An unusually late-season blizzard sweeps into southern Minnesota that will last for two days. The areas with the largest snow accumulations by Sunday evening (April 15) include Maple Grove (22 inches), Fridley (20 inches), Northeast Minneapolis (19.8 inches) and St. Paul (19.2 inches).

For most of its history, nursing was an unregulated profession. To raise both their reputation and their standard of care, Minnesota nurses during the Progressive Era founded local and statewide nursing associations. Using these to create community among members, influence training schools, and engage in legislative advocacy, these nurses transformed what had been a mixture of skilled and unskilled work into a full, licensed profession.

The only documented hanging held in Clay County occurred on September 20, 1889, when Thomas Brown was hanged for the murder of Moorhead Patrolman Peter Poull. Newspapers across the country reported on the sensational event; the Los Angeles Herald called it “a quiet execution.”

Between 1968 and 2001, supporters of Dr. Henry Schmidt Memorial Hospital in Westbrook combined work and pleasure to organize Hospital Days, an annual public event that raised money for hospital equipment and community amenities. People of all ages were invited to attend, participate in activities, and enjoy good food.

The suit State of Minnesota et al. v. Philip Morris et al. is settled when the defendants—tobacco companies—agree to pay Minnesota and Blue Cross-Blue Shield $6.5 billion dollars in total. The settlement ended the companies’ chain of legal victories and turned the tide in anti-tobacco efforts throughout the nation.

The Norwegians who made their homes along the Buffalo River in 1870 were among the first European settler-colonists to live in Clay County. The timing of their arrival, before the land had been surveyed, helped to draw other immigrants to the area.

After the intense violence of the first few decades of the twentieth century, the St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) experienced a period of steady growth and relative social calm in the 1930s. During these "quiet years," the department expanded, reformed its policies, and experimented with new ideas and technologies.

Lois Jenson and her coworkers Patricia S. Kosmach and Kathleen Anderson filed the lawsuit Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co. in 1988, after years of harassment at Eveleth Mines on the Mesabi Iron Range. The case became the first sexual harassment class action tried in US federal court and set a precedent for future harassment trials.

For twenty-five years, between 1890 and 1915, Moorhead, Minnesota, was infamous for being a rough and rowdy saloon town. The reputation was well deserved, as alcohol sales were the city’s number one industry

On June 16, 1992, an F5 tornado devastated the towns of Chandler and Lake Wilson in Murray County. It was the most powerful tornado recorded in the US that year and the eighth F5 to touch down in Minnesota, reaching wind speeds in excess of 260 miles per hour and causing over $50 million in property damage. It was one of 170 twisters that hit the Northern Great Plains during the June 1992 tornado outbreak, one of the largest such outbreaks in US history.