The steamer North West, built in Cleveland for James J. Hill's Northern Steamship Company, arrives in Duluth, completing its maiden voyage.

The US government moves a group of Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people from their reservation in Iowa to one in present-day Minnesota, on land that had been purchased from the Ojibwe.

Edward Phelan (variously spelled), recently discharged from Fort Snelling, stakes out a claim in St. Paul near Ryan and Hill Streets. Lake Phalen and Phalen Creek are named for him.

In a horrifying multiple-murder, Robert Doan of Mahtowa clubs to death his wife and three of his four children. He also sets fire to the house, killing the remaining child. Doan had "lost his temper" after being fired from his job as a bulldozer operator at the Duluth Williamson-Johnson Municipal Airport and then getting into an argument with his wife. His first trial closes with a 9-3 deadlock because, according to the defense, Doan had signed a confession under extreme duress and he later denied the murders during the trial.

Governor Albert Quie calls out the National Guard to protect truck drivers who continue to work during a nationwide strike.

The Cottonwood Oil Company, the first oil cooperative in the United States, is incorporated.

Ira S. Field dies at age seventy-eight. He and his business partner, John Wesley North, co-founded Northfield.

Popular artist LeRoy Neiman, known for his wildly colored sports scenes, is born in St. Paul.

Cartoonist C. C. Beck, who drew Captain Marvel, is born in Zumbrota.

The body of a "petrified man" is found in Bloomer, Marshall County. Believed by some to be a voyageur, he is actually made of plaster.