640000BC Volcanic eruptions in northwest Wyoming,
extending to Idaho and Montana, created a caldera some 40 miles long
and 30 miles wide. The surface collapsed thousands of feet into a
magma pool and marked the area later known as Yellowstone.
Continuing eruptions caused climactic changes around the world.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.T5)(HC, 10/10/06)
1805 Aug 17, Sacagawea, while
traveling with the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, reunited with
her brother Cameahwait, a Shoshoni Indian chief on the Lemhi River
1805 Aug 30, The Lewis and
Clark Corps of Discovery resumed their westward journey with 29
horses and 6 guides provided by Shoshoni Chief Cameahwait. They
spent the next 4 weeks crossing the Bitterroot Mountains (Idaho).
(ON, 4/12, p.12)
1852 Jul 12, Dr. John Hudson
Wayman camped at the City of Rocks in Idaho and called it “one of
the finest places of its kind in the world." US Congress named the
area a national reserve in 1988.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.E2)
1855 Nez Perce elders agreed to
sell most of their land to the US government. They retained some 10
thousand square miles as a reservation in the area where Washington,
Oregon and Idaho meet. Gold was soon discovered in the area and in
1863 the US government called for a new deal.
(ON, 3/04, p.1)
1863 Mar 3, Idaho Territory
1863 Jul 4, Boise, Idaho, was
1864 The US Congress pushed
Idaho’s northeastern border back to the Bitterroot Mountains after
Sidney Edgerton of the Idaho Territory went to Washington with
$2,000 in gold. Edgerton wound up as the territorial governor of
newly created Montana.
(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.W9)
1865 Jun 29, William E. Borah,
Republican senator from Idaho, proponent of the League of Nations,
1871 Luther Burbank developed
the Russet Burbank potato, later identified with Idaho.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.4)
1872 Mar 1, President Ulysses
S. Grant signed a measure creating Yellowstone National Park (Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming). The act of Congress creating Yellowstone National
Park was based on a report from an expedition led by Ferdinand
Hayden. The 2.2 million-acre preserve was the first step in a
national park system. Nathaniel Pitt Langford (39) was appointed the
(SFC, 5/19/96, Z1, p.2)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(ON,
11/02, p.4)(PCh, 1992, p.526)(AP, 3/1/08)
1885 Oct 30, Ezra Pound
(d.1972), poet and critic, was born in Hailey, Idaho. He wrote “The
Cantos." Pound met William Carlos Williams at the Univ. of
Pennsylvania in 1907 and they remained friends and wrote many
letters. “Pound-Williams: Selected Correspondence" was ed. by Hugh
Witemeyer in 1996. Ezra Pound spent 3 winters with W.B. Yeats
(1913-1916) as the poet’s artistic prod and secretary. During World
War II, Pound was arrested for broadcasting fascist propaganda to
the United States from Rome. He stood trial for this crime and was
judged to be insane. He was incarcerated at St. Elizabeth's Hospital
in Washington from 1946 until his release in 1958. “Literature is
news that stays news."
6/3/96, BR p.6)(AP, 8/25/98)(HN, 10/30/98)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.10)
1890 July 3,
Idaho became the 43rd state of the US.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AP, 7/3/97)
1899 The Western Federation of
mine workers demanded that only union workers be hired, but mine
owners refused. In Wardner, Idaho, the Bunker Hill Co. mine was
dynamited. Pres. McKinley sent in troops who gathered up thousands
of miners and confined them in “bullpens."
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank
Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former
gov. of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his
home in Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders
in Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood,
were “legally kidnapped" to Idaho and put on trial for the murder.
