A running record of openings, closings, debuts, last shows, and small civic firsts. Updated by the calendar, not by the news cycle. If we missed an anniversary you care about, send a tip.
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The Hüsker Dü and Sugar guitarist who rewired American underground rock was born in Malone, NY, but built the band in Minneapolis.
Wind chills hit -50F and the Como Zoo polar bears refused to come outside. The metro saw three days of school closures statewide.
Founded in response to a New York reporter who called Saint Paul "another Siberia, unfit for human habitation." It is older than the modern Olympic Games.
A Serious Man, the Coens' Twin Cities-set film, screened at the Walker. The brothers grew up in St. Louis Park.
The IDS Center stopped its decades-long Easter window display. A Minneapolis institution, quietly retired.
After the Minneapolis Miracle, the Vikings' Skol chant moved from stadium ritual to citywide sound. Heard at Target Field by April.
The smaller room next to the Mainroom opened with a Hüsker Dü warmup show. The Entry has been the Twin Cities band-launching room ever since.
The decade-old Lowertown dining room served its last service. The corner of Sixth and Sibley is going to feel different at dinner.
The longest continuously running professional theater in the United States in Excelsior. Eighty-four years.
The Edward Larrabee Barnes building opened on Hennepin. The current Herzog & de Meuron expansion sits next door.
Prince Rogers Nelson died at his Chanhassen studio at 57. Within hours the IDS Center, the Lowry, and the I-35W bridge were lit purple.
The dining-car diner at 36 West 7th Street had operated since 1939; it went round-the-clock on this day. Still 24 hours, still on the National Register.
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre held its first parade through Powderhorn. Fifty years and counting, still free, still a Sunday in early May.
Police killed two strikers and wounded sixty-seven on Bloody Friday. The strike won union recognition and helped reshape American labor law.
Killed by a Minneapolis police officer outside Cup Foods. The corner is preserved as a memorial maintained by the surrounding neighborhood.
Prince Rogers Nelson was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in South Minneapolis. He never moved away.
Frank Gehry's building above the Mississippi opened, replacing the original Vineland Place location. The cantilevered Endless Bridge faces the falls.
Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol on his thirty-fifth birthday in protest of his Warner contract. Reverted to Prince in 2000.
Sean Sherman's pre-colonial Indigenous food project began as a pop-up before evolving into the Mill District restaurant Owamni in 2021.
The Beatles played the Met in Bloomington in 1965; it was demolished in 1985 to make way for the Mall of America. A red plaque marks home plate at the Mall.
The Anson Northrup made the first navigation of the upper Red River, opening trade between Saint Paul and Winnipeg. The river turned the city into a port.
Twin Cities Pride moved from a small downtown march to a Loring Park festival. Now one of the largest free Pride events in the country.
The Mississippi River bridge collapsed during rush hour. Thirteen people died, 145 were injured. The replacement opened thirteen months later.
Filmed largely at First Avenue and around Minneapolis, the film made the city visible to people who had never been here. Tickets to the Mainroom doubled by August.
The first MN State Fair was held in Falcon Heights. It is now the largest state fair in the country by daily attendance.
The Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad ran its first train, kicking off the metro's growth as a regional rail hub.
Ann Kim's Northeast pizza-and-then-some flagship served its last meal. The hidden back-bar was one of the better rooms in the metro.
The Twins played their first home game in Bloomington after relocating from Washington D.C. They moved to the Metrodome in 1982, then Target Field in 2010.
The 42nd Vice President and 1984 Democratic nominee for President. He spent most of his political life in Minneapolis.
Bud Grant's Vikings ended a long losing streak against Green Bay. The chants of "Skol" arrived later but the rivalry was already old.
After 41 years, the Twin Cities alt-weekly closed. Four ex-editors started Racket the following year.
Twenty-eight inches of snow fell in 24 hours over the metro on Halloween. School closed for three days. The fastest October-November transition in city memory.
Minnesota voted Democratic for President for the ninth consecutive election, the longest streak in the country.
The food hall on the Schmidt Brewery campus on West Seventh did not survive the post-pandemic shakeout.
Springsteen played the now-demolished Civic Center on the River tour. Bootleg of the show still circulates as a high point of the era.
Demolition began for what would become the Philip Johnson IDS Center, completed 1972. The Crystal Court remains the symbolic center of downtown.
In a basement in South Minneapolis, four teenagers met to play together for the first time. They ended up at First Avenue, then on Saturday Night Live in flames.
Prince closed the millennium with a concert and afterparty at Paisley Park that reportedly went past 6am. Tickets were $1,999.