On April 29, 1835, the Detroit Free Press carried an article (top of column three) describing Michigan militia efforts to confront Ohio surveyers as the battle for the southern portion of Michigan heats up. “Col. Hawkins, the Ohio surveyor, and nine armed men were taken prisoner and escorted to Tecumseh!” Another article (column 1) states the Toledo Gazette has made several scurrilous, abusive, and erroneous statements about the efforts of Michigan to impede surveyors of Ohio laying claim to Michigan territory. At any rate the Toledo War seems to be in full swing, at least in the newspapers of the day.
George Collin Baker of Chicago came to Detroit in January of 1892 with a detailed agenda. He checked into the Cadillac Hotel and set to work perfecting his plans to try out his wooden submarine torpedo boat in the Rouge River.
According to George Baker the submarine had a wooden hull, but it leaked only at the rate of two gallons in twenty-four hours. When the boat floated on the surface about sixteen inches of the top stuck out of the water, and the propeller wheel was driven by an engine with steam. When submerged a storage battery, one of the largest of its kind and possessing the power of fifty horses, furnished the power. The storage battery also furnished electric light under water, “a good strong light,” according to Baker. The submarine had reached a speed of eight miles per hour practically submerged.
George Baker had a visionary imagination as far as the utility of his submarine. He thought that it could be used to plant torpedoes beneath a war vessel. The Civil War navies had begun to explore this avenue of underwater warfare with the Hunley and Housatonic, but George Baker seemed to foretell the Navy Seals of the two twentieth century world wars. He thought his submarine could also be used to locate wrecks. It would assist the explorations of divers by using a powerful electric light that threw a bright light a distance of sixteen feet when the boat was under water. The light was manipulated from an iron projection from the top of the boat known as a conning tower. Baker described it further by saying, “The tower is much the size and shape of a stiff hat and is provided with peep-holes on all sides, the glass being heavy plate an inch thick.”
On Saturday, April 2, 1892, George Baker conducted an experimental run of his submarine in the River Rouge near the exposition grounds. He had counted on fifteen and a half feet of water, but heavy northeast winds had blown for at least a day before the trial and the wooden submarine scraped on the bottom when it submerged. Undaunted, Baker planned another trial for the following week. On April 29, 1892, he ran a successful trial with Goddard, his construction foreman. They submerged the Baker Boat for an hour and fifty minutes in the River Rouge.
Sources :
Kathy Warnes, “Submarine Trials in the Rouge River”, Definitely Downriver Blog, April 2012.
Kathy Warnes, “Baker’s Boat”, Michigan History, November/December 2013., pp.20-23.
On this day, the John Phillip Sousa Band played his new march, Stars and Stripes Forever at the corner of Larner and Brush streets in Detroit.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
Also see John Philip Sousa wikipedia entry
Deborah Ann Stabenow ; née Greer, born April 29, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Michigan, a seat she has held since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she became the state’s first female U.S. senator after defeating Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in the 2000 election. Before her election to the Senate, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan’s 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2001. Previously, she served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and in the Michigan State Legislature.
Stabenow was reelected to Senate in 2006, 2012 and 2018. She became the state’s senior U.S. senator upon Carl Levin’s retirement in 2015. Stabenow chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee from 2011 to 2015 and again since 2021. She became chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in 2017. At the start of the 118th Congress, Stabenow became the dean of the Michigan congressional delegation, upon the retirement of Representative Fred Upton. In January 2023, she announced that she would not seek reelection in 2024.
Source : Debbie Stabenow wikipedia entry.
On April 29, 2004 the final Oldsmobile drove off the line at General Motors’ Lansing Car Assembly plant.
That dark cherry Alero sedan represented the send-off to a nameplate founded in the city more than a century ago by the son of a machinist.
It was a bitter farewell, the Lansing State Journal reports, but one tempered by the promise of new car industry jobs in Lansing for years to come in the form of new plants making other GM brands.
The Detroit automaker was criticized locally for killing the Oldsmobile division, but it might have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
GM now has four nameplates, all of which have at least one vehicle built in Lansing: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.
Source : “Final Oldsmobile rolled off Lansing line 10 years ago”, Detroit Free Press, April 28, 2014.
Also see Laurie Hollinger, “From the Archives: Oldsmobile through the years – Coming in Sunday’s LSJ: A look at the 10 years since the end of Olds”, Lansing State Journal, April 25, 2014.
The Flag of the State of Michigan depicts the state’s coat-of-arms on a dark blue field, as set forth by Michigan state law. The state coat of arms depicts a light blue shield, upon which the sun rises over a lake and peninsula, and a man with raised hand and holding a long gun representing peace and the ability to defend his rights. As supporters the elk and moose are derived from the Hudson’s Bay Company coat of arms, the first defacto government of Michigan when it was called Canada, and depict great animals of Michigan. The bald eagle represents the United States which formed the State of Michigan from the Northwest Territory.
The design features three Latin mottos. From top-to-bottom they are:
1. On red ribbon: E Pluribus Unum, “Out of many, one”, a motto of the United States
2. On light blue shield: Tuebor, “I will defend”
3. On white ribbon: Si Quæris Peninsulam Amœnam Circumspice, “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you” (the official state motto)
The present flag, adopted in 1911, is the third state flag. The first flag featured a portrait of Michigan’s first governor, Stevens T. Mason, on one side and the state coat of arms and “a soldier and a lady” on the other side. The second flag, adopted in 1865, displayed the state coat of arms on one side and the United States coat of arms on the other.
