Anderson, Alexander P. (1862–1943)

In December 1901, botanist Alexander Pierce Anderson created puffed rice while experimenting with starch crystals in his laboratory. Although he did not yet realize the significance of his discovery, Anderson's new breakfast food would make him a nationally known figure and the face of a Quaker Oats advertising campaign for almost a decade.

Anderson, Helen Eugenie Moore (1909–1997)

Eugenie Moore Anderson emerged as a trailblazer for American women in international diplomacy during the post-World War II era. In 1949 she became the first American woman to hold the rank of ambassador.

Andrews Sisters

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.

Andrews, Frances (1884–1961)

Frances Andrews worked as an advocate for social justice, education, and conservation in the early twentieth century. She called for preservation of the forests and lakes that became the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and experimented with land restoration in northwestern Wisconsin. Her legacy includes an endowment that continues to support social and environmental causes in the 2010s.

Anoka Halloween Celebration

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.

Anoka Post Office

Designed by the famed Minnesota architect James Knox Taylor, Anoka’s oldest extant public building, built in 1916, is known for its classic Georgian Revival style.

Anoka State Hospital

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.

Anoka–Champlin Mississippi River Bridge

Constructed in 1884, the Anoka–Champlin Bridge 4380 was the first structural span of the Mississippi River between Anoka and Champlin. A 1920s renovation strengthened the bridge, replacing the original’s stone materials with steel.

Anti-German Nativism, 1917–1919

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.

Anti-Vietnam War Movement, 1963–1973

During the Second Indochinese War between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam (1955‒1975), the US government escalated American involvement in Southeast Asia. In response, anti-war activists and university students in Minnesota, along with demonstrators across the nation, took to the streets to protest.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 1, 1984

Future Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Mr. Saito take on Baron Von Raschke and The Crusher in front of 18,000 fans at Chicago Stadium in an American Wrestling Association-sanctioned match-up. Ventura and Saito win by disqualification.

April 14, 2018

An unusually late-season blizzard sweeps into southern Minnesota that will last for two days. The areas with the largest snow accumulations by Sunday evening (April 15) include Maple Grove (22 inches), Fridley (20 inches), Northeast Minneapolis (19.8 inches) and St. Paul (19.2 inches).

This Day in Minnesota History

April 2, 2002

Nellie Stone Johnson dies in Minneapolis at the age of ninety-six. Johnson was an African American civil rights activist and union leader who was influential in Minnesota politics from the 1930s through the twentieth century.

April 21, 2016

Prince dies at his Chanhassen home, Paisley Park, from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl. Millions of fans around the world mourn his loss.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 25, 1892

Maud Hart Lovelace is born in Mankato. She is remembered as the author of the Betsy-Tacy books, a series of stories for young readers set in early twentieth-century Mankato. In 1979, the Mankato Friends of the Library Association established the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award for children's books.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 6, 2002

The University of Minnesota Gophers men's ice hockey team wins the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championship tournament. It beats the University of Maine 4-3 in overtime to win its first national title since 1979.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 9, 1939

A fire inside a stable kills 128 trained horses belonging to Battery F of the 14th Field Artillery at Fort Snelling.

Argento, Dominick (1927–2019)

Though he originally hoped to accept a position on the East or West Coast, American musician-composer Dominick Argento began his career in 1958 at the University of Minnesota, where he taught composition and theory. He spent the next sixty years as Minnesota’s resident composer, crafting works for nearly every Minnesota performing group and gaining international acclaim.

Arneson, David Lance (1947‒2009)

David Lance Arneson was a game designer from St. Paul who collaborated with Ernest Gary Gygax to publish the famous tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) in 1974. Although the D&D property changed hands in 1997, and the game’s mechanics have evolved, its core wouldn’t be what it is today without Dave Arneson.

Arrest of Cecelia Regina Gonzaga, 1885

Cecelia Regina Gonzaga, an African American assigned a male sex at birth, lived in St. Paul for four weeks during the summer of 1885. After a police officer arrested her for wearing women’s clothes on August 20, he took her into custody and questioned her at the Ramsey County Courthouse. He released her later the same day, but Gonzaga quickly left the city by train and returned to St. Louis.

Artificial Limb Industry in Minneapolis

The milling, logging, farming, and railroad industries that made Minneapolis a prosperous town in the late nineteenth century also cost many men their limbs, if not their lives. Minneapolis entrepreneurs, many of them amputees themselves, built on the local need and made the city one of the leading producers of artificial limbs in the United States.

How War and Conflict Have Shaped the State

At Home and Abroad: Minnesota at War

While it was being fought, World War I (1914–1918) was dubbed “the war to end all wars.” Yet within the span of a single generation came World War II, a far bigger and bloodier conflict. Is war an inevitable consequence of our imperfect human condition? We may never know, but this is certain: more often than not, in Minnesota as in the rest of the United States, the tides of history have been driven by war or its threat, shaping who we are as a nation and a people.

At the Foot of the Mountain Theater

The women's theater movement began in the early 1970s and continued until the mid–1980s. Echoing the second-wave feminism sweeping the country, it fostered the growth of more than 185 theaters, with an emphasis on women's issues. One of these, At the Foot of the Mountain Theater in Minneapolis, made a lasting mark on the Twin Cities.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 1, 1820

Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, negotiates a peace treaty between the Dakota and Ojibwe at Fort St. Anthony (later called Fort Snelling).

This Day in Minnesota History

August 1, 1849

Henry H. Sibley is elected delegate to Congress, and other state officers are chosen in Minnesota's first territorial election.

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