The event and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony
Lukas in his 1997 book: “Big Trouble."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1906 Dec 3, The U.S. Supreme
Court ordered Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders
extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
1907 Jul 24, In Boise, Id., the
last day of the Bill Haywood trial over the 1905 murder of former
Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg. Haywood, president of the Western
Federation of Miners, was defended by Clarence Darrow.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)
1910 Aug 20-1910 Aug 21, The
Great Idaho Fire killed 86 people and destroyed some 3 million acres
of timber in Idaho, Montana and Washington. In 2009 Timothy Egan
authored “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Save
1924 Jul 25, Frank Church,
Sen-D-Id, was born.
1926 The last grey wolf
disappeared from the Yellowstone region. By 1973 only a few wolves
remained in northern Michigan and Minnesota. In 1995 the federal
government reintroduced wolves to the greater Yellowstone region
(Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) and by 2008 their population reached
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)
1928 J.R. Simplot bought his
1st electric potato sorter. By the start of WW II he ran the biggest
potato sorting operation in Idaho.
(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A12)
1929 The William Edgar Borah
Outlawry of War Foundation was founded at the Univ. of Idaho.
1933 Nov 6, Polly Bemis
(b.1853), Chinese American pioneer woman born as Lalu Nathoy, died
in Grangeville, Idaho. As a child a group of bandits raided her
village and she was forcefully sold by her father for two much
needed bags of seed. Lalu was later smuggled into the US and sold as
a slave in San Francisco for $2,500 in 1872. Her buyer, Hong King,
ran a saloon in a mining camp in Warrens (now Warren, Idaho), Idaho.
In 1894 she married Charlie Bemis, whom she had befriended when she
first arrived in Warrens. Together, they were among the first
pioneers to help settle the Idaho Territory, especially along the
Salmon River. Her life was fictionalized in the 1991 film “A
Thousand Pieces of Gold," starring Rosalind Chao (as Polly) and
Chris Cooper (as Charlie).
1934 Jul 28, 118° F (48° C) at
Orofino, Idaho was a state record.
1937 Sun Valley, Idaho, became
the first ski resort in the US to provide lift-served skiing.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.78)
1939 Sep 1, US Sen. William
Borah of Idaho said 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler,
all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call
this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been
repeatedly discredited by history." In 2008 Pres. Bush quoted these
words in a speech to the Israeli Knesset.
1940 Jul 12, Rufus Robinson and
Earl Cooley (1911-2009) jumped out of a Travelair plane to fight a
forest fire in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest. They were the
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.B5)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.102)
1940 The population was
1943 Jan 16, A state record of
-60F (-51C) was recorded in Island Park Dam, Idaho.
1943 The US Kooskia Internment
Camp for people of Japanese ancestry opened in northern Idaho. It
operated until the end of WWII and held more than 250 detainees.
Similar camps included Manzanar in California, Heart Mountain in
Wyoming and Minidoka in Idaho.
(SFC, 7/27/13, p.A7)
1946 Ray Dunlap, a chemist for
Idaho’s J.R. Simplot, invented a way to make frozen french fries
that wouldn’t turn soggy.
(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A12)
1948 May 1, Glenn Taylor, Idaho
Senator, was arrested in Birmingham Alabama for trying to enter a
meeting through a door marked "for Negroes."
1948 Idaho put “World Famous
Potatoes" on its car license plates. Its potato business was mostly
due to the efforts of J.R. Simplot (1909-2008), later known as the
spud king of America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Simplot)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.105)
1950 Robert Smylie was elected
attorney general of Idaho.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.B7)
1951 Dec 20, Bechtel scientists
at a military facility in Idaho powered up a small nuclear reactor
and lit 4 light bulbs. It was the 1st fission reactor to generate a
usable amount of electricity.
