Use our search function to find “This Day” entries for a specific day of the year. Spell out the month and include a comma after the date numeral, do not include a year, and place it all within quotation marks, like this: “May 1,”.
On this day in in 1917, future Duluth mayor Clarence R. Magney was born to Swedish immigrants in Trenton, Wisconsin. According to historian Walter Van Brunt, Magney’s father, Rev. Jonas Magney, was “brought to America in 1858 by his parents, who located at Center City, Minnesota, on a farm. Jonas Magney prepared himself for the profession…
Read More
On this day in 1955, Claude Allen Porter Turner, the engineer who designed Duluth’s Aerial Transfer Bridge, died at the age of 86 in Columbus, Ohio. Porter was working for the American Bridge Company in Minneapolis in 1899 when Duluth city engineer Thomas McGilvrary approached him with an idea: could the Duluth ship canal be…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1918, Duluth’s first female police officer, Miss Roy McGregor, had her initial training in the use of firearms. Jailer Al Root, considered a “good shot,” provided the lesson at the police target range “on the waterfront.” The story concluded that while “results of the practice were not made public,”…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1954, the “Singing Cowboy” Gene Autrey gave two performances of “Hot Show of 1954” at the Duluth Armory. The Duluth News Tribune reported that the “Hot Show” included comedian and Autrey sidekick Pat Buttram, musicians the Cass County Boys, human sound-effects machine Rufe Davis, the Melody Ranch Orchestra, and…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1906, 300 people gathered to witness the first event held by the Duluth Ski Club: a ski jumping exhibition on their brand new jump, named “Duluth Hill.” Forty-five Duluthians first organized the club at the St. Louis Hotel on November 21, 1905. Club founders—including noted Duluth architect John J.…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1886, the Duluth Board of Trade officially moved into its new headquarters at 302–304 West Superior Street. Made of pressed brick and red Fond du Lac sandstone with terra cotta trim, the building was one of the last in Duluth designed by George Wirth before he turned his firm…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1911, officer Harry Chessmore, 25, was shot and killed by William Melodrowski on a streetcar headed to police headquarters. Chessmore and other officers had arrested Melodrowski, 15, and his companion, Agot Johnson, also 15, on Garfield Avenue. The pair were suspected of tying and gagging Clarence Stubsted and Charles…
Read More
On this day in 1982, longtime-Duluthian and novelist Margaret Culkin Banning died in her home in Tyron, North Carolina. She was 90 years old. Banning was born March 8, 1891, in Buffalo, Minnesota. In 1897 her father was appointed by President McKinley to the post of Register of the Land Office in Duluth, and the…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1920, federal officials arrested West Duluth resident Carl Haglund on charges that he was an active Communist. Haglund had emigrated from Sweden in 1912 and first took out papers to file for citizenship in 1916, but he never completed the process. Haglund told officials he was not only a…
Read More
On this day in Duluth in 1914, the new Kitchi Gammi Club at 831 East Superior Street opened with a gala new year’s ball. The building was designed by renowned architect Betram Goodhue in the Jacobean style. Goodhue was hired by his friend Guilford Hartley, head of the Kitch’s building committee. The Kitchi Gammi Club…
Read More