Troops from the U.S. Sixth Infantry begin constructing Fort Ridgely, having arrived from Fort Snelling on the steamer West Newton the previous evening. The fort is built near the Dakota reservation in the Minnesota River valley and would be a focal point during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis names the fort for three Ridgelys who were killed in the Mexican War.

Windstorms in northern Twin Cities suburbs, including those known collectively as the Fridley tornado, kill fourteen people and cause $57 million in damages.

Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the third state capitol building, designed by Cass Gilbert.

Automobile license Number One is issued for a Packard owned by R. C. Wright of St. Paul.

The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered in London. The company's territory is the Hudson Bay watershed, but no posts would be established in present-day Minnesota until a century later, and the North West, XY, and American Fur Companies would play a larger role in the region's fur trade.

Sauk Centre's Sinclair Lewis declines the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith, saying that awards inhibit creativity and make writers lazy.

The US government opens three-quarters of the Red Lake Indian Reservation of Ojibwe—the region north and east of Thirteen Towns in Polk County (Badger, Brandsvold, Chester, Columbia, Eden, Fosston, Hill River, King, Knute, Lessor, Queen, Rosebud, and Sletten)—to settler colonists.

Joseph Haskell finishes constructing his farmhouse near Afton. His is the first commercial farm north of Prairie du Chien.

Nine tornadoes strike southern Minnesota, particularly the towns of Waseca, Owatonna, and Albert Lea, killing thirteen people.

In his first home run for the Minnesota Twins baseball team, Harmon Killebrew hits the ball 467 feet.