Celebrations Today – May 11

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Abgar V of Edessa (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Anthimus of Rome
  • Anthony de Sant’Ana Galvão
  • Cyril and Methodius (Eastern Orthodox Church; commemoration, Anglican Communion)
  • Estelle of Saintes
  • Francis de Geronimo
  • Gangulphus of Burgundy
  • Majolus of Cluny
  • Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints
  • Odilo of Cluny
  • May 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Earliest day on which Whit Monday can fall, while June 14 is the latest; celebrated on the day after Pentecost (Christianity), and its related observances:
  • Azores Day (Azores)
• Nisga’a Day, celebration of the effective date of the Nisga’a Final Agreement. (Nisga’a Nation)
• National Technology Day (India)
• Statehood Day (Minnesota)
• Vietnam Human Rights Day (Vietnam)

Celebrations Today – USA: May 11

National Foam Rolling Day
National Twilight Zone Day
National Small Business Day
National Trust Your Intuition Day
World Lupus Day

Today in US History: May 11

The Star of the North

Capitol Building, exterior, St. Paul, MN
St. Paul, Minnesota 1902
American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920

On May 11, 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state admitted into the Union. Minnesota’s application for statehood was submitted to President James Buchanan in January, but became entangled with the controversial issue of Kansas statehood, delaying it for several months until it was finally approved by Congress.

Known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” or “Star of the North,” Minnesota is the northern terminus of the Mississippi River’s traffic and the westernmost point of an inland waterway which extends through the Great Lakes and, with the St. Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Ojibwa (Chippewa) and Dakota (Sioux) were among the tribal peoples who first made this land their home. For them state borders were non-existent, and their territory extended far beyond what is today Minnesota. The French claimed this region from the mid-1600s to the mid-1700s, developing a strong fur trade but ceding lands east of the Mississippi to Britain. The U.S. acquired the area and its rich natural resources through the Treaty of Paris (1783), and the Louisiana Purchase (1803).

U.S. administration of the northwest lands formally began with the 1787 passage of the Northwest Ordinance. The ordinance, one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Continental Congress, set out the requirements for a territory to become a state. The American Memory collection Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 features a discussion of the Incorporation of the Western Territories. For additional information on England’s yielding of land west of the Appalachian Mountains, see the Today in History feature on the Surrender of Fort Sackville. A representation of Fort Sackville is accessible on The George Rogers Clark National Historic Park site.

From the 1820s on, Fort Snelling protected the growth of the area now called Minnesota. During the Civil War, the fort served as a training center for thousands of young Minnesota volunteers who joined the Union Army. Twenty-four thousand soldiers who trained at the fort fought in the Union Army, serving gallantly at Gettysburg or during the Indian Outbreak. Once a military outpost at the edge of a small settlement, Fort Snelling is now located at the center of Minnesota’s “Twin Cities”—Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Wheat Bundle Stacks, Fosston, Minnesota, circa 1900.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920

Horse powered threshing rig, Blue Earth, Minnesota, 1898.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920

Until the second half of the nineteenth century, immigration into Minnesota was slow. However, as the value of the state’s woodlands and fertile prairie was realized, settlers poured into the region with New England lumbermen leading the way. Between 1850 and 1857, the state population skyrocketed from 6,077 to over 150,000. As a large state with land for homesteading, Minnesota attracted immigrants from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and those seeking to own land in the United States. An 1878 brochure published by the Minnesota State Board of Immigration, describes the many reasons for moving to the state.

Northern Line Packet Co.,
Advertisement for a steamship company in The Minnesota Guide. A Handbook of Information for the Travelers, Pleasure Seekers and Immigrants…, 1869.
Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910

Still a leader in farming, lumbering, milling, and medical research, Minnesota is also an important center for the printing industry and a major producer of iron ore. Its largest city, Minneapolis, is home to the University of Minnesota, numerous museums, and theaters such as the Tyrone Guthrie Theater and the Walker Arts Center, and the world’s largest cash grain market.

St. Paul is the state capital.

• Search across American Memory on Minnesota.
• Numerous photographs can be found in the FSA/OWI Photographs, 1938-1944, American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936, and Built in America, 1933-Present collections, and in the Prints and Photographs Division collections.
• Don’t miss Pioneering the Upper Midwest, ca. 1820-1910. This American Memory collection portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn from the Library’s General Collections and Rare Books and Special Collections Division. Also featured is the special presentation The History of the Upper Midwest: An Overview.
• History of the American West contains images of Native Americans in Minnesota.
• Map Collections (1500-Present) includes early maps of a number of Minnesota cities, such as Brainerd, Minneapolis, Saint Cloud, Saint Paul, Rochester, and Winona. Follow the instructions presented with each map to zoom in on houses, paddle wheelers, horse drawn carts, bridges, and much more in fine and accurate detail.
• To see more images of the state, search across the American Memory photo collections on Minnesota, or the name of a specific location. Taking the Long View, 1851-1991 offers over sixty-five panoramic photographs of the state from Hibbing to Fergus Falls.

Bird’s Eye View of Duluth, Minnesota, copyright 1914.
Taking the Long View, 1851-1991

Today in History – May 11-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia