This Day in Minnesota History

December 13, 1882

The Northwestern Telephone Exchange begins operating in Faribault, with forty customers.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 13, 1994

Demolition begins on Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, the former home of the North Stars professional hockey team and a venue for entertainment events. The first bombing attempt, with a detonator button pressed by Michael Franson, is largely unsuccessful, with much of the building still standing ten minutes after the scheduled implosion. Eventually, the structure is brought down with bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 14, 1798

Alexis Bailly is born in St. Joseph, Canada. He preceded Henry H. Sibley as an agent for the American Fur Company in Mendota, one of the most influential forces in the fur trade in Minnesota. Bailly was also one of the first settler-colonists to grow wheat in Minnesota and a member of the territorial legislature. He died in 1861.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 15, 1856

A lyceum is organized in St. Paul. Lyceums were cultural centers that sponsored lectures, classes, and other activities.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 15, 1864

Four Minnesota regiments help defeat the Confederate army of General John Bell Hood outside Nashville, Tennessee. Over the course of this two-day battle, the Minnesota losses—302 killed, wounded, or missing—are the greatest the state suffers in any Civil War engagement.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 15, 1887

The first issue of the Northfield Independent appears. The newspaper's editor declares that "It comes in its own independent way, without first having asked leave to be, but intends to justify its being by filling a vacant journalistic place in this city and surrounding country...It will labor that the homes it is permitted to enter may be brighter and purer for its coming, their burdens lightened, if possible, their industries enobled [sic]."

This Day in Minnesota History

December 15, 1892

J. Paul Getty is born in Minneapolis. An entrepreneur, he would become a billionaire in the oil business, and he would bequeath much of his fortune to the Getty Trust, a philanthropic organization that supports the visual arts.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 18, 1985

In a milestone in the history of health and medicine in Minnesota, Mary Lund is the first woman to receive a Jarvik-7 artificial heart, in Minneapolis. The device keeps her alive for about a month, until she receives a real heart via transplant.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 18, 1988

The Pillsbury Company announces that it has accepted a $5.7 billion buy-out offer from the British food and liquor conglomerate Grand Metropolitan PLC.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 19, 1836

Maria Louise Sanford is born in Saybrook, Connecticut. An extraordinary and popular teacher, Sanford was be appointed to the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota in 1880. After her retirement in 1909, she remained active, speaking on educational and patriotic topics. She died in 1920. A statue of her, sculpted by Evelyn Raymond, represents the state in Statuary Hall in Washington, DC.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 19, 1906

Koochiching County is established. Ojibwe and Cree people had long used the word "Koochiching" to refer to multiple bodies of water (including the one eventually called Rainy Lake by Europeans and Americans).

This Day in Minnesota History

December 19, 1957

West St. Paul sociology teacher Glen Holmquist, accused of slapping a student at a high school dance, is cleared of an assault charge by a municipal court. Holmquist's attorney says that his client's action was justified as an attempt to maintain order, and that there should be more discipline "instead of the wishy-washy policy parents are advocating today."

This Day in Minnesota History

December 19, 1957

Governor Orville L. Freeman appoints L. Howard Bennett to a municipal judgeship in Minneapolis, making him the first African American judge appointed in Minnesota.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 1847

St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory, is given a parcel of land in Stillwater for a county courthouse. Finished in 1849, the building is the first courthouse in what is now Minnesota.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 1850

Eli Pettijohn purchases the land-grant patent for a portion of the area that is now St. Paul's Hamline Midway neighborhood. Pettijohn farmed near Fort Snelling and later settled in Minneapolis. This plat of land was sold over time to other speculators and developers, including Horace S. Thompson, Amherst Wilder, and Henry H. Sibley.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 1863

The American House burns in St. Paul. A landmark in early photographs and paintings of the area, the hotel stood at Third and Exchange Streets.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 1902

A fierce fire discovered shortly after 2:00 A.M. at the School for the Feeble-Minded in Faribault badly damages the main building and causes the safe evacuation of more than 300 people who had been sleeping in the structure. Unable to get their ladder wagon to the school, local firemen drag a hose through the building and up four flights of stairs to the attic and bring the flames under control.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 1902

Clearwater County is established, named for Clearwater Lake and River.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 20, 2017

The last Boeing 747 jumbo jet in Delta Airlines' fleet makes its final landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The long-distance luxury jet, introduced in 1968, put Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines (which merged with Delta in 2008) on the international flight map.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 21, 1885

The Nushka Toboggan Club is formed. To promote the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the club sponsors toboggan slides on Crocus Hill, snowshoe hikes to Merriam Park, and parties on Washington's birthday. Nushka means "look!" in Anishinaabemowin, the Ojibwe language.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 21, 1998

Television's original Betty Crocker, Adelaide Hawley Cumming, dies in Seattle. Cumming starred in the Betty Crocker Show beginning in 1949 and remained General Mills' advertising icon until 1964, after which she taught English as a second language in Seattle.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 22, 1858

The Reverend Edward D. Neill officiates at the dedication of the first House of Hope Presbyterian Church building, a chapel that stood on Walnut Street between Oak and Pleasant Streets in St. Paul. The congregation moved in 1869 to a church at Fifth and Exchange Streets, and then in 1914 to Summit Avenue.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 25, 1842

The first US flag in St. Paul is raised on a pole in front of Richard Mortimer's house. Born in England, Mortimer had served successively in both the British and American armies and been a commissary and quartermaster sergeant at Fort Snelling before settling in upper St. Paul. The flag flies briefly and then is cut down by "some wicked scamp" from the lower—and rival—part of town.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 25, 1866

George Liscomb and Alexander Campbell, fur traders from Mankato, are lynched in New Ulm after they kill a town citizen, John Spinner, in a bar fight upon being ejected from the Hauenstein Saloon. The following day, 300 angry Mankato residents, along with a company of militia, marched to New Ulm to investigate the lynching. They found Liscomb's and Campbell's mutilated bodies stuffed under the ice of the Minnesota River. An investigation quickly named members of the mob, leading to indictments.

This Day in Minnesota History

December 25, 1874

On Christmas morning, firemen at St. Paul's No. 3 engine house on the corner of Leech and Ramsey Streets brawl with each other in "a very disgraceful fight" that leaves two seriously injured, several badly bruised, and five arrested on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm. The fight is apparently caused by an "unpleasant feeling" between the principal parties, an insulting remark about a piece of equipment not working properly, and a cigar stump thrown at one of the men.

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