The Canadian government negotiates with Canadian First Nations on US territory when the lieutenant governor of Manitoba meets with 1,000 Indigenous people at Harrison's Creek in the Northwest Angle.

Missionary Stephen R. Riggs and a group of Dakota at the Upper Sioux Agency in Yellow Medicine County form the "Hazelwood Republic," a system of self-government. The republic has a president, secretary, and judges, and its members saved lives during the US–Dakota War of 1862.

John S. Pillsbury is born in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1827. After arriving in Minnesota in the 1850s, he eventually found success and wealth in the flour-milling trade. He served as the state's eighth governor, arranging for the state to repay bondholders for the $5 million loan, which the railroads had defaulted on in 1858, and using his own funds to support operations at the state penitentiary, which the legislature had neglected to include in the budget.

Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike receives orders to seek the headwaters of the Mississippi River and to find a location for a fort somewhere on the upper reaches of the river. Pike did not locate the source of the river, but he did choose a site for what became Fort Snelling.

The St. Paul Southern Electric Railway ends fourteen years of service between St. Paul and Hastings.

Amherst Wilder signs his will, donating $2.5 million to help the needy in St. Paul. Born July 7, 1828, in Lewis, New York, Wilder moved to St. Paul in 1859 and soon found his fortune in various business ventures, including railroads, steamers, banks, real estate, and merchandising. He died November 11, 1894.

Major Gouverneur Kemble Warren opens the first St. Paul office of the Army Corps of Engineers. Warren's duties include bridging the Mississippi River and installing a shipping channel from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony (Owamniyomni).

John A. Johnson, Minnesota's first homegrown governor, is born in St. Peter. A Horatio Alger success story, Johnson overcame poverty to become editor of the St. Peter Herald. A popular figure statewide, he was elected governor in 1905, and his oratorical skills attracted nationwide attention. He died in office on September 21, 1909, cutting short plans to make him the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 1912.

The flour of the Washburn-Crosby Company wins a gold medal at an exhibition in Cincinnati, launching the Gold Medal brand. Washburn-Crosby eventually became General Mills.

Former president Millard Fillmore visits St. Paul as part of a Grand Excursion celebrating the completion of the Rock Island Railroad from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois. The group had journeyed up the Mississippi River by steamboat. Although not a Minnesota railroad, the rail connection between the river and Chicago provided a boost to Minnesota's economy.