A brief history of Minnesota

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    A brief history

  • 1858

    Minnesota becomes a state
  • 1869

    Duluth is established and grows rapidly
  • 1870

    Minneapolis and St. Paul begin building public parks and sewer systems
  • 1881

    Duluth gets its very first telephone
  • 1900

    Minnesota’s population reaches 1,751,394
  • 1905

    Aerial Bridge in Duluth begins operating
  • 1910

    Split Rock Lighthouse opens
  • 1913

    Minnesotans own more than 40,000 automobiles
  • 1922

    The University of Minnesota start the WLB, the first licensed radio station in MN
  • 1925

    Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby
  • 1934

    Gangster John Dillinger escapes from a gun battle with the FBI in St. Paul
  • 1937

    Hormel develops SPAM luncheon meat
  • 1943

    Minnesota farmers begin using prisoners of war to work in their fields
  • 1947

    Bell Labs invent the cell phone
  • 1950

    St. Paul native Charles Schulz begins drawing the comic strip Peanuts
  • 1958

    Congress designates Grand Portage as a national monument
  • 1963

    Guthrie Theater opens in Minneapolis
  • 1977

    Rosalie Wahl becomes the first woman to serve on Minnesota Supreme Court
  • 1982

    The Huber H. Humphrey Metronome opens in downtown Minneapolis
  • 1992

    The Mall of America becomes the largest shopping mall in the US when it opens in Bloomington
  • 1995

    DVDs are invented