This day in Duluth in 1962 was declared “Robert Gilruth Day” to honor its native son, who had become a pioneer in manned space flight. According to biographer David Ouse, In 1936 Gilruth went to work as a flight research engineer for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA. When NASA was…

On this day in 1867, future Duluth mayor William Prince was born in Camden Ohio. The first mayor of the city under the commission form of government, Prince attended Oberlin College and found work there, first in the post office and later at the Citizens National Bank before striking out for Escanaba, Michigan, to work…

On this day in Duluth in 1885, the schooner Guido Pfister smashed aground along the South Pier of the Duluth Ship Canal. According to shipwreck historian Julius F. Wolff, “the incoming 198-foot, 694-ton schooner approached the piers at a good clip, her skipper expecting a waiting tug to take her through the canal. But the…

On this day in Duluth in 1906, the steamer B. F. Jones loaded 370,273 bushels of durham wheat from several different Duluth grain elevators—the “largest cargo of wheat that was ever carried on the great lakes and…doubtless the largest cargo of wheat ever floated in the world.” The cargo was shipped by Duluth’s Ames-Brooks company,…

On this day in Duluth in 1907, officials got their first look at plans by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham—famous for his design of the “White City” at the 1893 World’s Exhibition in Chicago—for a “civic center” grouping of municipal buildings in Duluth. They called for grouping the courthouse with new city and federal buildings and…

On this day in Duluth in 1885, the Duluth Volunteer Fire Department’s Hose Company #1 threatened to resign by November 1. Three days later, the Duluth News Tribune painted a grim picture. Without the hose company, it said, Duluth would essentially be without a fire department, and “there has been a fire every night for…

On this day in Duluth in 1892, the first train to drive the Duluth, Missabe, and Northern Railroad—the very first first railway leading to the newly opened Missabe Iron Range—left the Duluth Union Depot and headed for the mines first opened by the Merritt family of West Duluth, pioneers of Oneota Township. Newspaper reports of…

On this day in 1949, the trolley from Forbay to Fond du Lac made its final trip. Where the heck is Forbay, you ask? Forbay was a community located at the southernmost point of Thomson Township established by the Great Northern Power Company, predecessor to Minnesota Power, in 1905 for its hydro station workers and…

On this day in 1864, future Duluth resident and the last surviving member of the Union Army, Albert Woolson, enlisted as a musician for one year’s service in the 1st Regiment Minnesota Heavy Artillery at Janeseville, Minnesota, near Mankato. He was assigned to Company C of the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment, detailed to the…

On this day in Duluth in 1938, pranksters set off the cannon that was on display in front of Duluth’s historic Central High School. The cannon was a relic of the Spanish-American War, a Spanish artillery piece taken from the Spanish cruiser Oquend and sent to Duluth in 1899. Its barrel had been filled with…