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12/24/2010: Sixty years ago the Korean War began and the United States entered the war as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force. Many North Dakota servicemen saw duty in Korea. On this date in 1951, many sat on lonely hilltops in Korea or wasted away in North Korean prison camps.

12/30/2010: It was this day in 1829 that the “Father of Jamestown,” Anton Klaus, was born in Brutting Prussia. Like many other Germans of his era, Klaus saw great opportunity across the Atlantic and so set sail for America, arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1849.

1/6/2011: On December 28, 1908, 5:20 a.m. local time, an earthquake struck along the Straits of Messina, between the island of Sicily and mainland Italy. Magnitude of the earthquake was approximately 6.7 to 7.2, and the effects caused a tsunami, which struck within minutes.

1/8/2011: It is no question that the holiday season brings with it a shopping frenzy at stores and malls across the country. From the stampede the day after Thanksgiving to the rash of returns and holiday sales on the day after Christmas, the holiday season is prime for shoppers.

1/13/2011: Gerald Nye served his first full day in the U.S. Senate on this date in 1926. Although appointed to the Senate by North Dakota Governor Sorlie in November, the 33-year-old Nye was not allowed to take his seat until January 12th, and only then with the help of fellow North Dakota Senator, Lynn Frazier.

1/18/2011: On this date in 1947, at 3:00 in the afternoon, residents of Valley City emerged from their homes to find something unusual—pamphlet advertisements raining down from above, the roar of an airplane motor, and, for fifteen lucky souls, a check worth five dollars.

1/26/2011: Fargo’s first public library building opened on this date in 1903. The library, heavily funded by businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, “…stood on the northeast corner of Roberts Street and First Avenue North” for nearly seven decades.

2/1/2011: North Dakota’s State Senators were reeling on this date in 1933, after Time magazine had just accused them of supporting secession from the United States of America. Once the erroneous story hit newsstands, North Dakotans were shocked by the audacity of their political leaders in Bismarck, and the rest of the country looked on in puzzlement.

2/3/2011: A small plane on its way to Fargo, North Dakota crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa on this date in 1959. Carrying three of America’s most promising rock and roll performers, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson, the single-engine plane was originally chartered by the musicians to their next gig in Moorhead, Minnesota. The day remains memorialized in Don McLean’s iconic song “American Pie,” where it’s referred to as “the day the music died.”

2/5/2011: The cold weather we’ve been experiencing is somewhat softened in our county schools today by modern conveniences such as central heating. Over one hundred years ago, however, school rooms were heated with coal or wood stoves.