| |
Courtesy
of e-ReferenceDesk
|
| 1659-1660 |
French
fur traders Groseilliers and Radisson explore western end of Lake
Superior and environs. |
| 1673 |
French
explorers Marquette and Joliet discover the upper portion of the Mississippi
River. |
| 1679 |
Frenchman
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Luth meets with Dakota Indians near Mille
Lacs. |
| 1683 |
Catholic
Missionary Father Louis Hennepin returns to France after exploring
Minnesota and being held captive by the Dakota to write the first
book about Minnesota, Description de la Louisiane. |
| 1745 |
The
Ojibwe Indians defeat the Dakota Indians at the Kathio, driving the
Dakota into southern and western Minnesota. |
| 1763 |
Spain
receives Louisiana Territory (includes Minnesota west of the Mississippi
River) from France in compensation for its loss of Florida during
the Seven Years War. Great Britain wins claim to what is now eastern
North America (east of the Mississippi River) and Canada. |
| 1770-1804 |
•Grand
Portage (Minnesota) evolves into the western fur-trading headquarters
of the British Empire in North America.
•British troops stationed here act as only military force in
Minnesota during the American Revolution.
•Fur trading continues to be the main source of commerce in Minnesota
through the early 19th century. |
| 1775-1783 |
American
Revolution |
| 1783 |
The
newly formed republic of the United States of America wins the eastern
portion of Minnesota (from the Mississippi river east) from Great
Britain in the American Revolution. |
| 1787 |
•Eastern
Minnesota officially designated part of the American Northwest Territories
of the United States of America.
•David Thompson, working for the North West Company (fur-trading)
completes the first formal mapping of Minnesota. |
| 1800 |
France
acquires Louisiana Territory from Spain. |
| 1803 |
The
United States of America purchases Louisiana Territory from France,
gaining ownership of the western portion of Minnesota. Boundary disputes
with British Canada keep British fur companies in Minnesota until
1818. |
| 1805 |
Lieutenant
Zebulon Montgomery Pike leads the first United States expedition through
the Minnesota country. |
| 1812-1814 |
War
of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain with their Dakota,
Winnebago, and Ojibwe allies.
|
| 1815 |
Peace
treaty negotiated between the Dakota Indian nation and the United
States government. First American fur traders enter Minnesota. |
| 1818 |
Northern
boundary of Minnesota fixed at the forty-ninth parallel. Boundary
negotiations with British Canada continue until 1931. Lawrence Taliaferro
instated as first United States Indian agent at Fort Snelling. |
| 1819 |
Colonel
Josiah Snelling begins construction of Fort St. Anthony on land purchased
from the Dakota Indians for $2000 US. |
| 1824 |
Fort
St. Anthony completed. Name changed to Fort Snelling in Honor of Colonel
Josiah Snelling's work. |
| 1832 |
Henry
Schoolcraft credited with finding the source of the Mississippi River
at Lake Itasca, Minnesota with his Ojibwe guide Ozawindib. |
| 1836 |
Creation
of Wisconsin Territory which encompassed Minnesota. |
| 1837 |
Land-cession
treaties negotiated with the Dakota Indians and the Chippewa Indians
for United States rights to a portion of land between the Mississippi
and St. Croix rivers. This new land stimulates the lumber industry
in Minnesota. |
| 1841 |
Chapel
of Saint Paul built. Later it would serve to name the state capitol
which sprang up around it. |
| 1838-1848 |
St.
Paul, St. Anthony, and Stillwater (Minnesota's first towns) founded. |
| 1848 |
Wisconsin
admitted into the union as a state, leaving residents of the area
between the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers (current day eastern
Minnesota) without a territorial government or legal system. |
| 1849 |
•Minnesota
Territory formed with present day eastern and southern boundaries
set.
•The population amounts to less than 4000 people, not including
persons of pure Native-American heritage.
•Law provides for free public schools to be open to all people
between four and twenty-one years of age.
•Minnesota Historical Society formed to collect, publish, and
educate people about Minnesota history.
•James Madison Goodhue begins publishing Minnesota's first newspaper,
the Minnesota Pioneer. |
| 1850 |
Treaties
concluded at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota with the Dakota Indians
whereby the Dakota ceded their lands east of the Red River, Lake Traverse,
and the Big Dakota River and south of a boundary line between the
Dakota and Chippewa in 1825. In return the Dakota received $1,665,000
US, $1,360,000 of which was set into a trust fund, of which the interest
would be distributed to chiefs partly in cash, partly in supplies,
and partly in education and civilization funds. The vast majority
ended up being used to pay off Indian debts to white traders. Wheat
becomes a major crop in Minnesota. |
| 1851 |
Charter
granted to the University of Minnesota, the first collegiate institution
in the territory. |
| 1853-1857 |
Population
explosion occurs in Minnesota from 40,000 people in 1853 to approximately
150,000 people in 1857. |
| 1854 |
St.
