At Brice's Cross Roads in Mississippi, Confederate forces led by Nathan Bedford Forrest capture 233 soldiers from the Ninth Minnesota Regiment. The captives are sent to Andersonville prison in Georgia, where 119 of them die.

John McDonald, the first European American immigrant to live permanently in Wright County, is born in Maine. In 1847 he moved to St. Anthony and helped build the dam at the falls. He worked in the mills there until July 31, 1852, when he took a land claim in Otsego, where he established a ferry and served as postmaster, county commissioner, and justice of the peace.

A statue is unveiled in Periers, Normandy (France), of four American soldiers who died trying to free the town from the Germans during World War II. Citizens of the town and veterans of the Ninetieth Division raised funds for the monument. Two Minnesotans are commemorated in the statue: Virgil Tangborn of Bemidji and Richard Richtman of Minneapolis. It is unusual for statues dedicated to the memory of common soldiers to be of specific individuals.

Iowa Territory is formed, including in its claim present-day Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, which was called Clayton County. Henry H. Sibley serves as justice of the peace for the county, but this part of Minnesota would be left without a government when Iowa became a state in 1846.

One of a series of arson fires in St. Paul destroys virtually all the buildings between Market, St. Peter, St. Anthony (Third), and Fourth Streets. These fires led to looting, and citizens formed a vigilance committee to patrol the streets.

French Canadian canoe paddlers at the North West Company's fur-trading post at Rainy Lake threaten to quit unless they are given a raise.

The Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad inaugurates rail travel between St. Paul and Duluth.

Henry H. Sibley is elected delegate to Congress, and other state officers are chosen in Minnesota's first territorial election.

Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, negotiates a peace treaty between the Dakota and Ojibwe at Fort St. Anthony (later called Fort Snelling).

President Calvin Coolidge visits Virginia, Minnesota, and tours the iron mines.