The St. Anthony Library Association is formed. A subscription library, it allows dues-paying members to borrow books and is a precursor to the free public library, which would be authorized by an 1879 law permitting tax levies to support libraries.
The steamer Bannockburn and its twenty-member crew are seen for the last time as they set forth from Duluth, later disappearing somewhere on Lake Superior.
The Weisman Art Museum opens its new building on the University of Minnesota campus. The abstract design was created by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.
To thwart the talents of the Minneapolis Lakers' George Mikan, the Fort Wayne Pistons basketball team plays a slow-down game that results in a 19-18 victory for the Pistons. Their tactic also results in the 24-second shot clock, implemented a few seasons later.
A merger of giant railroad companies creates the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The Burlington Northern had long been a major railroad in Minnesota, itself the result of mergers between the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
The movie Jingle All the Way opens. Produced by and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film takes place in Minneapolis, but scenes were shot all around the Twin Cities metro area, including locations in downtown St. Paul, in Eden Prairie, on Harriet Island, and on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
Senator and former presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey appears as the "Man of the Week" on NBC's Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. The "Rat Pack" crooner turned comic introduces Humphrey as a "man who has spent a lifetime in politics with an unblemished record; he never took a bribe and never spied on his opponents; he never committed a crime; which is why he's here tonight and not in the White House."
Architect Cass Gilbert is born in Ohio. Gilbert's family moved to St. Paul in 1868, and he began his career there. Among his most recognizable buildings are the third Minnesota State Capitol, the US Supreme Court Building, and Manhattan's Woolworth Building.
Governor Stephen Miller declares a Thanksgiving holiday, in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln's recommendation that the last Thursday in November be used for this purpose. Minnesota had celebrated Thanksgiving Day before, usually in December.
Catherine Bissell is born. She and her husband, Edmund F. Ely, ran mission schools at Fond du Lac, Pokegama, La Pointe, and other locations. She died in California in 1880.
The Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the rest of General George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland charge up Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga and defeat the Confederates holding the ridge.
On Thanksgiving Day, the St. James Hotel in Red Wing opens. Conceived by eleven local businessmen who made their fortunes in the grain industry and contributed $60,000 to the cause, the establishment is an expression of community pride and identity.
Olive Fremstad makes her debut with New York's Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre. Born in Scandinavia, she had been adopted by a St. Peter couple. A true diva, Fremstad was legendary for her vocal powers as well as her temperament. She died in New York in 1951.
In the first organized teachers' strike in the nation, 1,165 St. Paul schoolteachers walk out. The strike lasts until December 27 and receives national attention, as it demonstrates that teachers are ready to use strikes as a method to alleviate school funding problems and intolerable working conditions.
As photographer Charles Zimmerman of St. Paul tries to capture frozen Minnehaha Falls, he is struck by an icicle weighing between 200 and 300 pounds. He sustains severe bruises about the head, neck, and shoulders, but none of his bones is broken.
Cushman K. Davis dies while serving his third term in the United States Senate. Davis was born in Henderson, New York, on June 16, 1838. His speeches against railroad interests and in favor of Grangers led to his election as Minnesota's seventh governor in 1873. He joined the Senate in 1887, where he supported Civil War pensions and the annexation of Hawaii and opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892. He also authored books on the law, Shakespeare, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
St. Paul's Frank B. Kellogg wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Kellogg had served as secretary of state during the Coolidge administration and as a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague.
Aaron Goodrich, Minnesota Territory's first supreme court justice, is accused of adultery. An effort to impeach him fails, but President Millard Fillmore exercises his executive power to remove Goodrich from office in 1851.
