The freighter Mataafa wrecks near the lighthouse in Duluth harbor during a storm that sank eighteen ships on the Great Lakes in a twenty-four-hour period. The crew suffers terribly from the cold winds of the storm, and nine freeze to death. The Mataafa is rebuilt and continues to sail until 1966.

Henry M. Rice is born in Waitsfield, Vermont. At twenty-three he became a sutler at Fort Snelling, running a concessionary store that sold sundry items to the soldiers. Rice later entered the political arena, encouraging Congress to define the state's boundaries and serving as one of Minnesota's first two senators. He died in 1894.

Pioneering journalist Marvel Jackson Cooke dies in New York. Born in Mankato in 1903, Cooke moved to Harlem in 1926 and worked for the NAACP's Crisis magazine, the Amsterdam News, and the People's Voice. In 1950 she joined the staff of the New York Daily Compass and was the first African American woman to work full-time for a major white-owned American newspaper.

A fire begins in a flour mill and destroys the town of Walcott, in Rice County. Walcott had prospered for nearly fifty years, but the community decided not to rebuild.

The Wilson & Company packinghouse strike begins in Albert Lea. Lasting 109 days, it receives national attention.

Lawyer Alan Page is elected associate justice of the state supreme court, the first African American to so serve. Normally judges are appointed by the governor, but unusual circumstances led to a direct election. Voters undoubtedly recalled Page's career with the Minnesota Vikings and his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as well as his work as assistant attorney general.

The military commission headed by Henry H. Sibley completes its trial of Dakota warriors accused of participating in the US-Dakota War earlier that year. Of the 392 prisoners, 307 are sentenced to death and sixteen to prison. President Abraham Lincoln would commute many of these sentences.

The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emil Oberhoffer, presents its first concert. The orchestra would replicate the concert in 1927, with Henri Verbrugghen conducting, and in 1993, as the Minnesota Orchestra, directed by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.

Charles Thompson Memorial Hall is opened at 1824 Marshall Avenue in St. Paul with a formal dedication ceremony. It is the first clubhouse for the deaf in the world and is later listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2011).

Choua Lee is elected to the St. Paul City School Board, the first Hmong person elected to a public position in the United States. After serving one term she declines reelection.

Cy Thao becomes the first Hmong American elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Thirty-one individuals form the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company, St. Paul's first volunteer fire-fighting force.