March 3, 1849: Minnesota organized as a territory.
Sept. 3, 1849: First state Territorial Legislature convenes.
Feb. 26, 1857: Congress passes enabling act authorizing a state government for Minnesota.
June 1, 1857: Republican and Democratic delegates elected to state's constitutional convention.
July 13-Aug. 29, 1857: Minnesota constitutional convention held in St. Paul.
Oct. 13, 1857: Minnesota voters ratify state constitution and elect executive, legislative and judicial officers.
Dec. 3, 1857: First Minnesota Legislature convenes.
May 11, 1858: Congress approves Minnesota's constitution and admits Minnesota as the 32nd state in the union. News of the bill's passage takes two weeks to reach St. Paul.
May 24, 1858: Minnesota state officers take oaths of office. Henry H. Sibley assumes office as Minnesota's first governor.
1868: Minnesota voters ratify constitutional amendment giving blacks the right to vote. 39,493 voted in favor of the amendment, while 30,121 voted no.
Aug. 22, 1888: Minnesota Farm and Labor Party organized from the combined Minnesota Alliance, a farmers group, and the Knights of Labor. The Farm and Labor party disintegrated following the failure of Ignatius Donnelly's candidacy for governor that year.
June 7-10, 1892: Minnesota hosts Republican National Convention.
Sept. 18, 1900: First direct primary election in the U.S. is held in Minnesota.
Jan. 3, 1905: Minnesota Legislature meets in the new Capitol building for the first time.
Aug. 24, 1918: Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party organized from the Nonpartisan League and the Minnesota Federation of LaborSeptember 1919: Minnesota becomes the 15th state to ratify the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote in state and national elections.
Jan. 2, 1923: Minnesota Legislature convenes with its first women members in the House.
Nov. 4, 1930: Floyd B. Olson elected governor on the Farmer-Labor ticket promising radical economic reform in response to the Great Depression.
Nov. 8, 1938: Republican Harold Stassen elected governor at age 31, sweeping Farmer Labor officials from office.
April 27, 1943: Stassen resigns to enter the Navy.
April 15, 1944: Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party formed with the merger of the Farmer-Labor Party and the Democratic Party
Nov. 2, 1948: Hubert H. Humphrey elected to U.S. Senate.
Nov. 2, 1954: Coya Knutson elected to U.S. House, becoming the first woman from Minnesota to be elected to Congress.
March 21, 1963: Karl Rolvaag declared winner of 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial race, defeating incumbent Elmer L. Andersen by 91 votes in a recount that took 139 days.
Nov. 3, 1964: Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey elected U.S. vice president.
Aug. 28, 1968: Hubert H. Humphrey wins the Democratic presidential nomination.
Nov. 5, 1968: Hubert H. Humphrey loses presidential race to Richard Nixon.
Nov. 3, 1970: Minnesota voters ratify constitutional amendment reducing the voting age from 21 to 19.
Nov. 7, 1972: The DFL gains control of the Legislature; it's the first time since 1859 that Democrats have a majority in both houses.
Aug. 13, 1973: Gov. Wendell Anderson appears on the cover of Time magazine as a symbol of the good life in Minnesota.
Nov. 2, 1976: Senator Walter Mondale elected vice president of the United States.
June 1977: Justice Rosalie Wahl becomes the first woman appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Jan. 13, 1978: Hubert H. Humphrey dies.
Jan. 25, 1978: Muriel Humphrey is appointed to her late husband's Senate seat becoming the first woman to serve in the Senate from Minnesota.
Nov. 8, 1978: Republicans end decades of DFL dominance as they win two U.S. Senate seats and the governorship in the Minnesota Massacre.
1980: Minnesota voters ratify constitutional amendment requiring campaign spending limits for executive and legislative offices and public disclosure of campaign spending for all state candidates.
Nov. 2, 1982: Minnesota voters ratify constitutional amendment authorizing on-track pari-mutuel betting on horse racing.
1988: Minnesota voters ratify constitutional amendment to permit the legislature to authorize a state-operated lottery.
July 11, 1991: Rep. Dee Long of Minneapolis becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the Minnesota House.
Nov. 3, 1998: Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is elected governor of Minnesota.
Jan. 29, 2002: Mee Moua becomes the nation's first Hmong state legislator when she wins a special election to fill the seat vacated when Randy Kelly was elected mayor of St. Paul.
Oct. 25, 2002: U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone dies in plane crash.
Nov. 5, 2002: Former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman defeats Walter Mondale in U.S. Senate election; state Rep. Tim Pawlenty elected governor.
Sept. 27, 2006: Twin Cities chosen as site of 2008 Republican National Convention.
Nov. 7, 2006: Amy Klobuchar becomes the first woman to be elected to U.S. Senate from Minnesota. Keith Ellison becomes the state's first black congressman and the first Muslim in Congress. Lori Swanson becomes the first woman to be elected Minnesota's attorney general.
