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8/5/2004: In 1816, Congress passed a law that stated, “Licenses to trade with the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States shall not be granted to any but citizens of the United States unless by express direction of the President.”

8/6/2004: The most recent North Dakota baseball player to reach the big leagues is Travis Hafner, who debuted with the Texas Rangers on this date two years ago. He has since made quite a splash.

8/10/2004: People who bought automobiles in the early years were in for a bigger experience than they bargained for. Each car came with a set of tools, but if the owner couldn’t figure out how to use them, there was no mechanic to help him out; the closest thing was the town blacksmith.

8/12/2004: On this date in 1945, the nation learned that World War II was over. It was at 9:34 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, that a news flash came from the United Press in New York saying that V-J Day had arrived. Carrying a Washington dateline, the flash was first fed into the UP’s southern wire service and stated that the Japanese had accepted the Allies’ terms of surrender.

8/13/2004: Today is the birthday of William Lemke, who was born to German parents in Minnesota in 1878. As one of nine children, Lemke’s boyhood was spent in the Big Coulee area of Towner County. His aggressive father had already acquired 2,700 acres when he died of a stroke when he was outbid on a piece of land he wanted.

8/14/2004: Birders from around the state flocked to see a Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher following a recent sighting near Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge north of Jamestown, perched on utility wires and on windrows in a newly cut alfalfa field. Jamestown attorney and bird enthusiast, Daniel Buchanan, described it as “nearly unmistakable with its long forked tail and salmon-pink belly.”

8/16/2004: World War II didn’t officially end until September 2nd, 1945, but it was generally considered to be over two weeks earlier. With the announcement that Japan surrendered on August 15th, a flood of previously classified and other war-related stories hit the newspapers in the following days.

8/26/2004: A legendary Arctic explorer died on this date in 1962. He was Vilhjalmur Stefansson, born in 1879 to Icelandic immigrants in Manitoba. When he was two, the family moved to the Icelandic community of Mountain, in northeastern North Dakota, where Vilhjalmur remainder of his younger years.

8/27/2004: It was during harvesting in 1913 that Fingal Enger was caught in a downpour. He wouldn’t go inside until he was certain that all the wagons were in and every horse properly tended, and he ended up catching pneumonia. It was a hard thing for Enger to be slowed down by illness – the 6' 4" farmer was legendary for his size and strength and had always done the work of two men.

8/29/2004: Modern insecticides have stopped grasshoppers from being the nightmare they used to be, but many can remember the days when each step into a field sent hundreds of grasshoppers catapulting into the air.