamond was muddy. Coach Fenwick Watkins had worked with the team indoors for two weeks of “limbering up,” bunting, and “chalk-talks” about the rudiments of the game, but Watkins said his team was ready for some real practice as soon as they could get outdoors.

4/9/2013: The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks has survived much since it first opened its doors in 1884. In 1887, a tornado demolished most of the university. In 1919, the institution was among the hardest hit in the country a deadly flu epidemic, and in 1970, it was the site of some of North Dakota’s largest protests after Kent State shootings. Flooding has also been problematic, with the Red River inundating portions of the campus in 1997. Most recently, the university faced the controversy over the ‘Fighting Sioux’ mascot. Despite these obstacles, the greatest challenge to the university came in the form of budget cuts in 1895, stemming from the panic of 1893 – the most serious depression the country had seen to that time. Railroads went bankrupt, crops were poor, farm prices were low and tax revenue subsequently plummeted.

4/11/2013: Alvin Strutz began his appointment on the North Dakota Supreme Court on this date in 1959. Strutz had already made a name for himself as the state’s Attorney General, a one-time candidate for Governor, and a successful Bismarck lawyer. However, it was not an election that won Strutz the prestigious seat on North Dakota’s highest court, but an appointment by Governor John Davis.

4/12/2013: North Dakota Agricultural College president Edwin Ladd launched North Dakota’s war effort on this date in 1917. After attending an agricultural conference in St. Louis, Ladd returned with director Thomas Cooper of the Experiment Station to address North Dakotans at Fargo. The conference, launched only days after the U.S. officially entered the Great War on April 6th, highlighted the necessity of an ‘Industrial Army’ able to supply the troops and the home-front, as well as the allied countries.

4/13/2013: A foiled arson plot was reported by the Fargo Forum on this date in 1917. Investigators in Magnolia, North Dakota, released their findings that an attempt had been made to burn the 95-foot long railroad bridge just west of that town.

4/14/2013: On this date in 1938, the Mott Pioneer Press reported on a milestone advancement for North Dakotans.

4/25/2013: Donald Arneson was the son of a widowed carpenter from Hillsboro who fought with North Dakota’s 164th Regiment during WWII. After the war, he went to NDSU, but after a year he decided to re-enlist.