At the end of the nineteenth century, inmates at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater began publishing a newsletter written and edited by fellow prisoners. For the first time in US history, inmates at a state institution created a regular periodical that was fully their own at every level of production. They used it to discuss news, share their literary and artistic works, and organize for institutional change. Called the Prison Mirror, the newsletter served as a model for similar publications produced by inmates at nearly all of Minnesota’s state hospitals, correctional facilities, and state schools.

The International Institute in St. Paul opened on December 12, 1919. For one hundred years, it has helped meet the needs of immigrants, refugees, and asylees beginning their new lives in Minnesota.

The Interstate State Park, located on 295 acres in Taylors Falls, is the second-oldest state park in Minnesota. Created in 1895, its unique topography and geological history draw many visitors to the area. It is the first park in the United States to be located in two states, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the St. Croix River serving as the border. The two parks are operated separately by the states’ Departments of Natural Resources.

John Ireland was ordained a Catholic priest in St. Paul in 1861. By the time he was appointed archbishop of the newly organized Archdiocese of St. Paul in 1888, he was one of the city’s most prominent citizens. Ireland’s causes were many; he is remembered for attracting Irish immigrants to the state, for founding educational institutions, and for establishing the Catholic church in Minnesota.

In December of 1916, mill workers at the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company went on strike, and lumberjacks soon followed. The company police and local government tried to crush the strike by running the lumberjacks out of town, but when the strike was called off in February, the company had granted most of the workers’ demands.

Originally built in the 1870s at 214 Jackson Street in Anoka, the Jackson Hotel was destroyed in an 1884 fire. It was quickly rebuilt and continued to function as a hotel until 1975, making it a center of local commerce and social gatherings for more than ninety years.

Lawrence Taliaferro, tired of bribery attempts by crooked individuals, steps down as Indian agent of St. Peters (outside Fort Snelling), a position he had held since 1820. Native Americans and settler-colonists alike appreciated his honesty and intelligence, and his journals about life at Fort Snelling provide a detailed record of frontier Minnesota. He died on January 22, 1871, aged eighty-one.

African American Minnesotans hold a grand convention in St. Paul's Ingersoll Hall "to celebrate the Emancipation of 4,000,000 slaves, and to express...gratitude for the bestowal of the elective franchise to the colored people of this State."

Workers nail the final spike in the 818 miles of track stretching from Pacific Junction, Montana, to Everett, Washington, completing the Great Northern Railroad and connecting St. Paul to the Pacific Ocean.

Minnesota's first Somali mosque, Dar Al-Hijrah, is heavily damaged in a fire. It reopened the following year after repairs. The mosque and its accompanying community center serve the Somali community in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis.

A fierce, three-day blizzard strikes, bringing one to two feet of snow (with some drifts reaching twenty feet) and winds up to eighty miles per hour, closing most Minnesota roads, stranding a train at Willmar, and killing thirty-five people and 15,000 head of livestock. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that an offshoot of an Arctic storm has blasted into the Midwest, commenting that the "Wind ain't whistlin' Dixie."

Susan Allen is elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in a special election. She is the first Native American lesbian to serve in the state legislature.