1000
When a Dakota warrior marries another woman, his first wife, Anputa Sapa Win, or Clouded Day, takes their baby and pushes off into the falls of the Mississippi River, singing her death song. A Dakota legend says her song can still be heard emerging from the rapids they call Owamniyomni.
1881
After years of devotion to teaching African Americans at federal freedmen’s schools in the South, Julia B. Nelson joins 14 other women in forming the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association.
1886
With unwed mothers being turned away from most city hospitals, nurse and suffragist Martha George Ripley establishes Maternity Hospital in the Harrison neighborhood. Ripley’s hospital is open to all women without exception.
1888
Minneapolis nears the top of the nation in number of single working women. Those working the clothing mills at the Shotwell factory organize and stage the first strike by women. The local newspapers express sympathy for the “striking maidens.”
1904
Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa and granddaughter of Pierre Bottineau, is appointed to the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs by Roosevelt. Bottineau Baldwin becomes a lawyer and advocate for women’s suffrage.
1920
Years after Black singer and activist Nellie Griswold Francis first gains admiration with her acclaimed “Race Problem” speech upon graduation from St. Paul High (now Central), Francis writes an anti-lynching bill and lobbies the legislature for its passage.
1924
A 2-and-a-half-year-old Frances “Baby” Gumm—who somewhere way over the rainbow from Grand Rapids will become Judy Garland—gets onstage with her vaudeville parents for the first time to sing “Jingle Bells.”
1942
Ruth Nomura Tanbara and her husband are the first Japanese Americans to resettle in St. Paul after being displaced by FDR’s Order 9066. Tanbara becomes a force in her community, giving talks on her culture, serving on boards, and raising funds.
1958
Coya Knutson, the first woman from Minnesota to be elected to Congress, is running for her third term when DFL operatives (her own party!) run one of the most infamous tricks in political history: They ghostwrite a letter on behalf of her husband, pleading, “Coya come home.”
1968
Not as famous as Native peers like Clyde Bellecourt or Russell Means, Patricia Bellanger nevertheless becomes known as “Grandmother AIM” after co-founding the American Indian Movement.
1970
In the debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a fictional Mary Richards breaks up with her fictional boyfriend; moves out of fictional Roseburg, Minnesota; throws her hat up in the air; and makes Minneapolis a real-life star.
1986
Ann Bancroft resigns her teaching position to take part in Will Steger’s Arctic expedition to the North Pole. And seven years after becoming the first woman to reach the North Pole, she becomes the first woman to reach both poles.
1996
Harvard grad, Honor the Earth founder, and climate activist Winona LaDuke is tapped by Ralph Nader to be the Green Party’s vice-presidential nominee. She runs as Nader’s VP again in 2000.
2016
Minneapolis Edison grad Ilhan Omar wins her election to the Minnesota House, becoming the first Somali American legislator in the United States. Omar is elected to the U.S. Congress two years later.
2017
When Al Franken is forced out of the U.S. Senate after several #MeToo allegations of sexual misconduct, Gov. Mark Dayton appoints Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to the seat, which she has won twice since.
2021
Every Minnesotan is up at dawn to watch 18-year-old Suni Lee hit every routine on the way to winning the legendary all-around gymnastics gold medal in Tokyo.
October 27, 2022
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