The Minnesota Historical Society recognizes ethnographer Frances Densmore for "distinguished service in the field of Minnesota History." Densmore, a Red Wing native, was one of the first ethnologists to specialize in the study of Native American music and culture and is perhaps best known for her field recordings of Ojibwe songs.

A destructive windstorm sweeps through Minnesota, causing $10 million in losses to the corn crop and over $1 million in property damage in St. Paul alone. Amazingly, no deaths are reported.

A forest fire begins on the railroad line between Duluth and Hibbing and burns for the next three days, reaching Duluth on the thirteenth. Thirty-eight communities, including the cities of Cloquet, Carlton, and Moose Lake, and the towns of Adolph, Brookston, Munger, Grand Lake, Pike Lake, and Twig, are burned and 435 people are killed. After the blaze, forest salvagers cut 1.6 million tons of lumber.

The St. Paul Public Library opens its new building at Fourth and Washington Streets, with Dr. W. Dawson Johnston serving as librarian.

The Augustana Synod of the Lutheran Church gives Eric Norelius permission to open an academy. First established in Red Wing, then moved to East Union, the college (which later became Gustavus Adolphus) was in St. Peter in 1876.

Rose Totino patents her "Crisp Crust" frozen pizza crust, an improvement on what she called the "cardboard crust" pizzas that were available at the time. The Northeast Minneapolis entrepreneur had sold Totino's Finer Foods to Pillsbury in November of 1975 and had become a vice president in the company. By 1992 Totino's controlled twenty percent of the frozen pizza market.

A statue of Leif Erikson, titled "Discoverer of America" and sculpted by John K. Daniels, is dedicated on the explorer's holiday. The result of a ten-year fundraising campaign by the Leif Erickson Monument Association, the thirteen-foot bronze statue is located on the capitol grounds in St. Paul.

The bones of Browns Valley Man are found in a Traverse County gravel pit that was likely a burial site between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago.

At a Kandiyohi County rally to support greenbacks rather than gold as the national currency, candidate for Congress Ignatius Donnelly gives a speech.

Jacob Schmidt is born in Bavaria. Schmidt opened a major regional brewery in St. Paul in 1855. The Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company, Inc., was bought by G. Heilemann Brewing Company, which in turn sold the brewery to Landmark Brewing in 1992.