Frontier justice: [Pennsylvania Gazette 8/16/1770] reports Mackinac Island News
Under bombardment by British forces across the Detroit River, and fearing a massacre by the Indians accompaning General Brock’s troops, General William Hull surrenders Detroit on this day during the war of 1812. General Hull would be court-martialed for surrendering the city, cowardice, treason, and sentenced to death, but President James Madison would pardon him due to his services during the Revolutionary War.
One sad footnote: William Macomb and 29 other city leaders were shipped to Montreal to await ransom after the fall of Detroit. In this absence, British-allied Indian tribes ran amok. William’s young wife, who had just given birth, was forced out of her Grosse Ile home. The mansion burned, and she fled through the woods into the city; she and the infant shortly died of exposure.
Sources :
Michigan Every Day.
Siege of Detroit wikipedia entry
Bill Loomis, “The War of 1812: Bombs over Detroit”, Detroit News, August 5, 2012.
War of 1812 : Detroit Showdown, HistoryNet
Tecumseh, General Sir Isaac Brock, & the Battle of Fort Detroit
“Michigan at War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1812-1815,” a documentary produced by the Michigan Commission on the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, has been posted for free access on MI Streamnet through a partnership with Wayne Regional Educational Services Agency.
For the rest of the story, see Mickey Lyons, “Macomb’s Irish Legacy : Exploring the story behind a familiar statue, and why the man had a Michigan county named after him”, Hour Detroit, March 3, 2015.
Ira Thurston, a well-known and experienced balloonist, lifted off from Adrian and completed Michigan’s first hot-air balloon flight by landing seventeen miles away in Riga Township (Lenawee County). While releasing gas after landing, Thurston accidentally let go of one of the hold-down ropes, and the bag shot into the air with the hapless aeronaut desperately clinging to the top. Four hours later the deflated bag came to earth without Thurston, and his bones were found years later only a few miles from the point of the unplanned ascent.
For more information about early balloon flights see Gordon G. Beld, The Early Days of Aviation in Grand Rapids. Charleston, S.C. : History Press, 2012. Available through MelCat.
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, better known as the singer Madonna, was born on Aug. 16, 1958 in Bay City. She later moved with her family to Rochester Hills and graduated from Rochester Adams High School. She was a straight-A student and got a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. But, she dropped out of Michigan and – with $35 in her pocket -moved to New York.
More recently, on February 5, 2012, she performed at half-time at the Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.
Whether you remember her as the Material Girl, Vogue, Evita, or Modern Madonna, she certainly had an impact on the music scene and modern culture.
Since Madonna’s first single, “Holiday” hit the Billboard Hot 100 the week of October 29, 1983, she has charted 57 songs. 38 of those songs reached the Billboard top 10. Madonna has more top 10 hits than any other music artist in history.
Source : Justin Engel, “Poll: Which ‘reinvention’ of Bay City’s Madonna do you prefer?, MLive, February 3, 2012.
Edward Pevos, “The ultimate Madonna playlist from ‘Madonna’ to ‘Rebel Heart'”, MLive, September 28, 2015.
For more information visit Michigan’s Material Girl, by Nicole H. Garrett, Archives of Michigan, August 16, 2011.
1964 was a tumultuous year politically, with the nation still recovering from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November. In June, “Freedom Summer” brought hundreds of young people to Mississippi to work for civil rights.
But musically, it was a landmark year. February brought the Beatles to America, and it was also the year that Motown broke through and crossed over decisively as a pop powerhouse, never to be seen as a regional R&B label again.
It was three young girls from Detroit, the “no-hit” Supremes, who sealed the deal, racking up five consecutive No. 1 pop records, starting in June.
The Supremes recorded the song “Where Did Our Love Go,” and it was released 50 years ago on June 17, 1964. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s pop charts on Aug. 16, 1964.
Hit streak
In the summer of 1964, the Supremes started an unprecedented run of five No. 1 consecutive releases — other No. 1s by the girl group would come later. The feat was all the more remarkable considering their lack of recording success up to June 1964, when “Where Did Our Love Go” was released.
THE FIVE
Aug. 16-29, 1964 “Where Did Our Love Go”
Oct. 25-Nov. 21, 1964 “Baby Love”
Dec. 13-19, 1964, Jan. 10-16, 1965 “Come See About Me”
March 21-April 3, 1965 “Stop! In the Name of Love”
June 6-12, 1965 “Back in My Arms Again”
For the full article, see “50 years later, Supremes’ run atop pop chart goes largely uncelebrated”, Detroit News, June 28, 2014.
On August 16, 1965m George Grady was named chief of police in Dowagiac. He was the first African American to head a municipal police department in Michigan. Grady directed the nineteen-member force until 1974 when a heart condition forced him to resign.
