Timeline North Dakota
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The area of North Dakota 70,665 sq. mi. and its
capital is Bismarck.
(WUD, 1994, p.984)
67Mil BC The remains of the
hadrosaur, dubbed Dakota and dating to about this time, were found in
1999 by Tyler Lyson (17), on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota. The
partially mummified hadrosaur may be the most complete dinosaur ever
found, with intact skin that shows evidence of stripes and perhaps soft
tissue.
(Reuters, 12/3/07)(SFC, 12/3/07, p.A7)
6200BC The glacial lake Agassiz-Ojibway, body of
water so vast that it covered parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North
Dakota, Ontario and Minnesota, massively drained, sending a flow of
water into the Hudson Strait and the Labrador Sea. The sudden flood of
fresh water diluted the saltiness of the Gulf Stream weakening its flow.
(Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)(AFP, 2/24/08)
1804 Sacajawea and another woman
were purchased by French-Canadian fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau,
who lived among the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians, to be his wives. In
November, 1804, Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter,
with the understanding that Sacagawea, who was only about 16 and
pregnant, would come along to interpret the Shoshone language.
(HN, 2/11/99)(HNQ, 12/1/99)
1805 Feb 11, At Fort Mandan ND
Sacajawea (16), the Shoshoni guide for Lewis & Clark, gave birth to
a son, with Meriwether Lewis serving as midwife. Sacagawea, the young
Native American girl who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was of
the Lemhi Shoshones, who made their home in what is now southeastern
Idaho and southwestern Montana. About 1800 Sacagawea was captured by a
Hidatsa raiding party at the Three Forks of the Missouri River.
Sometime in 1804, she and another woman were purchased by
French-Canadian fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, who lived among the
Hidatsa and Mandan Indians, to be his wives.
(HN, 2/11/99)(HNQ, 12/1/99)(AH, 2/05, p.17)
1851 The Fort Laramie Treaty was
signed between the US government and the Sioux Indians. The Sioux
pledged not to harass the wagon trains traveling the Oregon Trail in
exchange for a $50,000 annuity. The treaty did not last long. Some
12,000 American Indians gathered at Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory,
for a peace council with the US. The government agreed that 12 million
acres of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Indians would remain free of
settlement (eastern Montana, northeastern Wyoming and western North
Dakota). In 1949 Congress authorized a forced relocation to build the
Garrison Dam in North Dakota. In 1986 Martin Cross won a settlement of
$149.2 million for the unjust taking of reservation land. In 2004 Paul
VanDevelder authored “Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the
Trial that Forged a Nation.”
(HT, 3/97, p.43)(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.M5)
1861 Mar 2, The Territory of
Nevada was created by an act of Congress. The first elected governor of
the state was Henry G. Blasdel. US Congress created the Dakota &
Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)(SC,
3/2/02)
1883 The US Supreme Court ruled
that the Dakota Territory court had no jurisdiction in a case in which
a member of the Lakota nation killed a fellow member on tribal land.
The decision overturned a death sentence and effectively gave exclusive
jurisdiction for crimes to tribes. In 1885 US Congress passed the Major
Crimes Act taking away the tribes’ authority to prosecute serious
crimes such as murder, manslaughter and rape.
(WSJ, 8/13/07, p.A12)
1885 Mar 3, The United States
Congress passed the Major Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 1153). It placed seven
major crimes under federal jurisdiction if they are committed by a
Native American in Native territory regardless of whether the victim of
the crime was Native.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/437/634/)
1889 Feb 22, President Cleveland
signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the
Union. The "omnibus bill" was an act dividing the Dakota Territory into
the states of North and South Dakota, and enabling the two Dakotas to
formulate constitutions. A constitutional convention was held at
Bismarck beginning July 4, 1889. A constitution was formulated and
submitted to a vote of the people of the State of North Dakota on
October 1, 1889, and was adopted.
