Composer Antonín Dvořák visits Minnehaha Falls and performs for the Czecho-Slovanic Benefit Society (at CSPS Hall) in St. Paul. Inspired by his view of the falls, Dvořák later bases a composition on his "Minnehaha theme": the Sonatina for violin and piano.

The St. Paul City Council establishes the St. Paul Public Library. Located on the fourth floor of the Ingersoll Building, it opens on January 2 with a collection of 8,000 books.

Aviator James H."Jimmy" Doolittle, touring with his Shell Oil Company plane, visits St. Paul. In 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle of the US Army Air Corps would command the first air attack on Japan during World War II, leading sixteen B-25 bombers, which had been prepped in St. Paul, from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet.

Mayor Louis A. Fritsche holds a meeting at the New Ulm armory in support of US neutrality in World War I. Attendees send a peace delegation to Washington, DC, but the country declares war in April.

Convicted of poisoning her husband, Stanislaus, Ann Bilansky is executed in St. Paul. Bilansky would be the only woman and the first white person to be legally executed in the state, although serious doubts about her guilt still persist.

Henry A. Swift is born in Ravenna, Ohio. He served as governor for six months during the Civil War, succeeding Alexander Ramsey, who left office for the US Senate. Swift died on February 25, 1869, in St. Peter.

Minnesota is among the first states to ratify the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, which gives US citizens eighteen years of age or older the right to vote in local, state, and national elections. Both Minnesota and Delaware claim to be the initial actor on this important issue, although one Minnesota legislator who voted against ratifying calls his state's role a "dubious pleasure." Ratification by the necessary number of states would be completed later in the year.

Wisconsin Territory is established, extending westward to the Missouri River, including the area of present-day Minnesota. Two years later the land west of the Mississippi River becomes part of Iowa Territory.

The Farmer-Labor Party and Minnesota's Democratic Party agree to merge at their joint convention, and a slate of candidates is quickly chosen to meet the filing deadline two days later. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party is unique to Minnesota.

The US Supreme Court upholds the rights of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to fish and hunt in ceded lands without state regulation, as dictated by an 1837 treaty.