Paul becomes a city with a total area of four square miles. |
| 1855 |
Die
Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung (The Minnesota German Newspaper), Minnesota's
first non-English newspaper, rolls off the press for the first time
in St. Paul. |
| 1857 |
The
Dred Scott Decision is rendered by the United States Supreme Court,
where a Missouri slave, Dred Scott, sued for his freedom based in
part upon his residence in Minnesota. Amidst the sectional and racial
animosity sweeping the nation, the court ruled Scott remained a slave.
The residents of the Minnesota territory ratify the state constitution
almost unanimously. The Panic of 1857 sends prices skyrocketing. Banks
bust and businesses fail. Depression lingers until 1861. |
| 1858 |
Newspaper
promotion of the Minnesota Territory prompts over one thousand steamboat
arrivals in St. Paul, filled with settlers. On May 11 Minnesota becomes
the thirty-second state admitted to the Union of the United States
of America. State seal adopted by the Minnesota Legislature. |
| 1858-1859 |
Henry
Sibley instated as first governor of Minnesota. |
| 1859 |
First
Minnesota State Fair held. |
| 1861 |
Civil
War of the United States begins. Minnesota volunteers one thousand
men for service in the Union Army. Minnesota eventually provides 24,000
men for service in the Union Army for fighting in the Civil War or
the Indian Outbreak. |
| 1862 |
The
Dakota Conflict sweeps across Minnesota with a series of attacks motivated
by hungry Dakota enraged by the failure of land treaties and unfair
fiscal practices of local traders. By the end of the conflict 486
white settlers would be dead. On December 26 thirty-eight Indians
were hung at Mankato. Minnesota's first railroad is completed, connecting
Minneapolis and Saint Paul. |
| 1863 |
At
the Battle of Gettysburg the First Minnesota Regiment makes a heroic
charges, losing 215 of 262 men. |
| 1865 |
Civil
War of the United States ends. |
| 1868 |
Mankato
receives a city charter. The Minnesota Legislature authorizes establishment
of the 2nd State Normal School in Mankato (now known as Minnesota
State University, Mankato). |
| 1873 |
A
three-day blizzard hits Minnesota in January, killing seventy Minnesotans. |
| 1878 |
68.98%
of tilled land in Minnesota devoted to wheat production, the high
point for wheat farmers in Minnesota. After five consecutive summers
of devastating infestations of Rocky Mountain Locusts (called the
great Grasshopper Plague) which thrived on wheat, farmers decided
to diversify, and wheat production was slowly replaced by other crops
and dairy farming. A massive explosion in a Minneapolis flour mill
kills 18. |
| 1880 |
Telephone
communication begun between St. Paul and Minneapolis. |
| 1881 |
St.
Paul is destroyed by fire. |
| 1883 |
Mayo
Clinic founded by Dr. William Worrall Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota
after a tornado sweeps through Rochester, killing 35. With his two
sons, Dr. William James Mayo and Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, he begins
a clinic world-renowned for its dedication to the latest advances
in medicine and surgical procedures. |
| 1884 |
Minnesota
iron ore begins to be exported heralding the dawn of iron mining in
Minnesota. Over the next two decades mines spring up on the Mesabi,
Cuyuna, and Vermilion iron ranges, spurring the rapid growth of mining
cities such as Evelyth, Chisholm, Virginia, and Hibbing, Minnesota
as well as the port cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. |
| 1886 |
Sauk
Rapids is flattened by a tornado. Seventy-nine people die. St. Paul
holds its first winter carnival. |
| 1887 |
St.
