2000s: 10 key events

Jan 03, 2009 (Post-Bulletin - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- 2000: GOODBYE, DAYTON HUDSON

Dayton's Department Store was as much a part of Minnesota culture as Paul Bunyan and the annual Christmas display on the eighth floor at -- well, Dayton's. The store opened on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in 1902 and grew to become a major national retailer. But the whole idea of homegrown, full-service department stores was reduced to a tiny niche by January 2000, when Dayton Hudson Corp. acknowledged the obvious, that its Target Stores unit was the tail that wagged the dog. By 2001, Dayton's had become Marshall Field's, and in 2004 the department store unit was sold to Macy's.

2001: 'LET'S ROLL.'

Tom Burnett, a Minnesota native and California business, was just another passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11 when hijackers took control of the flight. Burnett talked with his wife by cell phone and told her, "We're all going to die, but three of us are going to do something." He was right about how all would die, but Burnett is among the best-remembered heroes of that awful day, which continues to shape world events.

2002: BIG NEWSPAPERS TAKE HARD FALL

The Minneapolis Tribune put out its first edition in 1867, 18 years after the Minnesota Pioneer (later the Pioneer Press) produced the first newspaper in what's now the Gopher State. The Trib (reformulated as the Star Tribune in 1987) was long considered one of the nation's top 20 dailies. In 1998 it was sold to McClatchy Corp. and eight years later was acquired by a private equity firm. Like many metro papers around the country, it's now on the ropes, even as Startribune.com is the state's top news Web site.

2002: A PLANE CRASHES NEAR EVELETH

Paul Wellstone channeled Hubert Humphrey for the 11 years he was in the U.S. Senate. No Minnesota Democrat in the years since HHH had the gusto, conviction and heart of Wellstone. Just a few days after a candidates forum in Rochester during his re-election campaign, he was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota, with his wife, daughter and five others. The course of Minnesota and perhaps national politics was changed.

2005: HOMETOWN HEROES DIE IN IRAQ

Travis Bruce, a 22-year-old Rochester native and Mayo High School grad who served in an Army military police unit, was atop a building in Iraq when he was killed in a rocket attack in March. He's among the more than 4,200 American military men and women -- patriots, all -- who have been killed in the Iraq war.

2006: ROCHESTER FINALLY LANDS THE U OF M

Rochester has longed for a college since its earliest days, when one of the major east-west streets was optimistically called College Street. In the 21st century, it has myriad higher education programs, but only in December '06 did the University of Minnesota commit to a genuine, full-scale Rochester campus.

2007: THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH IN MINNESOTA

Spring comes earlier. The ground freezes later in the year. Summers are hotter, winters are warmer. Storms, such as the epic monsoon that dumped 20 inches of rain on southeastern Minnesota in August '07, have become more frequent and violent. Does anyone really doubt that climate change is here? The state tiptoed into studying the problem last year with the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group, which produced an action plan in February of this year. Watch for action.

2007: THE DAY THE BRIDGE FELL

The event of the past decade that Minnesotans will likely remember longest is the day the bridge fell -- the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River just downstream from the U of M in Minneapolis. The 40-year-old steel truss bridge collapsed at rush hour on Aug. 1; 13 people were killed and 145 injured. It's miraculous that more didn't die.

2008: WHO'S OUR SENATOR?

More than 2.9 million votes were cast in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race in 2008, and according to state elections officials, a winner likely won't be named until 2009. At this point in the recount, DFLer Al Franken is leading by 47 votes in his challenge to unseat Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. If you ever doubted that your vote counts, even with millions of others voting around you, talk to Franken or Coleman.

2008: 'HERBERT HOOVER TIME'

The enduring legacy of the Bush years might be the economic disaster that only became fully apparent last fall, when credit markets seized up, real estate remained at low ebb, consumers quit spending and employers cut workers loose. Northwest Airlines prepared to merge with larger Delta; the Petters and Madoff Ponzi scandals rocked the Minnesota business world, and Best Buy offered buyouts to its entire corporate staff.

Where will it end?

-- Jay Furst, managing editor

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