On this date in 1950, Northwest Airlines Flight 307 crashes in Minneapolis during a snowstorm. The Martin 2-0-2 twin-engine plane, inbound from Madison, WI, was attempting an instrument landing at Wold-Chamberlain airport (now Minneapolis St. Paul International) when its left wing clipped a 70 foot-tall flagpole at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
Architecture
1814-03-05
On this date in 1814, Norman W. Kittson is born at Fort Chambly near Montreal, Canada. Kittson arrived in Minnesota in the early 1830’s after taking an apprenticeship with the American Fur Company. In 1833, Kittson left the fur trade to become a clerk to the sutler at Fort Snelling. Kittson went into business for […]
1866-02-21
On this date in 1866, the first Roman Catholic priest to serve in Minnesota, Father Lucien Galtier dies. Born in 1812 in southern France in the town of Saint-Affrique, department of Aveyron, Galtier was brought to the United States as a subdeacon in April 1839 by then Bishop of Dubuque, Mathias Loras. Galtier was ordained […]
1951-02-08
On this date in 1951, a gas explosion tore through several 3M buildings on St. Paul’s East Side killing thirteen people and injuring another 50. The morning of the explosion was bitterly cold with temperatures dipping to 12 degrees below zero. Some 4,300 employees had just reported for work at the buildings near the corner […]
1851-02-07
On this date in 1851, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature passes an act “to Provide for the Erection of Public Buildings in the Territory of Minnesota.”, locating the capitol in St. Paul and the territorial prison in Stillwater. The act created a Commission of Public Buildings to oversee finances and the hiring of contractors to build […]
