March 28, 1925 – The Des Moines Register political cartoonist for 30 years (1953-1983) – Frank Miller – is born in Kansas City.

In 1953, The Des Moines Register invited a young artist from Kansas City to follow in the illustrious footsteps of the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, Jay “Ding” Darling. Over the next 30 years (1953-1983) Frank Miller did just that, creating 10,000 panels for the front page of The Register while endearing himself to Iowans all across the state.

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March 27, 1975 – The Johnson County Court House is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s Saturday – June 8th, 1901 in Iowa City, Iowa. The city is full of excitement – for today is the big dedication ceremony for the new Johnson County Court House. According to the local newspapers at the time – this is one of the largest celebrations in Iowa City in years. Come read all about it.

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March 26, 1913 – Iowa newspapers announce the death of Joshua M. Shaffer – the brave abolitionist who helped set the pace for radical change across Iowa, and was also the key leader who helped pull together Iowa’s very first State Fair!

Did you know that in the late 1850’s, Republicans were the “awakened” party, with thousands of young voters joining “Wide-Awake” chapters in nearly every county of every Northern “Free” state? It’s this awakened generation that played a huge part in electing a relatively-unknown senator from Illinois, named Abraham Lincoln, to be the 16th President of the U.S. Here in Iowa, brave abolitionists like Dr. J.M. Shaffer of Fairfield helped set the pace for such radical change, and by the way – Dr. Shaffer was also the key leader that helped pull together Iowa’s very first State Fair!

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This Day In History is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website. Subscribe to this FREE blog and you’ll get a new email from us daily. Click to learn more.

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