Charles Joy makes the first automobile ascent of St. Paul's Selby Hill, at a speed of eight to ten miles per hour.

The Louisiana Purchase is signed, transferring to the United States territory that includes present-day Minnesota west of the Mississippi River.

Entertainer Daniel D. Emmett obtains a business license for his "Ethiopean Minstrels," a blackface minstrelsy group. Emmett visited the state often in the 1850s while his brother Lafayette served as chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and it is believed that while here he wrote an early version of "Dixie," which was performed at Russell C. Munger's music store in St. Paul.

Congress passes a law that extends fur-trading licenses to US citizens only. Soon after, John J. Astor's American Fur Company pushes out its British rivals, the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies.

Arbor Day is renamed "Loring Day," and over one thousand elms are planted in honor of Charles M. Loring, visionary of Minneapolis's park system.

Observers claim to see a lake monster swimming in Lake Pepin.

Maud Hart Lovelace is born in Mankato. She is remembered as the author of the Betsy-Tacy books, a series of stories for young readers set in early twentieth-century Mankato. In 1979, the Mankato Friends of the Library Association established the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award for children's books.

A fire destroys the St. Paul Public Library at Seventh and Wabasha Streets. The library resides in the old House of Hope Presbyterian Church building at Fifth and Exchange Streets and later moves into its present building across from Rice Park.

Vietnam War protestors stage a demonstration at Honeywell, Inc., which at the time manufactured fragmentation bombs.

In a Prohibition scandal, two agents are arrested for stealing $100,000 in confiscated liquor that had been stored in a Minneapolis warehouse. Eventually, four agents are suspended and warrants are issued for seven others.