Eastern Minnesota is organized as part of Indiana Territory by an act of Congress.

Anna Ramsey dies. Admired as Governor Alexander Ramsey's "helpmeet," she led efforts to create homeless shelters and support other charities.

Lake of the Woods County is established.

The freighter Mataafa wrecks near the lighthouse in Duluth harbor during a storm that sank eighteen ships on the Great Lakes in a twenty-four-hour period. The crew suffers terribly from the cold winds of the storm, and nine freeze to death. The Mataafa is rebuilt and continues to sail until 1966.

Trader and town founder Alexander Faribault dies. In 1835 Faribault set up a post in what would become his namesake town, and in 1853 he built its first frame house.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.