St. Paul hosts the state's first St. Patrick's Day parade. Although Irish immigration to St. Paul did not peak until 1890, many Irish had already settled in town, working both as household servants and as laborers on the docks of the Upper Landing.

Forest fires destroy Baudette and Spooner, killing twenty-nine people and burning over 220,000 acres of land. During this dry year, over 900 fires had burned in twenty-nine counties, causing forty-two deaths. Graceton, Pitt, Cedar Spur, and Williams also burned.

Construction begins on Ash House, a Hudson's Bay Company trading post at the mouth of Rainy River. The two-story log house, with oiled parchment windows and a clay and stone chimney, is completed a month later.

Congress passes the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, naming the upper St. Croix River one of eight rivers protected by this legislation. The lower fifty-two miles of the river are preserved on October 25, 1972.

The "Peanuts" comic strip of St. Paul's Charles Schulz begins national syndication in seven newspapers.

The St. Paul Dispatch runs a photograph of all the automobiles owned by city residents: two cars and two trucks.

William Jennings Bryan, presidential candidate, orator, and future participant in the Scopes trial on teaching evolution in public schools, speaks in St. Peter.

The St. Croix County Board of Commissioners licenses Henry Jackson to open a tavern "at St. Paul's" and also names him justice of the peace. Jackson Street runs from the site of his store.

Author Tim O'Brien is born in Austin. His novel of the Vietnam War, Going After Cacciato, would win the National Book Award in 1979.

The first celebration of Kolacky Day in Montgomery occurs. A kolacky is a Czechoslovakian pastry filled with fruit. At first the festival was only a day long, but in 1975 the celebration was scheduled for late July and extended into Kolacky Days, complete with music, dancing, art displays, and a parade.