During Prohibition, a truck hauling a load of Jack Daniels from Canada to Detroit broke through the ice and sunk. When federal agents noticed that Detroit residents were attempting to fish for bottles from the river bottom, they declared the practice illegal in an attempt to thwart the thirst residents!
Source : Michigan Every Day
This is how ‘It’ Looked: This drawing of one of the unidentified flying objects reported over Dexter Township last night was made by Sheriff’s Cpl. David B. Severance from descriptions provided by a half-dozen deputies and area residents. All witnesses generally agreed on the shape and size of the objects and on the colored lights which appeared on them. Ann Arbor News, March 21, 1966.
In the early morning hours of March 14, 1966, Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies reported sighting “four strange flying objects” in Lima Township. Soon police agencies from Livingston County, Monroe County and Sylvania, Ohio were also reporting “red-green objects . . . moving at fantastic speeds.” By the end of the day the Civil Defense and U.S. Air Force were called in to an investigation that has never really ended for many of those involved.
March 14, 1966 article from the Ann Arbor news described the area’s initial UFO sighting. (Source : Ann Arbor District Library Newspaper Archive)
Source : “Close Encounters in Washtenaw County”, Old News, May 30, 2012.
Drawing of UFO Sighted at Mannor Farm in 1966 , Ann Arbor News, March 21, 1966.
1966 : The Year UFOs Came to Michigan
UFO
Flying Saucer
King’s speech, dubbed “The Other America,” began innocently enough on this day. He explained that black children weren’t reaching their potential because of the deplorable learning environment.
“The schools are so inadequate, so overcrowded, so devoid of quality, so segregated if you will, that the best in these minds can never come out,” King said.
A woman shouted at King from the audience, joining other hecklers who called him a “traitor” and demanded he leave.
Those close to King noticed that his normally steady hands were shaking. His forehead glistened in sweat.
But he continued, and the hecklers were drowned out by deafening applause.
King’s speech was aimed at a white suburban audience. He urged supporters to stand up and oppose inequality.
“It may well be that we may have to repent in this generation for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time,” King said.
King could have been speaking today. The preacher said it was unacceptable that nearly 9% of the black community was unemployed. In Detroit, the current unemployment rate is 17%. Schools are virtual dropout factories. And more than half of the city’s children live in poverty.
“Until (racism) is removed, there will be people walking the streets, living in their humble dwellings feeling that they are nobody, feeling that they have no dignity and feeling that they are not respected,” King said. “The first thing that must be on the agenda of our nation is to get rid of racism.”
Hecklers continued to berate King. When he expressed opposition to the Vietnam War, which he called “unjust, ill-considered, evil, costly, unwinable,” some in the audience became incensed. Security removed three or four people.
An undercover FBI agent in the audience reported that King’s speech was peaceful.
Less than a year after the deadly 1967 riots in Detroit, King advocated nonviolence.
“I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt,” King said. “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
The audience erupted in applause; others booed.
A bewildered King spoke at a press conference after the speech, saying he had never faced such hostility at an indoor event.
It was one of King’s most memorable – and often overlooked – speeches. Read the entire speech here.
Three weeks later, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Source:
Steve Neavling, “Martin Luther King Jr. defied hecklers in Grosse Pointe speech in 1968“, Motor City Muckracker, January 15, 2017.
President Bill Clinton opens the G7 Jobs Conference, held at Detroit’s Fox Theater, March 14, 1994.
On March 14, 1994, President Clinton brought the leaders of the world’s industrial nations to the Fox Theater to have a meeting about jobs.
Countries represented included the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, italy, and Japan. The G7 would later become the G8 with the addition of Russia. While in Detroit, President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Mayor Dennis Archer jogged on Belle Isle.
Source : Detroit Free Press, March 11, 2012.
On March 14, 1997, more than 200,000 metro Detroit households lost power in the worst ice storm in the history of Detroit Edison.
Source : Detroit Historical Society of Michigan Facebook Page
Senior Leah O’Connor came through with another record-setting race and won her second career individual national title on Saturday as the Michigan State track and field squad wrapped up its 2015 indoor season at the NCAA Championship meet.
O’Connor was able to pull away from a loaded field of runners during the final 200 meters of the women’s mile race as she clocked in with a time of 4:27.18, the fastest time in NCAA Track & Field Championships history and the second-fastest overall time in the history of the NCAA. O’Connor also broke her previous MSU school record from the 2015 Big Ten Indoor Championships (4:32.29) by more than five seconds. She was recognized as a first-team All-American for the second consecutive year after finishing seventh with a time of 4:40.86 in 2014.
