Born January 16, 1937 Blanche Martin was an academic all-American MSU football running back (1956-1959). The 1957 Spartan Football team were national champions, one of six seasons in the team’s history in which they held that distinction, and thanks in no small part to Martin. During that season, he scored 7 touchdowns and ran for over 600 yards. But Martin is known for so much more than being a great Spartan running back.
Dr. Blanche Martin (DDS, University of Detroit Dental School, 1967) was elected to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees in 1969, the first African American to hold the position. He chaired the Board from 1974 to 1976, and served on the board until 1984.
MSU Board of Trustees, 1969. (standing L to R) Don Stevens, Frank Hartman, Warren Huff, Frank Thompson (sitting L to R) Stephen Nisbet, Blanche Martin, C. Allen Harlan, Frank Merriman
Dr. Martin also made great strides in improving conditions for minorities at Michigan State, increasing minority hiring and enrollment. Dr. Martin was also a co-founder of the College of Urban Development at Michigan State University.
Source: Matthew Wilcox, Audiovisual Archivist, “Blanche Martin and the 1957 Spartan Football Team”, MSU Archives & Historical Collections Current Events Blog, January 16, 2017..
Snow trains brought hundreds of ski enthusiasts to the opening of the Caberfae Ski Resourt in 1938. Caberfae, whose name comes from the Gaelic word meaning stag’s head, was started as a joint project by the U.S. Forest Service, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Cadillac Chamber of Commerce, and local volunteers. Carved out of the Manistee National Forest, the resort is helped temendously by the large amount of snow, as well as many snowmaking machines. And skiers can’t forget that because Caberfae Peaks is the destination ski resort closest to major metro areas in Michigan they’ll spend less time in their car and more time on the slopes than anywhere else in northern Michigan skiing. With 34 runs spread out over 200 acres with 485 feet of vertical, one SKI reader commented that it’s “the best bang for your buck” in the region.
Check out Caberfae Peaks History
Caberfe Peaks Ski Resort courtesy of Pure Michigan.
On this day in 1955, Eastpointe, MI native Capt. Jerry M. Linenger (USN, Ret.) was born.
Captain Linenger received a bachelor of science degree in bioscience from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1977; a doctorate in medicine from Wayne State University in 1981; a master of science degree in systems management from University of Southern California in 1988; a master of public health degree in health policy from the University of North Carolina in 1989; a doctor of philosophy degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina in 1989.
He was selected in the fourteenth group of astronauts in 1992. His first mission was as mission specialist of STS-64 Discovery in September 1994. On January 12, 1997 he was launched on STS-81 Discovery (piloted by Pontiac-native Brent Jett) for 4-1/2 months onboard the Russian space station Mir. During his stay, Linenger became the first American to conduct a spacewalk from a foreign space station and in a non-American made spacesuit. Despite the difficulties he and his crewmates faced, such as the most severe fire ever aboard an orbiting spacecraft, failures of onboard systems, a near collision with a resupply cargo ship, loss of station electrical power, and loss of attitude control resulting in a slow, uncontrolled “tumble” through space, he still managed to accomplish 100 percent of his mission objectives. He returned to Earth on May 24, 1997 along with the crew of STS-84 Atlantis.
Captain Linenger has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Unit Commendation, National Defense Service Medal, Navy Battle Efficiency Award, Navy Commendation Medal with gold star, and two NASA Space Flight Medals. He was also the top graduate of the Naval Flight Surgeon Training and Naval Safety Officer’s School. Captain Linenger, who orbited Earth over 2000 times over 143 days, 2 hours and 50 minutes in space, retired from NASA and the US Navy in January 1998. He has authored two books: “Off the Planet“, and “Letters from Mir“.
The first photo shows Capt. Linenger enjoying an inflatable birthday cake while celebrating his 42nd birthday on STS-81 Atlantis while beginning his 4-1/2 month tour on Mir.
The second photo shows his flightsuit, uniforms, and other donated items on display at the Michigan Heroes Museum.
Recognizing that most PBS KIDS programming airs at times when kids are in pre-school and not in “peak kids media-viewing hours” of 5p-9p, PBS and Detroit Public TV are launching a new 24/7 PBS KIDS channel on January 16, 2017. Over-the-air in Detroit, the channel will be broadcast on digital 56.2, displacing WORLD, which will move to 56.4. Simultaneously, the 24/7 channel will be streamed live on the internet and viewable through dptv.org or the PBS KIDS video app. We hope you enjoy the new service which will differ from 56.1 during daytime, and present popular PBS KIDS programs such as Wild Kratts, Splash and Bubbles, Odd Squad, and many others, throughout the evening. Stay tuned and check your local listings.
View Schedule:
Did you see a bright light, or hear what sounded like thunder Tuesday night just after 8pm? Experts are saying that was a meteor.
