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4/4/2004: On this date in 1953, the state’s first commercial TV station, KCJB in Minot, began broadcasting. A Minneapolis Tribune reporter covered the story.

4/7/2004: Today is the birthday of cycling great, Andy Hampsten, who was born in 1962. Andy grew up in Grand Forks, where his parents taught English at UND. They gave him his first road bike when he turned 12, and he was smitten for life.

4/10/2004: Today is the birthday of Freida Bohnsack, a rancher who was inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2002. She came home to Sheldon in 1935, during the Great Depression, to take over a large, rundown – and heavily mortgaged – ranch that she inherited from her father.

5/15/2004: Today is Armed Forces Day, which brings to mind the five ND Guardsmen who have died in Iraq during the past year: Staff Sgt. Kenneth Hendrickson, 41, of Bismarck; Sgt. Keith Smette, 25, of Makoti; Spc. James Holmes, 28, of East Grand Forks; Pvt. Philip Brown, 21, of Jamestown; and Spc. Jon Fettig, 30, of Dickinson.

5/17/2004: Happy Syttende Mai! For those of you who don’t know what that is, an old article in the Hansboro News explains that May 17th is the “anniversary of the rise of modern Norway among the nations as an independent, self-governing kingdom...”

5/24/2004: When school let out on this date in 1986, People magazine had already been to McLeod, in Ransom County, to cover the story.

5/25/2004: On this day in 1963, it was reported that a monkey had come to Fargo. A ring-tailed monkey named Charlie.

5/29/2004: In May, 18 years ago, one of the most famous corporate lawsuits in history was being waged against A.H. Robbins, the manufacturer of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device.

6/2/2004: Rattlesnake season is upon us – anyway for those of us who live west of the Missouri River. Rattlers will need a full meal every 10 days until the weather reaches the 80s and 90s; then, they will need to eat only once every three weeks. During the fall, they’ll increase their meals to once every two weeks in order to store enough fat to get them through winter hibernation.

6/7/2004: Today is the 50th birthday of Karen Louise Erdrich, one of the most uniquely gifted writers in the country and one of the finest to emerge from North Dakota.