Minnesota State Colleges and Universities history

The United States acquired the area and its rich natural resources through the Treaty of Paris (1783), and the Louisiana Purchase (1803).

1805 - Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike leads the first United States expedition through the Minnesota country.

Here, where traffic could be controlled on two major rivers, Fort Snelling was completed in 1825

Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor ends his command at Fort Snelling, which had begun May 24, 1828.

1830 - Seth Eastman comes to Fort Snelling as a captain.

1832 - Henry Schoolcraft credited with finding the source of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca, Minnesota with his Ojibwe guide Ozawindib.

1837 - Land-cession treaties negotiated with the Dakota Indians and the Chippewa Indians for United States rights to a portion of land between the Mississippi and St Croix rivers.

1841 - Chapel of Saint Paul built.

1851 - Charter granted to the University of Minnesota, the first collegiate institution in the territory.

1855 - Die Minnesota Deutsche Zeitung (The Minnesota German Newspaper), Minnesota's first non-English newspaper, rolls off the press for the first time in St Paul.

Present constitution adopted: 1858

1859 - First Minnesota State Fair held.

1861 - Civil War of the United States begins.

1862 - The Dakota Conflict sweeps across Minnesota with a series of attacks motivated by hungry Dakota enraged by the failure of land treaties and unfair fiscal practices of local traders.

1863 - At the Battle of Gettysburg the First Minnesota Regiment makes a heroic charges, losing 215 of 262 men.

Founded with the coming of the railroad in 1871, it was a natural transportation hub and river-crossing point, with overland road and rail traffic meeting the barges and, later, steamboats on the river.

Moorhead, city, seat (1872) of Clay county, western Minnesota, United States It lies along the Red River of the North across from Fargo, North Dakota, in a mixed-farming area.

1880 - Telephone communication begun between St Paul and Minneapolis.

1883 - Mayo Clinic founded by Doctor William Worrall Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota after a tornado sweeps through Rochester, killing 35.

1887 - St Paul hosts the first ski tourney in the Midwest.

Labeled a "pandemic of influenza", this disease managed to kill 7,521Minnesotans in 1918 and more than 4,200 over the course of the following two years.

1921 - WLB, the first Minnesota radio station, formed at the University of Minnesota.

By 1930 only 1/3 of the state would remain forested, with very little of that virgin growth.

1931 - Ancient remains of 20,000 year old skeleton dubbed "Minnesota Man" found in Otter Tail County, Minnesota.

1936 - Temperatures remain below zero for a record thirty-six days beginning on January 18.

1941 - First tax on taconite, a black magnetic iron-bearing ore, in effect in Minnesota.

1948 - Minnesota's first television station, KSTP, goes on the air.

1954 - Coya Knutson becomes the first Minnesota woman elected to the Congress of the United States.

1959 - The opening of the St Lawrence Seaway makes Duluth accessible to the Atlantic Ocean.

1968 - Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota begins his bid for the presidency by easily winning the New Hampshire presidential primary.

It became Mankato State Teachers College in 1921, and then Mankato State College in 1957. It thereafter became Mankato State University in 1975, and did not adopt the current name until very recently.

1980 - Last iron ore shipment leaves the Cuyuna iron range.

1984 - Last iron ore shipment leaves the Mesabi iron range, effectively ending Minnesota's direct iron ore industry and confirming a difficult depression on the iron range.

By 1990 Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation in per capita gambling sales.

A subsequent House-Senate conference committee let the merger stand, but extended the original two-year transition period for the new system to four years, to become effective July 1, 1995.

1998 - Minnesota becomes home to largest ethnic Hmong population in America.

Athletic facilities at Minnesota State University, Mankato include the Taylor Center, which opened in 2000 and is home to basketball, volleyball, and wrestling, a field house, a civic center, and a stadium.