Calendar

Jan
17
Wed
2017 : Night photo of Detroit and Surrounding Areas Taken from Space
Jan 17 all-day

Twitter photo from Shane Kimbrough, USA Astronaut currently serving on the International Space Station, January 17, 2017.

Can you pick out Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Toledo, and Cleveland?

Jan
18
Thu
1802: Detroit Incorporated As Michigan’s First City
Jan 18 all-day

On January 18, 1802, Territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair and the legislature of the Northwest Territory in Chillicothe, Ohio approved the charter incorporating the town of Detroit. Government was to be administered by a five-person board of trustees, and there was no office of mayor. It had a population of approximately 500 people at the time, and there were approximately 300 buildings already erected.

Sources :

Detroit Historical Society Facebook Page

Historical Society of Michigan

Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

1813 : Brigadier-General Winchester Captures Frenchtown
Jan 18 all-day
Image result for battle of river raisin photo

On January 18, 1813 the Americans forced the retreat of the British and their Native American allies from Frenchtown, which they had earlier occupied, in a relatively minor skirmish.

The movement was part of a larger United States plan to advance north and retake Fort Detroit, following its loss in the Siege of Detroit the previous summer.

Unfortunately, American Brigadier-General Winchester had ignored General Henry Harrison’s orders to remain on the Maumee until he arrived with reinforcements.   That decision would prove disastrous on January 22nd, when the British with major reinforcements from Amherstberg counterattacked.

Sources:

The American Attack at Frenchtown on the River Raisin, January 18, 1813. Robert Henderson, The War of 1812 website.

Grace Carey,  General Winchester 1813, Michigan Tech’s SS3505 Military History of the United States, October 6, 2015.

1922 : Bob Bell Born, First Bozo the Clown
Jan 18 all-day

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Bob_bell_bozo_roy_brown_cooky_1976.JPG

Cooky the Clown (Roy Brown) and Bozo (Bob Bell) on WGN-TV between 1976 and 1977.

On Jan. 18, 1922, Bob Bell, the first portrayer of Bozo the Clown, was born in Flint. Bell began his career in show business when he returned to Flint after a stint in World War II. He joined a community theater group, which led to a job as a radio announcer. Eventually, Bell began hosting a show as Bozo in Chicago in 1960. He retired in 1984. He died in 1997.

Source: Michigan Every Day

1922 : First MAC Home Ice Hockey Contest
Jan 18 all-day

During its first season and for a number of seasons thereafter, ice hockey at MAC was played on the Red Cedar River above the dam behind the administration building (near where Wells Hall now stands) and was at the mercy of the weather. The first M.A.C. home ice hockey contest was held on January 18, 1922 against the University of Notre Dame and would be a 3-1 loss, with sloppy ice conditions reported.

The ice hockey rink consisted of boards, goals, and lights that were suspended over the skating surface. After using the ice, the team would drill a hole into the ice and a pump would push water through the hole, flooding the ice surface like a modern Zamboni does today.

Sources :

Daniel T. Mares, “Michigan Agricultural College/Michigan State College Ice Hockey 1922-1931 Transformations”.

 

1943 : Michigan Bakeries Ordered To Stop Slicing Loaves of Bread
Jan 18 all-day

On January 18, 1943, no sliced bread was available. To save manpower and steel-cutting equipment, commercial bakeries in Michigan and the rest of the nation were directed to stop the sale of sliced bread for the duration of World War II, and only whole loaves lined Michigan’s grocery store and bakery shelves.

Source: Mich-Again’s Day

2016 : Glenn Frey Dies, One of the Founding Members of the Eagles
Jan 18 all-day

Glenn Frey, the Royal Oak-bred Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and a founding member of the Eagles, died Monday. He was 67.

Frey, a 1966 graduate of Dondero High School in Royal Oak, succumbed to complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia, according to a note posted on the Eagles’ website. Those complications forced the four-member group to postpone their recent Kennedy Center Honors until next December.

Guitarist Frey and drummer Don Henley formed the Eagles in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, along with guitarist Bernie Leadon and bassist Randy Meisner. They would go on to become one of the biggest rock bands of all-time; an Eagles greatest hits collection from the mid-1970s and “Hotel California” are among the best-selling albums in history.

Frey got his start as a background singer and acoustic guitar player for Bob Seger. As a member of the newly formed Eagles, Fre provided backup for pop singer Linda Ronstadt.

It was Frey’s winsome tenor that we first heard of the Eagles, singing about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, in “Take it Easy,” in 1972. The song was written by Frey with Jackson Browne. It was in England, ironically, that the band recorded that sun-soaked debut album in the spring of ’72, “The Eagles.”

“Take it Easy” was followed quickly by “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful, Easy Feeling.”

With the Eagles, Frey wrote or co-wrote the band’s biggest hits, including “Hotel California,” “Desperado” and “Take It to the Limit.”

2020 : Michigan Grand Island Ice Caves Postage Stamp Released
Jan 18 all-day

With the new Priority Mail Express stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the winter beauty of the Grand Island Ice Caves in Lake Superior.

The U.S. Postal Service today released a new priority mail stamp honoring Michigan’s Grand Island Ice Caves.  Customers can use the stamp to pay for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express Flat Rate shipping.

Located in Lake Superior half a mile from Munising in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the sandstone bluffs “are especially dramatic in winter when lake water seeps into the crevices and caverns, forming magnificent ice curtains and icicles that hang like stalactites from ceilings,” the press release says.

The stamp was designed by art director Greg Breeding using original art by Dan Cosgrove.

Source: Bisma Parvez, “Michigan’s Grand Island Ice Caves get their own U.S. Postal Service stamp“, Detroit Free Press, December 12, 2019.

Jan
19
Fri
1841 : First Issue of Michigan Farmer
Jan 19 all-day

The Western Farmer, the state’s first farm journal, is published for the first time on this day.

Promising to focus on such agricultural issues as the “application of manure,” calf-raising, deep ploughing and “the culture of wheat, corn and other grains,” the Western Farmer was issued in Detroit. The first issue of this 8-page, semimonthly publication had 100 subscribers; its second issue had 1,000 subscribers. Subscribers could delay their one-dollar annual payment until harvest time or they could give the publisher any equivalent article that “can be used in [his] family.” In February 1843, the paper moved from Detroit to Jackson, and under new ownership, became the Michigan Farmer and Western Agriculturalist.

Check out Michigan Farmer History for more information about the hisotry of the Michigan Farmer.

Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

1864 : Clarissa Britain, of St. Joseph, Michigan Records Patent
Jan 19 all-day

Clarissa Britain was a 19th-century inventor with seven patents to her name — the most of any Michigan woman of her time. On this day, she recorded a patent for leaf springs in ambulances to provide greater comfort to soldiers being transported from the battlefield.

For more information, see Denise E. Pilato, Clarissa Britain : An Enigmatic Inventor, Michigan History, January-February 2012.