Paul hosts the first ski tourney in the Midwest. |
| 1888 |
Western
Minnesota receives a major blizzard on January 12 which takes 109
lives. |
| 1890s |
Electric streetcars become commonplace in large Minnesota cities. |
| 1893 |
The
Minnesota state flag, designed by Amelia Hyde Center of Minneapolis,
is accepted by the Minnesota Legislature. Virginia, Minnesota destroyed
by fire. |
| 1894 |
A
massive forest fire caused by clear-cut logging debris encompasses
Hinckley, Minnesota and several other nearby communities. Over four
hundred die. |
| 1898 |
The
Spanish-American War begins. Minnesota, the first state to volunteer,
raises four regiments, one of which serves in the Philippines. Disease
proves to be the biggest killer, with combat fatalities accounting
for only four Minnesota soldier deaths. Farmer Olof Ohman finds a
stone tablet with runic carvings on it in his field near Kensington,
Minnesota. The runes indicate a party of Viking explorers passed through
that area in 1362. Initially considered a hoax, it was accepted by
the Smithsonian Institution in 1948. Opinions differ, but most academic
sources today doubt its veracity. |
| 1899 |
Minnesota's
lumber industry reaches its peak. By 1930 only 1/3 of the state would
remain forested, with very little of that virgin growth. |
| 1900 |
Virginia,
Minnesota destroyed by fire again. |
| 1902 |
Approximately
twelve automobiles appear in Minneapolis. Tom Shevlin, son of a lumber
magnate, gets arrested for violating the ten mile per hour city speed
limit. |
| 1905 |
John
A. Johnson, Minnesota's first native-born governor, elected to the
first of his three terms. Lumber production peaks in Minnesota. |
| 1906 |
William
Williams is hanged in the county jail in St. Paul on February 13,
ending capital punishment in Minnesota. |
| 1908 |
Chisholm,
Minnesota is virtually obliterated by a late summer forest fire. |
| 1914 |
World
War I begins. Minneapolis becomes the home of the Federal Reserve
Bank. |
| 1917 |
The
United States of America enters World War I. 118,497 men from Minnesota
serve in the war. |
| 1918 |
World
War I ends with 1,432 Minnesotans in uniform giving their lives for
their country. The new Farmer-Labor Party becomes the second largest
political party in Minnesota and capitalizes on the rural depression
which plagues Minnesota until 1824 to gain a broad base of support.
Influenza spreads to Minnesota. Labeled a "pandemic of influenza",
this disease managed to kill 7,521Minnesotans in 1918 and more than
4,200 over the course of the following two years. Cloquet and Moose
Lake, Minnesota are destroyed when seventy mile an hour winds change
minor forest fires into major conflagrations. |
| 1919 |
Minnesota
ratifies the 19th amendment (women's suffrage) to the United States
constitution. A tornado strikes Fergus Falls, Minnesota killing 59. |
| 1920 |
Minnesota
authors receive international recognition. Main Street, written by
Sinclair Lewis, earns national recognition as he takes a critical
look at his hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota. By the end of the
decade he had won the Nobel Prize for literature after a string of
four more novels won international acclaim. St. Paul native F. Scott
Fitzgerald receives much acclaim for his book This Side of Paradise.
By 1925 he had published five more works, all focusing on the extravagance
and despair of the 1920s in the United States. |
| 1921 |
WLB,
the first Minnesota radio station, formed at the University of Minnesota. |
| 1927 |
Charles
Lindbergh, a native of Little Falls, Minnesota, flies solo across
the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. |
| 1929 |
Great
Depression begins in the United States. The depression begins in Minnesota
with the bankruptcy of key employers in Minneapolis and quickly spreads
to the rest of the state. |
| 1930-1935 |
Over
1/2 of iron ore extracted from the earth originates in Minnesota mines. |
| 1931 |
Ancient
remains of 20,000 year old skeleton dubbed "Minnesota Man"
found in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. |
| 1933 |
"Browns
Valley Man" remains, estimated to be 8,000 - 10,000 years old,
discovered in Brown County, Minnesota. |
| 1934 |
Edward
G. Bremer of St. Paul kidnapped by the Barker-Karpis gang. His ransom
of $200,000 US is one of the largest ransoms in the United States
up to that time. By 1936 the kidnappers had been caught and convicted.
"Public Enemy Number 1" John Dillinger has a gun battle
with FBI agents in St. Paul on March 11 and escapes. |
| 1936 |
Temperatures
remain below zero for a record thirty-six days beginning on January
18. Later in the summer Moorhead, Minnesota ties a state record high
official temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit, previously set in
Beardsley, Minnesota in 1927. |
| 1939 |
A
hockey game in the Duluth Amphitheater is interrupted when the ceiling
collapses under the weight of snow. No deaths are reported. |
| 1940 |
The
Armistice Day Blizzard strikes Minnesota leaving a 16.8 inches of
snow in twenty four hours. Winds that day exceed thirty two miles
per hour with gusts over sixty miles per hour. Forty-nine Minnesota
residents die and over $1,500,000 US worth of property is damaged
as a result of the storm. |
| 1941 |
First
tax on taconite, a black magnetic iron-bearing ore, in effect in Minnesota.
