The World in 1858 from Bottineau Prairie Osseo Maple Grove Minnesota

• May 11, 1858, Minnesota becomes the 32nd state of the United States of America.
• GOLD was discovered near Denver, Colorado, initiating the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush.
• The first Transatlantic Cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. It failed in less than one month.
• The first pencil with attached eraser was patented by Hyman Lipman.
• About 96% of all deaths on the trails going West were due to diseases such as smallpox, typhoid and malaria.
• Average family size for an American couple was 5.42 children.
• Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was born.
• Stephen Collins Foster, songwriter for the people, was 32 years old.
• Edvard Grieg and Giacomo Puccini were born.
• Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held seven debates in Illinois, including the famous “House Divided” speech.
• The first non-stop stagecoach from St. Louis, Missouri, arrives in Los Angeles, California. Distance traveled and time: 2,600 miles in 20 days.
• The streetcar was patented.
• Rudolf Diesel was born. He was to be the inventor of the Diesel engine.
• Lake Victoria, source of the Nile River, was discovered.
• Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa for the capitol of Canada. Reason: It is more than two-days march to the U.S. border.
• Bernadette of Lourdes sees her first apparition of Mary.
• John Brown holds an anti-slavery convention.
• Fingerprints are used as a method of identification for the first time in France.
• Children’s book author Edith Nesbit (Railway Children) is born.