This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week.

June 19

1852 Congress passes a resolution changing the name of St. Peter’s River to a form of its original Dakota name, Mni Sota, or Minnesota. It is translated as “waters that reflect the sky,” “sky-colored waters,” or “muddy water.” The river had been known to the French as “St. Pierre” (and to Anglophone Europeans as “St. Peter”) for 150 years, with increasing use of “Minnesota,” since the days of the explorer Pierre Charles Le Sueur.

June 20

1887 William A. Hazel, an African American architect, files suit after being denied in May a r...