The American Meteor Society received hundreds reports of a fireball all over Michigan. There were also reported sightings as far as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Ontario.
Some residents reported their homes shaking. NWS Detroit says the atmospheric pressure wave generated from the meteors penetration into the atmosphere caused a M2.0 earthquake to register on seismometers.
The meteor was estimated to be about 6 feet in diameter and was traveling around 28,000 mph. when it hit the atmosphere.
Due to snow cover, Michiganders may be able to find meteor pieces after the event.
Source : “Meteorite fragments scattered across Mid-Michigan“, WILX, Channel 10 News, January 16 and 17, 2018
Broomball is so popular at Michigan Tech that it now features its own newspaper, The Broomball Blitz! Here’s an article from the first edition explaining the phenomenon.
If you’ve never been to Tech in the winter before, you might not understand what that means to us here.
Around 2000 students participate every year, and for the two month season, you can’t walk across campus without hearing word of it. But there is more than just two months — as soon as registration opens in October you will walk through Wadsworth and see groups of students making brooms in various kitchenettes. That anticipation continues to grow until the bitter cold of January rolls in and we return from winter break to brave it out to watch our friends and halls get out on the ice, and more than likely fall in the first few minutes of play.
If you didn’t already know about it, let me explain Broomball for you from a spectators standpoint. We bundle up, wait in line for our free hot chocolate, and watch the ensuing show. The beauty of watching Broomball is that no matter the talent of the teams it’s still entertaining.
Good teams make play competitive and unpredictable, frequently resulting in nail-bitters and large comebacks. But even the less competitive teams are bound for entertainment: between the players slipping and falling everywhere and the randomness of the play, it’s bound for some good laughs.
So to all you new students, get yourselves ready. You all will soon learn what the hype is all about. Even if you don’t generally like sports, don’t be so quick to turn down this opportunity, you might regret missing out. If you play or just watch, come out and enjoy all the fun and excitement we all share every year!
Special events include a tournament and all-star game held every year at the time of Winter Carnival.
For more information, see History of Broomball at MTU
On January 17, 1862, Battery G, First Michigan Light Artillery, is mustered into federal service at Kalamazoo.
Recruited in Branch County , Battery G had an enrollment of 145 officers and men when it left for Kentucky one month later. During the course of the war, Battery G saw action at Chickasaw Bayou, Champion Hill, the siege of Vicksburg and Mobile, Alabama. The battery, which was mustered out of federal service on August 6, 1865, carried on its rolls 318 men. It suffered losses of 2 men killed in combat and 41 men, who died from disease.
Source : This Day in Michigan History, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
On January 17, 1899, the first military funeral for a woman in Michigan occurred when Ellen May Tower, a Byron native and a veteran of the Spanish-American War, received one. The daughter of a Civil War captain, Tower volunteered as an army nurse and cared for soldiers who returned from the war with injuries and disease. At one point, she was sent to Puerto Rico, where she died within three months. As was the case in 90 percent of American casualties in that war, Tower died of disease — typhoid fever.
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
Ellen May Tower Michigan Historical Marker
Byron to Remember Ellen May Tower, Argus Press (Owosso, Michigan), April 4, 1989.
The village of Byron and its heroine, Ellen May Tower / Kathryn E. Seward and Jennifer D. Freese Walkling. 72pp. Library of Michigan 2N F574.B97 S4 1980z
The Little Girl That Won the Car
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In 1910 the REO Motor Company of Lansing, Michigan offered a touring car to the young farmer under 20 who could raise the best corn in the state, judging to be held on the Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State) campus. At the time, Florine Folks was living on a farm with her parents near Hanover, Michigan. Her father had become interested in corn breeding. Since Florine had no brothers, she asked her father if she could enter the contest.
Her father plowed the land for her to use. She did the rest, planting and caring for the crop until finally she harvested it for the county corn contest in Jackson. “The time of the county show was a great day for me,” Mrs. Florine (Folks) Plumb says in the MSU Magazine 50 years later. “I remember it well because the men running the show took the club members to dinner. It was the first time I went out to eat.”
During the county contest Florine’s corn took first prize. The next step was to enter the state contest to be held on the East Lansing campus the week of January 17th (1911), where the sumptuous prize of a REO touring car would be awarded to the winner.
The competition was the idea of MAC Professor J. A. Jeffrey. He and other interested men wished to sponsor a statewide organization for rural boys and girls, to give the youngsters more social life while also training them for agriculture… their efforts later becoming 4-H. Jeffrey contacted Mr. R. E. Olds, the pioneer auto-maker from Lansing, who thought the professor had a fine idea, and offered to give a thousand-dollar automobile to the farmer under 20 who could raise the best 10 ears of corn in the state.
