Timeline Minnesota
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6200BC The glacial lake
Agassiz-Ojibway, body of water so vast that it covered parts of
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Ontario and Minnesota, massively
drained, sending a flow of water into the Hudson Strait and the
Labrador Sea. The sudden flood of fresh water diluted the saltiness of
the Gulf Stream weakening its flow.
(Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)(AFP, 2/24/08)
1766 Jonathan Carver, an
American-born British army officer, set out to cross the American
continent, but was stopped in Minnesota by a war between the Sioux and
Chippewa.
(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)
1767 British explorer Jonathan
Carver described petroglyph images of snakes and buffalo near a cave at
bluffs in Minnesota called Wakan Tipi by the Dakota people.
(LP, Spring 2006, p.23)
1815 Sep 8, Alexander Ramsey
(d.1903), territorial governor of Minnesota (1849-1853), was born near
Harrisburg, Pa.
(www.bioguide.congress.gov)
1823 May 10, The 1st steamboat to
navigate the Mississippi River arrived at Ft. Snelling (between St.
Paul and Minneapolis).
(MC, 5/10/02)
1830 Jul 15, 3 Indian tribes,
Sioux, Sauk & Fox, signed a treaty giving the US most of Minnesota,
Iowa & Missouri.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1832 Jul 13, Henry Schoolcraft
discovered the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Henry Rowe
Schoolcraft came upon the lake where the Mississippi starts and
intended to call it Veritas Caput, the Latin for “true head.” The name
was too long and got shortened at both ends to Itasca.
(SFC, 10/5/96, p.E3)(HN, 7/13/98)
1837 A treaty with the Chippewa
Indians in Minnesota guaranteed their right to hunt and fish and gather
wild rice on territory relinquished to the federal government.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A8)
1844 Sep 5, Iron ore was
discovered in Minnesota's Mesabi Range.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1849 Mar 3, US Congress created
the Minnesota Territory.
(AP, 3/3/99)
1851 In Minnesota Chief Shakopee
and the Dakota Indians were pressured into selling 24 million acres for
pennies an acre. Food and money from the federal government was to be
distributed to the Indians as part of the treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A1,6)
1854 St. Paul, Minn., was founded.
(USAT, 3/5/04, p.9A)
1858 May 11, Minnesota became the
32nd state of the Union.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1861 Jun 29, William James Mayo,
co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, was born.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1862 Aug 8, Minnesota’s 5th
Infantry fought the Sioux Indians in Redwood, Minn., and 24 soldiers
were killed.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.A23)
1862 Aug 17, The Sioux Uprising,
which resulted in more than 800 white settlers dead and 38 Sioux
Indians condemned and hanged, took place in Minnesota. The Sioux, or
Minnesota, Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white
settlers at Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow
reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to
broken government promises and corrupt Indian agents. a military court
sentenced 303 Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the
list. The 38 hangings took place on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minn.
(HNQ, 1/4/00)
1862 Aug 22, Santee Sioux
attacked Fort Ridgely, Minn.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Sep 21, 300 Indians were
sentenced to hang in Mankato, Minnesota.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1862 Dec 6, President Lincoln
ordered the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated
in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They were to be hanged on Dec. 26.
The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the
federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre
that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300
Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to
39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)(HN, 12/6/98)
1862 Dec 26, 38 Santee Sioux were
hanged in Mankato, Minn., for their part in the Sioux Uprising.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1885 Feb 7, Sinclair Lewis
(d.1951), American novelist of satire and realism, was born in Sauk
Centre, Minnesota. His books include "Arrowsmith" and "Elmer Gantry."
"There are two insults which no human will endure: the assertion that
he hasn’t a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that
he has never known trouble." "Winter is not a season, it's an
occupation."
(AP, 6/26/98)(AP, 12/22/99)(HNQ, 5/18/98)(HN, 2/7/99)
1870 Feb 15, Ground was broken for
Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minn.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1876 Sep 7, The James and Younger
gang botched an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield,
Minn. Joseph Heywood, the bank teller, was shot and killed when he
refused to open the safe. The 3 Younger brothers, Cole, Bob and Jim,
were captured 2 weeks later in a swamp near Madelia. 3 others were
killed. Photos of all 6 were taken at the time and identified by Cole
Younger, who wrote the names on the pictures. The pictures sold at
auction in 1999 for $39,100. The raid was reenacted in 1948 and became
a regular event in 1970.
(HN, 9/7/98)(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.W16)(WSJ, 9/6/01,
p.A20)(MT, Summer 02, p.22)
1880-1920 Over 2 billion board feet of white pine
were shipped out of northern Minnesota to build the towns and cities of
a growing America. In 2004 Jeff Forester authored “The Forest for the
Trees: How Humans shaped the North Woods.”
(NH, 10/1/04, p.70)
1883 The Minneapolis Institute of
Arts, originally the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, was established.
The museum building, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White,
opened its doors in 1915. In 1974, the Japanese architect Kenzo
Tange was commissioned to design needed additions to McKim, Mead and
White’s neoclassical structure. Now in the 1990s, with finds from the
Institute’s New Beginnings Campaign, the museum building is being
renovated, the collections reinstalled, and state-of-the-art technology
introduces to help visitors and members interpret the works of art.
(MIA, www, 1999)
1885 Feb 7, Sinclair Lewis,
novelist of satire and realism, was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His
books include "Arrowsmith" and "Elmer Gantry."
(HNQ, 5/18/98)(HN, 2/7/99)
1886 The St. Paul Winter Carnival
began.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T6)
1886 Richard W. Sears began
selling watches in North Redwood, Minn. In 1887 he opened a Chicago
headquarters after hiring watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck. In 1888 the 1st
Sears catalog sold watches and jewelry. [see 1893]
(SFC, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1887 Feb 8, Aurora Ski Club of Red
Wing, Minn., became the 1st US ski club.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1888 Olaf and Edward Ohman, a
Swedish immigrant farmer, while digging up tree stumps in Kensington,
came upon a 202-pound stone with runic inscriptions. Dated to 1363
(1362) the inscriptions seemed to describe how a party of Vikings had
returned to this spot after an exploratory survey, and found ten men
left behind “red with blood and dead.” Ever since the discovery,
scholars have debated the stone’s authenticity.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.25)(HNQ, 6/4/01)
1889 Sep 16, Robert Younger, in
Minnesota's Stillwater Penitentiary for life, died of tuberculosis.
