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 UPDATED:

SEP 17, 2019

ORIGINAL:

NOV 9, 2009

Minnesota
HISTORY.COM EDITORS

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CONTENTS

1. Interesting Facts
2. PHOTO GALLERIES
Minnesota became the 32nd state of the union on May 11, 1858. A small
extension of the northern boundary makes it the most northerly of the 48
conterminous U.S. states. (This peculiar protrusion is the result of a boundary
agreement with Great Britain before the area had been carefully surveyed.)
Minnesota is bounded by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to
the north, by Lake Superior and Wisconsin to the east, by Iowa to the south
and South Dakota and North Dakota to the west. Minnesota is the home of the
Mall of America, which holds more than 400 stores and attracts nearly 40
million people a year.

Date of Statehood: May 11, 1858

Capital: St. Paul

Population: 5,303,925 (2010)

Size: 86,935 square miles

Nickname(s): Land of 10,000 Lakes; North Star State; Gopher State

Motto: L’Étoile du Nord (“Star of the North”)

Tree: Red Pine

Flower: Pink and White Lady Slipper

Bird: Common Loon
Interesting Facts
 On December 26, 1862, 38 of 303 convicted Dakota Indians were
hanged in Mankato in the largest mass execution in American history.
Frustrated by the U.S. government’s failure to make treaty payments on
time and supply their families with food as promised, a group of warriors
killed several settlers, igniting an armed conflict that lasted four months.
Although President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 264
convicted Dakota, Congress passed a law expelling all Dakota bands from
Minnesota a few months later.
 The first successful open heart surgery was performed on a 5-year-old
girl on September 2, 1952, by Dr. Floyd John Lewis and Dr. Clarence
Walton Lillehei at the University of Minnesota. With her body temperature
reduced to 81 degrees Fahrenheit, the girl was able to survive for 10
minutes while the doctors repaired a congenital hole in her heart.
 Bloomington’s Mall of America, which opened in 1992, is the most
visited shopping mall in the United States with roughly 40 million visitors
each year. The megastructure encompasses 4.2 million square feet—
enough space to fit 32 Boeing 747s inside.
 The skyway system in downtown Minneapolis is the world’s largest
continuous indoor network of pedestrian pathways, stretching eight miles
and connecting 73 blocks—making it possible to sleep, eat, work and shop
without ever needing to step foot outside.

 Minnesota’s nickname is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” A more precise

moniker would be the “Land of 11,842 Lakes.”
PHOTO GALLERIES
Minnesota

8
GALLERY

8 IMAGES

Citation Information
Article Title
Minnesota
Author
History.com Editors
Website Name
HISTORY
 URL
https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/minnesota
Access Date
May 15, 2020
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
September 17, 2019
Original Published Date
November 9, 2009
BY

 HISTORY.COM EDITORS

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