Editor's Note: During the 75 years of its existence, the Budgeteer News has seen many changes and covered many events in Duluth. Below is a non-comprehensive timeline of some of the events that made news in Duluth over this time span. Where we had an exact date, it was included; otherwise, we went with the month or year. The Budgeteer News thanks Pat Maus at the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth for providing much of this information.
1931
Air mail and air passenger service to Duluth was inaugurated.
March 13 -- Paul Robeson, advertised as a "Negro" singer, performed in Duluth.
Duluth's Lester Park 18-hole golf course opened.
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Maurices chain of clothing stores started with one Duluth store operated by Maurice Labovitz.
1932
Aerial Lift Bridge hit an all time low number of lifts -- a measure of vessel traffic -- with only 2,764. The average was 5,500 lifts and the peak in 1978 was 7,583 lifts.
Duluth's chief of police had an annual salary of $3,900.
The spacious home of Josiah and Rose Watrous Ensign at 502 E. 2nd St. was demolished for the Miller Memorial Hospital site. The hospital was later called Miller-Dwan.
Duluth Civic Symphony became the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. The first conductor, Paul Lemay, served nine years. He was killed in action in World War II.
Sept. 1 -- Contractors broke ground for Duluth's Medical Arts building.
1933
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The estate of Albert L. Ordean, banker, founder of wholesale grocery business Stone-Ordean-Wells, was used to create Duluth's philanthropic Ordean Foundation.
Canadian engineer M. L. Hibbard came to the Twin Ports. He was president of Minnesota Power & Light Co. for nearly three decades.
1934
Margaret Culkin Banning Salsich was the first woman recipient of the Duluth Hall of Fame award, which she accepted "in behalf of many women... ." She wrote 38 books, including "Mesabi" in 1969.
1936
March 4 -- The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team played against Duluth State Teachers College.
In Duluth, 84 homesteads on 5 or 10 acres of land that comprised the Jackson Project were completed and occupied; 40 with barns, 44 without.
July 13 -- The hottest day ever in Duluth, 106 degrees.
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Duluth's Bridgeman-Russell Company with its Velvet Ice Cream opened its first store at 11 East Superior Street
Nov. 22 -- The first broadcast aired from Dalton A. LeMasurier's 100-watt KDAL radio station. (He used his initials for the last three letters).
1938
Jan. 6 -- WEBC's new Duluth studio opened in the remodeled Palladio building downtown.
March 18 -- The Interstate Commerce Commission authorized transfer of property and assets of the D&IR to the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range (DM&IR) company that had emerged on July 1, 1937, with the consolidation of the DM&N and the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway Company.
1939
April 22 -- O. George Thrana, Norwegian master stone carver died. He carved details on the State Capitol and on buildings in Duluth including: Denfeld High School, Central High School, Washington Junior High School, the Kitchi Gammi Club, St. Scholastica's Stanbrook Hall, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Pilgrim Congregational Church, First Presbyterian Church, the Carnegie Library, City Hall, St. Louis County Jail (original), Lyceum Theater (razed), Congdon Fountain, Western National Bank, Royal Alworth Jr. residence and the George H. Crosby residence.
June 15 -- Crown Prince Olav of Norway dedicated Duluth's Enger Tower that was a gift to the city from Norwegian-born businessman Bert Enger .
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July 8 -- Duluth's streetcars ceased operation and were replaced by trolley busses.
July 17 -- Proctor gained city status.
Sept. 4 -- Duluth Incline Railway made its final trip. Built in 1891 for $400,000, it carried passengers up Seventh Avenue West from Superior Street to Ninth Street, a distance of 2,749 feet. It was always a money-loser for the Street Railway Co.
1940
Population of Duluth was 100,238. Federal census states St. Louis County's population was 206,917.
Major ship building industry opened to meet World War II needs: 355 vessels were built in Duluth during the war.
March -- Central won the first of eight consecutive state high school cross country ski championships, a title the Greyhounds have won 20 times.
Sept. 5 -- Carl J. Hambro, president of the Norwegian Parliament and president of the League of Nations, spoke on "Conditions in Europe" at the Armory.
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Oct. 24 -- An 11-mile section of the Duluth Skyline Parkway was formally opened.
