Winfield Scott Hammond is born in Southborough, Massachusetts. Prior to becoming the state's eighteenth governor, he would function in various educational capacities: as high school principal in Mankato, superintendent of schools in Madelia, and president of the school board of St. James. He died on December 30, 1915, the second governor to die while in office.

Measuring one-third of a township, tiny Manomin County (named for manoomin, the Ojibwe word for wild rice) is abolished and transferred to Anoka County. Known as Mamomin Township until 1879, the territory is now the town of Fridley.

Sharon Sayles Belton is elected mayor of Minneapolis. She is the first African American and the first woman to hold the office. Having previously worked for the State Department of Corrections and as assistant director of the Minnesota Program for Victims of Sexual Assault, Belton would tout a family-centered platform and administer numerous successful community programs, including the annual youth-oriented event, "Dancin' in the Streets."

Nicollet Mall, a pedestrian walkway closed to traffic except buses, opens in downtown Minneapolis.

Artificial blood is used in the United States for the first time when Dr. Robert Anderson of the University Hospital injects Fluosol, a blood substitute developed in Japan, into a Jehovah's Witness individual who had refused a regular blood transfusion on religious grounds.

The steamer Bannockburn and its twenty-member crew are seen for the last time as they set forth from Duluth, later disappearing somewhere on Lake Superior.

The Weisman Art Museum opens its new building on the University of Minnesota campus. The abstract design was created by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

Gas light arrives in Minneapolis.

To thwart the talents of the Minneapolis Lakers' George Mikan, the Fort Wayne Pistons basketball team plays a slow-down game that results in a 19-18 victory for the Pistons. Their tactic also results in the 24-second shot clock, implemented a few seasons later.

The movie Jingle All the Way opens. Produced by and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film takes place in Minneapolis, but scenes were shot all around the Twin Cities metro area, including locations in downtown St. Paul, in Eden Prairie, on Harriet Island, and on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

Cushman K. Davis dies while serving his third term in the United States Senate. Davis was born in Henderson, New York, on June 16, 1838. His speeches against railroad interests and in favor of Grangers led to his election as Minnesota's seventh governor in 1873. He joined the Senate in 1887, where he supported Civil War pensions and the annexation of Hawaii and opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892. He also authored books on the law, Shakespeare, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Aaron Goodrich, Minnesota Territory's first supreme court justice, is accused of adultery. An effort to impeach him fails, but President Millard Fillmore exercises his executive power to remove Goodrich from office in 1851.