Republican presidential candidate William Howard Taft campaigns briefly in Melrose as part of a whistle-stop tour of Minnesota that includes Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and Sauk Centre. Introduced by Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., Taft urges voters not to take a chance on Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan.

St. Paul resident Edward Phelan is arrested for the murder of his business partner, Joe Hays. He was acquitted, but his character was so unsavory that many considered him guilty. Hays's was the first death and the first murder in the city's history.

A statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the novel The Great Gatsby, is unveiled in Rice Park, St. Paul. Sculpted by Michael Price, a Merriam Park resident and teacher at Hamline University, the statue is dedicated during a centennial celebration of Fitzgerald's birthday (September 24, 1896) and unveiled by his granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan.

Theodore Hamm holds an open house at his St. Paul brewery, which he had owned since 1865 and which would be incorporated in 1896. Hamm's beer has long been a popular Minnesota product, advertised by the slogan "from the land of sky-blue waters" and the Hamm's bear.

John Ireland is named Archbishop of Minnesota. Born on September 11, 1838, in Burnchurch, Kilkenny County, Ireland, he had arrived in St. Paul in 1852. After his ordination in 1861, he served as chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota Regiment during the Civil War, organized an abstinence society, and helped bring many immigrant groups to the state.

The legislature allows Minnesota's Civil War soldiers to vote by passing the state's first absentee ballot law.

Ironton thug John Henry Seadlund and accomplice James Atwood Gray kidnap Charles Sherman Ross in Chicago. The kidnappers demand a $50,000 ransom from their hideout near Emily, Minnesota. In the end, Seadlund murders Ross and Gray at a location north of Spooner, Wisconsin. Seadlund would be captured at a racetrack in California and executed by order of the state of Illinois in 1938.

Generals Oliver O. Howard, Daniel Sickles, Alexander Stewart, and Russel Alger speak against the silver standard, a Populist platform, and in support of William McKinley, to an audience of about 6,000 at St. Paul's Auditorium. On their speaking tour of the Northwestern states, the generals also stop in Le Sueur, Little Falls, Mankato, St. Peter, and Willmar.

Horace Goodhue Jr. opens a prep school in Northfield with twenty-three students. The institution is first known as Northfield College, but a generous donation from William Carleton of Charlestown, Massachusetts, inspired its later name, Carleton College.

The Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in St. Paul.