This Day in Minnesota History

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Today's Date: May 9

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1887

The Flint Furniture factory in Faribault burns. Built in 1856, the factory was the first in the state to manufacture items for wholesale trade.
1918

Orville Freeman is born in Minneapolis. He served as the state's governor from 1955 to 1961 and later as US secretary of agriculture. While governor, he responded to the 1959 strike at the Wilson & Company packinghouse in Albert Lea by declaring martial law and closing the plant.
1921

Daniel Berrigan is born in Virginia, Minnesota. An author and a radical Catholic priest, Berrigan wrote about social responsibility and played an active role in the antiwar movement during the Vietnam era; later, he protested nuclear armament. His brother Philip, also a radical priest, was born October 5, 1923.
1998

The suit State of Minnesota et al. v. Philip Morris et al. is settled when the defendants—tobacco companies—agree to pay Minnesota and Blue Cross-Blue Shield $6.5 billion dollars in total. The settlement ended the companies’ chain of legal victories and turned the tide in anti-tobacco efforts throughout the nation.
2001

The Dalai Lama Tenzin Guyatso, head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan community worldwide, visits the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota and shares his message of compassion, tolerance, kindness, and peace.