With the Works Projects Administration, the City of Duluth Park Department built the steel ski slide on the hill at Mission Creek in Fond du Lac.
1941
July --Turkish officials came to Duluth to study municipal government.
Bob Dylan, musician and composer, was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth. His family moved to Hibbing where he attended school.
Duluth Airport spent $691,000 on blacktopping two 3,900-foot runways, each 100 feet wide to aid Northwest Airlines air service to Duluth that began in 1940. On Jan. 9, 1947, a Northwest Airlines DC-3 became the first scheduled airliner to land in Duluth after dark and with the aid of a new lighting system at the airport. Duluth wouldn't get a control tower until 1951.
1942
May 17 -- Prime Minister of Norway Johan Nygaardsvold spoke on Sunday afternoon at a Norwegian Independence Day program at Central High School.
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Aug. 24 -- Author Sinclair Lewis drove through Duluth to the North Shore and stayed for two years until Aug. 24, 1944, renting a house at 2601 E. 2nd St. He then bought that house in January 1945, and stayed there from March 1945, until his departure March 26, 1946. Dur-ing his second stay, he worked on his book "Kingsblood Royal."
1943
March -- Central won the first of eight consecutive state high school alpine/slalom ski championships. Altogether the Trojans have won 20 such titles.
May 9 -- The Dionne quintuplets were in Superior for a ship launching.
October -- Laird Goodman and Dick Frazee of Central finished first and second respectively at the state high school cross country meet.
1944
Nov. 20 -- Hollywood actress Ingrid Bergman spoke at Duluth's sixth War Loan "Kick-Off" Breakfast at the Hotel Duluth Ballroom.
December -- Duluth's 48-bed Webber Hospital at 56th Avenue West and Grand closed after serving the public since 1926.
Doris I. Hay, a taxicab driver in Duluth, was probably the first woman taxi driver.
1946
June -- Central won the first of three consecutive state golf championships.
1947
February -- Denfeld won the state high school policy debate championship. The Hunters also won in 1952 and 1961.
March -- Duluth Denfeld won the state high school basketball championship.
May 28 -- Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Duluth.
June -- Bob Braff of Central won the first of two consecutive state high school golf championships.
Marjorie Kelly Wilkins graduated from Duluth's St. Mary's School of Nursing, the first and only African American graduate. She broke the color barrier at Duluth's St. Luke's Hospital as an anesthetist in 1955.
1948
May 23 -- Oral Roberts, religious speaker, addressed a crowd at Duluth's Armory.
Sept. 18 -- Duluth's first Air National Guard squadron was activated with an authorized strength of 50 officers, 200 enlisted men, four light bomb-ers, two cargo ships, 25 fighters, two trainers and two light-observation planes. Construction of the $800,000 Air National Guard installation at Duluth's municipal airport began.
John K. Daniels, Minneapolis sculptor, at age 73, sculpted in 114 days the Leif Erikson full-sized statue for the Duluth Leif Erikson Park rose garden. The Norwegian American League furnished the pedestal.
1949
June -- Central's John Nutting and Bruce Dikson won the state high school tennis doubles championship.
1950
March -- Duluth Junior College closed.
March -- Duluth Central won the state high school basketball title. The Trojans also won it all in 1961, 1971 and 1979.
June -- Duluth Denfeld won the state high school baseball championship.
June 2-4 -- Vice President Alben W. Barkley was the principal speaker at the DFL state convention at the Armory.
1951
The 515th Air Defense Command of the U.S. Air Force was established in Duluth.
J. C. Penney's store opened in Duluth's Plaza Shopping Center.
Restaurateur Joe Huie, born in 1892 in Guangdong province, China, opened his café on Duluth's Lake Avenue offering authentic Asian food.
1952
June 18 -- Composer Igor Stravinsky celebrated his 70th birthday at the Duluth Flame Supper Club.
Aug. 2 -- Marvin "Ted" Kolin, a 19-year-old deck hand on the ore boat J. H. Hillman Jr., swam the Duluth-Superior harbor -- an eight mile swim -- in 6 hours and 12 minutes. Delores Campbell, 22, swam the six-mile length of Minnesota Point on her first try in 7 hours 38 minutes beginning at 11:27 a.m.
Oct. 4 -- Retired Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower campaigned for president at the Civic Center.
