MNHS openings and announcements. More details.

Minnesota Historical Society
  • Membership |
  • Shop |
  • Calendar |
  • Donate
  • Minnesota Historical Society
  • Visit
      • COVID-19 Update
      • Calendar
      • History Center Exhibits

      Visit


      • Alexander Ramsey House
      • Birch Coulee Battlefield
      • Charles Lindbergh
        House and Museum
      • Comstock House
      • Folsom House
      • Forest History Center
      • Fort Ridgely
      • Harkin Store
      • Historic Forestville
      • Historic Fort Snelling
      • James J. Hill House
      • Jeffers Petroglyphs
      • Lac qui Parle Mission
      • Lower Sioux Agency
      • Marine Mill
      • Mill City Museum
      • Mille Lacs Indian Museum
        and Trading Post
      • Minnehaha Depot
      • Minnesota History Center
        • Gale Family Library
      • Minnesota State Capitol
      • Oliver Kelley Farm
      • Sibley Historic Site
      • Snake River Fur Post
      • Split Rock Lighthouse
      • Traverse des Sioux
      • W. W. Mayo House

      Minnesota History Center Historic Fort Snelling Split Rock Lighthouse Mill City Museum Oliver Kelley Farm
  • Research
    • Overview

      Records & Indexes

      • Archival Collection Finding Aids
      • Digital Newspapers
      • Library and Archives Catalog
      • Minnesota People Records Search (Birth, Death, etc.)
      • Search Collections

      Gale Family Library

      Gale Family Library

      Research Help

      • Family History Guide
      • Newspaper Resources
      • Research Guides by Topic
      • Research Services
  • Preservation
    • Overview

      Grants

      • Legacy Grants
      • Heritage Partnership Program
      • State Capital Projects Grants-in-Aid

      History Help

      • Local History Services
      • Preservation Specialists Directory

      Preserving History

      • Building and Site Preservation
      • Conservation
      • Minnesota State Archives
      • State Historical Record Advisory Board
  • Explore
    • Overview

      Multi-Theme

      • Collections Up Close
      • History at Home
      • Minnesota History Magazine
      • MNHS Press Books
      • MNopedia
      • Storied
      • This Day in Minnesota History

      Your Stories

      • History is Now
      • Stories of Minnesota's Greatest Generation

      Single Theme

      • Black History, Black Voices
      • Duluth Lynchings
      • Forests, Fields and the Falls
      • Hmong in Minnesota
      • Ojibwe Material Culture
      • Renewing What They Gave Us
      • Stories of LGBTQ Communities in Minnesota
      • The Seven Council Fires
      • The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862
      • Votes for Women
      • Walter F. Mondale Collection
  • Schools
    • Overview
      • Distance Learning Resources
      • History Day
      • Northern Lights
      • Field Trips
      • Scholarships, Grants, and Subsidies
      • Supplemental Curriculum Products
      • Teacher Professional Development
      • Teaching Native American History and Culture
      • Online Resources
      • Inquiry in the Upper Midwest Project
      • Minnesota Center for Social Studies Education (CSSE)
      • Teacher Membership
      • 6th Grade MN History Pass
      MN State Smart
  • About MNHS
      • Who We Are
      • Mission, Values & Vision
      • History of MNHS
      • Leadership
      • Contact MNHS
      • Reports
      • Legacy Amendment
      • Exhibits To Go!
      • Media Room
      • Internships
      • Fellowships & Residencies
      • Volunteers
      • Jobs
  • Support
    • Overview
      • Become a Member
      • Make a Gift
      • North Star Circle
      • Planned Giving
      • Endowment Giving
      • Corporations and Foundations
      • Volunteers
      • History Matters — Take Action
  • Search
Skip to main content
  • About
  • Copyright
  • Contact
MNopedia

A resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history.