The championship was the second individual title of O’Connor’s career as she also won the women’s 3,000m steeplechase at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. She is the first-ever national champion in the women’s mile run from MSU and just the second women’s indoor national champion in program history, joining Sevetheda Fynes (1997). To view O’Connor’s post-race interview with Flotrack, click here.
“Unbelievable performance by Leah. It’s not easy to lead a championship race wire-to-wire like she did, especially against a phenomenal field that included last year’s 1,500 meter champion,” said Michigan State Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Walt Drenth. “She was patient and followed the plan flawlessly and just showed great poise throughout the entire race.
“She continues to get better every time she takes the track it seems. I have no doubt there’s more great performances to come from her in the outdoor season and the sky really is the limit for her. Not only has she been an exceptional leader, but she’s been an equally great person for our team and that’s just a testament to her and her family.”
Source : “Leah O’Connor Claims Women’s Mile Title At NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships”, MSU Track and Field Blog, March 14, 2015.
Grand Traverse Pie Co. has announced that anyone who places an order today will receive a free piece of pie on PI Day.
It’s almost time for the coolest (and yummiest) mathematical day of the year – Pi Day, March 14th (3.14).
We are excited to once again celebrate P-i Day with P-i-e! All 16 of our GT Pie Co shops are offering a free slice of Michigan ABC Pie with any purchase all day on Wednesday, March 14th. The most excellent part of all? The apples, blueberries, and cherries in our ABC Pie are all from Michigan. We are honored to shine a light both on the quality of Michigan’s agricultural bounty and the importance education plays within our state.
What is Pi? The symbol used by mathematicians to represent the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is the Greek letter π. That letter (and therefore the number π itself) can be denoted by the Latin word pi. In English, π is pronounced as “pie” of course. The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and is approximately equal to 3.14159.
At Grand Traverse Pie Company, our commitment is to make amazing pie with purpose. We are passionate about making a heartfelt positive impact on those we serve. Make plans to join all of our positive, good-hearted people on Wednesday, March 14th at any GT Pie Co. location. We hope you enjoy what we love to do most – serve handmade pie made from scratch every day, just for you!
History of Grand Traverse Pie Company
Dave Busley and wife Denise founded the Grand Traverse Pie Company in 1996.
“Denise and I met at Michigan State in the 1970s,” he replied. “We were both Michiganders - she was from Kalamazoo and I was from Lansing. We started our careers in 1980 in Southern California. And, after about 15 years of that we decided to come home to Michigan. We had a couple of kids and I just didn’t want to wonder - given the insecurity and downsizing going on in the aerospace business at the time [Busley, an engineer by training, worked for Lockheed] - if we were going to get laid off. We just didn’t have a passion for our work despite the fact that we were both successful in our careers. All this coincided with my 40th birthday and we wondered if this was it, was this who I am, is this it for now? What is the point that you come to before it’s too late to change?” he asked himself.
Deciding to Return to Michigan
Busley explained “that was one motivator. The other was that we wanted to move back home. We both wanted to live in Traverse City, even though we hadn’t before. So we kind of reverse-migrated and moved back this way. But, what were we going to do? The idea was that we would have our own business so the job security would be up to us. But what was that going to be. We couldn’t afford to buy an existing business so we would have to invent one.”
Busley said that he and wife Denise had “wandered into a small pie shop in Julian, California, which is a small tourist town east of San Diego up in the mountains, in apple country, and we fell in love with the feel of that business. It was mainly apple pie, it smelled great, everybody was having a great time, you could literally see the fruits of your labor (pun intended) on a daily basis. In a big corporation you write reports - there’s no sensual taste-sight-smell kind of thing - it’s a business trip to present a proposal to the Department of Energy. It’s kind of hard to get excited about that kind of thing after 15 years.”
At about that point, inspiration hit them. “Here we were looking at a pie shop. It looked simple enough that we thought we could figure it out. Of course, we had never baked a pie before. Fortunately, Liz Smothers, who owned the Julian Pie Company, said she’d train us. ‘I’ll teach you the business, the ingredients, the recipes, the equipment, the space - everything you need to know to make pie.’ So we learned the pie business but needed the money to actually start a pie company in Traverse City.” A local banker who believed in the couple put his name on an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan and, combined with their own money, it was enough to get the Grand Traverse Pie Company in business.
A Family Affair
Busley picks up the story from there. “Another aspect of the appeal of starting our own business in Traverse City was that our kids could actually interact with us on a professional level. When I was at Lockheed I was behind a wall of security guards and digital ID cards. The kids couldn’t see what I did or where I did it. So here at GTPC I could take them with me to get supplies, they could learn from me as I did things that they could actually see - no report writing. I could teach them a work ethic, and communications skills and management - in addition to how to make the bed and how to play catch. Neither one of them is going to take over the business, that’s not what it was about. Denise and I wanted to make sure that during those formative years our kids could learn more things from us in addition to what they could learn in school. The pie business could connect us with our family and our community. That’s kind of our core.”