The Miss Minnesota Pageant was won by Duluthian Carole Wick.
1953
The first television station in Duluth, KDAL, went on the air.
1954
Sept. 22 -- Vice President Richard Nixon spoke at Denfeld High School at 8 p.m. on the topic "Against Socialism, For Capitalism, the Seriousness of the Communist Threat."
1955
Jan. 26 -- The Duluth City Council passed a Fair Employment Practices ordinance.
Oct. 30 -- Former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson spoke at a Democratic-Farmer-Labor gathering here.
Duluth Airport Board renamed the Williamson-Johnson Municipal Airport the Duluth International Airport -- to be more cosmopolitan.
The Duluth Port Authority was established.
1956
Aug. 2 -- Albert Henry Woolson, the last survivor of the Grand Army of the Republic, died. He served one year in the Civil War, discharged Sept. 27, 1865, as a private. He died in Duluth's St. Luke's hospital at age 109. His "modified complete military funeral" was in the Duluth Armory Aug. 16, with burial at Duluth's Park Hill Cemetery.
Duluth's Centennial, 1856-1956, was celebrated under Mayor Eugene R. Lambert with Fred R. Lewis, general chair.
1957
Duluth's Beatrice Ojakangas entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off with a molasses-corn meal-cheese bread recipe that took second place: a $7,500 prize. Ojakangas has published 25 cookbooks.
Ryan Construction Company of Hibbing and Towle Company, Minneapolis developed the Duluth Kenwood Shopping Center as the Town and Country Shopping Center. Its 14 tenants included a Red Owl grocery and an F. W. Woolworth store.
1958
During the 1958 to 1964 navigation seasons, Corps of Engineers crews deepened 150 miles of connecting channels on the Great Lakes from 25 to 27 feet.
Arthur M. Clure Public Marine Terminal in Duluth was under construction funded by state, county and city monies -- a $10 million package.
Duluth's Diamond Calk & Horseshoe Company took the new name Diamond Tool & Horseshoe Company.
1959
Jan. 31 -- Rock 'n' roll stars the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens performed at the Duluth Armory.
May 3 -- Crowds were on the Duluth piers when the merchant vessel Ramon de Larrinaga passed under the Aerial Bridge, the first upbound ship to traverse the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway.
Sept. 26 -- Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke in Duluth.
1960
The Duluth-Superior High Bridge was under construction and opened Dec. 2, 1961.
Duluth population reached 106,884 which has never been surpassed; St. Louis County population reached 231,538.
Duluth had 66 parks, eight banks, employed 38,730 people, had three theaters, 133 places of worship, a nine-station fire department and 157 men operating 18 pieces of major fire fighting equipment. The police department was allowed 147 employees, with one station and 30 pieces of motor equipment.
March -- East won the state high school hockey tournament. The Greyhounds also won the state Class AA championship in 1995 and 1998.
June -- East won the state high school golf championship. The 'Hounds also won in 1968.
1961
June 9 -- Carl T. Rowan, assistant deputy secretary of state, spoke at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
Oct. 24-25 -- Urho Kekkonen, president of Finland, visited UMD with Minnesota Gov. Elmer L. Andersen and U. S. Rep. John A. Blatnik.
1962
June 16 -- The $100,000 restaurant The Sky Room opened by Mr. & Mrs. Jerome J. LaPlante at 1144 Mesaba Avenue. Mosts recently known as the Buena Vista Restaurant and Motel, it was razed to build condominiums.
Noted psychologists B. F. Skinner and Carl Rogers spoke at the UMD ballroom.
Oct. 13 -- Former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey visited John O'Neill, a Duluth letter carrier. Both served in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1943.
1963
May 11 -- Dr. Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian gave the annual Dalton LeMasurier Lecture at the University of Minnesota-Duluth on the topic of "Atomic War."
A new Duluth Cathedral High School opened and both girls and boys were educated under one roof for the first time.
Sept. 24 -- President John F. Kennedy spoke at UMD on the subject of high unemployment in the northern Great Lakes area, where joblessness was twice the national average.
Harold "Bo" Conrad, 12-year-old from Duluth, out-drove a record field of 239 boys to win the 26th All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. Bo won a $7,500 scholarship from Chevrolet .