Brothers Cole and Bob remained in that prison.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1889 Nov 12, DeWitt Wallace,
founder of Reader’s Digest (1921), was born in St. Paul, Minn.
(HN, 11/12/00)(MC, 11/12/01)
1891 George A. Hormel, son of
German immigrants, opened a small retail meat shop in Austin, Minn.
Within months he opened a packinghouse. His son Jay became president in
1929. Their canned ham product, developed in 1926, was named Spam on
Jan 1, 1937, and registered as a trademark on May 11, 1937.
(SFEM, 6/16/96, BR p.26)(WSJ, 4/29/04,
p.D10)(www.hormel.com)
1892 Jun 10, The Republican
National Convention in Minneapolis nominated President Harrison for
re-election and Whitelaw Reid for vice president. (Harrison, however,
lost the election to former President Cleveland.)
(AP, 6/10/97)
1882 The Globe Files Co. was
founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1898 it introduced a vertical filing
system.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.G3)
1893 Otto H.L. Wernicke founded
the Wernicke Furniture Co. in Minneapolis, Minn., to manufacture his
patented elastic bookcases, later known as stackable bookcases. In 1897
he moved the business to Grand Rapids, Mich.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.G3)
1894 Sep 1, The Great Hinckley
Fire destroyed Hinckley, Minn., and five other communities and killed
over 400 people.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(AP, 9/1/08)
1896 Sep 24, American author F.
Scott Fitzgerald (d.1940) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He wrote
about the "Jazz Age" between World War I and World War II. He published
his first novel in 1920, "This Side of Paradise," and gained instant
acclaim and celebrity, marrying Zelda Sayre shortly afterward. In 1924,
Fitzgerald wrote what has become his best-known novel, "The Great
Gatsby." Although it was not especially popular at the time, as more
readers began to appreciate the novel for its perspective of how
materialism drives people, it became an American classic. As years
passed, Fitzgerald battled alcoholism and his wife sought treatment for
her mental illness. He died in Hollywood at age 45 in 1940. "If you're
strong enough, there are no precedents."
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/24/97)(HNPD, 9/24/98)(HN,
9/24/98)(AP, 8/16/99)
1900 Jan 29, The American League,
consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia with
teams from Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas
City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)(AP, 1/29/98)
1901 Sep. 2, Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big
stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1902 Feb 4, Charles Lindbergh
(d.1974), the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic (1927), was
born in Detroit and grew up in Minnesota.
(HN,
2/4/99)(www.charleslindbergh.com/history/index.asp)
1902 George Draper Dayton started
a dry goods store in Minneapolis that grew to become the Dayton Hudson
chain. It was renamed Target in 1999. Kenneth Macke (1938-2008) led
Dayton Hudson from 1983 to 1994.
(SFC, 7/2/08, p.B7)
1903 Feb 16, At Pokegama,
Minnesota, temperatures fell to a record state low of 59 degrees below
zero.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.D10)
1906 The Red Wing Union Stoneware
Co. began operating in Red Wing, Minnesota. In 1936 it became Red Wing
Potteries, which closed in 1967.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)
1907 Apr 13, Harold E. Stassen
(d.2001), later 3-term governor, was born on a truck farm in W. St.
Paul.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)(MC, 4/13/02)
1907 Sep 17, Warren Earl Burger,
the 15th chief justice of the United States (1969-86), was born in St.
Paul, Minn.
(AP, 9/17/07)
1909 Mar 1, 1st US university
school of nursing established, University of Minnesota.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1909-1993 The 1997 novel “Deluge” by Albertine Strong
follows the destinies of the Dibikamig clan of the Chippewa in
Minnesota.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.3)
1910 Nov 22, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe,
a Minnesota-born British spy known as "Cynthia" was born in
Minneapolis. She has been described as World War II's "Mata Hari."
Family and friends called her Betty. William Stephenson, who ran Great
Britain’s World War II intelligence activities in the Western
Hemisphere, would one day give her a code name--"Cynthia." She
reputedly was one of the most successful spies in history.
(HNQ, 3/14/01)
1912 Eric B. Savage incorporated
his M.W. Savage Factories in Minneapolis. His was one of the first
mail-order furniture houses.
(SFC, 5/9/07, p.G7)
1913 Jun 18, Robert Mondavi was
born in the mining town of Virginia, Minn. The family moved to
California in 1921 and went into the grape business in Lodi.
(SFC, 6/18/03, p.A16)
1913 Nov 4, Gig Young, actor (They
Shoot Horses Don't They), was born in St. Cloud, Minn.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1913 Industrialist Charles Gates
introduced the 1st residential air-conditioning in his Minneapolis
mansion.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R37)
1914 Aug 13, Carl Wickman began
Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in Minnesota.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1915 Jan 6, John Cunningham Lilly
(d.2001), was born in Saint Paul. He later became a medical doctor and
dolphin and counter culture researcher
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A18)
1916 Mar 29, Eugene McCarthy, U.S.
senator and 1968 presidential candidate, was born in Watkins, Minn.
(HN, 3/29/01)(MC, 3/29/02)
1918 May 9, Orville Freeman,
(Gov-D-Minn.), Sec of Agriculture (1961-69), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 Sep 25, John Ireland, Irish
and US archbishop of St Paul, died at 80.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1918 Oct 12, The Cloquet Fire
erupted in Minnesota, claiming some 450 lives.
(AP, 10/12/08)
1918 Oct 13-15, A forest fire
killed some 1,000 people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. [see Oct 12]
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1919 Nov 10, The American Legion
held its first national convention, in Minneapolis.
(AP, 11/10/97)
1920 Feb 1, 1st commercial armored
car was introduced in St. Paul, Minn.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1920 Feb 16, Patty Andrews,
vocalist (Andrews Sisters), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1920 Jun 15, Three African
Americans were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota, by a white mob of 5,000.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1921 The Minneapolis-based
Washburn Crosby (later General Mills), purveyors of Gold Medal Flour,
invented Betty Crocker to serve as a public image food expert. In 2005
Susan Marks authored “Finding Betty Crocker.”
(WSJ, 12/30/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.W10)
1922 Jun 10, Judy Garland,
singer-actress was born as Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minn.
She starred in The Wizard of Oz and Easter Parade.
(AP, 6/10/97)(HN, 6/10/99)
1922 Jul 31, Ralph Samuelson (18)
rode the world's 1st water skis in Minn.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1923 May 26, James Arness, actor
(Gunsmoke), was born in Minneapolis, MN.
