This Day in Minnesota History

January 24, 1881

Suffering from dyspepsia, heart disease, and depression, Justus C. Ramsey, younger brother of statesman Alexander Ramsey, commits suicide in St. Paul. After winning $10,000 in a lottery, Justus had arrived in Minnesota from Pennsylvania in 1849, invested heavily in real estate, and served in the territorial legislature. In early August 1862 he was one of a party that attempted to deliver an annuity payment in gold from the US government to the Dakota.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 23, 1855

A cable suspension bridge opens between Minneapolis and Nicollet Island (Wita Waste). The first permanent span over the main channel of the Mississippi River, it could be crossed by paying a toll of three cents (one way) or five cents (round trip) per human foot-passenger, fifteen cents per horse, and two cents per head for sheep.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 19, 1928

Dainin Katagiri Roshi is born in Osaka, Japan. A Zen Buddhist abbot and teacher, Roshi moved to Minnesota in December 1972 and founded the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, located in Minneapolis near Bde Maka Ska.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 30, 1992

Charlie Boone reaches an agreement with WCCO-AM radio on his impending retirement from full-time announcing. His retirement ends the thirty-year Boone and (Roger) Erickson partnership, one of the station's most popular features.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 26, 1924

Minneapolis policeman George Kraemer fatally shoots Peter C. Johnson with a sawed-off shotgun in a dark basement. Johnson had been attempting to crack open a safe he and his "assistant," William Carson, stole during a robbery.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 23, 1986

Northwest Airlines agrees to buy Republic Airlines for $884 million, a purchase that forms a single Twin Cities-based carrier and the third-largest airline in the United States.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 19, 1862

Seeing battle for the first time and suffering forty-five casualties, the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment plays a key role in the Union victory at Logan's Cross Roads, Kentucky.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 17, 1934

Banker Edward G. Bremer is kidnapped at the corner of Goodrich Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul. On February 7, after his family pays a $200,000 ransom, Bremer is freed in Rochester. Bremer's remarkable memory leads investigators to the kidnappers, the Barker-Karpis gang. Police caught or killed all of the gang's members by 1936.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 25, 1983

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago rules that Minnesota Ojibwe, including the Mille Lacs Band, retain the hunting, fishing, and gathering rights guaranteed by nineteenth-century treaties with the federal government.

This Day in Minnesota History

January 22, 1819

Morton S. Wilkinson is born in New York State. He moved to Stillwater in 1847, became Minnesota's first practicing attorney, and served in Congress as a senator (1859–65) and a representative (1869–71). He died in 1894.

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