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10/24/2003: Today marks the birthday of the queen of an NDSU dynasty – who also happens to be one of the most successful basketball coaches in North Dakota history.

10/26/2003: Few people would guess that Grand Forks came into being because of a keg of beer, but supposedly it’s true.

10/31/2003: Today is Halloween, a good day for ghost stories, and North Dakota has no shortage of them. Legends have been floating around for years of the “Kindred Lights,” the “Grim Reaper” in a Baptist church near Fredonia, the “Fatal Stump” near Belfield, and the “Gas Chamber” on the deserted Oss farmstead near Hatton.

11/9/2003: Yesterday, we began a two-part series of Steinbeck’s exploration of North Dakota in his book, Travels with Charley. Today we pick up his words as he enters the west.

11/11/2003: Seventy-seven years ago today, the first of the great dust storms of the 1930s hit North Dakota.

11/14/2003: On this day in 1925, a 33 year-old newspaper editor from Cooperstown began a 20 year career in the U.S. Senate. He had never held office before, but this man’s strong convictions helped shape a nation-wide attitude toward World War II.

11/17/2003: On this date in 1879, the first issue of the Daily Argus was sold on the streets of Fargo. Exactly 12 years later – to the day – the first issue of the Fargo Forum was published.

11/26/2003: In the 1890s, World Champion speed skater, John Johnson, raced a young teenager in Bathgate, North Dakota. Afterwards, Johnson told a Minneapolis reporter, “He’s the fastest fellow on a small rink that I’ve ever seen... he’s got such marvelous control that he could skate in a wash tub. His name is Norval Baptie. Keep the name in mind because you’ll be hearing a lot about him from now on.” By the time he was 16, Norval Baptie fulfilled that prophecy by becoming the World Champion in speed skating. And it was on this day in 1966, that he died.

11/28/2003: On this date in 1912, a Fargo newspaper article read: MURDERER SENTENCED FOR LIFE IS PARDONED.

11/29/2003: Charlie Cosgrove was born in Australia in 1861. When he was 21, he and his brother, Bill, moved to Dickinson to try ranching, and Charlie later described some of those early days.