1873
The Blizzard of 1873 strikes, with temperatures of forty-nine degrees below zero and winds of seventy-five miles per hour. Over the next two days, at least seventy people die in the western and southern parts of the state. Conditions are so blinding that in New Ulm a boy who has to cross the street from a barn to his home is found frozen eight miles away, and a rural man and his ox team freeze to death just ten feet from his house.

1905
The state legislature meets for the first time in the present capitol building.

1920
Jacob A. O. Preus, Jr., son of soon-to-be Governor Preus, Sr., is born in St. Paul. After becoming president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in 1969, he, along with other advocates of traditionalism, would be troubled by alleged liberalism in the faculty at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and their attitude toward biblical authority. A crucial struggle about doctrinal purity would ensue, with Preus successfully being re-elected president in 1973 and thus securing the traditional ways of the synod. Related events also occurred on August 28, 1883.

1934
During the Great Depression, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a Minnesota mortgage moratorium law, a decision that state Attorney General Harry H. Peterson applauds as a "victory for the people of Minnesota that will enable many farmers and city dwellers to hold onto their homes until good times return." Want to explore this and other events? Go to Timepieces. Related events also occurred on May 1, 1933.

1971
President Richard Nixon signs a law creating Voyageurs National Park. Supported by former governor Elmer L. Andersen and Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., the legislation had been approved by Congress on October 5 of the previous year.

--Minnesota Historical Society