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12/29/2004: Today’s story is a sad one involving multiple filicide – the killing of a child by his or her parent. Filicide is usually committed by fathers, who are reported to most often target sons under the age of ten. But men do not have a monopoly on this crime. In recent history, two high-profile filicides by mothers have rocked the nation: in 1995, when Susan Smith killed her two sons in South Carolina, and in 2001, when Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in Houston. Yates was struggling with psychotic depression following the birth of her fifth child.

1/3/2005: Limpy Jack Clayton was in a world of hurt on this date in 1879. If you remember, he was a cowboy, gambler, stagecoach driver, Sunday School teacher, and whiskey salesman at his dirt ranch on Stoney Creek, about 23 miles north of Jamestown.

1/27/2005: On this day – or actually this night – in 1971, a young man named Steve Blehm scored 85 points during the Ramsey County basketball tournament in Starkweather. That’s right, 85 points. Blehm was playing for the Devils Lake School for the Deaf, which beat Hampden 122 to 22 that night.

2/1/2005: North Dakota geologist John Bluemle writes, “Drumlins are small hills, elongated in the direction that the glacier was flowing. They are abundant in Ireland, so it is appropriate that the name ‘drumlin’ is derived from an Irish Gaelic word, ‘druim,’ meaning ‘back’ or ‘ridge.’ I’ve always thought of classical drumlins, like the ones I’ve seen in Ireland, as kind of like inverted spoons, but there they are commonly referred to as ‘basket of eggs’ topography.”

2/8/2005: It was on this date in 1910 that William Dickson Boyce founded the Boy Scouts of America.

2/11/2005: Sacagawea gave birth to her first child, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on this date 200 years ago. Lewis and Clark were wintering at Ft. Mandan and had hired Touissant Charbonneau and his pregnant wife as interpreters for the next leg of their Corps of Discovery Expedition.

2/13/2005: In “A History of Foster County,” there’s a story of how three friends survived the big blizzard of 1886. Their wagon was only 12 feet from their tarpaper shack, but the next morning a blizzard completely blocked it from sight. Toward evening, they headed for the stable to feed the animals.

2/16/2005: On this date in 1876, a party of 13 men left Grand Forks, followed the Red River south to Fargo and turned west to follow the Northern Pacific railroad, which wasn’t operating that winter. They reached Bismarck on March 2nd, and rested for the next three weeks. When they forged on, their group had swelled to 50, including a woman, seven children and a destitute, sourdough prospector from California named “Rattlesnake Jack.”

2/25/2005: Every once in awhile, we like to bring you a mix of news from around the state. Today we’re looking at this period of time in 1915.

2/26/2005: The New York Shipbuilding Corporation of New Jersey launched the USS Fargo 75 years ago yesterday.