February 2012
30 posts
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Attack of "Beaver 55"
Seven Members of the Anti-War “Minnesota 8,” Several of Whom Carried Out the “Beaver 55” Raid (Photo by Cheryl Walsh Bellville)
On February 28, 1970, several anti-war activists calling themselves “Beaver 55” broke into three Twin Cities Selective Service offices and destroyed thousands of draft records. Their coordinated act of idealistic vandalism crippled...
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Seige at Wounded Knee
AIM Leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks at Wounded Knee, 1973
On February 27, 1973, about 200 Native American activists seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The occupation, which was led in large part by leaders of the Minnesota-based American Indian Movement (AIM), grew out of internal disputes among Pine Ridge’s Oglala Sioux...
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Death of a Racer
Polaris’s Factory Racing Team (Jerry Bunke, Far Right), mid 1970s
Snowmobile manufacturers, including Minnesota-grown Polaris and Arctic Cat, had begun competing with each other on the race track in the late 1960s. By the mid 1970s, professional snowmobile racing was a wildly popular sport with a rabid fan base. Polaris’s factory racing team enjoyed its greatest success with a...
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Planned Parenthood in Flames
Fire at the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Highland Park, 1977
An arsonist set fire to the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood on February 23, 1977. The fire caused $250,000 in damage and forced the suspension of abortion services at the clinic for six months. Anti-abortion protesters had targeted the clinic since it opened a year earlier, but the leaders of...
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Run, Harry, Run
Harry Davis in Campaign Mode, 1971
On February 20, 1971, Harry Davis won the DFL endorsement in Minneapolis’s mayoral race, becoming the first black Minneapolitan to run for mayor under a major party banner. Davis eventually lost big to incumbent Charlie Stenvig in the general election. The fact that Stenvig—a confrontational former cop who played off voters’ fears about crime—could...
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The Case Against Reserve
Reserve Mining Company, Silver Bay, MN, 1970s
On February 17, 1972, the U.S. Justice Department sued the Reserve Mining Company, alleging that the firm’s taconite plant in Silver Bay, MN, was dumping waste rock contaminated with asbestos-like fibers into Lake Superior. The resulting legal battle lasted five years and raised serious questions about the safety of drinking water in Duluth...
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Heist of the Decade
Seven Stolen Rockwells. Top L-R: “Spirit of ‘76,” “So Much Concern,” and “Before the Date” (2); Bottom L-R: “Lickin’ Good Bath” and “A Hasty Retreat.”
On February 16, 1978, someone stole seven Norman Rockwell paintings that were on display at Elayne Galleries in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. Together, the works...
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Our Mom is Best
Ruth Youngdahl Nelson with daughters Mary and Elizabeth, 1954
On February 15, 1973, a national organization called American Mothers announced that it had chosen Minnesotan Ruth Youngdahl Nelson as its National Mother of the Year. Mrs. Nelson was a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, the wife of a Lutheran minister, and the mother of four grown children. She was, by all accounts, a really...
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A Domed City for Northern Minnesota?
Early Artist Conception of the Minnesota Experimental City
On February 12, 1973, an obscure state agency called the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC) Authority announced that it wanted to build a new city—with a population of a quarter of a million people—in northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County, about 30 miles south of Grand Rapids. Plans for MXC had been in the works since the mid 1960s....
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Minnesota Ratifies the ERA
Minnesota’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, on February 8, 1973, came nearly 11 months after the ERA’s passage by the U.S. Congress. Nine more states approved the amendment after Minnesota, but that wasn’t enough to secure its success. The ERA eventually died when it failed to secure the requisite 38 state ratifications by the March 22, 1979, deadline.
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The Debut of Steve and Sharon
KSTP-TV launched “Twin Cities Today” with hosts Steve Edelman and Sharon Anderson on February 2, 1976. The show’s later incarnation, “Good Company,” became the most popular locally-produced talk show in the United States. (Not quite Oprah, but not bad for a little Minnesota-made trifle).
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