(HN, 5/26/01)(MC, 5/26/02)
1924 In Le Sueur, Minn., The Green
Giant was conceived to promote a new European variety of peas called
"Prince of Wales" for the Minnesota Valley Canning Co. Sales of Green
Giants began in 1925.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.C4)
1928 Jan 5, Walter Mondale, 42nd
Vice President (1977-1981) of the U.S., was born. He was the Democratic
presidential nominee who lost to Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Ambassador
to Japan.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1928 Alfred W. Erickson (d.1997 at
90) opened a general store in western Wisconsin that grew to become one
of the largest private companies in Minnesota, Holiday Cos.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A17)
1930 Dec 29, Fred P. Newton
completed the longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam the
Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minn, to New Orleans.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1930 US Congress passed the first
federal wilderness preservation law and set aside over 1 million acres
in northern Minnesota as the Superior Primitive Area.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)
1933 Nov 13, The 1st modern
sit-down strike began with Hormel meat packers in Austin, Minn.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1933 The Minnesota Mortgage
Moratorium Law of 1933 was enacted to help farmers hold on to their
property during the Depression.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A15)
1934 Aug 18, Vincent Bugliosi,
attorney, author (Helter-Skelter), was born in Hibbing, Minn.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1934 The US Supreme Court decided
in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell to back the home
owner as opposed to the lender in a mortgage payment dispute. The
Minnesota state court had earlier ruled that Minnesota law protected
the home owners from foreclosure for 2 years.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A15)
1935 Reporter Howard Guilford was
shotgunned to death. The state had indicted him 19 times under false
charges of which he was acquitted.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.10)
1936 Feb 24, Reporter Walter W.
Liggett (b.1886) was murdered in front of his wife and daughter. He had
opposed Gov. Floyd Olson, who had been elected to control the
Farmer-Labor party. In 1998 his daughter, Marda Liggett Woodbury,
published “Stopping the Presses: The Murder of Walter W. Liggett.”
(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.4,10)
1937 Jan 1, At a party at the
Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned
meat-Spam.
(HN, 1/1/00)
1937 May 11, Spam, a canned ham by
Hormel, was registered as a trademark.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.D10)
1938 Harold E. Stassen (31)
defeated Gov. Elmer A Benson and became the youngest governor ever
elected in any US state.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)
1938 Curtis L. Carlson (d.1999 at
84) borrowed $55 and created the Gold Bond Stamp Co. which made trading
stamps for grocery stores to attract customers. He parlayed the
operation into large real estate holdings that included the Radisson
Hotel which he expanded to a 350-hotel chain.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A22)
1940 Nov 22, Terry Gilliam, comedy
author-animator (Monty Python), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in North
Dakota killed 151. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 16, A blizzard hit North
Dakota and Minnesota killing 60. [see Mar 15]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1941 May 24, Robert Allen
Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan), singer and songwriter, was born in Minnesota.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E3)(HN, 5/24/98)
1941 The US Army asked Prof. Ancel
Keys (1904-2004) of the Univ. of Minnesota to help develop an army
ration that soldiers could carry in combat. His package was called the
K ration.
(SFC, 11/24/04, p.B6)
1942 Mar 7, Tamara Faye LaValley
(d.2007) was born in International Falls, Minn. She later married
fellow bible college student Jim Bakker. Together they established a
Christian talk variety show, the PTL Club, which collapsed in 1987 amid
a sex and money scandal.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.B7)
1943 Apr, Gov. Harold Stassen
resigned and joined the Navy. He served as assistant chief of staff to
Adm. William Halsey. Pres. Roosevelt later appointed him to the US
delegation to the meeting that drafted the UN charter.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.A5)
1944 Jul 21, Paul Wellstone,
(Sen-D-Minnesota), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1946 Jul 28, Linda Kelsey, actress
(Kate-Day by Day), was born in Minneapolis, Minn.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1949 Earl Bakken (b.1924) founded
Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minn.
(Econ, 3/14/09, SR
p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Bakken)
1950 Jun 27, Julia Duffy, actress
(Stephanie-Newhart, Baby Talk), was born in Minneapolis, Minn.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1951 Mar 16, Hastened by short
winter, all spring flowers opened in Minneapolis.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1952 Jul 15, Jesse Ventura, [James
Janos], wrestler, actor, politician (MN Governor), was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1953 Jul 22, The Theodore Hamm
Brewing Co. of St. Paul, Minn., purchased the Rainier Brewing Co. at
1550 Bryant St., SF, for $1,809,937. The trade name had already been
sold to Sick Brewery Enterprises of Seattle.
(SFC, 7/18/03, p.E5)
1955 Mar 22, Linda Stout became
the first person at Mayo Clinic, and the second person in the world, to
have open-heart surgery with the aid of a heart-lung bypass machine.
(www.mayoclinic.org/history/)
1956 A new shopping mall in Edina,
Minn., the 1st enclosed shopping mall, was designed as a center of
community by Victor Gruen (1903-1980). In 2004 Paco Underhill authored
"Call of the Mall," an account of the decline of the shopping mall.
(WSJ, 12/24/03, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.W9)(Econ,
12/22/07, p.102)
1957 Aug 19, The first balloon
flight to exceed 100,000 feet took off from Crosby, Minnesota. US Major
David Simons reached 30,933 m. in a balloon.
(HN, 8/19/00)(MC, 8/19/02)
1957 A group of teachers near Lake
Minnetonka created a toy dump truck named Tonka trucks in honor of the
nearby lake.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.B3)
1958 Feb 19, Hail the size of
baseballs was reported with flash lightning over parts of Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 Jun 7, Prince Rogers Nelson,
rock star later known as Prince, was born in Minneapolis, Minn.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.B1)
1958 Oct 4, In Minnesota a single
engine military Cessna L-19 crashed into Green Lake and took the life
of Captain Richard P. Carey, 36, who was returning to the Willmar
airfield from Rochester. The pane was recovered in 2005.
(AP, 8/14/05)
1959 Feb 4, In Fargo, N.D., Bobby
Vee (15), aka Robert Veline, and the Shadows performed in public for
the first time. The audience had come to see Buddy Holly and the
Crickets. Rock-n-roll stars, including Dion and the Belmonts, traveled
by bus from Iowa to Fargo in order to perform in nearby Moorhead, Minn.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A16)
1960 George Leonard Herter
(1911-1994), Minnesota-born catalogue writer, published his “Bull Cook
and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices.” Herter was later
considered the prince of fantasy food historians.
