This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week.

May 16

1898 Three regiments of the Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, with nearly 1,000 men in each, depart for training to fight in the Spanish-American War. Only the 13th Regiment would see combat, in the Philippines. The other two were stationed in Georgia, where dozens died from disease. The 13th saw six officers and 68 men wounded. More than 40 men died. Four were killed in action, three died from wounds and 34 died from disease. One man drowned. Other men from Minnesota volunteered but didn't leave the state. They stayed in various camps and were also ravaged by disease. In total, the war claimed 7,829 American soldiers, all volunteers, but only 1,239 were from battle wounds.

May 17

1931 Bloomington-born aviator Charles "Speed" Holman, 32, is killed during an air show in Omaha. A pioneer of aviation, his best-known aerial stunt was looping, and he had won the U.S. air speed trials in 1930. At his funeral, four 109th Air Squadron planes flew in the first recorded Missing Man formation, a vacant spot reserved in Holman's memory. Holman Field at the St. Paul Downtown Airport is named in his honor. He was an original pilot and manager at Northwest Airways, later to become Northwest Airlines. His nickname came from his early years of racing

motorcycles.

May 20

1927 Little Falls native Charles A. Lindbergh begins his famous trans-

Atlantic flight to Paris, which takes just more than 33 hours. In 1919, a French businessman, Raymond Orteig, offered a $25,000 prize to the first team to fly nonstop between New York and Paris. Six well-known aviators had already lost their lives in pursuit of the Orteig Prize when Lindbergh set out at 7:52 a.m. after loading the plane with 450 gallons of gasoline. Lindbergh climbed into the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis and gave the go-ahead to take off.

May 21

1882 Mark Twain visits St. Paul by riverboat from New Orleans while compiling research for his book "Life on the Mississippi," which is released the following year. It was 37 degrees when he reached the bluffs of St. Paul. He later wrote about his visit in Life magazine. "The season being far advanced when we were in New Orleans, the roses and magnolia blossoms were falling; but here in St. Paul it was the snow. In New Orleans we had caught an occasional withering breath from over a crater, apparently; here in St. Paul we caught a frequent benumbing one from over a glacier, apparently." He became more generous in the resulting book: "St. Paul is a wonderful town. It is put together in solid blocks of honest brick and stone, and has the air of intending to stay." His next visit to the state was in June of 1886, when he sailed into Duluth from the east on his way to Iowa to visit his mother.

This column is derived from MNopedia.org and developed by the Minnesota Historical Society. and its partners.