Search results for

6/24/2012: The defeat of General Custer in 1876 was the high-water mark for Plains Indian warfare, but it also marked the end of the nomadic lifestyle.

6/26/2012: Still stunned by the tornado that ripped through Fargo the previous week, residents were in the exhaustive process of disaster clean-up. On this date in 1957, funds for aiding the victims passed the $50,000 mark. The Forum newspaper reported the following day that the money gave a strong morale boost to the hundreds of people engaged in the dismal aftermath of the tornado.

6/29/2012: Every day, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 102 sites in the United States, Caribbean and the Pacific launch a large, white balloon into the air. There’s a device, called a radiosonde, attached to the balloon; it’s a battery-powered instrument, and its sensors measure and transmit profiles of air pressure, temperature and relative humidity from the Earth’s surface up to approximately 20 miles into the sky. It also obtains data for wind direction and speed.

6/30/2012: A large meteorite crashed to earth about twenty miles south of Richardton, North Dakota, on this date in 1918. “The fireball of the meteoroid … was witnessed over an area of … 18,000 square miles.” As far away as Mandan and Dickinson, witnesses recalled that, “As it came down, it illuminated the landscape to almost the brilliancy of sunlight.”

7/1/2012: North Dakota’s infamous “Ten-Minute Divorce” law expired on this date in 1899, making the state’s quickie divorces a thing of the past.

7/2/2012: A tornado struck near Walcott, North Dakota, on this date in 1955. Although rated an F4 on the Fujita scale, the National Weather Service claims that the tornado probably reached the wind speed and size of an F5 several times before it dissipated. If true, it would be one of only three F5 tornadoes to hit the state. Two people lost their lives in the storm and many rural families lost their homes and farms. Those who lived through the storm still remember the tornado’s fury.

7/6/2012: If we were to read this headline today in North Dakota, it still might pique interest. Imagine it as the banner headline of the Fargo Forum in 1947. Typeset in all boldface capital letters it read, Report: “Flying Saucer” Seen in N.D.

7/10/2012: John Miller Baer, the first Representative elected to Congress under the endorsement of the Nonpartisan League, began his first full term on this date in 1917. Baer had been first elected to serve a partial term in 1915, filling the vacancy left by Representative Henry Helgesen.

7/12/2012: A Viking monarch sculpted in stone celebrates his 100th birthday today in Fargo. While the striking figure is one of the city’s most recognized, it is likely one of its least known or understood. Who is that Viking and why is he nearly hidden in a small downtown park?

7/14/2012: In the taverns of the 1880s, beer tended to be stale, especially if there was any delay between servings. On this date in 1885 one Bismarck bar owner installed a brand new invention that utilized a pressurized air cylinder connected through tubing to kegs of beer in a cellar ice box.