On April 26, 2015, Betty White received a lifetime achievement award at the 42nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. The 93-year-old actress has a career

An almost palpable air of excitement has hung over the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault ever since July 20, opening night of

“Old Bill” Schilling would have loved this August Historic Happenings column. That is because I am going to tell you a lot about his contributions to

“Robbery & Murder!” screamed the headline of the Rice County Journal of Sept. 7, 1876. “Desperate Attempt to Rob the Bank! J.L. Heywood Shot Dead at

Mike (“Doc”) Hildebrandt has a motto, taken from John Denver’s song Thank God, I’m a Country Boy. It is, “I fiddle when I can and

From February 2007 to December 2016, I wrote 119 “Historic Happenings” columns for The Entertainment Guide. What have I been doing since my last column?

It’s not too likely that the University of Minnesota will book Carleton as an opponent at its new TCF Bank Stadium. But Carleton’s football

I guess I am easily entertained, because my idea of a good time is to look at microfilm of old newspapers at the Northfield

Carleton College archivist Eric Hillemann has a colorful poster from the 1930s on his office wall which announces a lecture: “James B. Pond presents

Plans were made in December of 1855 for the family of John North to move south from St. Anthony to the Cannon River where

For 20 years the Lockwood Opera House on Division Street had been the primary place where early Northfielders gathered for entertainment. But by 1892

Those of you who have been amazed at the magnificence (and length) of the Defeat of Jesse James Days parades will no doubt be

Within six years of the founding of Northfield in 1855, Northfield proudly flew its first U.S. flag. The Continental Congress had adopted the nation’s

This was the plaintive cry in the Carletonian newspaper on Oct. 22, 1932, from the so-called “Goatrophy” which had been awarded for the first

The headline of the Northfield News ran across the top of the entire front page on Oct. 30, 1936: “New Postoffice Building Completed.” There were

“No matter where you go in the United States, it has been said, you will find someone who knows that Jesse James raided a

Since the 2016 election season is in full throttle, this seems like a good time to revisit a historic happening involving a presidential candidate

Originally Published in the April 2014 Entertainment Guide Basket Ball. Yes, two separate words, so chosen because a janitor showed up with two peach

Today’s Carleton College students know the names Fred B. and Deborah Sayles Hill. That is to say, they know the names Sayles and Hill

“Until Dec. 7, 1941, I thought I was a normal boy, a normal American. All of a sudden I was dirty. All of a

You cannot be much more of a “townie” than Laura MacKenzie, even though she left Northfield for a while before returning in 2011 to

“You’re listening to the new sound in town, KYMN radio. Let’s boogie!” The uplifting strains of “Up, Up and Away,” sung by the Fifth

It is not surprising that Susan Garwood, executive director of the Rice County Historical Society, expresses a fondness for history. But it turns out

Let’s get this out of the way from the start. You can’t pay me enough to watch the 40 or more mostly mediocre (and