1964
Jan. 28 -- A revolutionary winter tire with built-in ice gripping steel studs, was demonstrated in Duluth.
March 6 -- A majority of Duluth service stations raised gasoline prices 1 cent per gallon to 31.9 cents per gallon for regular and 38.9 cents for premium.
March -- Proctor's Bob Laney set the state boys basketball tournament all-time record for most rebounds with 69.
June 9 -- U.S. Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges spoke about the Area Redevel-opment Administration at the annual Duluth Jaycee dinner.
WDSE educational television was established in Duluth.
Nat G. Polinsky Memorial Rehabilitation Center, 530 E. Second St. in Duluth, opened. Named by A. B. Polinsky for his brother who died in 1964.
1965
Feb. 21 -- Singer Johnny Mathis performed at a variety show at the Denfeld auditorium.
April 3 -- Eddie Rickenbacher, World War I flying ace, spoke in Duluth to the Scottish Rite Masons on "Current Ills of the World and the Lack of Personal Initiative."
April 17 -- Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, R-Ill., gave the Dalton LeMasurier Memorial Lecture at UMD on the "State of the Union."
1966
Feb. 7 -- The Duluth City Council Planning Committee approved rezoning an 18-acre site in Duluth Heights to accommodate construction of the 540,000 square foot Miller Hill Mall Shopping Center.
August -- The $6.1 million Duluth Arena Auditorium (5,600 seat arena, 2,300 seat auditorium) was completed. Pioneer Hall was added in 1976.
1967
Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra conductor of 17 years, Herman Hertz, resigned.
1968
April -- NBC News correspondent Harry Reasoner spoke at UMD.
The College of St. Scholastica went co-ed officially in the fall. It opened its doors to eight male students full-time.
Oct. 10 -- Former Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, the American Independent Party candidate for president , spoke in the Duluth Arena-Auditorium.
Chester and Clara Congdon's 1905 Jacobean-style house Glensheen, 3300 London Road, was given to UMD..
1969
Folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary performed in concert at the Duluth Arena-Auditorium. They appeared again in Duluth at Bayfront Festival Park in September 1998.
The Save Lake Superior Association was formed by Duluth activists brother and sister Alden Lind and Arlene Lind Lehto and colleagues.
The St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center began as the Area Cultural Center.
June -- Proctor's Gary Bjorklund set the state high school mile record in 4:05.10.
1970
Oct. 9 -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird spoke to the Duluth Rotary Club at the Hotel Duluth about the proposed cease-fire in Indochina.
Oct. 15 -- U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop-ment George Romney toured a Model Neighborhood in Duluth.
The Labor Temple opened in the former Coca-Cola plant building at 2002 London Road.
1971
April -- Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall was the keynote speaker for First Earth Days, a three-day event at UMD.
June 6 -- The first McDonald's opened in Duluth at 2215 East Central Entrance.
June 18 -- Kenwood 1 & 2 theaters opened. This was the first multi-plex in the region. The opening films were "Andromeda Strain" and a reissue of "Lawrence of Arabia." The theaters closed in 1984.
July -- Nearly 8,000 Central High School graduates returned for an all class reunion.
Sept. 24 -- The High Bridge was dedicated as the John A. Blatnik Bridge.
December -- St. Louis County's Nopeming Sanatorium was converted to Nopeming Nursing Home. The nursing home closed and the building was sold in 2005 for just more than $1 million.
Lois Brandt Miller, Duluth Symphony Orchestra's principal cellist, was chosen for the World Symphony Orchestra.
1972
Spring -- Lawyer William Kunstler, defender of the Chicago 7, was a guest speaker at UMD.
June 15 -- TV personality Art Linkletter spoke at the Duluth Arena-Auditorium to the Minnesota Banker's Association on "Financial Education."
1973
Duluth's Free Clinic, coordinated by Catherine DeShaw, opened at 211 W. 4th St. in the Sacred Heart Residence.
UMD's Medical School's first class of 24 students started.
1974
Dec. 20 -- Spirit Mountain Recreation Area opened.
1975
Jan. 9-12 -- The so-called "Blizzard of the Century" passed from the Twin Cities to Grand Portage. Hurricane force winds and zero visibility included lightning and thunder. The worst blizzard before that was probably on Feb. 13, 1866.
