A shoot-out between outlaw John Dillinger and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) occurs at the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul. Dillinger escaped a few months later but was shot to death by FBI agents in Chicago.

Roald Amundsen, the famed Norwegian polar explorer who had discovered the South Pole in 1911, addresses a large audience in Duluth about the on-going battle of World War I and appeals to the people of the United States, especially American labor, to "stand behind the President to the last ditch, and to work with 100 per cent efficiency to the end of the war." After remarking that "Norwegians in this country will be pleased to know after the war that they, too, have had a share in the liberation of mankind," Amundsen continued on a speaking tour of Minnesota and later returned to Norway to p

Newspaper editor James M. Goodhue is born in Hebron, New Hampshire. In 1849 he established the territory's first newspaper, the Minnesota Pioneer, which promoted the territory both within its borders and beyond. Goodhue died in 1852, but in 1858 Jane Grey Swisshelm used his press after hers was destroyed (see March 24).

James M. Goodhue publishes the first issue of the Minnesota Pioneer, the territory's first newspaper.

St. Paul's founder, Pierre Parrant, builds the city's first structure, known as the whiskey seller's cabin, in Fountain Cave. Nicknamed "Pig's Eye" because one of his eyes was surrounded by a "white-ish ring," Parrant had been expelled from the Fort Snelling grounds for selling liquor. The name is also applied to the community when people begin having their mail sent to "Pig's Eye." At Father Lucien Galtier's suggestion, the town's name was changed to St. Paul on November 1, 1849.

Forty-seven soldiers at Fort Snelling are confined to the guardhouse for violating orders about visiting the saloon of Henry Menk, near modern Fort Road and Munster Avenue, in St. Paul.

A two-month strike by members of the Graphic Arts International Union is settled when several hundred bookbinders and four Twin Cities-area envelope companies reach an accord about a new two-year contract. The agreement provides hourly pay increases of 45 cents the first year and 50 cents the second year. The strikers had settled earlier with a fifth company.

Dennis J. Banks is born on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation of Ojibwe. An activist for Indigenous rights, he was one of the founders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968, along with Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt (White Earth Ojibwe) and George Mitchell.

St. Paul's first automatic traffic signal, on a pedestal about ten feet high, begins operating at Fifth and St. Peter Streets.

Father Louis Hennepin, exploring the Mississippi River north from Illinois by canoe, is captured by a group of Dakota. During his captivity he sees Owamni Yomni, which he calls the Falls of Anthony (for his patron saint). On July 25, Daniel Greysolon, the Sieur Du Luth, arranged for Hennepin's release.