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3/23/2012: The theories for creating television were developed long before the technologies existed that made it possible. Some of the earliest concepts date back to the 1870s and 1880s.

3/26/2012: Grave Claims Hatton’s Hero: was the somber headline of the Fargo Forum on this date in 1930. Indeed, every North Dakotan knew who the hero from Hatton was. Carl Ben Eielson, pioneer pilot in the Alaskan skies was coming home. The rich earth of the Red River Valley, the land of his birth, would embrace his coffin.

3/28/2012: The town of Langdon, in Cavalier County, was incorporated in 1888. It has called itself the “Durum Capital of the World,” and presently claims it’s “The Western Gateway to the Rendezvous Region,” with a strong desire for great living, an emphasis on family and friends, and a desire to keep the city and county thriving.

3/30/2012: British poet and painter Edward Lear is remembered as the creator of the form and meter of the modern limerick. He published his first book of poems, A Book of Nonsense, in 1846. Limericks generally follow an AABBA rhyming format. Often used humorously, sometimes crass, but usually clever, limericks remain familiar even today.

3/31/2012: The results of a student vote to change the name of the North Dakota Agricultural College were announced on this date in 1922.

4/1/2012: It’s safe to say that not a single living North Dakotan remembers the state law prohibiting sale of tobacco to minors back in ’90 ... that’s because it was 1890 when the law was passed. As time went by, state lawmakers demonstrated even more spark in their anti-smoking zeal.

4/4/2012: North Dakota oil drilling was an oddity in the first half of the 20th century. Thirty years of wildcat drilling in the state’s northwest corner left nothing but dry holes. So, in 1950, when the Clarence Iverson farm outside the community of Tioga hosted an oil drill, it was a real oddity. There were no small number of skeptics. Oil wells in North Dakota? Gushers in wheat country? The idea seemed absurd to many.

6/16/2012: On this date in 1887, the University of North Dakota’s only building was almost blown to smithereens. Though no tornadoes were sighted, newspapers reported “a terrible cyclonic calamity.”

6/22/2012: One afternoon in June of 1890, several gunshots were heard in the city of Minot. George Lewis was seen running from the railroad yard toward the local doctor’s house, exclaiming along the way that he shot a man.

6/25/2012: Alexander McKenzie was a political boss in North Dakota’s early years. He was part of a political machine and had many interests in the state, often shady ones, even after he moved away.