1858 Minnesota admitted into the Union as the 32nd state. 1862 The murder of a settler family by four young Indians in what is now Meeker County leads to the Dakota Conflict, in which 450 settlers are killed, hundreds of Indians are arrested and 38 Indians are hanged in Mankato

1863 First Minnesota Regiment falls at Gettysburg.

1865 Theodore Hamm opens a brewery in St. Paul.

1867 White Earth Indian Reservation established.

1868 University of Minnesota reopens after Civil War, restructured into several colleges built around a core of science, literature and the arts.

1873 Beginning of a four-year grasshopper infestation.

1875 First iron mine opens on the Vermilion Range in Tower-Soudan.

1876 An attempt by the (Jesse) James-Younger Gang to rob a Northfield bank ends in a bloody shootout.

1878 James J. Hill buys the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, starting what will become the Great Northern Railway Co.

1881 Pillsbury A Mill completed, signaling the rise of Minneapolis as the flour milling capital of the world.

1885 First State Fair held in St. Paul's Midway area. The fair had started in 1859.

1886 First St. Paul Winter Carnival and first ice palace.

1887 South St. Paul stockyards open, becoming one of the largest livestock markets in the U.S.
1888 Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul is established.

1889 St. Marys Hospital in Rochester opens, marking the beginnings of what becomes the Mayo Clinic in 1914.

1891 Minnesota's first state park, Itasca State Park, is established.

1892 Republican National Convention held in Minneapolis Exposition Building.

1894 Wildfires kill more than 400 and destroy the town of Hinckley.

1896 Red Lake Indian Reservation opens.

1902 George Draper Dayton opens dry goods store in downtown Minneapolis.

1903 Minnesota Orchestra is established.

1905 New State Capitol, designed by Cass Gilbert, is completed.

1908 Chippewa National Forest created by Congress.

1909 Superior National Forest established.

1914 Greyhound Bus Lines begins when miners are shuttled between Hibbing and Alice.

1918 Moose Lake and Cloquet destroyed by forest fires that kill 453.

10,000 Minnesotans die in flu epidemic.

1920 Three black men lynched by a Duluth mob.

Sauk Center native Sinclair Lewis publishes "Main Street."

1924 Worst mining disaster in state history when 41 miners drown in the Milford Mines.

1925 First car assembled at St. Paul Ford plant.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (now 3M) invents masking tape.

1927 Northwest Airlines makes first commercial flight from Minneapolis to Chicago.

Little Falls resident Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic.

1929 Foshay Tower dedicated.

1934 Minneapolis truckers' strike leads to rioting.

Gangster John Dillinger escapes a shootout with the FBI in St. Paul.

1937 Pipestone National Monument established.

Hormel introduces Spam.

1940 Armistice Day blizzard kills 49, including 20 duck hunters.

First Minneapolis Aquatennial

1941 Gophers halfback Bruce Smith becomes the state's only Heisman Trophy winner.

1942 Sister Elizabeth Kenny opens her institute for treating polio patients.

1948 Harold Stassen makes first of nine runs for president.

1949 Hazelden treatment center opens in Center City.

1956 Reserve Mining opens in Silver Bay.

Southdale, the first enclosed mall in the nation, opens.

1958 U.S. Rep. Coya Knutson ends her political career when her husband writes her: "Coya, come home."

1959 Last leg of the St. Lawrence Seaway is opened, making Duluth accessible to ocean traffic.

1960 Medtronic markets the first implantable pacemaker in the U.S.
Minneapolis Lakers basketball team moves to Los Angeles.

1961 Major League Baseball comes to Minnesota when the Washington Senators move to Twin Cities, renamed the Minnesota Twins.

New NFL franchise Minnesota Vikings play first season.

U scientist and inventor of the K ration, Ancel Keys, appears on the cover of Time magazine.

1962 First skyway opens in Minneapolis.

Protest song "Blowin' in the Wind" is released by Hibbing native Bob Dylan.

1963 Guthrie Theater opens with "Hamlet."

1964 Hubert Humphrey elected vice president of the United States.

Federal Wilderness Act extends protection, preservation and management of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

1965 State ravaged by record spring floods.

1967 Minnesota North Stars hockey team's first season.

Nicollet Mall is dedicated.