Deciding after a few years to expand beyond their original fruit pie shop, the Busleys decided to expand their offerings and their physical operations by franchising their pie shops. “We have franchisees that reflect the company’s core values. The Grand Rapids franchisee, Dave Standfest, is a pastor at New Hope Church and a very charismatic and visionary entrepreneur. He has his four kids very involved in his pie shop. He acquired the franchise in Grand Rapids as an opportunity for his family to be involved. Tina Divita over in Norton Shores, near Muskegon, works very closely with her daughter Nikki. Scott Byrd up in Petoskey has his two junior high kids working in their pie shop - they really know the pie business. Pie is all about family anyway, that’s what I love about it. Pie is about connecting. What’s more natural than motherhood and apple pie? When you smell a pie cooking you probably can experience some fond memory of family and growing up,” Busley reminded us.
Today, there are 18 Grand Traverse Pie Company franchises in Michigan and Indiana.
Source: Richard Blanchard, “Grabbing a Bigger Slice“, Corp! Everything Business, January 8, 2009.
On March 15, 1847, lawmakers voted to briefly make Shiawasseetown the state capital. A day later, Lansing became the state capital. A monument commemorating the novelty of Shiawasseetown having been the state capital for just a day is all that remains of the move. The land that had been platted for a capital building became a park in what is now called Shiatown.
Source: Michigan Every Day
The Detroit Advertiser of March 15, 1863, said that the number of skedaddlers climbed daily in Windsor, “though for the honor of Michigan, we are happy to say that they are by no means all from this State.” The Advertiser said that Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa contributed their fair share of skedaddlers to Canada. According to the Advertiser, there were over 400 of the skedaddlers in Windsor and some of the Windsor citizens estimated the number to be as high as a thousand. There were also a large number in Amherstburg, Sandwich, Chatham, and scattered through settlements along the Canadian frontier.
After the Civil War ended, the American government offered an amnesty proclamation in May 1865, assuring draft dodgers that they wouldn’t be punished if they returned home.
Source : Kathy Warnes, “Skedaddling to Canada and Back”, Definitely Downriver, July 2012.
Mary Chase Perry Stratton (March 15, 1867 – April 15, 1961) was an American ceramic artist. She was a co-founder, along with Horace James Caulkins, of Pewabic Pottery, a form of ceramic art used to make architectural tiles.
Stratton was born in Hancock, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, and later moved with her family to Ann Arbor following the death of her father, and from there to the Detroit area when she was in her early teens. There she attended her first art classes at the Art School of the Detroit Museum of Art. She followed that up with two years of studies at the Cincinnati Art School from 1887 to 1889 where she studied with the regionally important sculptor and educator Louis Rebisso.
Returning to Detroit she founded the Pewabic Pottery, named after an old copper mine (or sometimes, the Indian name of a nearby river) in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with Caulkins in 1903. In 1907 the enterprise flourished and moved from the Carriage House behind the Ransom Gillis House on John R Street to a new building designed by Detroit architect William Stratton located on Jefferson Avenue, where the business still thrives. In 1918 she married William Stratton.
Working on an outdoor garden around 1920 (Detroit Historical Society photo)
Under her leadership, Pewabic Pottery produced architectural tiles, lamps and vessels. The Pewabic Pottery became known far and wide for its iridescent glazes, and was used in churches, libraries, schools, and public buildings. New York architects McKim, Meade & White asked her to create the tiles for the roof garden of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Her work was seen in Detroit at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, the Fisher Building, and Eliel Saarinen’s Kingswood School for Girls.
Pewabic Pottery is Michigan’s only historic pottery. It is designated a National Historic Landmark.
Stratton established the ceramics department at the University of Michigan and taught there. She taught also at Wayne State University. In 1947, she received the highest award in the American ceramic field, namely the Charles Fergus Binns Medal.
Her art was exhibited at the Detroit Art Club in 1995, and was a charter member of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.
Today Pewabic Pottery offers classes, workshops, lectures, internships and residency programs for potters of all ages.
In 1986 she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
Sources :
Mary Chase Perry Stratton wikipedia entry
Jonathan Rinck, “The Life and Work of Mary Chase Perry Stratton”, Michigan History, March/April 2013, pp.22-27.
Child’s history of Pewabic Pottery and Mary Stratton–Michigan Historical Museum, part of Michigan Time Traveler.
Mary Chase Perry Stratton, Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame 1986 Inductee.