Fictional television character Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis and throws her hat into the air as the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show begins its run.

Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte, Frenchmen who had made the first east-to-west trans-Atlantic flight, are celebrated at Wold-Chamberlain field in Minneapolis.

Governor Stephen Miller announces that gold has been found near Vermilion Lake, based on a rock collected by state geologist Henry H. Eames. A gold rush begins but comes to nothing, as no sizeable amount of gold is ever found in the area. The exploitation of the rich iron ore of the region would begin twenty years later.

Gaslights illuminate the streets of St. Paul for the first time.

Al (Albert H.) Quie is born near Dennison in Rice County. Beginning in 1958, he represented Minnesota in Congress for ten consecutive terms, during which he advocated legislative bills relating to education, agriculture, anti-poverty, and labor issues. In 1979 he was elected governor as an Independent Republican.

Captain Seth Eastman becomes commander of Fort Snelling for a second time.

St. Cloud State Teachers College, Minnesota's third such institution, opens in a remodeled hotel, the former Stearns House.

The state of Minnesota and the Ojibwe living near Crow Wing sign a peace treaty. Negotiated to alleviate settler-colonists' fears that the Ojibwe would join in the US–Dakota War, in truth the agreement was void because the state did not have the power to make treaties.

St. Peters Indian Agent Lawrence Taliaferro suspends the license of fur trader Alexis Bailly. An employee of the American Fur Company, Bailly had broken trade rules, including those forbidding the sale of liquor. Bailly's replacement, Henry H. Sibley, played a major role in Minnesota history.

Alexander Henry II arrives at the Pembina River to begin his trading business.