Eliza Winston was supposed to be free. But her husband died before he could pay off Richard Christmas, her owner. Britt Aamodt looks at how a trip to St. Anthony, Minnesota, in 1860, helped Eliza Winston of Mississippi plan her escape from slavery.

Engineering Research Associates opened on Minnehaha Avenue in St. Paul in 1946, But the nondescript jumble of buildings concealed a secret. Britt Aamodt examines the history of ERA and its code-breaking machines.

Cicely Angleton was the offspring of two of the most prominent families in Duluth, the D’Autremonts and the Congdons. But she’s remembered today because of her unintended role in a JFK conspiracy theory. Britt Aamodt has the story of Cicely’s friendship with Mary Pinchot Meyer.

Very few Americans will ever run for President of the United States. But Minneapolis adman Jack Carmichael wanted them to at least get a feel for the game of political campaigns. Britt Aamodt reveals the Minnesota origins of the 1967 board game Mr. President.

Stephen Ambrose’s book and the spinoff HBO series Band of Brothers told the story of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. But neither could include the story of every man who served in the company. Britt Aamodt has the story of the two Minnesotans from Easy and the book that finally tells their story.

In 1978, Ranee Ramaswamy, her husband and their three-year-old daughter moved from southern India to Minneapolis. Within a year, Ramaswamy would give her first public Indian classical dance performance and, fourteen years after that, found her own company. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the history of Ragamala Dance Company.

In 2009, Todd Bol, who’d grown up in Stillwater, was renovating his garage when he decided to turn the old door into a memorial for his mother Esther, a teacher before she died. He created a tiny schoolhouse that he set on a pole at the foot of his driveway and stuffed with free books. Britt Aamodt has the story of the first Little Free Library.

In 1939, Gregg Jakobson was born in St. Paul, where he was adopted by a police chief and his wife. By 1968, Jakobson was a California session arranger and music scout when Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson introduced him to a potentially hot songwriting prospect. The songwriter was Charlie Manson. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the story.

September 17, 1909, President William Howard Taft arrived in Winona, one stop in hundreds during the new president’s 56-day whistle-stop tour of America. But what he’d say that day at the Winona Opera House, about a new tariff bill, would foreshadow a rift in the Republican Party and the rupturing of Taft’s closest friendship—with Teddy Roosevelt. Britt Aamodt has the story.

In the late 19th century, with the Twin Cities rapidly expanding, it was becoming harder to reach distant points. St. Paul solved with the transportation problem with the introduction of horsecars in 1872, Minneapolis following suit three years later. Yet the streets were soon drowning in manure. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the story.