1953 A chemist working for J.R.
Simplot, Idaho potato mogul, perfected a technique of freezing
chipped potatoes. By the late 1960s Jack Simplot was the largest
supplier of French fries to McDonald’s.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.105)
1954 Robert Smylie (d.2004) was
elected governor of Idaho and served 3 consecutive terms.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.B7)
1954 Robbers in Boise, Idaho,
escaped with $46,000. 4 suspects, including Boise bartender John
Eubanks (40), were later arrested in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.E4)
1961 Jul 2, Novelist E.
Hemingway shot himself in the head at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
Boozing and physical trauma led to depression, electroshock therapy
and suicide. In 1976 his son Gregory (d.2001) authored “Papa: A
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A11)(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(AP,
7/2/97)(SFC, 8/5/98, p.E3)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A2)(SFC, 12/21/98,
p.B5)(WSJ, 6/18/99, p.W13)(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A18)
1964 Feb 11, Sarah Palin, later
governor of Alaska, was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. After 3 months her
family moved to Alaska. In 2008 Sen. John McCain named her as his
vice-presidential running mate.
(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A6)
1971 Nov 22, The US Supreme
Court struck down dozens of state laws that discriminated against
women when it ruled that an Idaho law violated the 14th Amendment
guarantee of equal protection in the case of Mary Maxine Reed.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1972 May 2, In Idaho a fire at
the Sunshine Mine precipitated the death of 91 underground employees
by smoke inhalation and/or carbon monoxide poisoning.
1972 Aug 22, US Congress
created the Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
1974 Sep 8, Evel Knievel
(b.1938) attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho on his
rocket-powered motorcycle. He failed and parachuted down.
1975 May 6, Bundy victim
Lynette Culver disappeared from Pocatello, Idaho.
1975 Jul 28, The US Dept of
Interior designated the grizzly bear a threatened species in the
lower 48 states under the US Endangered Species Act. Most of the
bears in the lower US lived in and around Yellowstone National Park
in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
1975 Oct 5, Democratic Senator
Frank Church of Idaho charged that the CIA tried to kill Cuban
President Fidel Castro during the administrations of three US
1976 Jun 5, The Teton Dam in
Idaho burst catastrophically and water blasted through a narrow
canyon and onto Sugar City. It released nearly 300,000 acre feet of
water, then flooded farmland and towns downstream with the eventual
loss of 14 lives, directly or indirectly, and with a cost estimated
to be nearly $1 billion.
1977 Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus
resigned to become the Pres. Carter’s secretary of the Interior
(SSFC, 3/27/17, p.C3)
1978 Micron Technology was
founded in Boise, Idaho, by 4 engineers: Ward Parkinson, Joe
Parkinson, Dennis Wilson and Doug Pitman. Startup funding to produce
memory chips was provided by Idaho billionaire J.R. Simplot.
1980 J.R. Simplot, Idaho potato
tycoon, began serving on the board of startup Micron Technology. He
invested several million dollars into the company, which made memory
(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A12)(www.micron.com)
1981 Claude Dallas (30) killed
Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of
Fish and Game, who were investigating reports of bobcat poaching in
remote southeast Idaho. Dallas served 22 years for the
execution-style slayings and was released in 2005.
1982 Daralyn Johnson (9) was
abducted and murdered in Nampa. Charles I. Fain was convicted and
sentenced to death for the murder. In 2001 Fain was released after
DNA evidence demonstrated that he was not linked to the murder.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A6)
1986 Cecil Andrus was again
elected as governor of Idaho by 3,600 votes more than Rep. Lt. Gov.
(SSFC, 3/27/17, p.C3)
1988 May 24, Vice President
George Bush and Michael Dukakis won the Idaho presidential
1988 Gov. Cecil Andrus closed
Idaho's borders to new nuclear waste shipments in frustration with
federal policies. The borders were re-opened after a few months and
then closed again.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A6)
1988 Jun 23, The Yellowstone
Fire began and by Sep 11 burned some 1.6 million acres in Idaho and
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A15)
1990 Mar 30, Idaho Gov. Cecil
Andrus vetoed a highly restrictive state abortion measure, saying
the bill gave a woman and her family no flexibility in cases of rape
1990 Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus
was elected to a 4th term with 68% of the vote.
