Michigan: A Historical Timeline

PRIOR TO 1700 PRE-EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
	Michigan’s Native American residents include the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi. They live by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Some tribes raise squash, corn, and rice.
1600	When European explorers arrive in the Michigan region, it is populated by the Algonkian Native Americans. The Chippewa and Menominee tribes live in the Upper Peninsula, while the Miami, Ottawa, and Potawatomi occupy the Lower Peninsula. It is estimated that the native population at the time is around 15,000. The arrival of Europeans has disastrous effects on Michigan’s Native Americans. Nearly two-thirds of the population dies from diseases brought by settlers, and many of the tribes lose their lands to the U.S. government. By 1838, nearly all the Native American villages in Michigan have been abandoned.
1612	French explorers Etienne Brulé and his companion Grenoble are likely the first European men to see Lake Superior, traveling from Quebec City to the Upper Peninsula.
1615	French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovers Lake Huron on his seventh voyage to the New World.
1668	Father Jacques Marquette founds the first mission and European settlement at Sault Ste. Marie.
1700–1799 EARLY EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT
1701	French Army officer Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac selects a site at Le Détroit ("the straits"), a waterway between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, and establishes a French settlement called Fort Pontchartrain. It is the future site of the city of Detroit, settled in an attempt to halt the advance of the English into the western Great Lakes region.
1760	The French surrender Fort Pontchartrain to the British, ending French rule in Detroit.
1763	Native Americans capture all the forts in Michigan except Detroit. Ottawa chief Pontiac leads a 135-day siege on the British Fort Detroit, but fails to secure it.
1776	The Revolutionary War. With the help of local Native American tribes, British forces continually attack American settlements in the Michigan region, conquering Detroit.
1783	Mackinac Island and the Michigan region pass into U.S. hands following the war-ending Treaty of Paris.
1787	The Northwest Ordinance defines the procedure for obtaining statehood in the Northwest Territory, of which Michigan is a part. It establishes the precedent by which the U.S. would expand westward across North America by the admission of new states, rather than by the expansion of existing states. It also sets the stage for balancing free and slave states.
1796	The British evacuate Detroit and abandon their posts on the Great Lakes after the implementation of the Jay Treaty. The Jay Treaty, between the U.S. and Great Britain, solves many issues left over from the American Revolution and averts further war.
1800–1849 STATE OF MICHIGAN
1800	The area of present-day Michigan becomes part of the Indiana Territory.
1805	The Michigan Territory is created, which includes all of the Lower Peninsula.
1812	The War of 1812. Detroit and Fort Mackinac surrender to the British. Many local Native American tribes, opposed to white settlement, side with the British against the U.S. government.
1815	American troops retake Detroit, and Fort Mackinac is also returned at the end of the war. Following the war, the U.S. forces most Native Americans to relocate from Michigan to reservations in the west.
1819	The Treaty of Saginaw cedes nearly 6 million acres of Native American lands to Michigan settlers.
1825	The Erie Canal opens, connecting the navigable waters of the middle Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. This speeds up transportation between the eastern states and the western territories, making it possible to transport goods and increasing migration to the west.
1835	The Toledo War, a bloodless dispute over the Michigan-Ohio boundary, begins. Michigan is not admitted to the Union because it would not surrender its claim to the Toledo strip. The area is finally surrendered to Ohio in exchange for Michigan’s surrendering the western section of the Upper Peninsula.
1837	(January 26) Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the Union.
1842	Copper and iron ore are discovered on the Upper Peninsula, which attracts thousands of prospectors and miners. Copper mining begins near Keweenaw Point.
1847	Michigan becomes the first English-speaking jurisdiction to abolish the death penalty.
1850–1899 THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERAS
1854	(July 6) The Republican Party is officially organized in Jackson, Michigan, on an anti-slavery platform. The party’s initial base is the Northeast and Midwest.
1860	(September 6) The Excursion steamer Lady Elgin sinks in Lake Michigan, killing 340 people.
1861	The Civil War begins. Over 90,000 men from Michigan serve in four years, mainly on the side of the Union.
1870s	Post–Civil War, the local economy becomes more varied and Michigan prospers economically. The lumber industry flourishes, and the state becomes the largest producer of wood in the country. Dairy farming also grows rapidly. The population doubles between 1870 and 1890 due to the prosperity of its industries.
1875	Michigan women are given the right to vote in school elections. Mackinac Island becomes the second U.S. National Park.
1894	Dr. John Harvey Kellogg files a patent in Battle Creek for "flaked cereals and the process of preparing same." His brother improves the breakfast food flakes idea and founds the W.K. Kellogg Company in 1906. Today Kellogg’s is the world’s leading producer of cereal.
1896	Henry Ford makes a successful pre-dawn test run of his "horseless carriage," called a quadricycle, through the streets of Detroit. In 1899, he starts the Detroit Automobile Company.
1897	Michigan passes a law prohibiting the use of obscenities in front of women and children. The law is struck down in 2002.