Search form

More Search OptionsFewer Search Options
Advanced search
  • Home
  • Index
  • Topics
    • African Americans
    • Agriculture
    • Architecture
    • Arts
    • Business and Industry
    • Cities and Towns
    • Crime and Punishment
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health and Medicine
    • Immigration
    • Labor
    • Native Americans
    • Politics
    • Religion and Belief
    • Science and Technology
    • Sports and Recreation
    • Transportation
    • War and Conflict
    • Women

Beatles concert in Bloomington, 1965

The Fab Four's one and only performance in Minnesota

AIM Patrol, Minneapolis

A citizens’ street patrol organized by members of the American Indian Movement

Gomez-Bethke, Irene (1935–2021)

A community leader and Minnesota's Commissioner of Human Rights

Sibley Historic Site, Mendota

A headquarters of the American Fur Company between 1836 and 1842

Marine Mill, Marine on St. Croix

An engine of Minnesota industry operated between 1839 and 1895

Jun Fujita Cabin, Rainy Lake

A St. Louis County hideaway built by a famous photographer

Muralismo in St. Paul

A public art tradition dating to the late 1960s

Bellanger, Pat (1943–2015)

An Ojibwe activist and cofounder of the American Indian Movement

Spotlight On Farming

Black and white photograph of a starving farm family who appealed for aid, Hollandale, Freeborn County, 1929.
Agricultural Depression, 1920–1934
Colorized Washburn-Crosby Flour Mills advertisement for Gold Medal Flour, Threshing Scene, unknown location.
Bonanza Farms, Red River Valley
Photograph of Farm Bureau parade float
Farm Bureau in Minnesota
Foreclosure auction poster
Farm Crisis, 1979–1987
Crowd gathering outside for Farmers' Institute meeting in Badger, Minnesota.
Farmers' Institutes, 1880s–1920s
Xee Yang harvesting kale flowers
Hmong American Farmers Association
Late 1860s photograph showing barges along Red Wing's Mississippi River waterfront awaiting wheat for shipment to customers downriver.
King Wheat in Southeastern Minnesota
Color image of the Minnesota Machinery Museum, Hanley Falls. Date unknown.
Minnesota Machinery Museum
Black and white photograph of NFO farmers and creamery employees ride a bulk truck out to milk dumping site on the Martin Lampi farm near Annandale on March 7, 1963.
NFO Holding Actions in Minnesota
Black and white photograph of Entomology professor Henry C. Chiang (left) inspecting corn stalks for signs of corn borers with F. G. Holdaway and Jeanne Marie Hellberg, 1951.
Pest Management in Minnesota Agriculture
Black and white photograph of Martin Carlsted turning the handle of a manual corn sheller to remove kernels, c.1910.
Seed Corn
Color image of a Minnesota State Grange picnic held on the Sletton Farm in Aitkin on June 13, 2015.
State Grange of Minnesota
Black and white photograph of young bakers participating in a bread-making demonstration at the 1918 Minnesota State Fair.
University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension Service, 1917–1919
Wild Rice and the Ojibwe
See all spotlights


January 27

1871

Kentucky Congressman James Proctor Knott delivers the speech "The Glories of Duluth" in Congress, mocking the city in an effort to defeat a bill granting land to the St. Croix and Lake Superior Railroad. Duluth's citizens appreciate the free publicity, however, and the town of Proctor is named for him.

1960

Grand Portage National Monument, established by Congress in 1958 and located within the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, is dedicated when Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton accepts the site from the Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The eight-and-a-half-mile Gichi Onigamiing (the Great Carrying Place) near the mouth of the Pigeon River was a major gateway into the interior of North America for exploration, the fur trade, and commerce.

Select a new date

From The Minnesota Book of Days (Minnesota Historical Society Press).

Recently Added Articles

Toastmaster manufactured in 1921
Toastmaster (bread toaster)

Motivated by his desire for a reliable cafeteria breakfast at the Stillwater, Minnesota, factory where he worked, Charles P. Strite designed an innovative pop-up bread toaster in 1919. After Strite modified his commercial-grade model for home use, the Toastmaster quickly made its way into kitchens nationwide.

Minnesota State Hospital for the Insane, 1867
St. Peter State Hospital

In the 1860s, Minnesota experienced rapid population growth due to immigration. To serve the needs of these new citizens, the state legislature passed an act for the establishment of an asylum for the “insane” in St. Peter in 1866. As it filled to capacity and then expanded, it became the primary site for housing mentally ill people considered dangerous or sexually aggressive.

More

History Near You

Made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008. Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.
Minnesota Historical Society • 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 (Map) • 651-259-3000 © MNHS.
Send questions or comments to mnopedia [at] mnhs [dot] org. View our Privacy Policy.

  • Log in