This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week.

Jan. 26

1949 Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company announces the invention of a machine that can make mass recordings on magnetic audio tape.

Jan. 27

1871 Kentucky Congressman James Proctor Knott delivers the speech, “The Glories of Duluth,” in Congress, mocking the city in an effort to defeat a bill granting land for a railroad in northwest Wisconsin. Duluth’s citizens appreciate the free publicity, and a town nearby is named Proctor Knott, which was later shortened to just Proctor.

Jan. 28

1890 Farmers in Clarks Grove in Freeborn County form a dairy cooperative. This co-op is not the state’s first, but its success would inspire other communities to use Clarks Grove’s organizational system and its bylaws, which were written in Danish, as a model.

1891 As a group of Ojibwe assembles for a Ghost Dance, a rumor of an uprising at Lake of the Woods spreads and 300 to 400 white settler-colonists flee the Roseau Valley. Upon investigation, the Kittson County sheriff discovers that the gathering is peaceful. Fearing that the colonists might take revenge upon their return, a few Ojibwe feed and water their animals in their absence.

Jan. 30

1867 Ralph Waldo Emerson lectures in Winona at the courthouse. Sponsored by local library associations, Emerson’s tour of the Midwest also includes stops in Faribault, St. Paul, and Minneapolis.

1992 Charlie Boone reaches an agreement with WCCO-AM radio regarding his impending retirement from full-time announcing duties, which will end the 30-year Boone and (Roger) Erickson partnership, one of the station’s most popular programs.

This column is derived from MNopedia, an online project at mnopedia.org. and developed by the Minnesota Historical Society and its partners.