Minnesota History Madness

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We created Minnesota History Madness to answer the question:

What Minnesota event in the 20th century made the biggest impact on the nation and the world?

You can cast your vote at the MNHS booth at the Minnesota State Fair. We’ll post updates here as the tournament progresses throughout the Fair. You can also check out additional information on each of the candidates.

State Fair Bracket round 1 winners.

Here are your Top 20 MN Moments of the 20th Century:

Politics and Civics

1905: Frederick McGhee & W.E.B. DuBois found the Niagara Movement

St. Paul lawyer and activist Frederick McGhee and W. E. B. Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement, a precursor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

1922: The Capper-Volstead Act is passed and signed into law

Granite Falls Congressman Andrew Volstead co-sponsored the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922, which gave limited exemption to antitrust laws for agricultural cooperatives, making possible Minnesota organizations like CHS, Land O’Lakes, and many others. (Volstead also wrote the National Prohibition Act to enforce the 18th amendment.)

1948: Hubert Humphrey promotes Civil Rights at the Democratic National Convention

Hubert Humphrey’s impassioned speech forced the Democratic party to adopt Civil Rights into their platform, beginning the mid-century realignment of political parties and propelling the Civil Rights movement forward.

1968: The founding of the American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded by grassroots activists in Minneapolis to improve conditions for Native Americans who had recently moved to cities. It grew into an international movement whose goals included the full restoration of Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights, and helped spark a new era of political and cultural revitalization for Native Americans.

1946: The St. Paul Teachers’ strike

The first organized teachers’ strike in the nation shattered expectations that teachers would not strike and established a new avenue for teachers to secure school funding and pay. Minneapolis teachers followed in 1970, leading to the passage of the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, granting public employees in Minnesota—including teachers—the right to bargain collectively.

Innovation

1952: The world’s first open heart surgery is performed at the University of Minnesota

On September 2, 1952, Dr. John Lewis, assisted by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, performed the world's first successful open-heart surgery. Lillehei went on to head the team that performed the world's first open-heart operation using cross-circulation in 1954 and was integral to the development of other pioneering heart treatments. The first successful pancreas, kidney, and bone marrow transplants were also performed at the University of Minnesota.

1948: Identification & therapeutic application of cortisone at the Mayo Clinic

A research team at The Mayo Clinic, led by Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench, resulted in a revolutionary new class of medications for treating inflammation—and a Nobel Prize.

1939: Frederick McKinley Jones patents the world’s first successful refrigerated transportation system

First used in World War II to transport temperature-sensitive drugs and blood plasma to soldiers, Frederick McKinley Jones’ Model C mobile refrigerator unit transformed the world’s ability to transport perishable goods long distances, laying the groundwork for today’s food industry.

1925 & 1930: Invention of Scotch-brand masking and cellophane tapes

When 3M’s Richard Drew invented Scotch brand tapes, designed to seal well but release cleanly, they revolutionized the use of tape in everyday life. Introduced during the Great Depression, Scotch Tape enabled Americans to prolong the life of items they could not afford to replace.

1921: The introduction of Betty Crocker

Created as an advisor to home cooks by the marketing department of the Washburn-Crosby Company, Betty Crocker has shaped—for better or for worse—Americans’ ideas about cooking, womanhood, domesticity, and culture for over a century. First published in 1950, the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook has sold over 75 million copies—the nation’s all-time best selling cookbook.

Arts, Culture, and Sports

1980s: Prince & the Minneapolis Sound 

Combining elements of funk, punk, synth pop, and rock, the music genre popularized by Prince and his many collaborators had a significant influence on popular music throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

1971-1985: Creation of The Oregon Trail computer game

In 1971, Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger—three student teachers in Minneapolis—created the first version of The Oregon Trail, which was later adapted, developed, and distributed by MECC, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium. In 1985, the now-iconic fully graphical version debuted. The Oregon Trail became one of the most popular computer games ever made, defining the history of the Oregon Trail for an entire generation and ushering in a new era of technology in the classroom.

1922: Invention of water skiing by Ralph Samuelson on Lake Pepin

After unsuccessfully trying barrel staves and snow skis, Samuelson handcrafted a set of 8-foot long water skis and successfully rode them on Lake Pepin the day before his 19th birthday, launching a new watersport. You can see them on display at the Minnesota History Center!

1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is published

A failure when first published, the novel from St. Paul’s F. Scott Fitzgerald has come to define the roaring twenties, the great American novel, and the contradictions and inequalities of the American Dream.

1950: Charles Schulz’s Peanuts debuts

On October 2, 1950, St. Paul’s Charles M. Schulz debuted Peanuts in seven newspapers. Schulz single-handedly created the strip for 50 years, and by 2020, the Peanuts comic strip had appeared in more than 30,000 newspapers in 40 languages in 75 countries, reaching 350 million readers daily.

Environment & Natural Resources

1956: Sigurd Olson publishes The Singing Wilderness

The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd Olson’s signature book about the Boundary Waters, became a New York Times bestseller, launching his career as a national leader in conservation, which included helping establish the 1964 Wilderness Act and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

1974: United States of America v. Reserve Mining makes pollution regulation possible

The EPA & the Department of Justice successfully sued to stop the Reserve Mining company’s dumping of taconite mine tailings into Lake Superior at Silver Bay. The court case established the power of the Federal government to regulate industry pollution for the first time.

1955: Production of Taconite pellets begins at Silver Bay

Over decades, Edward W. Davis developed a process for concentrating the iron content of Minnesota’s low-grade iron ore taconite, extending the productivity of Minnesota’s mines and the US steel industry by decades.

1991: The Honeycrisp apple is released to growers

In 1982, apple variety MN 1711 at the University of Minnesota’s apple breeding program was saved from the reject pile by horticulturist David Bedford. Later renamed Honeycrisp™, it became one of the most popular apple varieties in the nation and redefined consumer expectations for an apple’s taste and texture.

1956: The nation’s first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall opens

Donald Dayton and architect Victor Gruen ushered in a new era of suburban shopping with Southdale Center in Edina. The first weatherproof shopping center not only changed shopping habits, but fed a transformation of the American landscape defined by urban sprawl and automobiles.