On this date in 1849, the first volume of the Minnesota Pioneer, a predecessor of the Pioneer Press, was printed in St. Paul. The newspaper, at that time, a weekly publication was started by James M. Goodhue, a lawyer from Lancaster, Wisconsin. Not only was the Minnesota Pioneer the first newspaper printed in Minnesota, it was the first piece of any printing […]
General
1933-08-30
On this date in 1933, members of the The Barker-Karpis gang including Fred “Doc” Barker and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis robbed two messengers in front of the U.S. Post Office on Concord Street in South St. Paul. During the holdup, shots rang out killing police offer Leo Pavlak and wounding fellow officer John Yeamen. The gangsters […]
1941-12-07
On this date in 1941, at 6:45 AM the USS Ward, a 1247-ton Wickes class destroyer, attacks and sinks a Japanese 2-man midget submarine outside Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The crew manning the ship’s No. 1 gun fired at the sub first missing the target. Subsequently, the nine-man crew of the No. 3 gun from […]
1842-12-03
On this date in 1842, flour magnate Charles A. Pillsbury was born in Warner, New Hampshire. Pillsbury moved to Minneapolis in 1869 following his uncle, John S. Pillsbury, who had settled at the Falls of St. Anthony in 1855. Soon after arriving, Pillsbury learned the flour-milling business working for his uncle and gained part-ownership of […]
1917-12-02
On this date in 1917, fifty non-union street car drivers are injured and more than twenty streetcars are damaged when a mass meeting of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Trades and Labor assemblies held Rice Park turns violent.