1899	Sebastian Spering Kresge founds a store that develops into the Kmart Corporation. The first store in Detroit sells merchandise for 5 and 10 cents, leading to the discount-store term "Five and Dime."
1900–1929 EARLY 20TH CENTURY
1900	Henry Ford’s Detroit Automobile Company fails. It is revived in 1901 as the Henry Ford Company, but Ford soon leaves the company and the remaining owners dissolve operations and form the Cadillac Company.
1903	Ford forms the Ford Motor Company. It sells its first automobile, the Model A, in July.
1906	The Michigan State Telephone Company publishes a telephone directory using yellow paper for the first time, thus producing the first Yellow Pages.
1908	Henry Ford’s first Model T automobile rolls off the assembly line. The Ford Model T costs $825 and eventually 15 million sell. With the mass production of the Model T, Detroit becomes the world capital of the auto industry. It’s discontinued in 1927. (September 16) General Motors forms in Flint. GM will lead in global auto sales for 77 consecutive years, longer than any other automaker.
1913	Ford introduces the moving assembly line at his Highland Park, Michigan, plant. The assembly line reduces the time it takes to manufacture a car from 12 hours to 93 minutes. Production doubles, and the price of the Model T falls from $600 to $550.
1914–18	Michigan becomes a national leader in the manufacturing industries, filling a huge demand for military vehicles during World War I.
1915	The first Kiwanis Club is formally founded in Detroit, established as an organization for business and professional men devoted to the principle of service, the advancement of individual-community-national welfare, and to the strengthening of international goodwill. (July 24) The excursion ship Eastland capsizes in Lake Michigan and 852 people are killed.
1916	Henry Ford awards equal pay to his company’s female workers. Ford had instituted hiring practices in 1914 to identify the best workers, including women and disabled people, who were considered unemployable by other firms.
1918	Michigan grants women the right to vote two years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.
1924	The Book-Cadillac Hotel opens in Detroit. At the time, it is the city’s tallest building and the tallest hotel in the world. It closes in 1984.
1930–1949 THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II
1930s	The Great Depression causes severe economic hardship in Michigan. Thousands of auto industry workers are laid off, and the discovery of copper reserves in other states leads to unemployment for thousands of miners.
1941	World War II boosts Michigan’s economy. Auto plants are converted to war materials production, helping Michigan become known as the "Arsenal of Democracy." Thousands of African Americans migrate from the South to industrial jobs in Michigan, particularly Detroit.
1943	(June 20) Race-related rioting erupts in Detroit. Federal troops are sent in two days later to stop the violence, resulting in 34 deaths and 600 injuries. More than 1,800 people are arrested.
1947	Ed Lowe, a sand hauler in Cassopolis, recommends baked clay instead of sand for a customer’s cat box. The clay is normally used as an absorbent for factory oil spills. The cats like the clay, and Ed Lowe begins to market it as Kitty Litter.
1948	Michigan passes a law that prohibits women from serving alcoholic drinks in bars. The Supreme Court overturns it in 1971 on the basis of gender discrimination.
1950–PRESENT MODERN MICHIGAN
1957	The five-mile long Mackinac Bridge is completed, connecting Michigan’s peninsulas across the Straits of Mackinac. It is the world’s longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the western hemisphere.
1959	Berry Gordy, Jr. founds the record label Motown Records in Detroit. Motown plays an important role in the racial integration of pop music, as the first record label owned by an African American to primarily feature African-American artists. In the 1960s the "Motown Sound," a style of soul music with a pop influence, becomes wildly popular.
1965	(March 24–25) The University of Michigan holds the first "Teach-In" on the Vietnam War, beginning with a discussion of the draft and culminates with a takeover of the university. The event is attended by 2,500 and consists of debates, lectures, movies, and musical events aimed at protesting the war. The Michigan teach-in becomes a model for other college and university protests throughout the country.
1967	(July 23–30) The 12th Street Riot erupts in Detroit due to racial tensions. It lasts for eight days, leaving 43 dead, 2,000 injured, and 5,000 homeless. The rioting, looting, and burning are stopped by the arrival of 2,700 paratroops dispatched by President Lyndon Johnson. The violence causes many people to leave the city.
1987	(August 6) Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes while trying to take off from a Detroit airport and 156 die. The plane hits a freeway overpass following takeoff. The sole survivor is a 4-year-old girl.
1991	A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides and suspends his medical license. Kevorkian provides patients means and assistance in dying. In 2007 he is released from prison after serving eight years for the practice.
1995	The emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle fatal to North American ash trees, arrives in the U.S. By 2005 it has destroyed 15 million ash trees in Michigan.
2005	The Detroit area has more than 12,000 abandoned homes, a byproduct of decades of layoffs at the city’s auto plants and "white flight" to the suburbs. In November, the Ford Motor Company announces it plans to eliminate 4,000 salaried jobs, or 10 percent of its North American white-collar work force. General Motors Corporation announces a plan to eliminate 30,000 jobs and close nine North American plants.
2008	The federal government approves $80 billion loans to the struggling Big Three automakers based in Michigan (General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford).