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On Jan. 4, 1900, the Press and Dakotan announced:
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The story of Tom Brokaw, Yankton's "Local Personality of the Century," is a prototype of the American Dream -- with variations -- but with all of the parts of the glorious story intact.
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In the summer of 1955 my parents visited me at the Minnesota Boy Scout camp where I was a counselor. "We're moving to Yankton," they said. "You'll start the new school year there," my sophomore year.
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John Chandler "Chan" Gurney bears a famous local name, and his accomplishments are sometimes lost in the shadow of the national seed and nursery empire located here.
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Not every notable personality in Yankton's long history necessarily has roots that begin or end in this city.
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No name is more associated with Yankton and its history than that of Gurney. The family has played a pivotal role on almost every stage of the city's story -- economic, community and political.
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Mary Catherine Schmidt was the sixth prioress of Sacred Heart Convent, but she held the reins at a time of social and economic upheaval and kept the monastery afloat in an age of despair.
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One of the brightest medical minds ever produced in South Dakota -- and the Midwest -- belonged to Chester Bidwell McVay.
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In a sense, virtually no study of Yankton's history can be complete without Karolevitz's writings.
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Tyndall native Carl Youngworth was not an outstanding track athlete during his days at Yankton College.
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Mary Alice Halverson might be regarded as Yankton's guardian angel.
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Emmett J. Culligan, a pioneer in the development of conditioned water, was born in a small brick house in Yankton on March 5, 1893.
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In the 1880s, it was a dream. By the 1920s, it was a reality.
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The river had been permanently crossed by the Meridian Bridge, but even by the 1950s the greatest use of the Missouri's power had yet to be obtained.
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Begun by Gurney Seed and Nursery and the upstart Dakota Radio Apparatus Company, WNAX was destined to become one of Yankton's constants for the 20th Century with its first broadcast of recorded music on Nov. 25, 1922.
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In 1930 Yanktonians were hardly feeling the effects of the infamous stock market crash from the previous year.
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With the suddenness of a prairie blizzard, the city of Yankton lost one of its oldest and most beloved institutions in December 1984.
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Mount Marty College began as a dream in the midst of a nightmare.
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Begun at the turn of the century by an old Civil War colonel, Gurney Seed and Nursery was by the 1920s the leading industry in Yankton.
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World War II truly was a conflict that touched every corner of American society. The Yankton area was certainly no exception.
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When Lawrence Welk and three companions rolled into Yankton one early morning in 1927, they had no intentions of staying.
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When Yankton College closed after 103 years in December 1984, it was a sad end for a Yankton institution.
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Other events nominated for top local story of the century (listed in chronological order):
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Top 10 Nation/World Stories
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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, was not merely a beginning but also an end.
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To the Congress of the United States:
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On Nov. 22, 1963, our nation changed forever.
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"We choose to go to the moon," President John F. Kennedy declared in 1961. And go we did.
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"Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. The bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. ..."
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Orville and Wilbur Wright may be the greatest conquerors ever produced by America.
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What had begun with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 ended in defeat for Japan in 1945 when it signed the terms of surrender that ended World War II.
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The road to women's suffrage had been a long one. The injustice stems back to the country's very beginnings, with the Declaration of Independence stating specifically that "all men are created equal."
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Penicillin, today so taken for granted, is one of the major medical achievements of the 20th Century.
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German-born Albert Einstein is widely hailed as one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century. His theory on relativity, first introduced in 1905, is one of the building blocks of that formidable reputation.
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America could be considered something of a reluctant superpower. But circumstance brought it to the world stage -- essentially against its will.
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* Freud interprets dreams
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You have spoken; we have listened ...
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Although little is documented regarding the Yankton sports scene prior to World War I, there are plenty of indications that baseball games, horse races, and track and field events were important adjuncts to the life during the last third of the 19th century to the pioneers of the Dakota Territory.
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Yankton does not spring to mind if asked where world-renowned musicians have gotten their start.
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