This Day in Minnesota History

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Today's Date: March 2

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1859

The Turnverein, a German organization that sponsored social, educational, and physical events, gives its first dramatic presentation in St. Anthony's Turnverein Hall. Turner clubs provided a strong German presence throughout the country until World War I.
1878

The city of Anoka is created. Settler colonists had first arrived on the site in 1851 and then platted (surveyed and mapped) it in 1854.
1922

A party of 115 Mennonite men, women, and children from Manitoba pauses briefly in the Twin Cities on the way to Mexico. Among the first of an estimated 20,000 members of this Protestant Christian denomination expected to leave Canada during the next three years, the travelers arrive by rail in passenger coaches accompanied by twenty-two stock cars full of provisions, livestock, farm equipment, and furniture. They plan to live in self-imposed isolation in order to practice their centuries-old religious beliefs and pacifistic way of life. This had caused difficulties with the Canadian government, which required school attendance and, during World War I, military conscription.
1949

Melrose native Captain James Gallagher of the US Air Force completes the first nonstop flight around the world. With a crew of thirteen he flew Lucky Lady II, a B-50 bomber assigned to the 43rd Bomb Group, refueling four times while in the air and completing the 23,452-mile trip in ninety-four hours and one minute.
1974

Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore, now the oldest of its kind in the United States, opens in South Minneapolis.