As photographer Charles Zimmerman of St. Paul tries to capture frozen Minnehaha Falls, he is struck by an icicle weighing between 200 and 300 pounds. He sustains severe bruises about the head, neck, and shoulders, but none of his bones is broken.

Pennington County is created. It commemorates Edmund Pennington, president of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie (Soo Line) Railroad.

Architect Cass Gilbert is born in Ohio. Gilbert's family moved to St. Paul in 1868, and he began his career there. Among his most recognizable buildings are the third Minnesota State Capitol, the US Supreme Court Building, and Manhattan's Woolworth Building.

In the first organized teachers' strike in the nation, 1,165 St. Paul schoolteachers walk out. The strike lasts until December 27 and receives national attention, as it demonstrates that teachers are ready to use strikes as a method to alleviate school funding problems and intolerable working conditions.

Olive Fremstad makes her debut with New York's Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre. Born in Scandinavia, she had been adopted by a St. Peter couple. A true diva, Fremstad was legendary for her vocal powers as well as her temperament. She died in New York in 1951.

The Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the rest of General George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland charge up Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga and defeat the Confederates holding the ridge.

Catherine Bissell is born. She and her husband, Edmund F. Ely, ran mission schools at Fond du Lac, Pokegama, La Pointe, and other locations. She died in California in 1880.

Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, creator of "Peanuts," is born in Minneapolis.

The first election for Minnesota county offices is held.

Winfield Scott Hammond is born in Southborough, Massachusetts. Prior to becoming the state's eighteenth governor, he 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.