The current Michigan flag was actually adopted on June 26, 1911, but April 29 was a slow Michigan fact day, so what the heck.
For more information, see State of Michigan Flag wikipedia entry
Since Macomb County helped deliver the presidency to Donald Trump, he decided to return the favor Saturday night.
He came to Washington Township to tout his record since being inaugurated in 2017 and urge a huge crowd at the Total Sports Park arena to get to the polls in November to elect Republicans.
While the 80-minute speech was filled with talk of the need for a wall at the southern border and a continuation of removing regulations and cutting taxes, Trump also made some news for Michigan at the rally when he said he wants the federal government to fix the badly deteriorating Soo Locks, which connect Lake Superior and Lake Huron in Sault Ste. Marie. The locks are crucial to the shipping industry in Michigan.
“Your lock, it’s not looking too well,” Trump told the crowd, pledging, “We’re going to start (on an upgrade) as soon as I get back” to Washington, D.C.
In fact, depending on how long his speech ran, he said he might even call the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the project Saturday night, though it might not happen until Sunday.
Trump has only made one visit to Michigan as president — an event in Ypsilanti Township in March 2017, when he talked about revisiting fuel standards for vehicles and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
For the full article, see Kathleen Gray, Aleanna Siacon, Paul Egan, “President Donald Trump tells Michigan crowd: I love this state“, Detroit Free Press, April 29, 2018.
For another see Jonathon Oosting and Beth LeBlanc, “Trump: Let’s fix the Soo Locks“, Detroit News, April 29, 2018.
A Michigan judge found that while Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order does “temporary harm” to the constitutional rights of Michigan residents, the harm doesn’t outweigh the public health risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak.\
Steve Martinko, owner of an Oakland County landscaping business, and four other Michigan residents filed a lawsuit against the governor and other state officials claiming the stay-at-home order infringes on their constitutional rights and should be declared invalid. The “mandatory quarantine” and in-state travel restrictions violate due process rights, the plaintiffs argued.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray ruled in favor of Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Department of Natural Resources Director Daniel Eichinger on Wednesday, April 29.
“Our fellow residents have an interest to remain unharmed by a highly communicable and deadly virus,” Murray wrote in his opinion. “And since the state entered the Union in 1837, it has had the broad power to act for the public health of the entire state when faced with a public crisis.”
The stay-at-home order was first put in place March 24, suspending activities “not necessary to sustain or protect life.” It’s been extended through May 15 – with fewer restrictions.
Martinko is the owner of Contender’s Tree and Lawn Service in Waterford and Farmington Hills. He’s also part of a separate lawsuit filed in federal court, which also seeks a court order to end the stay-at-home order as well as financial damages. That lawsuit is still pending.
Forcing Whitmer to end the stay-at-home order would not “serve in the public interest,” Murray ruled.
The plaintiffs in the Court of Claims case also attacked Michigan’s Emergency Management Act for giving the governor “uncontrolled, arbitrary power.” Murray disagreed, saying the act lays out specific procedures and criteria for the governor to declare a state of emergency.
“I am pleased with the court’s decision,” Nessel said in a news release. “This pandemic has already taken more than 3,600 lives in Michigan and many more around the world. The primary goal of the Stay Home, Stay Safe order has always been to protect human life.”
Plaintiffs also argued Whitmer should have only quarantined people who have the virus, or impose restrictions on certain regions of the state.
“Monday morning quarterbacking is the role of sports fans, not courts reviewing the factual basis supporting executive action to protect the public health,” Murray said. “Instead, it is the role of the executive and legislative branches to determine what steps are necessary when faced with a public health crisis.
Source : Taylor DesOrmeau, “Judge rules Michigan stay-at-home order doesn’t infringe on constitutional rights“, MLive, April 29, 2020.
Congress appropriated $10,000 to survey a road between Detroit and Chicago. The Territorial Road or Great Sauk Trail is now US12.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
Yost in 1902
Fielding Harris Yost (April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Kansas, Stanford University, San Jose State University, and the University of Michigan, compiling a college football career record of 198–35–12. During his 25 seasons as the head football coach in Ann Arbor, Yost’s Michigan Wolverines won six national championships, captured ten Big Ten Conference titles, and amassed a record of 165–29–10.
From 1901 to 1905, his “Point-a-Minute” squads had a record of 55–1–1, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2,821 to 42. The 1901 team beat Stanford, 49–0, in the 1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football bowl game. Under Yost, Michigan won four straight national championships from 1901 to 1904 and two more in 1918 and 1923.
In 1921, Yost became Michigan’s athletic director and served in that capacity until 1940. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951. Yost was also a successful business person, lawyer, and author; but he is best known as a leading figure in pioneering the development of college football into a national phenomenon.
Fielding Yost’s first contract called for U-M to pay him a $2,300 salary and required him to coach the team “to the best of his knowledge and ability” beginning in September 1901 “and continuing until the last game is played.”
Source :