(SSFC, 3/27/17, p.C3)
1992 Aug 21, US marshals moved
onto the property of Randy Weaver in Ruby Ridge, Idaho and began a
shoot out where Mr. Weaver’s 14-year old son, Sammy, was killed as
well as Marshall Bill Degan. Federal agents were than held at bay
for 11 days and before it ended Weaver’s wife was shot dead. The
FBI, in an attempt to serve an arrest warrant on Randy Weaver on
weapons charges, killed Weaver's wife and son at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Kevin Harris was acquitted of federal charges in 1993. In 1995 the
government awarded Weaver family $3.1 mil for wrongful-death claims.
In 1996 criminal charges were filed against Michael Kahoe, chief of
the Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section of the FBI, for
destroying a report critical of the FBI. He was sentenced and fined
in 1997. In 1997 Kevin Harris was charged with the murder of Bill
Degan and FBI agent Lon Horiuchi was charged with the murder of
Vicki Weaver. State murder charges against Kevin Harris were dropped
in 1997. State manslaughter charges were filed against sharpshooter
Horiuchi in 1998.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-14)(SFC, 6/14/96, p.A19)(WSJ,
8/16/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A19)(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A1)(SFC,
10/11/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/8/98, p.1)
1993 Jul 8, A jury in Boise,
Idaho, acquitted white separatist Randy Weaver and a co-defendant of
slaying a federal marshal in a shootout at a remote mountain cabin.
1993 Kevin Harris was acquitted
of federal charges in 1993. In 1995 the government awarded Weaver
family $3.1 mil for wrongful-death claims. In 1996 criminal charges
were filed against Michael Kahoe, chief of the Violent Crimes and
Major Offenders Section of the FBI. In 1997 Kevin Harris was charged
with the murder of Bill Degan and FBI agent Lon Horiuchi was charged
with the murder of Vicki Weaver. State murder charges against Kevin
Harris were dropped in 1997. In 2000 Kevin Harris was awarded
$380,000 by the federal government in exchange for dropping a $10
million civil damage suit.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-14)(SFC, 6/14/96, p.A19)(WSJ,
8/16/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A19)(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A1)(SFC,
1995 Gov. Phil Batt negotiated
a deal that gave the state a court-enforced schedule for nuclear
waste cleanup and removal from the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A6)
1997 Oct 3, The US Forest
Service arranged a land swap with the Riley Creek Lumber Co. to
preserve an ancient cedar grove at Upper Priest Lake. Riley Creek
paid less than $2 million in 1992 for the grove and obtained $8.7
million worth of federal land in exchange.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A3)
1998 Jan 20, The Idaho Coeur
d’Alene Indian tribe planned to begin a national online lottery
called US Lottery. US residents will be restricted by their local
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun, Mike Ferguson opened
his Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 1, Guards of the Aryan
Nations headquarters assaulted Victoria and Jason Keenan. In 2000 a
jury awarded the Keenans $6.3 million for the attack and held
Richard Butler and his Sapphire Inc. negligent.
(SFC, 9/8/00, p.A3)
1999 Apr 27, Gov. Dirk
Kempthorne announced the movement of plutonium-contaminated waste
out of Idaho to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New
Mexico. Some 4,900 more shipments over the next 19 years were
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A6)
2000 Jun, Plans moved forward
to develop a $563 million WestRock ski resort at West Mountain with
backing by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.
(WSJ, 6/28/00, p.B1)
2000 Sep 22, Richard Butler
agreed to give up his 20-acre Idaho Aryan Nations compound to settle
a $6.3 million verdict. Butler will deed the property near Hayden
Lake to Victoria and Jason Keenan by Oct 25th to settle a suit
following a 1998 attack.
(SFC, 9/23/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 9, Pres. Clinton
ordered 661,000 acres of federal land added to the 54,400-acre
craters of the Moon National Monument in central Idaho.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A6)
2001 May 29, JoAnn McGuckin
(46) was lured from her home in Sandpoint and charged with felony
injury to a child. Her 6 children (8-16) later held off police with
the help of dogs. The father had recently died. The standoff ended
peacefully Jun 2.