(AP,
2/22/99)(www.court.state.nd.us/court/history/dakotaterritory.htm)
1889 Nov 2, North Dakota became
the 39th state.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/2/97
1897 The Red River in Fargo North
Dakota crested at 39.1 feet. The record was broken in 1997.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A3)
1908 Mar 11, Lawrence Welk,
orchestra leader, was born in Strasburg, ND.
(HN, 3/11/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1908 Mar 22, Louis L’Amour
(d.1998), American author, was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. He
wrote 116 western novels.
(HN, 3/22/97)(USAT, 6/10/98, p.1D)(MC, 3/22/02)
1908 Chase Lake, about 60 miles
north of Bismarck, ND, was established as a protected area by Pres.
Theodore Roosevelt, to save a dwindling number of pelicans from
hunters. The colony, down to 50 breeding pairs, peaked in 2000 with
some 17,500 pairs on the 4,385-acre site.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A2)
1909 Jan 22, Hariette Lake (aka
Ann Sothern, d. 2001), film and TV actress, was born in Valley City.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)
1910 A statue to Sacagawea was
erected on the grounds of the North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck. In 2003
a replica of the statue was erected in the Capitol Rotunda in
Washington, DC. The Hidatsa tribe preferred her named spelled as
Sakakawea.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A2)
1913 Mar 1, The 1st state law
requiring bonding of officers and state employees was enacted in North
Dakota.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1920 May 26, Peggy Lee (d.2002),
jazz singer, was born in Jamestown, ND, as Norma Dolores Egstrom.
(HN, 5/26/01)(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A2)
1921 North Dakota Republican Gov.
Lynn Frazier was recalled in the midst of an agricultural recession.
Frazier was elected to the US Senate in 1922 and served for 18 years.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)
1933 Nov 11, The first of the
great dust storms of the 1930s hit North Dakota.
(HN, 11/11/00)
1936 Feb 15, The temp hit
-60ø F (-51ø C) in Parshall, North Dakota for a state
record.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in North
Dakota killed 151. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 16, A blizzard hit North
Dakota and Minnesota killing 60. [see Mar 15]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1954 The 600-square-mile Garrison
Dam in North Dakota, authorized by Congress in 1949, was completed. It
covered the ancestral lands of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Indians.
(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.M5)
1959 Feb 4, In Fargo, N.D., Bobby
Vee (15), aka Robert Veline, and the Shadows performed in public for
the first time. The audience had come to see Buddy Holly and the
Crickets. Rock-n-roll stars, including Dion and the Belmonts, traveled
by bus from Iowa to Fargo in order to perform in nearby Moorhead, Minn.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A16)
1980 Sep 15, A B-52H bomber
carrying nuclear-armed AGM-69 missiles experienced a fuel leak in its
number three main wing tank and caught fire on the ground at Grand
Forks AFB in North Dakota.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1983 Jun 3, Gordon Kahl (b.1920),
a militant tax protester wanted in the slayings of two US marshals in
North Dakota, was killed in a gun battle with law enforcement officials
near Smithville, Ark. Kahl was a former member of the anti-tax Posse
Comitatus movement founded in 1969 by Henry L Beach.
(AP,
6/3/97)(http://law.jrank.org/pages/9290/Posse-Comitatus.html)
1987 Nov 17, Richard McNair (28)
killed Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn., during a burglary at a
Minot, North Dakota, grain elevator. Richard Kitzman, an elevator
employee, was shot three times but survived. McNair was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison, but escaped a number of times. In 2007 he
was again captured in New Brunswick, Canada.
(AP, 10/26/07)
1988 Jun 10, Author Louis L'Amour
died in Los Angeles at age 80. He wrote 116 western novels. L’Amour
trained troops in survival and later fought in the European theater in
tank destroyers. His early life was filled with the same type of
adventures that he wrote about. Due to economic problems and an
adventuresome spirit, L’Amour left his Jamestown, N.D., home when he
was 15 and spent the next several decades tramping the West and sailing
the world. He worked at just about everything that would keep him
alive. His writings was just beginning to be published when the war
started.
