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      Minnesota History Center Historic Fort Snelling Split Rock Lighthouse Mill City Museum Oliver Kelley Farm
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MNopedia

A resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history.

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SPAM

Hormel's iconic canned pork product

Minnesota Centennial Showboat

A floating theater venue on the Mississippi River

St. Paul Resettlement Committee

A group that helped Japanese Americans make new homes in Minnesota during World War II

Somali and Somali American Experiences in Minnesota

Pathways from East Africa to the North Star State

Split Rock Lighthouse

A historic beacon and tourist attraction on Lake Superior

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, 1924–1944

A movement designed to serve workers and farmers

AIM Patrol, Minneapolis

A citizens’ street patrol organized by members of the American Indian Movement

Prairie Home Companion

National Public Radio's Saturday-night staple

Spotlight On The Fur Trade

Nelson, George (1786–1859)
Site map of Little Round Hill, 1992.
Little Round Hill Trading Site
The Snake River Fur Post as it appeared during John Sayer's tenure as partner in the early nineteenth century. Drawn by David Geister, ca. 2000.
Sayer, John (1750–1818)
Color image of the excavation unit at Réaume site, 2011.
Joseph Réaume's Trading Post
Sepia-colored photograph of Charles Bonga
Bonga, George (ca. 1802–1874)
Google map of the Cadotte Post site with overlay of Douglas Birk’s 1972 sketch and an approximation of the location of the survey grid.
Cadotte Trading Post
Two fur traders
Fort St. Louis/Fond du Lac, Lake Superior
Ramsay Crooks
American Fur Company Fishing on Lake Superior, 1835–1841
Black and white photograph of a man and a Red River cart train, ca. 1859. Photograph by Martin’s Gallery.
Red River Carts
Black and white Carte-de-visite photograph of Henry H. Sibley, c.1870.
Sibley, Henry H. (1811–1891)
Black and white photograph of an unidentified Métis fur trader of Indian and French Ancestry, ca. 1870.
Métis in Minnesota
Hudson’s Bay Company storehouse, Georgetown
Hudson’s Bay Company Trading Post, Georgetown


April 23

1857

Samuel Medary takes office as Minnesota's third and final territorial governor. He steps down thirteen months later when Minnesota becomes a state and Henry H. Sibley is elected governor. Medary would later become territorial governor of Kansas. He died in Columbus, Ohio, in 1864.

1881

A group of Belgian settler-colonists, led by Angelus Van Hee, arrives at Grandview in Lyon County. The village is renamed Ghent in honor of the group, which had been invited to the state by Bishop John Ireland.

1897

The state government allocates $5,000 to open the Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children in St. Paul. Named for Dr. Arthur J. Gillette, it is the first state-funded hospital of its kind in the nation.

1992

Governor Arne H. Carlson signs the HealthRight bill into law. Providing medical insurance for low-income Minnesotans, the program is now known as MinnesotaCare.

Select a new date

From The Minnesota Book of Days (Minnesota Historical Society Press).

Recently Added Articles

Photograph of Kate Wulf and Jeri Rasmussen
DFL Feminist Caucus

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Feminist Caucus was founded in 1973 to advocate for feminist positions on issues like poverty among women, abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Its members lobbied the Minnesota State Legislature, endorsed candidates, and produced a US Senate candidate of their own in 1984.

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul
Church of St. Columba, St. Paul

The Church of St. Columba in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood is the only Minnesota work by the Chicago architect Francis Barry Byrne. Architectural historian and critic Larry Millett calls it “a high point of modern church architecture in the Twin Cities.”

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Made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008. Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.
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