March -- Duluth Clinic Ltd. five-story building opened.
Deidre Dodge of Duluth was the first woman St. Louis County Commissioner.
Nov. 10 -- The Edmund Fitzgerald, flagship of Columbia Transportation fleet, Oglebay Norton Company, plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior in a storm with a loss of all 29 hands.
1976
Jan. 1 -- Hermantown became a town.
UMD's Northeast Experiment Station, opened in 1911 by legislative action, was closed.
February -- Grandma's Saloon & Grill was opened in Duluth's Canal Park by owners Mickey Paulucci and Andy Borg.
Oct. 16 -- Elvis Presley performed in Duluth. He made a second appearance here on April 29, 1977.
November -- Hermantown wion the Class A state high school volleyball championship.
1977
June 27 -- Elderly heiress Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse Velma Pietila were murdered at Congdon's home, Glensheen, in Duluth.
June -- The first Grandma's Marathon was run.
July 13 -- City of Kinney, St. Louis County, secedes from the United States. City Councilors were frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to obtain a grant from the federal government for a water project, decided to secede and apply for foreign aid because "there is less paperwork." Although the U. S. did not recognize Kinney as a foreign country, Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci did. He gave Kinney a used Ford to replace the inoperable city police car and 10 cases of frozen pizzas.
The Duluth Preservation Alliance was founded.
1979
Feb. 16 -- KDAL-TV became KDLH after KDLH Broadcasting Co. bought the station.
March 29 -- The non-profit Depot Foundation incorporated..
Duluth celebrated its Tricentennial, 1679-1979, with a publication titled "Duluth, 300 Years."
Oct. 31 -- Feminist Gloria Steinem spoke at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
The first issue of Lake Superior Magazine, originally titled Lake Superior Port Cities, was published.
1980
June 28 -- The new Duluth Public Library, 520 West Superior St., was dedicated.
1981
Jeno's Inc. transferred its Duluth operations to Wellston, Ohio.
Cathedral High School was renamed The Duluth Cathedral School. Cathedral became The Marshall School July 1, 1987.
The downtown Duluth Glass Block store was razed in the fall.
Oct. 21 -- Greysolon Plaza senior housing was dedicated. The Hotel Duluth became Greysolon in a $5.5 million conversion from 400 rooms to 150 one-bedroom apartments.
1982
The U.S. Air Force announced it would abandon its entire mission in Duluth.
Duluth inventor Capt. Alexander McDougall was inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame at Kings Point, NY.
Duluth's Bishop Anderson started the non-profit Damiano Center .
The Morgan Park High School program closed at the end of the school year.
1983
Sadik Hakim, African-American jazz pianist from Duluth, died. Mr. Hakim's obituary ran in the New York Times.
The Minnesota Legislature established the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at UMD.
Downtown Duluth prepared for $4.8 million in reconstruction, including bricked sidewalks and streets.
The jobless rate for St. Louis County was 18.7 percent.
1984
The first John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon was run.
June 22 -- Duluth's federal prison camp (near the Duluth International Airport) opened with tours for the public.
Sept. 28-29 -- Writer Marge Piercy read from her work at the Depot's Ruth Maney Room. She made a second appearance in Duluth at the College of St. Scholastica on May 8, 1998.
Oct. 25 -- The Bong Bridge opened, connecting Duluth and Superior, Wis.
November -- The Herman-town girls cross country team won the first of two consecutive state championships.
1985
October -- The Kitchi Gammi Club broke a 102-year tradition and voted to allow women membership. The oldest social club incorporated in Minnesota, it defeated a similar measure in 1984.
Nov. 18 -- The Socrates ran aground when a gale drove the 584-foot vessel within 50 feet of the Minnesota Point beach.
Duluth port shipments dropped to their lowest level since 1959.
1986
June -- The William A. Irvin ore vessel opened as a public museum in Duluth.
August -- Duluth's Skyline Drive-In Theater closed.
September -- Fond-du-Luth Casino opened downtown.
1987
Two women served on the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners for the first time: Marilyn Krueger of Duluth and Liz Prebich of Virginia.
1988
March -- Ziad Munson of East won the state Lincoln-Douglas debate championship.
April 26 -- The Duluth Public Arts Commission was established.