(AP, 6/10/98)(USAT, 6/10/98, p.1D)(HNQ, 7/15/01)
1988 Basin Electric Power
Cooperative of Bismarck, ND, paid the US government $85 million for the
Dakota Gasification Co. of Beulah, which had begun as a $1.5 billion
public-private venture under the Carter administration to turn reduce
US dependence on Middle East oil.
(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A4)
1992 In Regent Gary Greff began
erecting metal sculptures along a 32 mile stretch from I-94. His
"Enchanted Highway" came to include the "Tin Family," "Teddy
Roosevelt," giant pheasants, a 40-foot tall rooster and a 30-foot long
grasshopper.
(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A1,9)(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A3)
1995 Len Kretchman and David Geske
of Fargo, ND, developed the Uncrustable sandwich, a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich sealed in a pocket of bread. Smucker Corp. bought their
company and received a patent for the sandwich in Dec, 1999.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.B1)
1996 Sep 11, Grasshoppers plagued
North Dakota. The insects were a problem in Wyoming, Montana and
Nebraska. Another dry summer and it was predicted that they would
spread to Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
(SFC, 9/11/96, p.A2)
1997 Apr 17, The Red River in
Fargo, North Dakota, was to have crested at 39.5 feet, surpassing the
1897 record. Snow and freezing rain over a 3 day period led to the
flooding.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A3)
1997 Apr 19, The Red River broke
dikes in Grand Forks, N.D. and sent nearly half of the 50,000
population into evacuation. Damages were estimated at over $1.5 billion.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.A1)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.39)
1998 Apr 14, The Grand Forks
Herald of North Dakota won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the
1997 flood and fire despite a damaged printing plant.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 10, A heavy snow storm
hit the northern Midwest. Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas suffered
loss of power, heavy snow and violent winds.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Global Electric MotorCars
(GEMs) began production in Fargo. The 72-volt electric motor cars could
cruise at 25mph and go 35 miles between charges.
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.A19)
1999 North Dakota Gov. Edward
Schafer signed a law that allowed farmers to seek permits from the FDA
to grow hemp. In 2007 two North Dakota farmers filed a lawsuit to force
the DEA to issue permits to grow hemp.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A15)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.40)
2001 Oct 24, A blizzard hit North
Dakota and Minnesota. The 10 inches of snow broke a 1926 Grand Forks
record. The blizzard killed 6 people in the Midwest with 4 dead in
North Dakota car crashes.
(WSJ, 10/25/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D8)
2002 Jan 18, A train carrying
anhydrous ammonia fertilizer derailed near Minot. The liquid turned to
gas upon contact with air and one resident died from inhaling the gas.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, Bismarck received a
record 5.4 inches of snow.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A20)
2002 Jul 22, North Dakota's Gov.
John Hoeven was headed to Cuba to promote trade of peas, wheat and
other foods to the communist island from his state. It was only the 2nd
visit to Cuba by a sitting American governor in some 40 years.
(AP, 7/22/02)
2003 Apr 3, The N. Dakota state
Senate voted to keep a 113-year-old law that made it a crime for
unmarried couples to live together.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A7)
2003 Nov 22, North Dakota student
Dru Sjodin (22) was last seen at the Grand Forks, ND, mall, where she
worked. Her body was found the following April near Crookston, Minn.
Suspect Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., released from prison 6-months before the
murder, pleaded innocent to kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death. In
2006 a jury found Rodriguez (53) guilty of kidnapping and killing
Sjodin and was sentenced to death. North Dakota’s last execution was in
1905.
(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A13)(AP, 11/22/04)(SFC, 8/31/06,
p.A7)(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A3)
2003 Dec 1, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
(50), described by authorities as a predatory sex offender was arrested
in Crookston, Minn. He was charged with kidnapping in the disappearance
of Dru Sjodin, a North Dakota college student, abducted Nov 22,
while talking on her cell phone.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2004 Apr 17, The body of
University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin (22) was found in a
ravine northwest of Crookston, Minn. She was last seen Nov 22 at the
Grand Forks, ND, mall, where she worked. Alfonso Rodriquez was arrested
in Dec. and investigators matched DNA in blood in his car to Sjodin.
