Minnesota’s Anna Dickie Olesen was the first female major-party nominee for the U.S. Senate
Olesen’s oratorical skills and political acumen on the Chautauqua circuit soon caught the attention of national Democrats.
MNopedia
In 1885, Minneapolis was host to the American Woman Suffrage Association Convention
At the convention, AWSA President William Dudley Foulke delivered a powerful speech in which he reminded the assembly that “the just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed,” a principle violated with the vote denied to female citizens.
The rise and fall of Minneapolis’ Gateway District
The Gateway District was Minneapolis’ original downtown.
Six workers died during the construction of the Minnesota Capitol
Five of the deaths were due to falls.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were almost called the ‘Polars’
The NBA’s four-team expansion in 1987 included the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Orlando Magic, the Charlotte Hornets, and the Miami Heat.
During the 1939 WPA strike in Minneapolis, things got violent
Minnesota was the only state in which strikers faced criminal charges for preventing people from working.
During the 1980s farm crisis, Minnesota lost more than 10,000 farms
By 1982, 49 percent of the 11,000 farmers in Minnesota with Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) loans were in delinquency, and more than 300 farms faced foreclosure.
Publishing giant Swan Turnblad made his mark on Minneapolis
Once publisher of the largest Swedish-language newspaper in the U.S., Turnblad’s former mansion now houses Minneapolis’ American Swedish Institute.
David Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, developed the game in Minnesota
Arneson introduced extensive roleplaying into Ernest Gary Gygax’s game of medieval combat, and D&D was born.
St. Paul native John Vachon made a mark with his photographs of the Depression-era Midwest
After getting kicked out of college due to drinking, Vachon found work with the Farm Security Administration.
For a few years in the late sixties, Jonathan, Minnesota was the city of the future
Jonathan was one of the first “new towns” to be built in the United States.
The Tilt-A-Whirl, a fair staple, was invented in Minnesota
Herbert Sellner founded the Sellner Woodcraft Company in 1912 to manufacture mission furniture, lamps, and other wood articles. By 1923, Sellner’s creativity evolved.
Influenza epidemic of 1918 killed 72 in Cottonwood County alone
An estimated 50 million people died of the flu around the world in 1918 and 1919.
Painter Francis Lee Jaques found his inspiration depicting Minnesota’s natural world
Birds, especially ducks, were a favorite subject.
Cloquet’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed service station represents a milestone in American gas-station design
The station was the only building concept ever constructed from Wright’s utopian vision of a model American community called Broadacre City.
Opened in 1908, the Ranier Railroad Bridge in northern Minnesota is still one of America’s busiest ports of entry
In 2019, traffic over the Ranier Bridge has grown to more than twenty trains a day with most pulling between 100 and 200 cars.
Could Minneapolis elect a Socialist mayor? It did in 1916
During the 1916 campaign, Thomas Van Lear successfully used controversies surrounding Twin Cities Rapid Transit streetcar fares and corporate control of the city’s utilities to his advantage.
Founded in 1973, The DFL Feminist Caucus gave women a stronger voice in the party
The caucus started with a focus on advocating for feminist positions on issues like poverty among women, abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Minnesota’s recorded history begins at the Jeffers Petroglyphs
Situated in Dakota homeland, the Jeffers site is sacred to multiple Native American nations, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Iowa, and Ojibwe.
Duluth activist Irene Levine Paull advocated for timber workers, the labor movement
For her troubles, she was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1962.