(SFC, 5/31/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A9)
2002 Feb 1, The Idaho
Legislature voted 50-20 to override Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s veto and
repeal term limits, becoming the first state to do so.
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A5)(Econ, 4/23/11, SR p.11)
2002 cMar 15, Idaho lawmakers
approved a non-binding measure urging peaceful self-determination
for Spain’s Basque minority. They added a condemnation of the ETA
following reactions from Spain and the US State Dept. The Basque
community in Idaho numbered some 15,000.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A2)
2002 Jul 13, US governors
opened their summer meeting in Boise, Idaho, with high health care
costs the main topic.
2002 Aug, In Idaho fishermen
found the abandoned, burned-out shell of a car that Lopez Orozco had
been driving near the Snake River in a remote area of Elmore County.
The charred remains of his girlfriend Rebecca Ramirez and her two
boys, Ricardo and Miguel, were inside. Investigators later
determined they had been shot. In 2009 Mexican police captured
2003 May 4, Idaho Gem, the 1st
cloned mule, was born at the Univ. of Idaho.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A2)
2003 In Idaho a development
plan for Tamarack Resort, a ski village in Donelly, was approved
with support from the governor. Lifts opened in 2004, but in 2007
construction stopped as investor’s pulled back under a credit
(WSJ, 7/7/08, p.A3)
2004 Feb 4, Idaho state police
said they support a bill that would require DNA samples to be taken
from convicted burglars. The Legislature and Gov. Kempthorne would
have to approve the proposed law.
(USAT, 2/5/04, p.6A)
2004 Jun 10, Sami Omar
Al-Bussayen (34), a Saudi graduate student, was acquitted of charges
that he used his computer expertise to foster terrorism.
(USAT, 6/11/04, p.4A)
2004 Jul 17, Robert Smylie
(89), former governor of Idaho (1954-1966), died.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Sep 8, Richard G. Butler
(86), founder of the Aryan Nations, was found dead in his bed in
2005 May 16, In Coeur d’Alene,
Idaho, police found Mark McKenzie (37), Brenda (40) and Slade Groene
(13) bound and slain. Shasta Groene (8) and Dylan Groene (9)
were missing. Shasta was found alive July 2.
(AP, 5/18/05)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.A18)
2005 Jul 2, Shasta Groene, an
8-year-old girl kidnapped six weeks earlier, was rescued at a
Denny’s restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Joseph Edward Duncan
III, a registered sex offender, was arrested and accused of
kidnapping Shasta as well as killing members of Shasta's family.
[see May 16, July 4] The remains of Shasta’s brother, Dylan Groene
(9), were found 2 days later in western Montana.
(AP, 7/2/06)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.A18)(AP, 8/28/08)
2005 Jul 4, Idaho authorities
said they found the remains of Dylan Groene (9) in western Montana.
[see July 2] In 2008 a jury recommended the death sentence for
Joseph Edward Duncan III in the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder
of the 9-year-old boy.
(SFC, 7/5/05, p.A3)(AP, 8/28/08)
2005 Oct 17, Idaho state and
federal health officials are trying to get to the bottom of nine
reported cases of suspected sporadic CJD in Idaho this year.
2005 J.R. Simplot, Idaho
billionaire, donated his 7,370 square-foot house and 37 acres in
Boise to the state of Idaho. It was meant to house the state
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.34)
2006 Jan 24, Officials said 4
people were killed in Carlsbad, Ca., when a twin-engine plane from
Idaho skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames.
2006 Jun 15, In Idaho Alofa
Time (50) drove into an oncoming car in downtown Boise and killed
Samantha Nina Murphy (36) and daughter Jae Lynne Grimes (4). The
severed head of Time’s wife's was tossed from his pickup truck in
the suicide attempt.