(http://tinyurl.com/4lgjf)(www.archeryarchives.com/herterhistory.html)
1960 The Washington Senators, a
baseball team in the American League, moved from Washington, D.C., to
Minnesota at the end of 1960 and became the Minnesota Twins.
(HNQ, 6/29/01)
1961 Elmer L. Anderson
(1909-2005), liberal Republican, began serving a 2-year term as
governor of Minnesota.
(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)
1963 May, The Guthrie Theater
opened next door to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. It was
designed by Ralph Rapson and led by Tyrone Guthrie. Plans in 2002
called for it to be razed for a 4-acre sculpture garden.
(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.D6)
1965 Apr 17, A stretch of the
Mississippi River near Minneapolis crested at a record high. Flooding
caused $100 million in damages and left 12 people dead.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.D8)
1968 May 28, Minnesota Senator
Eugene McCarthy beat Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in the Democratic primary
in Oregon.
(http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/06/15_newsroom_mccarthytimeline/)
1968 James Patrick Shannon
(d.2003), auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, Minn., resigned following
reprimands over his views over birth control and the Vietnam War. In
1999 he authored "Reluctant Dissenter."
(SSFC, 9/14/03, p.A27)
1969 Aug 2, Bob Dylan made a
surprise appearance at the Minn. Hibbing High School 10-year reunion.
(http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/a/august2.htm)
1969 Mdewakanton Dakota Indians
were granted 248 acres of their ancestral lands.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)
1969 The first hip replacement in
the US was performed at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1970 Sep 19, “The Mary Tyler Moore
Show” with Ed Asner debuted on CBS TV and ran to 1977. Mary Richards
threw her hat at 7th St. and Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis for the
opening credits. In 2001 the city planned a $150,000 statue of Mary to
be made by Gwendolyn Gillen of Wisconsin.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.39)(AP, 9/19/00)(WSJ, 6/19/01,
p.A1)
1971 The Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes (1915-2004), was
completed.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.B7)
1972 Jan, Poet John Berryman
(b.1914) leaped to his death from a bridge above the Mississippi River.
He was teaching a graduate course at the Univ. of Minnesota on
America’s character as revealed by its poets. Carl Rakosi took over the
class.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, BR p.1)
1974 Jul 6, Garrison Keillor made
his 1st live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" from Macalester
College in St. Paul, Minn. In 2003 the show drew some 3.9 million
listeners weekly. The show ended in 1987 and resumed in New York in
1989. It returned to Minnesota in 1993.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, DB p.13)(SFC, 12/20/00, p.E5)(SFC,
9/4/03, p.E12)
1974 Dec, Allan Spear (1937-2008),
Minnesota state senator, announced that he was gay, becoming only one
of two openly gay legislators in the country.
(SFC, 10/14/08, p.B5)
1976 Sep 16, The Episcopal Church,
at its General Convention in Minneapolis, formally approved the
ordination of women as priests and bishops.
(AP, 9/16/01)
1978 Jan 13, Former Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey died in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1978 Feb 6, Muriel Humphrey took
the oath of office as a US senator from Minnesota, filling the seat of
her late husband, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1979 Oct 23, Billy Martin
(1928-1989), NY Yankee baseball manager, was involved in a barroom
altercation when he sucker punched Joseph Cooper, a Minnesota
marshmallow salesman. Cooper required 15 stitches. Martin was fired.
(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/October_23)
1979 Nov 20, The first US
artificial blood transfusion occurred at Univ. of Minn. Hospital. The
patient was a Jehovah's Witness, who had refused a transfusion of real
blood because of his religious beliefs.
(www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)
1982 In Minneapolis, Minn.,
the new $88.5 million, enclosed Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened. It
replaced the Metropolitan Stadium over which the 1992 Mall of America
was built.
(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/8/03, p.D8)
1982 The Duluth Herald merged with
the Duluth News.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.A24)
1984 In Bemidji, Minn., the first
low-power TV station began operating under special FCC license.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1985 Aug 17, More than 1,400
meatpackers walked off the job at the Geo. A. Hormel and Co.'s main
plant in Austin, Minn., in a bitter strike that lasted just over a year.
(AP, 8/17/05)
1985 Dec 19, In Minneapolis,
Minnesota, Mary Lund became the first woman to receive a Jarvik VII
artificial heart. Lund received a human heart transplant 45 days later;
she died October 14, 1986.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1985 The St. Paul Pioneer Press
merged with the St. Paul Dispatch.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.A24)
1987 Jun 13, The last regularly
scheduled episode of "A Prairie Home Companion," starring humorist
Garrison Keillor, was broadcast from the old World Theater in St. Paul,
Minn.
(AP, 6/13/97)
1987 Oct 17, The 1st indoor World
Series game took place at the Minnesota Metrodome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_World_Series)
1988 Sep 10, Gretchen Elizabeth
Carlson of Minnesota was crowned Miss America.
(AP, 9/10/98)
1989 Oct 22, Jacob Erwin
Wetterling (b.1978) was abducted in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Neither he
or his abductor have been found. In 1994, the Jacob Wetterling Crimes
Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, more
simply known as the Jacob Wetterling Act, was passed in his honor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wetterling)
1989 Steve Shussler of Minneapolis
founded the Rainforest Café. It grew to 30 US locations by 2000.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.C1)
1990 Jun 3, President Bush and
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev concluded their Washington summit
with a joint news conference at the White House. Gorbachev and his
delegation then flew to Minnesota for a whirlwind tour of
Minneapolis-St. Paul.
(AP, 6/3/00)
1990 Jul 25, The US Senate
formally denounced Senator Dave Durenberger (Republican, Minnesota) for
financial improprieties.
(AP, 7/25/00)
1991 Oct 4, Leonard C. Odell died
at age 83. He and his older brother Allan (d.1994) wrote some 7,000
Burma Shave poems beginning in 1925 in rural Minnesota. The Burma-Shave
phenomenon faded in 1963, when Phillip Morris bought Burma-Vita and the
signs began to come down.
(http://tinyurl.com/f4s8h)(www.two-lane.com/burmashave.html)
1991 Oct 13, The Minnesota Twins
won the American League pennant, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 8-5 at
SkyDome.
