Минута прошла. (nominative -- subject of intransitive verb пройти)
A minute passed.

Я провел минуту слушая грызение своей крысы, Рапунцели. (accusative -- direct object of transitive verb провести)
I spent a minute listening to the gnawing of my rat, Rapunzel.

(I only used this example because I think the phonetic correspondence between the noun крыса ("a rat") and the verb грызть ("to gnaw") is a delightful example of two words coming from the same onomatopoeic origin.)