This Day in Minnesota History

May 1, 1896

The US government opens three-quarters of the Red Lake Indian Reservation of Ojibwe—the region north and east of Thirteen Towns in Polk County (Badger, Brandsvold, Chester, Columbia, Eden, Fosston, Hill River, King, Knute, Lessor, Queen, Rosebud, and Sletten)—to settler colonists.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 26, 1948

Sweden's Prince Bertil unveils a tablet to Jacob Fahlstrom, first Swede in Minnesota. A fur trader who arrived in Minnesota in the 1820s, Fahlstrom settled near Afton and died there in 1859. The plaque is at the intersection of Robert Street and Kellogg Boulevard in St. Paul.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 6, 1736

Twenty-one French soldiers and voyageurs are killed in a fight with an allied group of Dakota, Ojibwe, and Teton Lakota on an island in the Lake of the Woods. The men were part of a post set up by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 5, 1885

The Western Appeal (later the Appeal), the first Minnesota-published African American newspaper to gain national readership, premieres under the editorship of Frederick D. Parker.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 5, 1873

A delegation of German Mennonites from Russia arrives in St. Paul to assess the state for settlement. Mennonite settler-colonists soon establish homesteads around Mountain Lake in Cottonwood County.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 4, 1993

"Jim Ed Poole" (Tom Keith) and Dale Connelly celebrate their tenth year as hosts of The Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio with a broadcast from the World Theater in St. Paul.

This Day in Minnesota History

June 3, 1916

Forty miners on the Mesabi Iron Range walk off the job at the start of a massive strike, coordinated by the ethnically diverse rank and file, with help from experienced organizers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Scab workers undermine the strike, and the strikers concede defeat after three and a half months.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 26, 1877

Governor John S. Pillsbury appoints this day for prayer to relieve the state from the swarms of Rocky Mountain locusts that had plagued farmers for four years. The locusts linger until August, when they disappear.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 26, 1896

Edward J. Thye is born near Frederick, South Dakota. Thye succeeded Harold E. Stassen to become the twenty-sixth governor of the state and, notably, the first farmer to hold the office. During his term, he reduce the state debt, increased old-age assistance, expanded state institutions, established a human rights commission, and approved a health-care plan for state employees. As a Republican senator from 1947 to 1958, he was one of seven to sign Margaret Chase Smith's "declaration of conscience" against Joseph McCarthy.

This Day in Minnesota History

April 25, 1924

A race to break the world record for the longest distance traveled in a hot air balloon ends in Rochester as the winner, W. T. Van Orman, lands the Goodyear III just under the world record distance (1,179.9 miles). The race had begun in San Antonio, Texas, and the three top finishers would soon represent the United States at the international competition in Brussels, Belgium.

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