(AP, 4/18/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A13)
2004 Nov 2, John Hoeven (R) was
elected governor of North Dakota.
(SFC, 11/4/04, p.A18)
2005 Apr, Canada, backed by
Minnesota and other states, provinces, environmental groups and Indian
leaders, asked for a year-long expedited review by the International
Joint Commission on a $25 million plan by North Dakota to take water
from land-locked Devils Lake to the nearby Sheyenne River with the goal
of stabilizing the lake at current levels. The water would ultimately
drain into Manitoba's Lake Winnipeg, the world's 10th largest
freshwater lake.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 Jul 1, In North Dakota a
14-mile, $28 million drainage channel, from Devil’s Lake to the
Sheyenne River, was scheduled to open, but it was held up by heavy
rains.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.34)
2005 Aug 18, It was reported that
an anthrax outbreak had killed hundreds of cattle in parts of the Great
Plains, forcing quarantines and devastating Dakota ranchers who worry
how they will recover financially. Two ranches in Texas were
quarantined last month after anthrax was found in cattle, horses and
deer.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Nov 29, Broad areas of the
Dakotas remained shut down by the Plains' first blizzard of the season,
with highways closed by blowing, drifting snow and thousands of people
without electricity as temperatures hit the low teens.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2006 Jan 13, North Dakota State
University's North Central Research Center, Basin Electric Power
Cooperative and other partners described plans for a station in Minot
to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles using wind power.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 North Dakota’s population
stood at about 637,000 people, down a high of some 681,000 reached
during the Great Depression.
(WSJ, 12/1/06, p.A1)
2007 Feb 8, A federal judge in
Fargo, N.D., sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the slaying
of college student Dru Sjodin.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2007 Feb 17, In North Dakota More
than 8,900 people flapped their arms and legs on the state Capitol
grounds in an attempt to reclaim the record, which was snatched away
about a year ago in Michigan. The snow angel category was created in
2002 when 1,791 people made snow angels on the Capitol grounds in North
Dakota.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2008 Jan 28, The US Senate
confirmed former North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer as secretary of
agriculture.
(WSJ, 1/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 3, Barack Obama sealed
the US Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton did not give
up yet, but said she’d be interested in the No. 2 spot. Obama won the
Montana primary, while Clinton won the South Dakota primary.
(AP, 6/4/08)(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A1)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.35)
2009 Jan 6, North Dakota Gov. John
Hoeven reported a budget surplus and plans to grow reserves to between
$800 million and $1.2 billion.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.43)(http://governor.nd.gov/media/speeches/090106.html)
2009 Mar 25, North Dakota
officials issued an urgent call for volunteers to help with sandbagging
as record amounts of water poured into the Missouri River and
evacuations were ordered in riverside areas.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 27, In North Dakota the
Red River rose to a daunting 112-year high and breached one of the
dikes fortifying Fargo, but the mayor pledged to "go down swinging" as
he called for more evacuations and additional National Guard troops to
prevent a devastating flood.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 28, In North Dakota the
Red River crested at 12:15 a.m. at 40.82 feet, more than 22 feet above
flood stage.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 29, In North Dakota the
bloated Red River briefly breached a dike, pouring water into a school
campus and the Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker called it a "wakeup call" for
a city that needs to be vigilant for weaknesses in levees that could
give way at any time.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 May 25, In Alabama prisoners
Joshua Southwick (26) and Ashton Mink (22) were mistakenly allowed
outside a prison by a worker who thought they were kitchen trusties. On
June 6 they were arrested after a nearly 14-hour standoff on a ranch in
North Dakota. Also taken into custody were two women who authorities
said helped the men escape: Angela Diana Mink (25) and Jacquelin Rae
Kennamer Mink (25) Mink's sister and wife.
(AP, 6/7/09)
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