This Day in Minnesota History

August 3, 1794

French Canadian canoe paddlers at the North West Company's fur-trading post at Rainy Lake threaten to quit unless they are given a raise.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 30, 1812

The first of the Selkirk colonists reach the Red River valley, where the Earl of Selkirk had claimed land covering much of present-day Manitoba and parts of present-day North Dakota and Minnesota. A flood, grasshoppers, and rivalries between fur companies in the 1820s eventually led to the colony's failure, and many of the settler colonists would move to the vicinity of Fort Snelling.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 30, 1813

Martin McLeod is born in Montreal. Arriving at Fort Snelling in 1837, he would trade furs in the Minnesota Valley for twenty years, be instrumental in persuading the Dakota to sign the treaties of Mendota and Traverse des Sioux, and, as a member of the legislature, write the law that created the Minnesota Public School Fund. He died in 1860.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 30, 1924

H. F. Pigman, a "human fly," loses his grip and falls seventy feet from the courthouse tower in Albert Lea. He survives the fall but sustains serious injuries. Said the Minneapolis Tribune of human flies, "When he meets with disaster his title to sympathy is decidedly clouded."

This Day in Minnesota History

August 30, 1968

A race riot begins during a dance at Stem Hall in St. Paul. Ignited by an alcohol violation, the riot continues through the next day, resulting in twenty-six arrests, numerous police and civilian injuries, and thousands of dollars in property damage from fire and vandalism, mostly in St. Paul's Selby–Dale neighborhood.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 4, 1854

Congress approves legislation guaranteeing pre-emption for Minnesota settler-colonists squatting on lands that have not been surveyed. Technically, the land could be sold only after being surveyed, but whites had poured into lands purchased from the Dakota and Ojibwe, sometimes making substantial improvements before the surveyors completed their work. This act, sponsored by delegate Henry H.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 4, 1857

One of a series of arson fires in St. Paul destroys virtually all the buildings between Market, St. Peter, St. Anthony (Third), and Fourth Streets. These fires led to looting, and citizens formed a vigilance committee to patrol the streets.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 4, 1892

On St. Paul's West Side, heavy rains create a lake behind the landfill near Page and Brown Streets. When the "dam" gives way, three die in the resulting flood.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 4, 1916

Amos Owen is born on Sisseton Reservation, South Dakota. He moved to the Prairie Island Indian Reservation at age sixteen and later become a prominent spiritual leader, tribal chairman, and pipe carrier of the Dakota, working to broker understandings between Native and non-Native peoples. He died on June 4, 1990.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 5, 1851

The Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of Dakota sell most of their lands in the southern part of the state when the Treaty of Mendota is signed.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 5, 1945

Actress Loni Anderson is born in St. Paul. She would achieve fame for her role on the television show WKRP in Cincinnati, and, later, her divorce from actor Burt Reynolds would provide reams of material for the tabloids.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 5, 1957

The Cincinnati Reds and the Detroit Tigers play an exhibition game at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, drawing a record crowd of 21,783. The Tigers win 6-5.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 5, 2012

Bobby Tufts is elected mayor of Dorset—a symbolic rather than a practical office. He is four years old.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 6, 1886

John Quincy Adams, journalist, intellectual, and civil rights proponent, arrives in St. Paul to begin his new post as editor of the Western Appeal (later the Appeal), through which he championed civil rights and supported the Republican Party. Born to free parents in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1848, he was also a member of the National Afro-American Council (which met in St. Paul in 1902) and president of the Afro-American Newspaper Association.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 6, 1945

Fighter pilot Richard Bong dies in an airplane explosion in California. Bong had shot down forty Japanese planes during the war, making him America's top ace. The Bong Bridge, which opened October 25, 1984, connects Duluth with Bong's birthplace, Superior, Wisconsin.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 6, 1969

A windstorm whips through the resort town of Outing, Cass County, killing fourteen.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 7, 1898

The Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteers arrive at Paranaque, Luzon, the Philippines, to fight in the Spanish-American War and, later, to combat Filipino patriots led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Upon their return home a year later, the regiment's casualties number forty-four killed and seventy-four wounded.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 7, 1915

Towed by the Ottumwa Belle, the last log raft passes Winona. The sawmills downstream soon cease operations as the lumbering era draws to a close.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 7, 1942

Humorist Garrison Keillor, creator of A Prairie Home Companion, is born in Anoka.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 7, 2015

After reaching the mandatory retirement age of seventy, former Minnesota Viking Alan Page retires from the Minnesota Supreme Court. Page served on the court for twenty-two years.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 8, 1849

The Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge in Ohio names Charles K. Smith, a founder of the Minnesota Historical Society, the master for the first Masonic Lodge in Minnesota. An organizational meeting is held on September 8 in the Central House on Bench Street, St. Paul.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 8, 1857

Organized baseball teams square off for the first time in Minnesota sports history when members of the Base Ball Club meet on a field in Nininger.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 9, 1820

The Dakota transfer land on Pike Island to Pelagie Faribault, wife of Jean Baptiste Faribault. The Faribaults build a house and live on the island until 1826, when they are evicted because, although the land grant was part of a treaty negotiated by Colonel Henry Leavenworth, Congress had never ratified it.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 9, 1823

Edward D. Neill is born in Philadelphia. A Presbyterian minister, Neill would arrive in St. Paul in 1849, where he would be a leader in the city's intellectual and religious life until his death in 1893. In addition to founding the First Presbyterian Church, he would help establish public schools in St. Paul, serve as superintendent of instruction in Minnesota Territory, found the Baldwin School and Macalester College, and serve as chancellor of the University of Minnesota.

This Day in Minnesota History

August 9, 1842

The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, which set the boundary between Canada and the United States, is signed by the United States and Great Britain. The boundary had been in dispute since the end of the American Revolution. Minnesota's curious Northwest Angle is a result of this treaty.

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