(AP, 10/13/01)
1991 Oct 27, The Minnesota Twins
won the World Series, beating the Atlanta Braves 1-0 in the bottom of
the 10th inning in the seventh and deciding game.
(AP, 10/27/01)
1991 Paul Wellstone (d.2002),
Minnesota college professor, was elected as a US Senator over Rep. Sen.
Rudy Boschwitz. In 2001 He authored “The Conscience of a Liberal.”
(WSJ, 5/15/01, p.A24)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A8)
1992 Aug 11, The Mall of America,
the biggest shopping mall in the country, opened in Bloomington, Minn.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1992 The Mdewakanton Dakota
Indians, a tribe of 270 people, opened their Mystic Lake casino complex
on their 248 acres of tribal land.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A1,6)
1992 Members of the militia group
called the Minnesota Patriots Council plotted to kill law enforcement
officials with ricin, a lethal toxin extracted from the castor bean.
Two men were arrested in the plot.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)
1993 Dec 1, Eighteen people were
killed when a Northwest Airlink commuter plane crashed in Minnesota.
(AP, 12/1/98)
1993 Minnesota’s National Hockey
League team was spirited out of St. Paul.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T6)
1993 Minnesota passed a law
requiring cemeteries to bury the dead all winter as long as families
were willing to pay the extra cost.
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)
1994 Jan 17, Allan Odell died at
age 90. He and his younger brother Leonard (d.1991) wrote some 7,000
Burma Shave poems beginning in 1925 in rural Minnesota. The Burma-Shave
phenomenon faded in 1963, when Phillip Morris bought Burma-Vita and the
signs began to come down.
(http://tinyurl.com/es9ab)(www.two-lane.com/burmashave.html)
1994 Jun 4, Gregory Scarpa,
nicknamed The Grim Reaper, died in a Minnesota prison. He was a soldier
for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Scarpa_Sr.)
1994 At the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota the 1st successful heart-lung transplant was performed.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM,
p.5)(www.mayoclinic.org/patientinfo/)
1995 Jan 12, Qubilah Shabazz, the
daughter of Malcolm X, was arrested in Minneapolis on charges that she
had tried to hire a hitman to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan; the charges were later dropped.
(AP, 1/12/00)
1995 Minnesota schoolchildren
discovered gross deformities in frogs during a field trip with their
teacher. In 1999 researchers reported that a parasitic flatworm
trematode was responsible for many from deformities. Cercariae cysts
dissolved in the digestive tracts of birds supply worm eggs that
incubate in aquatic snails and are released to attack frogs.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A4,5)
1997 A concept called "circle
sentencing" began on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation. It involved
community-imposed sentences for nonviolent misdemeanors. The program
was fashioned after practices by the First Nation Indians in the Yukon
Territory.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A3)
1998 Feb 20, UN Ambassador Bill
Richardson was shouted down by protestors against the invasion of Iraq
at the Univ. of Minnesota. He abandoned his speech.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 29, Twisters from St.
Peter to Comfrey damaged an estimated 819 homes and left 2 people dead.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A3)
1998 May 8, The tobacco industry
agreed to pay $6.6 billion to settle a suit with the state of Minnesota
as the state's lawsuit was about to go to a jury. The settlement
included restrictions on sales and marketing with payments spread over
25 years. Minnesota became the fourth state to settle with the tobacco
industry over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A3)(AP, 5/8/99)
1998 Sep 3, In St. Paul Khoua Her
(24), a Hmong refugee from Laos, reported that she had strangled her 6
children ages 5-11. Police took her into custody after finding the 6
bodies. During the course of the investigation, police learned that Her
had her first child at age 13 in a Thai refugee camp. In a plea deal,
Khoua Her received 50 years in prison on six counts of second-degree
murder.
(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/r6pje)
1998 Nov 3, In Minnesota Jesse
“The Body” Ventura, a former wrestler, was elected governor.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 10, A heavy snow storm
hit the northern Midwest. Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas suffered
loss of power, heavy snow and violent winds.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 11, A natural gas
explosion in St. Cloud killed 4 people after construction workers hit a
gas line.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A12)
1999 Jan 4, Jesse Ventura took the
oath of office as the 38th governor.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 16, Kathleen Ann Soliah,
a fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was captured in
St. Paul, Minnesota, where she had made a new life under the name Sara
Jane Olson.
(AP, 6/16/00)
1999 Mar, The US Supreme Court
ruled to uphold an 1837 treaty with the Chippewa Indians for hunting
and fishing on 13 million acres of public land in Minnesota.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A8)
1999 May 13, Jesse Ventura
published his autobiography: I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the
Body Politic From the Bottom Up."
(SFC, 5/14/99, p.A3)
1999 May 17, The Legislature
overrode a veto by Gov. Ventura and passed a bill to allow accident
victims to sue over defective seat belts.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 30, Farrah Slad of
Brainerd, Minn., (21) won the $150 million Powerball lottery. She chose
to receive a lump sum of $50.4 million after taxes.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 3, A power boat collision
on the St. Croix River left as many as 8 people dead.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A7)
1999 Sep, Percy Ross (83)
published his final syndicated "Thanks a Million" column, which he used
to share his fortune with people who wrote in good sob stories. He was
reported to have given out $20-30 million over the last 17 years.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A3)
2000 Feb 11, Gov. Jesse Ventura
cut his ties to the Reform Party.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A3)
2000 Apr 4, It was reported that
the Hmong population reached an estimated 60,000, the largest
concentration of Hmong outside Southeast Asia.
(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.B1)
2000 Jun 25, The US Green party
nominated Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate with running mate
Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe activist from Minnesota.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A3)
2000 Jul 24, In Minneapolis,
Minn., 80 people were arrested as demonstrators protested against a
meeting of the Int’l. Society for Animal Genetics.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A4)
2000 Oct 10, Rep. Bruce Vento, a
12-term liberal Democrat, died at age 60. He championed environmental
and homeless causes. The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul was
named in his honor.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.C2)(LP, Spring 2006, p.25)
2000 The XCel Energy Center was
completed in St. Paul at a cost of $130 mil.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A3)
2000 Garth Willis of St. Paul,
Minn., founded the Alpine Fund to train local Kyrgyzstan children as
mountain guides.
(SSFC, 11/24/02, p.F5)
2001 Jan 31, Gordon Dickson,
Science-fiction author of over 80 books, died at age 77 in Richfield,
Minn. His “Lost Dorsai” series spanned from 1400-2400AD.
