The Andrews Sisters hold a singular place among the many famous Minnesota-born musical talents who have made it big. Rising to fame in the swing era of the late 1930s, they developed their successful close-harmony formula early on. Patty, the blond mezzo-soprano, sang lead; Maxene, the brunette, sang soprano; and LaVerne, the redhead, sang contralto. The trio recorded more than six hundred songs, sold over ninety million records, earned fifteen gold records, and had a dozen number-one hits. Forty-six of their tunes made it to the Billboard Top Ten chart—more than either Elvis Presley or The Beatles.

Anoka, Minnesota, became the Halloween Capital of the World in 1937. The title recognizes its status as one of the first cities to discourage Halloween tricks by hosting a city-wide party: the Anoka Halloween Celebration.

When the fourth state hospital for the insane at Anoka opened in 1900, it became the first state transfer hospital for patients considered incurably insane. The hospital was the first in Minnesota to be built according to the cottage plan to reduce the institutional feel for its chronic patients. It remains one of the finest examples of the cottage plan in Minnesota.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Germans were the single largest ethnic group in Minnesota. Nativism during this period was a “patriotic” attitude that saw recent immigrants—particularly those of German descent— as potentially traitorous. Many felt that because German Americans shared their heritage with the Kaiser and the German Empire, they would side with the enemy power. That many German Americans advocated neutrality until the U.S. declared war was further proof of disloyalty to nativists.

An act of Congress places Fort Ripley Military Reservation in the public domain, making the land available for settler-colonists. The fort, located on the Mississippi River below the mouth of the Crow Wing River, had been established in 1849 and was abandoned by the army in 1878.

Six hundred women attend a Women's Safe Driver Automobile School at the YWCA, sponsored by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the St. Paul Association Safety Division, and the Dunwoody Institute.

Jacob Fjelde is born in Norway. He sculpted the work Hiawatha and Minnehaha, displayed in Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis, and the statue of Ole Bull located in Loring Park, Minneapolis.

Father Louis Hennepin, exploring the Mississippi River north from Illinois by canoe, is captured by a group of Dakota. During his captivity he sees Owamni Yomni, which he calls the Falls of Anthony (for his patron saint). On July 25, Daniel Greysolon, the Sieur Du Luth, arranged for Hennepin's release.

Dennis J. Banks is born on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation of Ojibwe. An activist for Indigenous rights, he was one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968, along with Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt (White Earth Ojibwe) and George Mitchell.

The Minnesota Twins play their first regular season game at their new stadium, Target Field. They beat the Boston Red Sox 5 to 2 in front of a crowd of nearly forty thousand people.

Alexander Ramsey is appointed the first governor of Minnesota Territory. The third choice of President Zachary Taylor, Ramsey is selected after the first, Edward W. McGaughey, is rejected by the Senate, and the second, William S. Pennington, declines the post. Appointed while Congress is out of session, Ramsey is already in Minnesota before the Senate approves his nomination in January 1850.