Memorial Day becomes a legal holiday in Minnesota.

James J. Hill, the "Empire Builder," dies in St. Paul. A man of enormous influence, he moved to St. Paul in 1856 from his native Ontario, began work in the shipping business, and became owner of the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railroad Companies.

Wisconsin is admitted to the Union, leaving present-day Minnesota east of the Mississippi River, which had been part of Wisconsin Territory, without a government until the establishment of Minnesota Territory on March 3, 1849.

Dakota warriors shoot into an Ojibwe camp outside Fort Snelling, killing several people. Ojibwe warriors make reprisal attacks over the next few days, killing four Dakota. Although a peace treaty had been negotiated in 1825, sporadic fighting between the two tribes continued.

Anticipating a lecture by Bayard Taylor, 300 passengers board the steamboat Equator at Afton for a trip up the St. Croix River to Stillwater. However, forty-mile-per-hour winds force water into the hatches and drown the boilers, and Captain Asa Green and his crew are compelled to ground the ship near Hudson, unloading the passengers just before a wind gust rips the cabin off the boat. The passengers miss Taylor's lecture, "Life in the North."

Walter H. Deubener, inventor of the handled grocery bag, dies in St. Paul. Owner of the S. S. Kresge store, St. Paul's first cash-and-carry (rather than delivery) grocery store, Deubener devised a bag with a string around the bottom that enabled shoppers to carry additional groceries to their destination.

In St. Anthony, Minnesota's Republicans hold their first formal meeting, during which they discuss the group's strong antislavery stance.

The St. Olaf Choir, directed by F. Melius Christiansen, gives the opening concert of its first tour at the First Baptist Church, Minneapolis.

The Aerial Bridge, spanning the Duluth Ship Canal, carries its first passengers across the harbor inside a carriage suspended from the bridge's framework. The system would be replaced with a lift bridge in 1930.

Present-day Minnesota west of the Mississippi River is included in the District of Louisiana, to be governed by Indiana Territory. Nearly a year later, on March 3, 1805, this region became part of Louisiana Territory.