(SFC, 2/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 4, Former Minnesota
3-term Gov. Harold E. Stassen died at age 93.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)
2001 Aug 16, Zacarias Moussaoui
(33), a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested in Eagan,
Minnesota, on immigration charges. He was taking lessons on flying
Boeing jets with no interest in taking off or landing. He was later
suspected as a 5th member of one of the Sep 11 WTC attack teams. In Nov
the FBI reported that Moussaoui wanted to learn how to take off and
land but not to fly. Mueller also said Ramzi Omar of Yemen, aka Ramsi
Binalshibh, may have been the 20th hijacker. The local FBI contacted
the CIA for action on Moussaoui when FBI managers failed to take
action. Agent Coleen Rowley later charged that senior officials fumbled
an opportunity to possibly prevent the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ,
2/4/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/6/02,
p.A14)
2001 Oct 1, Some 28,000 state
workers went on strike over wage disputes.
(SFC, 10/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Oct 14, Unions in Minnesota
reached a deal with the state to end a walkout by some 23,000
government workers.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.E3)
2001 Oct 24, A blizzard hit North
Dakota and Minnesota. The 10 inches of snow broke a 1926 record.
(WSJ, 10/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 11-16, In St. Cloud,
Minn., three healthy men died following knee surgeries from infections
of Clostridium sordellii.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A5)
2002 Feb 23, Penn State pole
vaulter Kevin Dare died after landing on his head during the Big Ten
indoor championships in Minneapolis.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2002 Feb 24, Dr. Donna Anderson of
Minnesota arrived at the home of her former husband in Burlingame and
stabbed to death her son (13). Anderson attempted to plead guilty and
said she was the target of a ring of child pornographers. A judge
halted criminal proceedings and called for an evaluation of mental
competency.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.B1)(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A19)
2002 May 7, Lucas John Helder (21)
of Pine Island, Minn., was arrested following a car chase near
Lovelock, Nevada, and charged for the recent series of mailbox pipe
bombs. Helder said he was trying to make a "smiley face" pattern on the
map of his bombings. His series of rural mailbox bombings left six
people wounded in Illinois and Iowa. Helder has since been found
incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/7/07)
2002 Jun 18, Minnesota Gov. Jesse
Ventura announced he would not seek a second term.
(AP, 6/18/03)(SFC, 6/19/02, p.A2)
2002 Jun, The Spam Museum opened
in Astin, Minn.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.D10)
2002 Oct 10, Bernard Ridder Jr.
(85), former St. Paul , Minn., newspaper executive, died in California.
He was the head or Ridder Publications when it merged with the Knight
group in 1974.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.A24)
2002 Oct 25, In Minnesota a small
plane crash killed Sen. Paul Wellstone (58), his wife, daughter and 5
others. His re-election race was seen as critical to the balance of
power in the Senate, where the Democrats held a 50-to-49 edge.
(AP, 10/26/02)
2002 Oct 29, A Minneapolis
memorial service for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone turned into a virtual
political rally as friends and relatives urged Minnesotans to honor his
memory by putting a Democrat in his seat.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2002 Oct 30, In Minnesota Walter
Mondale took the ballot place of the late Sen. Wellstone. Mondale ended
up losing to Republican Norm Coleman.
(WSJ, 10/31/02, p.A1)(AP, 10/30/03)
2002 Nov 4, In Minnesota Gov.
Ventura named his aide, Independent Dean Barkley, to serve out the term
of the late Sen. Wellstone.
(SFC, 11/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 5, In Minnesota Tim
Pawlenty, Republican, was elected governor. He captured 30 of the 38
counties that Gov. Ventura had won. Republican Norm Coleman defeated
Walter Mondale for the US Senate.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.29)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.38)
2002 John P. Rogers (b.1966), a
failing entrepreneur from Minnesota, founded Pay By Touch in San
Francisco, a firm seeking to use biometric authentication to transform
how America pays its bills. Rogers had a record of cocaine abuse that
went back to his time in Minnesota. By 2007 the firm failed following
investments of some $340 million.
(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.A1)
2003 Jan 6, Timothy James Pawlenty
raised his hand shortly after noon, repeated binding words of duty and
became Minnesota's 38th governor.
(www.hometownsource.com/capitol/2003/january/6swornin.html)
2003 Feb 20, Orville L.
Freeman (1919-2003) former governor of Minnesota (1955-1960) and US
agriculture secretary under Pres. Kennedy and Johnson, died at age 84.
(SFC, 2/22/03, A16)
2003 Aug 29, Jeffrey Lee Parson
(18), suspected of writing a variant of the "Blaster," a virus-like
computer worm, was arrested in his hometown, the Minneapolis suburb of
Hopkins. He was charged with one count of intentionally causing or
attempting to cause damage to a computer and faced a maximum of 10
years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Parson pleaded guilty
in August 2004 and was subsequently sentenced on January 28, 2005 to 18
months in prison followed by a three-year supervised release program,
and was required to do 225 hours of community service. He was ordered
to pay restitution of $497,546.55 to Microsoft Corporation and $1,056
to specific individuals to have their computer hard drives cleaned.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/30/03,
p.A2)(www.rbs2.com/parson2.html)
2003 Sep 24, In Cold Spring,
Minn., Jason McLaughlin (15), a high school freshman, shot and killed
senior Aaron Rollins (17) and wounded Seth Bartell (14) before
surrendering. Bartell died from his wounds on Oct 10. On August 30,
2005, McLaughlin was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility
for parole until he’s well over 50. He was convicted of first degree
murder in the shooting death of Bartell and second-degree murder for
killing Rollins.
(SFC, 10/11/03,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocori_High_School_shooting)
2003 Nov 22, North Dakota student
Dru Sjodin (22) was last seen at the Grand Forks, ND, mall, where she
worked. Her body was found the following April near Crookston, Minn.
Suspect Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., released from prison 6-months before the
murder, pleaded innocent to kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death. In
2006 Rodriguez (53) was found guilty of kidnapping and killing Sjodin.
(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A13)(AP, 11/22/04)(SFC, 8/31/06,
p.A7)
2003 Dec 1, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
(50), described by authorities as a predatory sex offender was arrested
in Crookston, Minn. He was charged with kidnapping in the disappearance
of Dru Sjodin, a North Dakota college student, abducted Nov 22,
while talking on her cell phone.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Jerome Pohlen authored
"Oddball Minnesota: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.C9)
2004 Feb 2, Officials planned to
present final proposals to Gov. Pawlenty for the replacement of the
20-year-old Minneapolis Metrodome.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.12A)
2004 Apr 6, It was reported that
some 15,000 Hmong refugees were expected to arrive from Thailand into
St. Paul, Minn., and other US communities in the summer.