Mrs. Plumb said that her father took the corn to East Lansing and entered it for me. “I stayed home and did the chores. Going that far in those days would have meant missing two or three days of school, something my family wouldn’t hear of.”
The farmers assembled on campus undoubtedly were surprised when they learned that the prize-winning corn had been grown by a little girl, age 11.
The media immediately picked up on the story far and wide. One newspaper editorial extolled the young girl for having “done something of more substantial benefit to mankind than the average senator, to compare the work of our kings of politics with that of our queen of corn growers.”
Although the contest had been held during the winter months, it wasn’t until the spring 1911 that the prize could be delivered to the Folks’ farm because of the condition of the roads.
It was 1911 and Florine sat behind the wheel of her new REO touring car. In the back seat were her grandmother, mother and father. Next to her sat a visiting friend, Charles Burnett.
“A neighbor and my father took the train to Jackson to get the car,” Florine says. “I got permission to finish school early and then ran home to meet them.”
There were only two cars in the nearby town of Hanover when Florine won her REO. One belonged to the grocer and the other was the property of an undertaker. Her car was a snappy model in jet black with red wheels, a lot of brass trim and a side crank.
Florine’s father quickly taught her how to operate the two-cylinder touring car and she began to use it frequently around the farm. There was no driver-licensing in those days and it’s a safe bet that there wasn’t another farm girl in the country wheeling around in a flashy REO, top speed 17 MPH. Soon she was driving around town and to school, her shiny face peering out from the folds of her automobile scarf.
While the REO car is long gone, the strain of corn her father perfected became known as Folks’ Whitecap Yellow Dent, an open pollinated variety, whcih still exists today.
Sources :
National History 4-H Preservation Program
“50 Years Ago : A Little Child Lead Them“, Michigan State University Magazine, March 1961.
“Corn Show”, M.A.C. Record, January 24, 1911. Florine’s father also won a tile ditcher (worth $35) and two silver cups from the Gleaner and Michigan Farmer so the family did quite while at this contest held the week of January 17th.
Award-winning actor and voice of CNN James Earl Jones, who grew up in Dublin, Manistee County, was born on Jan. 17, 1931.
In 1936, when Jones was just five, his grandfather set out to move the entire family from Mississippi to northern Michigan, buying a farm — sight unseen — that was advertised to him as being in a Grand Rapids suburb. When he got there, however, the “suburban” farm turned out to be a good hundred miles north of Grand Rapids in southeastern Manistee County near the village of Dublin, Michigan. Despite the false advertising, John Henry decided to make the best of it, and renovated the property’s old commercial chicken house into the family home before sending for James Earl and the rest of the family.
Five-year-old James Earl did not share his grandfather’s enthusiasm for rural northern Michigan. In fact, the move proved so traumatic, Jones developed a debilitating stutter, and the man who would eventually come to have one of the most recognizable voices in all of acting (including being the voice of Darth Vadar) was essentially mute from age six until age 14.
A literature teacher at the local high school in Brethren, Michigan was key to Jones recovering his voice, and James Earl quickly developed a love of poetry. (The young James Earl’s favorite poem was reportedly Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha,” because it was set in the Great Lakes region.) When he was a freshman, James Earl even attempted his own riff on the Longfellow style, writing an “Ode to Grapefruit” after a much-appreciated mid-winter citrus shipment arrived by rail in Brethren from Florida. When the teacher discovered James Earl’s poem, he asked him to read in front of the class, and James Earl surprisingly discovered he could do it without a hiccup. It was the first step in a long road that eventually culminated in a statewide public speaking championship for Jones and a scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he studied for four years before moving to New York to pursue a career in acting.
Jones has won many awards during his illustrious acting career — an Oscar nomination for best actor for “The Great White Hope,” an honorary Oscar in 2011, and Tony Awards for his performances in “The Great White Hope” and “Fences.” His films include “Field of Dreams,” “Cry, the Beloved Country” and “Patriot Games.” Among his most well-known voice work is Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” series and Mufasa in “The Lion King.”
Sources :
Lou Blouin, James Earl Jones, Michigan Irishman, Found Michigan, March 13, 2012.
Zlati Meyer, Michigan History : “Manistee’s Jamse Earl Jones Born”, Detroit Free Press, January 11, 2015.
Chris Clark, “Here James Earl Jones Talk About His Michigan Childhood”, MLive, August 1, 2014.
James Earl Jones Talks About His Mentor Donald Crouch, MLive, August 1, 2014.
John Barnes, “Mufasa, Darth Vader, Terence Mann: They grew up in Michigan, where James Earl Jones found his voice”, MLive, October 4, 2014.
John Barnes, In search of James Earl Jones’ real ‘Field of Dreams’, MLive, October 5, 2014.