2006 Dec 13, Idaho officials
tested tissue samples to find out why more than 1,000 mallard ducks
have died along Land Springs Creek near Oakley, about 180 miles
southeast of Boise.
2007 Jan 26, The Maine
Legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real
ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for
driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping
systems to national databases. Within a week of Maine's action,
lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and
Washington state also balked at Real ID. Idaho approved a similar
bill on March 8.
(AP, 2/4/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.36)
2007 May 20, In Idaho law
enforcement officers stormed a church in Moscow where Jason Hamilton
(36) went after wounding three in a courthouse ambush where he faced
mental evaluation. Hamilton killed his wife at home and sexton Paul
Bauer at the church before taking his own life. An officer who was
shot responding to a gunman spraying bullets at a courthouse died of
(AP, 5/20/07)(SFC, 5/21/07, p.A5)(SFC, 5/22/07,
2007 Jun 11, Idaho Sen. Larry
Craig (62) was arrested by a plainclothes officer investigating
complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the Minneapolis
airport. The conservative three-term senator pleaded guilty on Aug
8, paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation
for a year.
2007 Jul 23, A wildfire in
southern Idaho had covered more than 880 square miles, growing by
about 200 square miles in just 24 hours during the weekend. Fire
officials said it threatened tracking and radar facilities at
Mountain Home Air Force bombing and firing range, which is used by
pilots training for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Firefighters in
central Utah faced a threat of strong wind gusts as they battled a
huge wildfire, where several small communities were evacuated.
(AP, 7/23/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A5)
2007 Aug 27, Sen. Larry Craig,
R-Idaho, said in a statement he was not involved in any
inappropriate conduct when he was arrested at the Minneapolis
airport and should have not pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Craig was
arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints
of lewd conduct in an airport restroom.
2007 Aug 28, A day after
reports surfaced of his June arrest at the Minneapolis airport, Sen.
Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told a news conference the only thing he had
done wrong was to plead guilty after a police complaint of lewd
conduct in a men's room; Craig also declared, "I am not gay. I never
have been gay."
2007 Sep 1, Idaho Sen. Larry
Craig announced his resignation, saying he would leave office on
Sept. 30, 2007, in the wake of fallout over his arrest and guilty
plea in a Minnesota airport gay sex sting. However, Craig later
reversed his decision, saying he would serve out the rest of his
2007 Oct 4, Idaho Sen. Larry
Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office despite losing
a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex
2008 Jan 5, In Hayden, Idaho, a
man who believed he bore the "mark of the beast" used a circular saw
to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called
2008 Mar 28, The grey wolf of
the northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection
list after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater
Yellowstone region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after
disappearing from the area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored
protection for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing
plans for public wolf hunts this fall. On Sep 29 a federal court
overturned the Bush administration’s decision to remove gray wolves
from the endangered species list in the Great lakes region.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
2008 May 25, J.R. Simplot
(b.1909) died in Boise, Idaho. He had left home in 1923 at age 14
with four gold coins given to him by his mother. He ended his life
as the spud king of America and one of the nation's richest men. In
2007 Forbes magazine listed him as the 89th richest American with
2008 Oct 14, Gray wolves in the
northern US Rocky Mountains returned to the endangered species list,
thanks to a court victory by environmental groups over the US
government [see Mar 28, 2008].
2008 Dec 25, In Idaho Robert
Aragon let his son Bear (12) and daughter Sage (11) attempt to walk
some 10 miles home in freezing conditions, after their car broke
down along an isolated rural highway. Bear survived but Sage died of
hypothermia. In Oct 2009 a jury acquitted Aragon of involuntary
2009 Jan 2, Idaho investors met
with Daren Palmer of Idaho Falls and were informed that as much as
$100 million in their investments was gone. State security
regulators soon launched an investigation into Palmer (40) and his
Trigon Group Inc. under allegations that he had operated a long
running Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.B4)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of
the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the
endangered species list, opening them to public hunts in some states
for the first time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana
planned to resume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has
been proposed in the Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming
will remain on the list because the US Fish and Wildlife Service
rejected the state's plan for a "predator zone" where wolves could
be shot on sight. An estimated 4,000 wolves lived in Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota.
