One of the ugliest days in Minnesota history: three African American workers for the John Robinson circus are lynched in Duluth. The men were accused of raping a white woman. Ignoring the pleas of a priest and a judge, a mob of 5,000 white people breaks into the city jail and hangs the men from a lamppost.

A windstorm traverses Jackson and Martin Counties, then splits into two parts near Winnebago City in Faribault County. One part travels northeast into Freeborn County, the other southeast, passing near Albert Lea. About fifty are killed in the eighty-five-mile path of the storm.

The first graduation ceremony for the University of Minnesota is held at the Academy of Music in Minneapolis to honor both graduates, Warren Eustis and Henry Williamson.

By an act of Congress, the St. Peters River is renamed with its original Dakota name, Mni Sota, translated as "waters that reflect the sky," "sky-colored waters," or "muddy water." The river had been known to the French as "St. Pierre" (and to Anglophone Europeans as "St. Peter") for 150 years, since the days of the explorer Pierre Charles Le Sueur.

Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, which allows Native Americans to govern themselves on a tribal basis, to manage natural resources on reservations, and to incorporate as a tribe to facilitate business ventures.

Kathleen Soliah, a fugitive since 1974, is arrested in St. Paul. Having lived under the name Sarah Jane Olson, Soliah was a presumed member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, and was wanted for the attempted bombing of two police cars. She had been featured on the television show America's Most Wanted a few months before her arrest.

The last navy tanker built at the Savage Shipyard is launched. The Wacissa is one of eighteen ships manufactured there for the war effort.

The bones of "Minnesota Man" are uncovered by a road crew near Pelican Rapids. Despite its name, this glacial-age human skeleton is likely that of a teenage girl.

General Henry H. Sibley and his troops leave Camp Pope, near present-day Redwood Falls, on a campaign against the Dakota.

Arriving in St. Paul, the steamer Galena delivers cholera along with its passengers. Cholera's last occurrence in Minnesota would be in 1873.