The Western Appeal (later the Appeal), the first Minnesota-published African American newspaper to gain national readership, premieres under the editorship of Frederick D. Parker.

A delegation of German Mennonites from Russia arrives in St. Paul to assess the state for settlement. Mennonite settler-colonists soon establish homesteads around Mountain Lake in Cottonwood County.

"Jim Ed Poole" (Tom Keith) and Dale Connelly celebrate their tenth year as hosts of The Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio with a broadcast from the World Theater in St. Paul.

Forty miners on the Mesabi Iron Range walk off the job at the start of a massive strike, coordinated by the ethnically diverse rank and file, with help from experienced organizers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Scab workers undermine the strike, and the strikers concede defeat after three and a half months.

Governor John S. Pillsbury appoints this day for prayer to relieve the state from the swarms of Rocky Mountain locusts that had plagued farmers for four years. The locusts linger until August, when they disappear.

Edward J. Thye is born near Frederick, South Dakota. Thye succeeded Harold E. Stassen to become the twenty-sixth governor of the state and, notably, the first farmer to hold the office. During his term, he reduce the state debt, increased old-age assistance, expanded state institutions, established a human rights commission, and approved a health-care plan for state employees. As a Republican senator from 1947 to 1958, he was one of seven to sign Margaret Chase Smith's "declaration of conscience" against Joseph McCarthy.

A race to break the world record for the longest distance traveled in a hot air balloon ends in Rochester as the winner, W. T. Van Orman, lands the Goodyear III just under the world record distance (1,179.9 miles). The race had begun in San Antonio, Texas, and the three top finishers would soon represent the United States at the international competition in Brussels, Belgium.

Governor Arne H. Carlson signs the HealthRight bill into law. Providing medical insurance for low-income Minnesotans, the program is later renamed MinnesotaCare.

The state government allocates $5,000 to open the Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children in St. Paul. Named for Dr. Arthur J. Gillette, it is the first state-funded hospital of its kind in the nation.

A group of Belgian settler-colonists, led by Angelus Van Hee, arrives at Grandview in Lyon County. The village is renamed Ghent in honor of the group, which had been invited to the state by Bishop John Ireland.