2009 Sep 1, Idaho hunters began
stalking gray wolves, following their removal from the federal
endangered species a few months earlier. The quota for this season
was 220. The quota in Montana was set at 75.
(SFC, 9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Oct 10, In Idaho a bus
carrying a high school marching band went off of I-15 killing one
adult and injuring several students.
(SSFC, 10/11/09, p.A9)
2010 Jan 27, Claude Irwin Jr.
(62) of Spokane, a fugitive lawyer accused of stealing millions of
dollars in an Idaho real estate development, was been captured in
Los Angeles after living for years in Mexico. In 1998 he vanished
and left his Powderhorn Ridge Ranch development near Harrison,
Idaho, owing at least $3 million.
2010 Mar 10, Virginia’s general
assembly became the first state legislature to ban mandatory health
insurance. Idaho followed suit a week later. Some 35 other states
planned similar measures.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.34)
2010 Aug 5, A federal judge in
Montana reinstated protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A5)
2011 Jan 12, Idaho lottery
officials said Holly Lahti (29) was the co-winner of the $380
million Mega Millions jackpot, the 2nd largest lottery jackpot in
history. She will share the prize with Jim and Carolyn McCullar of
(SFC, 1/13/11, p.A6)
2011 Feb 9, Enrico Ponzo, aka
Jay Shaw, appeared in a Boise courtroom to face charges from a 1997
indictment for racketeering and attempted murder. The New England
mobster vanished in 1994 after trying to kill his boss, Frank
Salemme, former head of the Patriarca Family of La Cosa Nostra.
(SFC, 2/10/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 28, Leaders of Boise
County, Idaho, decided to file for bankruptcy.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.89)(http://tinyurl.com/47wjr9z)
2011 Mar 18, US wildlife
advocates and the Dept. of Interior reached an agreement to lift
gray wolf protections in Montana and Idaho and allow hunting of the
predators to resume.
(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A5)
2011 May 13, In Idaho Gaylin
Leirmoe (26) shot his ex-girlfriend and sister-in-law and his 2
young children before setting fire to a home in Ammon. Leirmoe shot
a bullet to his own head.
(SFC, 5/14/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3hytd43)
2011 Jun 13, The US Dept. of
Justice said Hecla Mining Co. will pay $263 million to settle one of
the nation’s largest Superfund lawsuits for releasing mining waste
into the environment in Idaho.
(SFC, 6/14/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 8, An accident at the
Idaho National Laboratory caused at least two workers to suffer
internal exposure to plutonium.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A10)
2012 Feb 3, In Idaho Micron CEO
Steve Appleton (51 died after his small experimental plane crashed
following takeoff at the Boise airport.
(SFC, 2/4/12, p.D2)
2012 Mar 6, Ten US states voted
in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries. Republican presidential
frontrunner Mitt Romney edged out conservative rival Rick Santorum
in the vital battleground of Ohio and won five of the night's other
contests. Romney also notched victories in Alaska, Idaho, Vermont,
Virginia and his home-state of Massachusetts, while Santorum won
North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and Newt Gingrich carried his
home state of Georgia.
(SFC, 3/7/12, p.A6)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.18)
2012 Jul 16, Stephen R. Covey
(79), Utah-based motivational speaker and author of the best-selling
"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (1989), died in Idaho
(AP, 7/16/12)(Econ, 7/21/12, p.58)
2012 Nov 17, In Idaho a
break-in at Zoo Boise left a Patas monkey dead from blunt force
trauma to the head and neck and police were analyzing blood found at
the scene to determine if it came from the monkey or one of two
human intruders. Michael J. Watkins (22) was soon arrested.