The United States enters World War II. Singer Bob Zimmerman (Bob Dylan)
born in Duluth. |
| 1944 |
The
Democratic and Farmer Labor parties merge to form the Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Party. |
| 1945 |
World
War II ends with 6,255 American servicemen from Minnesota giving their
lives for their country. The Minnesota state song, "Hail! Minnesota"
is adopted by the Minnesota Legislature. |
| 1948 |
Minnesota's
first television station, KSTP, goes on the air. |
| 1950 |
The
Korean War begins. By the time of the armistice in 1953, 688 Minnesotans
had died in the fighting. |
| 1951 |
Over
82% of iron ore extracted from United States mines during this year
originates in Minnesota. |
| 1954 |
Coya
Knutson becomes the first Minnesota woman elected to the Congress
of the United States. |
| 1958 |
Prince
Rogers Nelson (the artist formerly known as Prince) born in Minneapolis. |
| 1959 |
The
opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway makes Duluth accessible to the
Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1963 |
Last
iron ore shipment leaves the Vermillion iron range.
|
| 1964 |
Minnesota
Senator Hubert Humphrey elected vice-president of the United States
as the running-mate of president Lyndon Johnson. Conventional American
ground forces are introduced into Vietnam. |
| 1968 |
Senator
Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota begins his bid for the presidency by
easily winning the New Hampshire presidential primary. Minnesota Senator
Hubert Humphrey also runs for president that year, narrowly losing
to Richard Nixon. The American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded in
Minneapolis to combat racism. |
| 1969 |
Warren
Burger, a native of St. Paul, named to the Supreme Court of the United
States. |
| 1970 |
Minnesotan
Harry Blackmun named to the Supreme Court of the United States. He
would later write the majority opinion in the case of Roe v. Wade,
which legalizes abortion. |
| 1975 |
The last American military personnel leave Vietnam with the evacuation
of the United States embassy in Saigon, completely ending American
involvement in Vietnam and the Vietnam War. 1,053 Minnesotans gave
their lives over the course of the war. |
| 1976 |
Jimmy
Carter becomes the 39th president of the United States with Minnesota
Senator Walter Mondale as his vice-president. Mondale would later
run for president in 1984, losing to Ronald Reagan. |
| 1977 |
Rosalie
Wahl becomes the first woman justice in the Minnesota Supreme Court. |
| 1980 |
Last
iron ore shipment leaves the Cuyuna iron range. |
| 1982 |
A
total of 34.3 inches of snow falls on the Twin Cities on January 20
and 22. Taconite mining emerges as the future employment source for
the iron range, with 12,000 workers. The subsequent depression and
trend toward mechanization halve that number by 1995. |
| 1984 |
Last
iron ore shipment leaves the Mesabi iron range, effectively ending
Minnesota's direct iron ore industry and confirming a difficult depression
on the iron range. |
| 1987 |
The
Minnesota Twins win the World Series. |
| 1988 |
The
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed to promote tribal economies,
causes a boom in Indian casinos and gambling in Minnesota. By 1990
Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation in per capita gambling sales.
Minnesota hit by a record setting drought. |
| 1990 |
Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev visits Minnesota. |
| 1991 |
Operation
Desert Storm occurs with approximately 11,000 Minnesotans in uniform
helping to defeat Iraq and liberate Kuwait. The Minnesota Twins win
the World Series. A record-breaking snowstorm hits Minnesota on November
1 depositing twenty-four inches of snow in twenty-four hours. |
| 1996 |
Coldest
official temperature ever recorded in Minnesota set at -60 degrees
Fahrenheit on February 2 near Tower, MN. |
| 1998 |
Minnesota
becomes home to largest ethnic Hmong population in America. |
| 1999 |
Wrestler
Jesse Ventura becomes Minnesota's 38th governor. |
| 2002 |
Mee
Moua took office as the first Hmong woman to be elected to the Minnesota
Senate. |
| 2007 |
I-35W
Bridge Collapses, August 1, 2007. The 35W bridge over the Mississippi
River in Minneapolis collapses during rush hour, killing thirteen
and injuring 145. Multilevel investigations into what caused the bridge
to fail go on for months; a replacement span opens in fall 2008. |
| 2010 |
Mar.
27 - Target Field, Home of the Minnesota Twins opens.
Dec. 12 - A blizzrd that dumped heavy snow in Minneapolis collapsed
the Metrodome. |