Steve Stark

“A City Displaced” was the tragic headline in the Fargo Forum on this date in 1997. Residents of Grand Forks were struggling with ravages of the horrific flood that shocked the city and caused emergency evacuations from home and hearth. Both flood and fire had brutally attacked city residents who only hours earlier had been warm, dry and safe.

One of America’s favorite inventors helped set a standard for home entertainment and the entire future of musical appreciation. As the Smithsonian Magazine observed, Thomas Edison’s 1877 invention of the phonograph changed music forever.

Forum newspaper readers on this date in 1910 were teased by bargains in downtown Fargo that appear amazing by today’s standards.

Under the familiar bold headline of “News of the North,” readers of the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican in February of 1910 saw quite a variety of content. An advertisement recommended “Give your stomach a vacation with Stewarts Dyspepsia Tablets.” There was also a lengthy column titled “The Sunday School Lesson.

This week in 1924 the nation was awakened to the shocking news that former President Woodrow Wilson had died. The banner headline in the Fargo Forum included “Death ends career of noted American.”

Today’s regular hard news outlets are, sadly, primed with COVID events and lawbreaking. Back in 1944, The war was the news.

On this chilly week in Bismarck 1910, the offense of drinking alcohol was hot page news in The Fargo Forum. The police were on the lookout for the owner of an establishment selling booze. Those establishments were called blind pigs during those days when alcohol was illegal.

News this week in 1943 was a mix of Yuletide and interesting moments. World War II was raging, yet everyday life continued. Today we share a number of the stories one would find in the paper that year

Across the United States the country recoiled at the alarming news of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on this date in 1941. The Japanese bombardment and declaration of war had been a surprise.

During World War II, newspapers regularly reported on the battles and the horrific consequences, including the fate of local personnel serving in the military. This week in 1943 the Forum newspaper’s reading public was once again apprised of the cost.