(AP, 11/17/12)(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A6)
2013 Mar 7, A US federal judge
ruled unconstitutional a 2011 Idaho law that prohibited abortions
after 20 weeks.
(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A6)
2013 Aug 10, US FBI agents
killed James Lee DiMaggio (40) in the Idaho wilderness. He was
suspected of killing a California woman Christina Anderson (44) and
her young son a week earlier before fleeing with her daughter,
Hannah Anderson (16).
(SSFC, 8/11/13, p.A10)
2013 Aug 17, In Idaho the
Beaver Creek wildfire, ignited by lightning on Aug 7, forced the
evacuation to over 2,300 residences. The fire covered over 140
square miles and was just 6% contained.
(SSFC, 8/18/13, p.A10)
2013 Dec 1, A single engine
plane carrying 5 people disappeared in Idaho on its way from Oregon
to Montana. It was piloted by Dale Smith, co-founder of Serialtek, a
San Jose, Ca., hardware and software company.
(SFC, 12/4/13, p.A14)
2014 Feb 3, Idaho police
arrested dozens of gay rights activists as they pressed for
antidiscrimination protections and blocked entrances to the state
Senate chambers in Boise.
(SFC, 2/4/14, p.A4)
2014 May 13, A US federal judge
ruled that Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/14/14, p.A6)
2014 Oct 7, A US federal
appeals court in San Francisco struck down Nevada and Idaho’s bans
on same-sex marriage. The ruling also applies to all nine states in
the court’s territory and will overturn marriage bans in Montana,
Alaska and Arizona.
(SFC, 10/8/14, p.A6)
2014 Oct 10, The US Supreme
Court said same sex marriages can go ahead in Idaho.
(SFC, 10/11/14, p.A10)
2014 Nov 6, In Idaho 2 chief
warrant officers were killed whenn their helicopter crashed during a
training mission near the Boise airport.
(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A5)
2014 Dec 30, In Idaho Veronica
Rutledge (29) was killed while shopping at a Walmart in Hayden when
her two-year-old son pulled a gun from her purse and shot her in the
(SFC, 1/1/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 10, In Idaho a gunman
killed 3 people and wounded another during a shooting spree at three
locations in Moscow. Suspect John Lee (29), was captured in
the afternoon following a high-speed chase in nearby Washington
2015 Aug 15, Idaho fire
managers said the north central Clearwater Complex fires have
destroyed 50 homes and 75 outbuildings. Authorities have urged
residents of the small mountain town of Kamiah to be prepared to
flee at a moment’s notice.
2015 Oct 24, Maureen O’Hara
(b.1920), Irish-born film star, died at her home in Boise, Idaho.
Her many films included “How Green Was My Valley" (1941), “Miracle
on 34th Street “ (1947), “The Quiet Man" (1952) and “The Parent
(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.D13)
2016 Mar 6, In Idaho Pastor Tim
Remington was shot and wounded in the parking lot of his church in
Coeur d'Alene a day after he led prayers at a rally for Republican
presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Suspect Kyle Odom (30), a former
marine, was arrested outside the White House on March 8.
2016 Sep 7, A US federal judge
ordered wildlife managers to enlarge habitat protections in Idaho,
Montana and Colorado for the Canada lynx, a rare wild cat that roams
the Rockies and mountain forests of several other states.
2016 A report by the Wilderness
Society revealed that Idaho has sold 41% of its land since
(http://tinyurl.com/mnlad5y)(Econ, 1/14/17, p.27)
2017 Jun 30, In Idaho a cabin
fire near Donnelly left four people dead.
(SSFC, 7/2/17, p.A8)
2017 Aug 24, Cecil Andrews
(b.1931), four-time governor of Idaho and secretary of the interior
under Pres. Jimmy Carter, died.
(SSFC, 3/27/17, p.C3)