This Date in History

Our "This Date In Central Minnesota History" series is a joint effort with the Stearns History Museum. Today is the anniversary of Stearns County being created.

Susanne and Mary Reker went missing; they were found 26 days later murdered in Quarry Park. Today, police still don’t know who murdered these two girls. They believe the killer or killers may be from the local area.

It was 19 years ago today that Hollywood came to St. Cloud. The Stearns County Courthouse served as the backdrop for the opening courtroom scenes of "The Mighty Ducks."

WJON listeners share their recollections on the attacks of September 11, 2001.

St. Cloud’s first female police officer, Ruby Danielson, began her work on this date, December 15th, in 1945.

On this date, December 10th, in 1930, Sauk Centre native Sinclair Lewis became the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature.

On this date, December 5th, in 1872, prominent abolitionist and women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton visited St. Cloud to deliver a lecture titled “The Coming Girl.

During the war, Char-Gale helped contract items for the war effort, and just one week before Pearl Harbor and eight short days before the United States entered the war, Char-Gale opened a plant in St. Cloud.

On November 30th, 1967 Eugene McCarthy declared he was running for president; he ran on a platform that consisted of an anti-Vietnam war platform. This was directly opposite current President Lyndon B. Johnson’s platform.

Blizzard is a word that brings fear, excitement, danger and awe to those who have experienced one. Today marks the anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard. This storm has been called the worst storm that this state has ever seen