William W. Mayo is born in England. One of the first doctors to use a microscope to aid in diagnosis, he arrived in Minnesota Territory in 1855 and settled in Rochester in 1863. His sons, Will and Charlie Mayo, founded the Mayo Clinic in St. Mary's Hospital in 1889.

Minnesota is nicknamed the Gopher State. The legislature had guaranteed a $5 million loan to railroad interests, and a cartoon showing a railroad car of corrupt men being pulled by nine striped rodents with human heads (representing legislators and railroad promoters) is printed on this date.

The steamboat Anson Northup begins working on the Red River. In an effort to cash in on the lucrative Red River valley trade, and to improve connections with Fort Garry (later Winnipeg), St. Paul businessmen had offered a $2,000 prize to the first boat to deliver a cargo to Fort Garry. Starting in January, Anson Northup had traveled with his Mississippi steamer North Star up the Crow Wing River as far as possible.

The Mille Lacs Ojibwe are offered $40,000 to move to the White Earth Reservation so that their land can be sold to developers. In August, seventy-four men (of 125 available) sign the agreement, and by 1914 1,152 individuals had moved to White Earth while 276 remained at Mille Lacs.

Noted aesthete Oscar Wilde lectures at the Opera House in St. Paul. He had spoken the day before at the Academy of Music in Minneapolis.

Amelia Earhart speaks to the Women's City Club in St. Paul. Formed in 1921, the club valued social, cultural, political, and intellectual pursuits and also hosted speakers Gertrude Stein and T. S. Eliot.

The Minnesota Twins play their final game at Metropolitan Stadium.

In a homemade balloon, William Markoe lifts off from St. Paul and lands near Cannon Falls in Minnesota's first balloon ascension. A second flight on October 8, a feature of a territorial fair, reaches White Bear Lake.

Winona County is established. It is named for a Dakota woman—a relative of the Mdewakanton leader Wabasha. Winona means "first-born daughter" in the Dakota language.

The territorial legislature creates twelve counties, all named in honor of individuals who played a significant role in the state's history. Brown is named for pioneer Joseph R.