Today the Press & Dakotan presents the "Century" edition, a look past at the past 100 years -- much of it as seen through the eyes of our readers.

Earlier this summer, we offered our readers a chance to voice their opinions on what they believe were the top people and events of the 20th Century in Yankton, as well as the top nation and world events.

The "Poll of the Century," as we called it, drew more than 125 responses.

Today we offer the results of those surveys.

Our survey is hardly scientific, of course, and is certainly open to debate. Some of you may agree wholeheartedly with the top 10 people and events chosen and spotlighted in each category; others might find some interesting inclusions or omissions. Either way, we'd like to hear your thoughts on the poll's results.

Also included in this edition are the entire lists of the people and events originally offered for consideration in the poll, which ran in our newspaper and also on our online website. In the local personality division, we also include the names of those who were nominated by our readers. In our efforts to sift through the formidable amount of responses received, we hope we didn't overlook any of those write-ins from this final list. If we did, please accept our apologies.

This "Century" edition also includes:

* a look back at Yankton at the turn of the last century, courtesy of author Bob Karolevitz;

* an overview of Yankton's athletic history during the past 100 years from Press & Dakotan sports writer Hod Nielsen;

* a census study that follows the population growth or decline of towns in the Press & Dakotan coverage area during the last 100 years;

* the complete text of what may well be the most famous speech delivered by a United States president this century;

* and a look back at growing up in Yankton by one of its favorite native sons.

So this is our look at the century -- your century, as chosen by our readers.

We hope you enjoy it.

We hope you may learn a little something about the times in which you've lived.

And we hope you appreciate just what an extraordinary century this has been for the people of the Yankton area as well as the world.