President Richard Nixon signs a law creating Voyageurs National Park. Supported by former governor Elmer L. Andersen and Charles A. Lindbergh, the legislation had been approved by Congress on October 5 of the previous year.

The Minnesota legislature meets for the first time in the third state capitol building, designed by Cass Gilbert.

Stillwater's first post office is established, with Elam Greeley as postmaster.

Hubert H. Humphrey dies. Humphrey was born in Wallace, South Dakota, on May 27, 1911. State campaign manager for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and a founder of the anticommunist group Americans for Democratic Action, Humphrey entered the national spotlight after delivering a rousing address on civil rights at the 1948 Democratic National Convention. He served in the Senate beginning in 1948 and was elected vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Governor James D. Doty of Wisconsin Territory (which includes part of the future state of Minnesota) writes to the U.S. secretary of war protesting an extension of the Fort Snelling military reservation and asking how the federal government can take land "by the simple declaration that it is necessary for military purposes" and without consent of the territorial legislature.

Nature writer and environmentalist Sigurd Olson dies in Ely. Born in Chicago in 1899, Olson served as a canoe guide in the boundary waters region and was active in environmental issues beginning in the 1920s, playing a prominent role in the battle for federal protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and serving as president of the Wilderness Society.

The cruiser Duluth is launched in Newport News, Virginia, christened by Ella T. Hatch, wife of Duluth mayor Edward H. Hatch. In May 1945 the ship becomes part of the U.S. fleet in World War II.

A major blizzard strikes the state, hitting western Minnesota especially hard and causing the deaths of between 100 and 150 people, many of them children on their way home from school.

Canada and the United States sign a treaty forming the International Joint Commission, a legislative body charged with preventing and settling disputes in the boundary waters region.

The St. Paul Institute of Science and Letters is incorporated, with Charles W. Ames as its first president. The institute's museum is first located in an auditorium, then moved to the Merriam mansion on University Avenue, and finally to downtown St. Paul, where it became Science Museum of Minnesota.