On April 17, 1802, the first city tax was collected in Detroit, bringing in a total of $150. Every adult was taxed 25 cents.
Source: Michigan History
The first issue of the Big Rapids Pioneer, a five-column folio, was printed on April 17, 1862. Charlie Gay was the proprietor, owner, and co-editor with Ceylon C. Fuller. The paper was under the same management for nearly 22 years and 140 years later the paper is still being published. Today, the Big Rapids Pioneer maintains a
website, a facebook page, and is available via Kindle.
Sources : Mecosta County wikipedia entry.
A six-foot-high seiche, or tidal wave, surged from Lake Michigan and swept 700 feet beyond the high water mark in St. Joseph.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
Over 10,000 Negro and white workers marched to Cadillac Square in Detroit to protest Negro discrimination.
Source : 10,000 Workers Protest Jim Crow in Detroit, spotted on Detroit Historical Society Facebook Page, September 10, 2015.
Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers became the youngest baseball player to win the league batting title.
In 1955 Al Kaline, who had signed with the Tigers the day after graduating from high school two years earlier, became the youngest player to win the league batting title. Kaline played with the Tigers for twenty-two seasons. Having hit 399 home runs, he finished his career with a .297 batting average. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
Former Gov. William G. Milliken signed a law on April 17, 1979 that ended a bounty on coyotes.
Coyotes are found throughout Michigan and have dispersed into southern Michigan without assistance from the DNR. Coyotes are found in rural to urban areas and are quite common but extremely good at remaining unnoticed by humans, even while living in close proximity. Their presence in subdivisions and urban or suburban areas, while surprising to many folks, is a result of increasing populations (both coyote and human) and encroachment of human environments into their natural habitat (from development of rural areas).
This member of the dog family is extremely adaptable and survives in virtually all habitat types common in Michigan. They are most abundant in areas where adequate food, cover, and water are available. The size of a coyote’s home range depends on the food and cover resources available and on the number of other coyotes in an area, but it generally averages between eight to 12 square miles. Mated pairs and four to seven pups occupy the home range during the spring and summer seasons in Michigan.
A Michigan coyote in winter.
Source : Reposted from Michigan House Democrats Official Blog, April 17, 2017
The 1965 Ford Mustang fastback on display outside the Ford Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair during its debut on April 17, 1964
Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday kicked off its 50th year of Mustang production with a special ceremony commemorating the 1 millionth pony car produced at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant.
Ford’s iconic pony car debuted on this day in 1964 in New York; since then, the Dearborn automaker has sold more than 8.5 million Mustangs and now has plans to sell the car in Europe.
For the full article, see Karl Henkel, “Ford kicks off 50th year of Mustang production”, Detroit News, April 17, 2013.
Adolph Alfred Taubman (January 31, 1924 – April 17, 2015) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist from Michigan. He pioneered the modern indoor shopping mall and was described by CBS News as a “legend in retailing” who became wealthy developing upscale shopping malls.
In his 91 years on Earth, A. Alfred Taubman was many things: shoe salesman, soldier, architect, shopping mall pioneer, billionaire, philanthropist, author, and owner of A&W root beer, the Michigan Panthers football team and Sotheby’s art auction house.
He also was federal prisoner #50444-054 for about 10 months, convicted in 2002 of antitrust violations — charges he always denied — stemming from a price-fixing scheme between Sotheby’s and chief art auction rival Christie’s.
His name, of course, will live on for decades in the many institutions that benefit from his philanthropic gifts, stretching in his home state from the College for Creative Studies and the Detroit Institute of Arts to Lawrence Technological University and the University of Michigan to Ivy League schools Harvard and Brown. He funded cutting-edge medical research from Ann Arbor to Israel.
Sources :
A. Alfred Taubman wikipedia entry.
Tom Walsh, “Al Taubman: A scrappy kid from Pontiac who never let up”, Detroit Free Press, April 19, 2015.
“Mogul and Mentsh: A. Alfred Taubman 1924-2015”, Detroit Jewish News, April 23, 2015.
“Shopping mall magnate, philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman dies at 91”, Crain’s Detroit Business, April 22, 2015.
Tribute to A. Alfred Taubman, Speech of Honorable Sander M. Levin of Michigan in the House of Representatives, May 1, 2015.
President Donald Trump targeted Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia in tweets Friday calling for officials to “liberate” the states amid protests over stay-at-home orders aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19.
Trump first tweeted “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” Then, a minute later, the president tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
Minutes after that, he added in another message, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
All three states have Democratic governors and all three governors have faced criticism for actions they’ve taken to combat COVID-19. The stay-at-home order by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is in effect until June 10, one of the longest orders nationally.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has faced opposition from Republicans and business groups that argue she went too far in her April 9 extended and expanded stay-at-home order. A Wednesday protest about the order in Michigan brought thousands to Lansing.
Many medical professionals have backed Whitmer’s measures. Dr. Mohammed Arsiwala, president of the Michigan State Medical Society, called the extension of her order “the wise thing to do.”
“Physicians and their health care colleagues are still in the middle of the battle to treat patients suffering from COVID-19 across Michigan,” he said.
But on Wednesday, thousands of people gathered in Lansing to protest the governor’s restrictions. Some of them carried signs and flags backing Trump, a Republican who is seeking re-election.
Source : Craig Mauger and Beth LeBlanc, “Trump Tweets ‘Liberate’ Michigan, Two Other States With Democratic Governors”, Detroit News, April 17, 2020.
Trump tweets ‘liberate’ Michigan, two other states with Dem governors
Trump tweets ‘liberate’ Michigan, two other states with Dem governors
Trump tweets ‘liberate’ Michigan, two other states with Dem governors
In the fall of 1836 the Kent Company purchased, for about $4,000, the office material of the Niagara Falls Journal, and shipped it from Buffalo on the steamer Don Quixote. The boat was wrecked off Thunder Bay Island, and the press and material were transferred to a sailing vessel, that reached Grand Haven late in the season.
When it was landed, George W. Pattison purchased the printing outfit for $4,100. During the winter he had it brought up the river on the ice by dog teams – six dogs to a sled. The sled, carrying the press broke through the ice some miles below the Rapids, and went to the bottom of the river, but the press was fished out and brought to town.
Nearly all the prominent citizens of the village were at the newspaper office to see the first issue of the Times come off the Washington hand press on April 18, 1837. Printed every Saturday morning, a prepaid annual subscription for the four-page, tabloid-size newspaper cost $2.50. Louis Campau subscribed for 500 copies for a year, paying $1,000 cash in advance, and the Kent Company also took 500 subscriptions.
The first copy was printed on silk-satin, and given to Campau. Others were printed on cloth and distributed for preservation as souvenirs. To get news from Detroit required from four to six days. Politically, a non-partisan newspaper, both Whigs and Democrats were given opportunity to air their views in its columns, which they did, most eagerly.
Sources:
Grand River Times entry from Grand Rapids Historical Commission.