(SFC, 4/6/04, p.F1)
2004 Apr 17, The body of
University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin (22) was found in a
ravine northwest of Crookston, Minn. She was last seen Nov 22 at the
Grand Forks, ND, mall, where she worked. Alfonso Rodriquez was arrested
in Dec. and investigators matched DNA in blood in his car to Sjodin.
(AP, 4/18/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A13)
2004 Jul 29, Target Corp. of
Minneapolis announced it would sell Mervyn’s to Sun Capital Partners in
Boca Raton, Fla., for $1.65 billion.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.J1)
2004 Nov 15, Elmer L. Anderson,
former Minnesota Republican governor (1961-1963), died.
(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)
2005 Mar 21, In northern Minnesota
Jeff Weise (17) gunned down five students, a teacher and a guard at Red
Lake High School. The teen's grandfather and his grandfather's wife
also were found dead, and the boy killed himself.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 May 21, The Bruce Vento
Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul, Minnesota, was dedicated. It was named
after Minnesota’s Rep. Bruce Vento (d.2000).
(www.mepartnership.org/sites/LOWERPHALENCREEK/)
2005 May, Feds in Minnesota shut
down the flagship company, Xpress Pharmacy Direct, of Christopher Smith
(25) and seized $1.8 million in luxury cars, two homes and $1.3 million
in cash held by Smith and associates. The Spamhaus Project, an
anti-spam group, considered him one of the world's worst offenders.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Jul 1, In St. Paul some state
offices closed and about 9,000 state employees were jobless after parts
of Minnesota's government shut down for the first time in state
history, leaving most rest stops closed for the Independence Day
weekend. Lawmakers failed to pass even a stopgap plan to keep the
government up and running while negotiators keep working.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jul 9, Minnesota Gov. Jim
Pawlenty signed a temporary spending plan and lawmakers agreed on the
outline of a 2-year budget.
(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 19, Some 4,430 mechanics
at Northwest Airlines, based in Eagan, Minnesota, went on strike at
midnight as a 30-day cooling off period expired. The airline called for
$176 million in concessions including 2,000 job cuts.
(SFC, 8/20/05, p.A4)(SFC, 8/26/05, p.C3)
2005 Oct 16, Gordon Lee (b.1933),
child actor who played Porky in the “Our Gang” shorts (Little Rascals),
died in Minneapolis, Min. Porky was the little brother of Spanky
McFarland.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.B5)
2006 Feb 11, It was reported that
the town of Hull was one of many in central Iowa whose groundwater has
been contaminated by farm chemicals. It pinned hopes for its future
water supply on the new Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, due to open
in 2018. The system planned to pump Missouri River water across South
Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.33)
2006 Mar 12-2006 Mar 13, Swarms of
tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest states of
Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It caused so much damage in Springfield, Ill., that the
mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 May 2, In Minnesota a small,
spiral-shaped snail that clones itself and is native to New Zealand has
been discovered in Duluth-Superior Harbor and the St. Louis River
estuary, raising concerns about the impact of another invasive species.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 Aug 24, Deadly storms swept
across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped roofs off
houses and hail that smashed car windshields. One man was killed when a
tornado hit his home in Minnesota, and in Wisconsin, lightning
apparently killed a dozen cows and struck a woman as she left a
supermarket.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Minneapolis ground
was broken for the new Masjid An-Nur mosque, the 1st mosque in
Minnesota.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.32)
2006 Sep 27, Republicans announced
they would hold their 2008 presidential convention in the Twin Cities
of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.30)(AP, 9/27/07)
2006 Nov 7, Keith Ellison, a
Democratic state lawmaker from Minnesota, became the first Muslim
elected to Congress.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2006 Nov 16, Minnesota Twins ace
Johan Santana won the AL Cy Young Award.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2006 Dec 5, An annual US report
put Minnesota at the top of its health rankings for the fourth straight
year, while concluding that the nation's health improved slightly.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 13, Jeffrey Skilling
reported to a low-security prison in Minnesota to begin serving a
24-year sentence for his crimes as a top executive at Enron Corp.
(SFC, 12/14/06, p.A11)
2007 Jan 4, The 110th Congress
convened with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate for the
first time in a dozen years. "Today we make history. Today we change
the direction of our country," exulted Rep. Nancy Pelosi, poised to
become the first woman speaker in history. The House of
Representatives, after installing its new Democratic leadership, voted
to ban lawmakers from flying on corporate jets and accepting gifts and
meals from lobbyists. Keith Ellison of Minnesota's 5th District became
the first Muslim member of Congress.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Apr 16, The board overseeing
operations at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport ruled that
taxi drivers who refuse service to travelers carrying alcohol face
tougher penalties despite protests from Muslim cabbies who sought a
compromise for religious reasons.
(Reuters, 4/16/07)
2007 Jun 24, Charles W. Lindberg
(86), one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over
Iwo Jima during World War II, died in Edina, Minn.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2007 Jul 6, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
(b.1939), author of steamy genre novels, died in Princeton, Minn. She
was widely credited with having founded the historical romance in its
modern carnal incarnation. “The Flame and the Flower” (1972) was the
1st of her 13 novels.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Aug 1, A major bridge on
I-35W over the Mississippi River collapsed in Minneapolis, Minn., at
rush hour. Initial reports said at least 5 people were killed. The
bridge dated to 1967. On Aug 9 Navy divers recovered two more bodies,
including one identified as a former missionary who had been reported
missing. Divers recovered an 8th victim on Aug 10 and a 9th on Aug 12.
Two more victims were found on Aug 16. A 12th victim was found Aug 19.
The 13th and last victim was found Aug 20. In 2008 Gov. Tim Pawlenty
signed a $38 million package to compensate victims of the collapse.