June -- Tom Stender and Steve Roach of Marshall School won the state Class A tennis doubles championship.
June 7 -- The first 400-foot portion of the Duluth Lake Walk -- then called a boardwalk promenade -- was dedicated. Oct. 24 -- Duluth Mayor John Fedo went on trial, charged with accepting a bribe and misusing city money. He was acquitted.
Nov. 16 -- The movie "Far North" premiered in Minnesota in Duluth.
1989
January -- John Johnson of East won the state high school Lincoln-Douglas debate title.
April 17 -- The Duluth City Council formed a Heritage Preservation Commission.
Aug. 1 -- Duluth held its first Bayfront Blues Festival. with an audience of about 1,000.
1991
March 12 -- Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko gave a poetry reading at the College of St. Scholastica.
June -- Hermantown won the state high school Class A softball championship. The Hawks were Class AA champs in 2002.
Nov. 1 -- A record-breaking snowstorm dropped 24 inches of snow in 24 hours.
A group of Duluth area citizens and the local NAACP marked the graves of the three African-American men lynched in 1920 in Duluth's Norwegian-Lutheran Park Hill Cemetery.
1992
June 30 -- A train derailed in Superior, Wis., sending a tanker car of benzene into the St. Louis River. National media swarmed into the area as a resulting cloud of possibly toxic smoke led to the evacuation of 50,000 area residents.
Oct. 28 -- Former congresswoman and 1972 presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm spoke at UMD.
Vice presidential candidate Albert Gore campaigned in Duluth.
The I-35 highway extension was completed.
1993
The movie "Iron Will" opened. Some of the movie was filmed in Duluth and the surrounding area.
Feb. 23 -- Arson took the unoccupied Old Main building on UMD's lower campus.
1994
January -- The Chinese Lantern Restaurant was gutted by fire.
Oct. 28 -- Workers left the Diamond Tool manufacturing plant on Duluth's Grand Avenue for the last time. Otto Swanstrom's company began in 1908 as Diamond Calk and Horseshoe Company.
Nov. 4 -- President Bill Clinton was in Duluth to stump for DFL candidates.
1996
February -- The East boys won the first of four consecutive Nordic/cross country state high school ski championships. The East girls also won in 1998, as well as 1996 and 1999, and the boys added a title in 2004.
Feb. 2 -- The coldest official temperature ever recorded in Minnesota was set at -60 degrees near Tower.
March 5 -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made a speech in Hermantown, praising Her-mantown's Kids Plus program.
April 18 -- Duluth's 270-seat Omnimax Theater opened.
Sept. 14 -- The first North-shore Inline Marathon was held.
October -- Nick Matack of East won the state Class AA cross country meet.
1997
iOct. 3 -- International passenger ship traffic returned to Minnesota when the Columbus, carrying a load of German passengers, visited the Duluth-Superior harbor.
The Duluth Dukes baseball team won the Northern League.
The Woman Today, began publication, titled Area Woman.
1998
January -- David Siders of East won the Lincoln-Douglas state high school debate championship.
April 8 -- Women's rights activist Maria Suarez spoke on "Women's Voices from Central America" in the Kirby Ballroom at UMD.
November -- Murphy Oil USA's marine fueling station (for ore vessels) opened at the Arthur M. Clure Public Marine Terminal.
July 24 -- Pitcher Ila Borders of the Duluth-Superior Dukes was the first woman to win a men's regular season professional baseball game. The Dukes beat Sioux Falls, 3-1, in Duluth.
1999
April -- Country singer Willie Nelson performed at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. He also performed there on Aug. 30, 2005.
Willard Munger died. He served his West Duluth district in the Minnesota House of Representatives for 43 years; was first elected in 1954, with only one two-year interruption, and was known as "Mr. Environment." At age 87, he was Minnesota's oldest lawmaker in state history.
Nov. 2 -- Don Ness was elected to the Duluth City Council at age 25. He was the youngest person ever elected as a city official.
2000
Feb. 24 -- The National Geographic Society's film 'The Return of the Wolf" premiered in Duluth's DECC, one of the highlights of an international symposium "Beyond 2000: Realities of Global Wolf Restoration."
March 6 -- Duluth was the first city in the nation to ban mercury thermometers to prevent the element from polluting the environment.
