On this date in 1896, Francis Scott Key (F. Scott) Fitzgerald is born in his parents’ apartment at 481 Laurel Avenue in St. Paul. Regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, his novels include This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. The […]
Architecture
1908-05-31
On this date in 1908, the cornerstone of the Basilica, or co-cathedral, of St. Mary is laid in Minneapolis. The ceremony was witnessed by some 30,000 Catholics including twenty bishops, 300 priests and seminarians from the Saint Paul Seminary, and 500 cadets from the College of Saint Thomas. The Basilica was designed by architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, the designer […]
1889-11-30
On this date in 1889, the Minneapolis Daily Tribune headquarters, an eight-story brick building at Fourth Street and First Avenue South in downtown caught fire. Seven people were killed and 30 injured and the building and presses were a total loss.
1855-01-23
On this date in 1855, the first bridge over the Mississippi River opened. The Father Louis Hennepin Bridge spanned the river connecting the cities of Minneapolis and St. Anthony just above the St. Anthony Falls. Engineer Thomas W. Griffith was chosen to lead the construction project. Griffith and his team began work on May 5, 1854. When […]
1934-03-31
On this date in 1934, John Dillinger, along with Mary Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, and Homer Van Meter, were involved in a shootout with two FBI agents and a local police detective at the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul. During the exchange of gunfire, Dillinger was wounded in the leg and escaped to the […]
