Fresh out of Kalamazoo Central High School, Derek Jeter is drafted by the New York Yankees on June 1, 1992. He would spend his entire career with the team, earning fourteen All-Star trips, five Golden Glove honors and five World Series championships.

Ojibwe and Sauk Indians attacked and massacred most of the garrison at Michilimackinac in an uprising popularly known as Pontiac's Conspiracy. They had suggested playing a game of baggitaway, kind of like lacrosse, in front of the fort in honor of the king's birthday in 1763. When the ball flew over the stockade wall, the Indians rushed

Nasa launched Gemini 4 on this day in 1965. Kalamazoo Central High and University of Michigan alum, James McDivitt commanded the mission, which lasted four days and made 66 orbits.

President Taft traveled to Jackson, Michigan to dedicate a boulder honoring the formation of the Republican Party on this day in 1910. The plaque read "Here under the oaks, July 6, 1854, was born the Republican Party. Destined in the throes of civil strife to abolish slavery, vindicate democracy and perpetuate the Union."

On this day in 1998, 3,400 members of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) walk out on their jobs at a General Motors metal-stamping factory in Flint, Michigan, beginning a strike that will last seven weeks and stall production at GM facilities nationwide.

Nicknamed The Fighting Falcon by local high school students who raised money to build it, the first glider to land in France on D-Day in 1944 was built in Greenville, Michigan, by the Gibson Refrigerator Company.

It's pandemonium in Detroit in 1997, as the Red Wings sweep the Philadelphia Flyers to win their first Stanley Cup in 42 years. Goaltender Mike Vernon is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff's Most Valuable Player.

A tornado hit Beecher, north of Flint, killing 116 people and injuring 844 on this day in 1953. It destroyed 340 homes and damaged 260. Another 66 farms, businesses and other buildings were destroyed or damaged. The twister caused $19 million in damage, the equivalent of about $173 million today.

St. Vincent's, the first hospital in Michigan, was opened by four members of the Sisters of Charity on this day in 1945. The facility began as a school, but converted to a hospital due to severe community need. It was one of several generous endeavors by the four Sisters of Charity that earned them a spot in

Michigan became one of the first three states to ratify the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in 1919. Nannette B. Gardner, a wealthy Detroit widow, had became the first woman to vote in a Detroit election back in April of 1871, but shockingly it would be nearly half a century before another woman

With the exception of one stone fort and the brick chimneys of wooden houses, Detroit was leveled to the ground by a fire that was believed to have been started by pipe ashes. Amazingly, no one died in what would be known as the Great Fire of 1805. It prompted the city's motto, "We hope for better

In a bout against the Milwaukee Brewers on this day in 2007, Tiger Justin Verlander becomes the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Comerica Park. He would repeat the feat again in an away game against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 7, 2011.

The Escanaba, a Coast Guard cutter built at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, and stationed in Grand Haven was lost on this day in 1943. While temporarily serving in the Atlantic to protect convoys during World War II, it sank with a loss of 101 lives. The only two to survive did so because their […]

Although the Lakers were the heavy favorite, the Detroit Pistons won the NBA championship series four games to one in 2004. The final game was played on home court at the Palace of Auburn Hills where point guard, Chauncey Billups, was named as the NBA Finals MVP.

Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs, who believed the game should only be played in the sun, finally gave in to modern times and the first night baseball game was played in the venue that would later be known as Tiger Stadium in 1948. The Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics 4–1.

At 9:30 in the morning on this day in 1903, Henry Ford and other prospective stockholders in the Ford Motor Company met in Detroit to sign the official paperwork required to create a new corporation. Twelve stockholders were listed on the forms, which were signed, notarized and sent to the office of Michigan’s secretary of state.

Taking its name from the nom de plume of a popular Detroit News columnist, the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon was dedicated on Belle Isle. Her readers had provided most of the money for the bell tower. An estimated 50,000 people came out for the ceremony, where the writer also revealed her true identity for the first time […]

The steamship Illinois, became the first ship to sail through the newly completed Soo Locks in 1855. Later that day, a steamer named Baltimore became the first vessel to, “lock through,” down-bound.

Three convicts escaped from the state prison in Jackson in 1912. They hid in a box car in the prison yards, and after the car was switched out onto the tracks, they broke the seal and escaped in civilian clothes they had hidden in the yard. Trainmen had heard the men talking in the car, but did […]

After a long and bitter struggle on the part of Henry Ford against cooperation with organized labor unions, Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with the United Automobile Workers of America and Congress of Industrial Organizations (UAW-CIO) on this day in 1941.   

Though they and new versions like them can now be found in bars everywhere, it wasn't until this day in 1972 that Governor William Milliken signed into law a bill allowing pinball machines in liquor establishments. Records show it took nearly thirty years of lobbying to make the games legal in drinking establishments.

Detroit resident, Joe Louis, a.k.a. "The Brown Bomber," won the title as heavyweight champion of the world by knocking out James Braddock on this day in 1937. Louis remained undefeated and retained his title until 1949

Two months before his famous oratory at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led over 125,000 people in the Detroit Walk to Freedom. He also spoke at Cobo Arena where he gave an earlier version of his iconic "I have a dream" speech on this day in 1963.

Jacob Young buys a parcel of land from a French settler named Joseph Bourdeaux, and becomes the first black person to own land in Detroit on this day way back in 1793.

The last Packard, a classic American luxury car with the famously enigmatic slogan “Ask the Man Who Owns One,”rolls off the production line at Packard’s plant in Detroit, Michigan on this day in 1956.

In a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II, the St. Lawrence Seaway is officially opened on this day in 1959, creating a navigational channel from the Atlantic Ocean to all the Great Lakes. This moment will forever change commerce in the region.

The rise of the automobile, especially after Henry Ford introduced the affordable Model T in 1908, paved the way for a national debate on aid for highways. The Federal Aid Road Act was approved by both houses of Congress onthis day in 1916, and would be signed into law by Woodrow Wilson a few weeks later.

A whopping 15,000 people turned out on a Thursday in the small town of Battle Creek, just to have a bowl of cereal at the world's longest breakfast table. The event was in honor of Kellogg's Golden Jubilee on this day in 1965. The tradition has continued in "Cereal City" ever since and now draws an estimated […]

On this day in 1966, Michigan State University sophomore, Lucille Annette Abrams became the first black contestant ever to enter the Miss Michigan pageant. The 20-year old contestant who played piano and violin, spoke French, and planned to study international law, served as Miss Lansing. She was sponsored by the Lansing Junior Chamber of Commerce.

The first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon, rolled off the assembly line on this day in 1953 at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan. Tony Kleiber, a worker on the assembly line, was given the privilege of driving the now-historic car off the line. It was one of just 300 Corvettes made […]