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1/21/2013: Dickinson Normal School, now Dickinson State University, was newly established in 1918 when 104 students attended the first classes. It was so new that the classes were held at Dickinson High. Classes were free for those first students, although they did pay expenses.

1/25/2013: After World War I had ended and soldiers began to return home, America dealt with the transition into a new age. There was a period of adjustment—a loss of innocence, as the men and women subjected to the horrors of the battlefield both personally and privately began their new lives.

1/28/2013: Darkness ruled the night on city streets until streetlights illuminated avenues with kindly light. On this date in 1914, the Grand Forks Herald published an article proclaiming that the town of Cando had completed a new “White Way” of electric streetlights.

1/29/2013: On this date in 1940, more than 800 people gathered in Park River to discuss a proposed power plant in Grand Forks. The Nodak Rural Electric Cooperative facility would be powered by diesel fuel, supplying electric energy to a combined group of REA projects, including several in Minnesota. However, many residents in eastern North Dakota opposed the proposal, and the Walsh County Press reported that at this meeting, “charges of “railroading,” politics and an alleged dictatorial policy of the REA in Washington were hurled by speakers, both from the floor and from the platform.”

1/30/2013: The town of Burlington, 8 miles west of Minot, was a coal-mining town since its founding in 1883. The first Burlington mines were small operations that provided lignite coal for the local area and some for shipment to Grand Forks.

2/1/2013: What was later called “…the most far-reaching piece of legislation ever attempted on affecting the educational liberties of the people of North Dakota” was introduced into the state legislature on this date in 1919. The bill, backed by leaders of the Non-Partisan League, would grant the governor of the state direct control over all aspects of North Dakota’s public education system, including the power to choose all textbooks, teachers, and curriculum.

2/6/2013: There had never been such joy at St. John’s Hospital in Fargo as there was on February 6, 1941. That’s the day Ella Brown gave birth to North Dakota’s first surviving quadruplets, a girl and three boys.

2/19/2013: The winter of 1948 was yet another in a long line with cold temperatures, heavy snow and typical wintery conditions. On this date, a particularly bad two-day blizzard was sweeping across eastern North Dakota. In the Red River Valley, the wind hit 72 miles an hour. Bus service stopped and trains pulled into their stations five hours later than scheduled, finally canceling further trips. People were stranded as transportation routes closed.

2/20/2013: Blizzards are a part life on the Northern Plains. They are difficult to predict and they can be deadly. Most people, who have spent a lifetime in North Dakota, have at least one blizzard tale to tell their grandchildren.

2/22/2013: The gas light era in Grand Forks began in 1887 when the city’s homes and businesses were lit with gas for the first time. Before gas lights, homeowners depended upon candles, whale-oil lamps or kerosene lanterns.