State Sen. C.R. Thiessen, Lambert, announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for lt. governor in January 1964.

About 800 children under 12 jammed the Centre Theatre for a special free show sponsored by the Sidney Herald and Hurly Carey Turner Insurance.

The first worship service was conducted Feb. 16, 1964, at the new Peoples Congregational Church, with Rev. Leo Buechler presiding.

File 1964 Key Club officers The 1964 Sidney Kiwanis Key Club officers were, from left, Gary Thogersen, vice-president; Glenn Breitling, junior director; Jeff Rounce, president; Robert Webber, treasurer, and Doug Hagen, secretary. Not pictured is Robert Wagner, senior director.

The city of Sidney debates the merits of daylight savings time in March. The state was considering enacting DST and so the city council had a survey published in the Herald to see how Richland County felt about it. It was found that most people were against the change.

The Kiwanis held the annual Easter egg hunt in March at Loken Park on fifth street and fourth avenue southeast and at Central Park. The hunt was held despite the heavy snow cover.

Twenty-three cars derailed five miles west of Culbertson. About 250 feet of track was torn up. A broken frame on one of the cars caused the derailment.

In April, Fairview's flyweight Melvin "Pel Mel" Miller scraps way to Olympic tryouts. Miller gained national prominence when he waded through five opponents in Las Vegas as he bid for a spot on America's Olympic boxing team. He later made his debut in May at the 1964 World's Fair held in Seattle.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Northern Plains Soil and Water Field Station at Sidney were held May 4. The station was located directly across the highway from the Agriculture Research Service Station.

Lee Hansen, with a 4.0 grade point average, was named valedictorian. Salutatorian with a 3.9920 GPA was Raymond Hartman for the Sidney High School graduating class of 1964.

Montana's territorial centennial was celebrated in Sidney on June 11-13. It was called "Fort Union Days" and was held at the county fairgrounds. A Bucking Horse Sale & Rodeo, kids day parade (entrants were dressed as Rich O'Shay comic strip characters), concerts, gaslight theatre, wagon train, centennial parade and Indian dancers where all part of the entertainment during the celebration. The Herald would publish a special centennial edition in November in honor of the territory.

The Fourth of July was very quiet in Sidney with no civic activities planned. The annual Saddle Club Rodeo was not held due to the Bucking Horse Sale held during the centennial celebration.

In August, Holly Sugar offered the Holly Sugar steam locomotive to the city, which would be placed on display in one of the parks.

A search party was called to find two missing boys of Mr. and Mrs. Wilmer Buxbaum, who lived southeast of Sidney in the Skaar community. The boys, Rodney, 5, and Donald, 3, were found sleeping in a bunkhouse that had been checked earlier. The boys hid in chokecherry bushes until dark and slipped in the bunkhouse without notice. They were found by a sister-in-law, Mrs. Leo McGinnis, and neighbor Mrs. Ed Koenig when they decided to re-check the bunkhouse. The boys got a warm welcome home and a warm behind when they got in the house.

Newspaper layout or "makeup" is much like a woman - it requires a face-lift job on occasions to keep up with the times. This was the opening sentence in the September edition talking about the Herald's new look. The paper was trying a new layout running seven columns of type on the front page, which gave more room for "white space" to give the impression of more "air" and make the paper easier to read. The Herald was the only paper in the state to use the new method.

Hay Creek news included: Mr. and Mrs. Bob Johnson and family, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Lewis and family were Sunday evening guests at the Garfield Linde home; Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dore and family, and Mr. and Mrs Irvan Zadow and family toured Fort Peck Dam on Labor Day 1964.

Mrs. Glenn Hartman, Sidney, was named society editor for the Sidney Herald in October. Hartman handled all club news and society items including arrangement of special event pictures. Hartman was married to Glen Hartman, who was the superintendent of the experiment station in Sidney.

Elections were held in November with Richland County's votes going to President Johnson. Young Bob Prevost, 24, shook up the county with his upset win over incumbent Republican Rep. Oscar Kvaalen. The final vote was Prevost 2,220 votes compared to 2,063 votes for Kvaalen.

With a blinding flash that lit up the countryside and could be seen over much of the area, a giant B-52 Strata-Fortress plowed into a hillside west of Vida on Nov. 10, 1964. The plane was destroyed, and the U.S. Air Force crew of seven was killed.

The annual presentation of Handel's Messiah under the direction of Robert L. Metzger was presented at the Sidney Senior High School gymnasium on Dec. 20. The chorus was made up of singers from Richey, Fairview, Watford City and Sidney communities.

A storm that brought back memories of the blizzards in 1936 and 1949 hit eastern Montana and the Sidney area on Dec. 15, leaving blocked roads and power failure. Winds reached 40-miles per hour and temperature fell to 35 below.

Footnote: Information provided by the MonDak Heritage Center's archives. Previous years can be found on the Herald Web site www.sidneyherald.com/herald_facts