Minnesota Territory is signed into existence by President James K. Polk. The territory has a population of about 10,000 Native people and 5,000 white settler colonists and includes present-day North and South Dakota east of the Missouri River. The US Postal Service released a commemorative three-cent centennial stamp on this date in 1949.

Duluth, having suffered a loss of population, reverts from a city back into a town.

The legislature approves an amendment to Minnesota's constitution that legalizes the loan of the state's credit in an issue of bonds "up to but not exceeding $5,000,000," with the idea of exchanging state bonds for railroad-company bonds and thus stimulating the building of railroads and their subsequent benefits to land sales and the state economy. The "$5 million loan" would continue to be an issue in Minnesota politics for many years, even after the railroad bonds are substantially redeemed in 1881.

Cook County is formed, commemorating Civil War hero Major Michael Cook from Faribault.

Schoolteacher Harriet E. Bishop forms Minnesota's first temperance society. Temperance societies opposed drunkenness.

Jerry McCarty and Peter Juhl escape from the main cell house at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater after McCarty somehow obtains a key that unlocks the bar running in front of the cell doors. Juhl, a trusty making his evening rounds with a torch for igniting tapers "stuck by convicts in their cell doors with which to light their pipes for a final night smoke," uses the key to release McCarty, and the two "hard cases" hastily climb over a wall.

In Tower, Father Joseph F. Buh publishes issue eleven of Amerikanski Slovenec (American Slovene), the first national newspaper for Slovenes in the United States. The paper had started in Chicago but had ceased publication after ten issues. Buh, who served St. Martin's Catholic Church in Tower and St. Anthony parish at Ely, would supervise the paper's publication until 1899.

Tammy Faye LeValley (Bakker) is born in International Falls. With her husband, Jim Bakker, she would help found three of the largest Christian television networks in the world, including the Praise the Lord ministry. After Jim was jailed for fraud and conspiracy (a charge for which she escaped conviction), she divorced him and married Roe Messner.

Elcor native Sam LoPresti, goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, makes an astounding eighty saves in a game against the Boston Bruins. Despite this valiant effort, three pucks get by him, and Chicago loses 3-2.

St. Paul and Stillwater are incorporated as cities.