(AP, 8/2/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A5)(AP, 8/10/07)(SFC,
8/11/07, p.A5)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/07,
p.A3)(AP, 8/21/07)(WSJ, 5/9/08, p.A1)
2007 Aug 4, President Bush toured
the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis, pledging to cut
red tape that could delay rebuilding.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 19, Fierce storms from
the upper Mississippi to Texas since last week left 22 people dead. Six
people died in floodwaters across Oklahoma after heavy rains from the
remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched the state. As much as 9 inches
of rain fell across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving roadways under 5
feet of water. 8 people were reported dead in Texas and 6 dead in
Minnesota.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A6)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Minnesota divers
discovered the body of Gregory Jolstad, a 45-year-old construction
worker who was part of the crew resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge
when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush hour. The discovery brought
the official death toll to 13. Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the emergency
response costs alone would be more than $8 million.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 23, University of
Minnesota astronomers announced that they have stumbled upon a
tremendous hole in the universe. The cosmic blank spot has no stray
stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark
matter. The 1 billion light years across of nothing represented an
expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Oct 4, The recording industry
won a major fight in its effort to stop illegal music downloading with
a US jury decision to impose $222,000 damages against a Minnesota woman
who used a Web service to share music.
(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 20, Max McGee (75),
former Green Bay Packers receiver, died in Deephaven, Minn.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Nov 28, In Minnesota a fire
at a pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to the US killed 2 people. The
pipeline that leaked and four others were shut down, though it wasn't
clear for how long, sending oil prices up the next day.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 23, High wind and ice
coated power lines blacked out tens of thousands of people in the
Midwest. The storm was blamed for at least 22 deaths. At least 8 people
in Minnesota, 5 in Wisconsin, 3 each in Indiana and Wyoming and one
each in Michigan, Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/23/07)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/25/07,
p.A11)
2008 Feb 19, In southwestern
Minnesota a driving a van crashed into a school bus, killing four
students. Olga Marino Franco del Cid (24) of Minneota, was later
charged in state court with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
Federal prosecutors later filed identity theft charges against the
woman, who had identified herself as Alianiss Nunez-Morales.
Immigration investigators said they found the real Nunez-Morales in
Connecticut.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 May 25, Powerful storms
packing large hail, heavy rain and tornadoes made for a deadly Memorial
Day weekend across the nation's midsection, killing at least seven
people in Iowa and a 2-year-old child in Minnesota. 222 homes were
destroyed in Iowa.
(AP, 5/26/08)(SFC, 5/28/08, p.A2)
2008 May 31, FDIC bank regulators
took over the First Integrity Bank in Staples, Minnesota. This was the
4th FDIC-insured bank to fail this year.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 12, In Minnesota Katricia
Daniels (36) and her son, Robert Shepard (10), were found murdered.
Daniels was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and her son had a
television smashed over his head. On June 18 Stafon Edward Thompson
(17) and Brian Lee Flowers (16), both of Minneapolis, were charged as
adults with first-degree murder.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 24, Leonid Hurwicz, Nobel
Prize co-winner in economics (2007), died in Minnesota.
(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
2008 Jul 31, A small jet crashed
while preparing to land at Degner Regional Airport in Minnesota killing
8 people including several casino and construction executives.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Sep 1, The GOP convention
opened at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in an abbreviated
session due to Hurricane Gustav. Alaska’s Gov. Palin, GOP candidate for
the vice-presidency, disclosed that her daughter, Bristol (17), is 5
months pregnant. An antiwar march drew som 10,000 people. Over 250
demonstrators were arrested as splinter groups smashed department store
and police car windows.
(SFC, 9/2/08, p.A1,5)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
9/4/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 2, Pres. Bush delivered a
6-minute televised speech to GOP delegates in St. Paul, Minn., as the
convention returned to its pre-hurricane schedule.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 3, In St. Paul, Minn.,
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little
as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise
on her credentials. Palin seduced many on television who had spent days
doubting her VP candidacy.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, In St. Paul, Minn.,
John McCain claimed the GOP presidential nomination portraying himself
as a maverick warrior and agent of change.
(AP, 9/5/08)(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 18, In Minnesota the new
Interstate 35W bridge opened. The old span over the Mississippi River
had collapsed on August 1, 2007.
(SFC, 9/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Oct 3, Thomas Petters (51),
founder of Petters Co., was arrested in Minnesota on charges of mail
and wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Over 20
investors and investment groups were thought to have been bilked of
over $100 million and losses claimed by funds could top $2 billion.
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.B7)
2008 Dec 9, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
said it will pay up to $54.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit
that alleged the discount giant cut workers' break time and didn't
prevent employees from working off the clock in Minnesota.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 17, In Minnesota two
freight trains collided sending an engineer and some cars into the
Mississippi River.
(WSJ, 12/18/08, p.A1)
2009 Jan 5, A Minnesota board
certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state’s US
Senate recount by 225 votes over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer
promised a legal challenge.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 12, Minnesota officials
said lab tests had confirmed salmonella bacteria in a five pound
container of King Nut brand peanut butter. King Nut of Solon, Ohio, had
recalled the product on January 10. At least 6 people had been killed
and over 470 sickened nationwide in 43 states.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A2)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Apr 8, US federal agents
searched three money-transfer businesses in Minneapolis, carrying away
boxes of documents and copying computer hard drives for details of
transactions between the US and several African nations, including
Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the United Arab
Emirates.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 13, In Minnesota’s Senate
race a unanimous three-judge panel ruled in favor of Democrat Al
Franken, but former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman swiftly announced he
would take his fight to the state Supreme Court. After a statewide
recount and seven-week trial, Franken stood 312 votes ahead.
(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 27, Five members of the
US Congress were arrested while protesting the expulsion of aid groups
from Darfur in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC. The
included Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Jim McGovern of
Massachusetts, John Lewis of Georgia, Donna Edwards of Maryland and
Lynn Woolsey of California.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of the
northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered
species list, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first
time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana planned to resume
hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the
Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list
because the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for
a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. An estimated
4,000 wolves lived in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 15, A Minnesota couple
who refused chemotherapy for Daniel Hauser, their 13-year-old son, was
ordered to have the boy re-evaluated to see if he would still benefit
from cancer treatment for his Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or if it may already
be too late. On May 18 Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, who has
Hodgkin's lymphoma, apparently left their home sometime after a
doctor's appointment and court-ordered X-ray showed his tumor had
grown. Hauser and her son returned on May 25 and agreed to medical
treatment.
(AP, 5/15/09)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(AP, 5/20/09)(AP,
5/26/09)(SFC, 5/27/09, p.A4)
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Subject = Minnesota
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