The Great Lakes Aquarium at Lake Superior Center opened in Duluth.
Aug. 30 -- UMD's new Library opened.
Oct. 29 -- Folk singer/song writer Joan Baez performed in the DECC auditorium.
Oct. 29 -- Green Party vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke made a campaign stop at the UMD gymnasium on behalf of the Ralph Nader/LaDuke Green Party ticket.
Oct. 31 -- Tipper Gore, wife of Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore campaigned at UWS on behalf of the Democratic Party ticket.
Nov. 1 -- Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, campaigned at the DECC. He returned to the DECC on July 13, 2004, as he campaigned for re-election.
Nov. 2 -- Vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut campaigned at UMD's Romano Gym for the Democratic Party ticket.
The federal census reported St. Louis County's population was 200,528.
2001
March 21 -- Sister Helen Prejean, spoke as an advocate for eliminating the death penalty to the Center from the Study of Peace and Justice at the College of St. Scholastica.
April 18 -- CNN news anchor Judy Woodruff spoke at UMD's Romano Gym on the role of media in elections.
April 27 -- Patrick Moore, Canadian co-founder of Greenpeace International spoke at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association at Spirit Mountain.
May 24 -- Physician and clown Hunter "Patch" Adams spoke at Denfeld auditorium.
June -- East's Jay Schoenfelder set the state high school Class A record in the 3200 meters with a time of 9:03.12.
Sept. 22 -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march from the DECC to Canal Park with Canal Park hotel workers.
Nov. 12 -- Singer, songwriter Rod Stewart performed at the DECC.
2002
April -- Duluth established a Human Rights Office. Meg Bye was executive director.
June -- The Gary-New Duluth World War II memorial, built by Italian bricklayers who settled in and around the area, with names of all area servicemen and women killed, was reinstalled with more names.
Aug. 16 -- Musician, singer Jewel performed at the DECC.
Aug. 26 -- Singer songwriter Bonnie Raitt performed with Lyle Lovett at the DECC.
September -- Owner John Ehlert moved the Duluth-Superi-or Dukes to Kansas City, Kan.
Oct. 24 -- Groundbreaking for the Nature Center in Duluth's Hartley Park resulted from 20 years of planning.
Nov. 1 -- Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned at Hermantown Middle School for U.S. Senate candidate Norm Coleman. Cheney also appeared Sept. 29, 2004, at Cirrus Design headquarters in Hermantown.
2003
Sept. 19 -- Aaron Ralston, a mountaineer who amputated his own arm to survive, spoke at the DECC on "Survival: the Personality of Leadership."
Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad and the USS Great Lakes Fleet: both became properties of the Canadian National Railway.
2004
Feb. 20 -- Dennis Kucinich, candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke at UMD's Montague Hall.
April 24 -- Garrison Keillor, radio personality and author, aired his national radio show "A Prairie Home Companion from the DECC auditorium.
June -- Chris Paulseth and Jared Wiklund of East won the state high school Class AA tennis doubles championship.
June -- Hermantown's Dan Jago, Mike Sumbs, Nikki Holt and Kyle Schmidt set the state Class high school record in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 meter relays at the state track and field meet.
Sept. 9 -- First Lady Laura Bush spoke on behalf of her husband's re-election campaign at Bayfront Festival Park.
Sept. 13 -- Singer, songwriter Carole King campaigned in Superior for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
2005
Nov. 24 -- The Duluth port received its heaviest equipment ever. Workers at Lake Superior Warehousing Co. unloaded a 1.5 million pound "hydro cracker" bound for Long Lake, Alberta, to separate oil from sand.
Dec. 7 -- Humorist, comedian, television personality and author Al Franken aired his radio show from UMD's MPAC.
Dec. 12 -- The City of Duluth's Post Employment Health Care Benefits Task Force reported that the city had an unfunded liability of $279.9 million, and that the liability was increasing $35,000 per day. It outlined a 15-step plan to prevent the city from going bankrupt.
2006
Aug. 8 -- Folk singer James Taylor kicked off his national concert tour at the DECC.
Note: This article was originally published Sept. 17, 2006, in "Then & Now: The Budgeteer is Celebrating our 75th Anniversary," a special supplement to the regular Sunday edition of the Duluth Budgeteer News.