1968 Two Minnesotans, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Sen. Eugene McCarthy, vie for the Democratic presidential nomination. Humphrey wins the nomination but loses the election to Richard Nixon.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) founded in Minneapolis.

1969 Warren Burger of St. Paul becomes chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1970 Harry Blackmun, who grew up in St. Paul and worked in Rochester, appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

First of four Super Bowls lost by the Vikings.

Voyageurs National Park is authorized.

U alumnus Norman Borlaug receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his high-yield plant research, which is credited with reducing world hunger.

1973 Gov. Wendell Anderson appears on the cover of Time magazine touting the good life in Minnesota.

1974 Garrison Keillor hosts the first broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion."

1975 The Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior, killing all 29 aboard.

Minnesota's only national park, Voyageurs, is established.

1976 Walter Mondale elected vice president of the U.S.

1977 Eight women employees of a Willmar bank striking against sex discrimination become known as the "Willmar 8."

First Grandma's Marathon.

1980 The U.S. Olympic hockey team, with 12 Minnesotans, wins the gold medal. The "Miracle on Ice" team is coached by St. Paul native Herb Brooks.

1982 The Metrodome opens.

1984 Mondale loses presidential election to Ronald Reagan.

Prince releases "Purple Rain" in both movie and song.

1986 Gov. Rudy Perpich sends the National Guard to Austin to prevent strike violence at the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. plant.

Ely's Will Steger leads the first North Pole trek by dog sled without resupply.

1987 Twins win the World Series against St. Louis Cardinals.

"Rainfall of the Century." A record 10 inches of rain falls on the Twin Cities.

1988 British conglomerate, Grand Metropolitan PLC, takes over Pillsbury.

Widespread drought batters crops statewide.

1989 Minnesota Timberwolves bring the NBA back to the Twin Cities after a 29-year absence.

1990 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visits the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota Supreme Court is the first in the nation to have a majority of women seated as justices.

1991 Twins win the World Series against Atlanta Braves.

Halloween snowstorm drops 28 inches of snow on metro area.

Indian gaming in the state expands to include Las Vegas-style blackjack.

1992 Mall of America opens on site of former Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

Alan Page becomes the first black justice elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

1993 North Stars hockey team moves to Dallas.

Sharon Sayles Belton is elected Minneapolis' first female mayor, as well as the city's first black mayor.

Worst aviation accident in state history when 18 die aboard a Northwest Airlink plane crash near Hibbing.

1995 Record year for homicides in Minneapolis, with 97 murders.

1996 West Publishing acquired by Thomson Corp.

Vision loss forces Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett into early retirement.

1997 Historic flooding along the Red River Valley displaces thousands and causes an estimated $2 billion in damages.

Stroh Brewery closes St. Paul plant that was the original home of Hamm's Beer.

1998 Star Tribune's ownership passes from Cowles Media to McClatchy Newspapers Inc.

Minnesota tobacco trial ends with a $7 billion settlement.

Former pro wrestler and Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura wins governor's race, becoming the first third-party governor since 1936.

1999 Honeywell is acquired by AlliedSignal.

Blowdown in the BWCA kills one, flattens millions of trees.

2000 The NHL returns with the Minnesota Wild.

2001 Dayton's department store name changed to Marshall Field's.

General Mills acquires Pillsbury.

2002 Sen. Paul Wellstone dies in plane crash, 11 days before election.

2004 Twin Cities light-rail service begins with the Hiawatha Line.

5,000 Hmong refugees from a Thai resettlement camp arrive in St. Paul.

2005 Marshall Field's is acquired by Federated Department Stores. Stores are renamed Macy's the following year.

2006 Ford officials announce initial plans to close the St. Paul Ford plant in 2008 (later revised to 2009).

Amy Klobuchar becomes the first woman elected to U.S. Senate from Minnesota.

Keith Ellison becomes the first black from Minnesota elected to the U.S. House, and the nation's first Muslim in the House.

2007 Interstate 35W bridge over Mississippi collapses, killing 13.