The history of Bloomington can be traced back to the days before Minnesota was officially admitted as a state of the union. Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers (white people) to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the Minnesota River, close to where Portland Avenue is now.

The government had sent the Quinns to teach farming methods to the Native Americans and begin integrating them into the white man's culture. During the twenty years from 1940 to 1960, the city's population increased to nine times that of the population at the turn of the century. During the 1940s the city's development vision was low-cost, low-density housing, each with their own well and septic system. This was in part due to the post World War II boom and subsequent birth of the baby boomer generation. In 1947 the first fire station was constructed and equipped at a cost of $24,000 and the Bloomington Volunteer Fire Department was established with 25 members.

The 1980s brought a radical change to Bloomington with the departure of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. In 1982, the last baseball game was played at Metropolitan stadium (Twins 2, Kansas City Royals 5) as the Twins and Vikings moved to the newly constructed Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis.

In 1985, the Bloomington Port Authority purchased the 86-acre Met Stadium site and in less than two years approved first site plans for Mall of America. Two years later, ground breaking took place for the new megamall, and in 1992 it was opened to the public. Today, tenants of Mall of America, when combined, constitute the largest private sector employer in Bloomington, employing about 13,000 people. A number of new city buildings were constructed in the 1970s. In 1970 Jefferson High School, Bloomington Ice Garden rink one and a fourth fire station were built. School enrollment peaked with 26,000 students, and the fire department had grown to a force of 105 men. It was not until after a six hour city council meeting, were women allowed to join the Bloomington Fire Department (the city's first female firefighter, Ann Majerus, would not join the department until 1984). In second rink was added to the Bloomington Ice Garden and fifth fire station, and subsequent sixth in were also built.

In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars hockey team moved to Dallas and a year later the Metropolitan Sports Center was demolished.

In 2004, an IKEA store opened on the west end of the former Met Center site. The remainder of the property is planned to be the site for Mall of America Phase II.
In May 2006 the Water Park of America opened for business. It is located just west of IKEA and Mall of America, on the other side of State Highway 77 and is promoted as being the largest indoor water park in the United States.