Sources :
Mich-Again’s Day.
Michigan History, July/August 2011.
A Northwest flight headed to Phoenix crashed shortly after takeoff from Detroit Metro Airport. Cecelia Cichan, who was four at the time, was the sole survivor among 155 passengers and crew members on board.
Sources :
Detroit Free Press, August 16, 2011.
Detroit Historical Society Facebook Page.
George Hunter, “25 years later, victims of Flight 255 crash not forgotten”, Detroit News, August 13, 2012.
NEW PLANT: Glanbia is partnering with dairy cooperative Select Milk Producers Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America to form Spartan Michigan LLC and build this new cheese plant.
One of largest dairy processing facilities in the country is locating in St. Johns and bringing with it great promise to improve the production, profitability and long-term prospects of Michigan’s dairy industry.
A new cheese plant and an adjacent plant that will manufacture whey permeate products constitute a $550 million investment in this town with a population of 8,000, just 20 miles north of Lansing in Clinton County.
t’s welcome news as Michigan’s dairy industry has been growing beyond its means, lacking processing ability and forcing expensive shipping of milk out of state for processing.
With two shiny milk trucks to serve as a backdrop, a host of dignitaries, including the governor, were on hand for the Aug. 9 announcement. Large cardboard schematics of what the two plants will look like faced a crowd of about 75, as John Dardis, senior vice president of U.S. corporate affairs for Glanbia, laid out the plan.
Glanbia, an Irish company, has partnered with dairy cooperative Select Milk Producers Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America to form Spartan Michigan LLC. Together they plan to construct a $425 million dairy processing facility to produce cheese, taking in more than 8 million pounds of milk per day and producing 800,000 pounds of cheese per day.
The cheese plant will produce American-style cheddar cheese and other block cheeses. It is expected to create 259 new jobs.
Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers will supply milk to the processing plant, and while not an investor in the plant, Michigan Milk Producers Association is also expected to supply milk.
Proliant Dairy Ingredients, a family-owned company headquartered in Iowa, will build the adjoining facility to use byproducts from the milk processing facility to make whey permeate products for both human and animal consumption. By sourcing the ingredients so close, just 200 feet away, it can piped into the facility, eliminating transportation costs. The product is then processed, dried and packaged. It is investing up to $85 million and will employ 30 to 38 new workers.
Mark Peterson, vice president of business development for Proliant Dairy Ingredients, said it will be the largest permeate plant in the world, drying 20,000 pounds of product an hour. Between the two plants, 1.3 million pounds of product will be generated daily.
Construction for both facilities is expected to begin in September and be completed by December 2020.
“We have the most productive cows in my opinion in this nation, wonderful dairy farmers that put it together, and now we needed more outlets for our products. Let’s do that right here in Michigan,” said Gov. Rick Snyder at the unveiling. “This is great win-win; it’s a win-win for these companies. They wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t good, smart business. But they had choices, and they chose Michigan, and I want to say thank you for making that choice.”
The project is supported by an estimated $27.6 million in grants and tax abatements from Michigan Strategic Fund, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Michigan Department of Transportation.
The 147 acres for the project is in the St. Johns Business Park on the northern skirts of town, and it includes acres acquired from Bingham Township, with a 425 agreement to share any potential future tax revenues.
The project will include a wastewater treatment facility to complement the city’s system.
Kevin Kirk, a St. Johns area farmer who also serves on the Clinton County Planning Commission, told Michigan Farmer the location is perfect because it is easily accessible to Grade A roads and US-127. The project is yet to come before the commission, but Kirk said, “We will really have to look at truck traffic and make accommodations. We will need to look at routes to bring product in, but also exit routes and ensure they are not destroying county and township roads.”
Source : Jennifer Kiel, “St. Johns chosen as site for new cheese plant“, Michigan Farmer, August 16, 2018.
On Aug. 17, 1765, Ottawa Chief Pontiac signed a peace treaty with the British, putting an end to hostilities between the two nations. The treaty came after Pontiac’s siege of Fort Detroit, in which the Chief killed or captured 600 people.
Source: MIRS Capitol Capsule
Talbert “Ted” Abrams (August 17, 1895, Tekonsha, Michigan – August 26, 1990) was an American photographer and aviator known as the “father of aerial photography”.
While a child he read about the flights of the Wright brothers and was inspired to become a pilot. When he turned 18 he moved to Detroit and found odd jobs at area airports. The following year was hired as a mechanic at the Benoist Airplane Company in Ohio. Soon after he moved to Buffalo, New York where he worked for the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. During his employment there, Abrams learned to fly at the Curtiss Aviation School, and in 1916 was issued his Federation Aeronautique Internationale Pilot’s license, number 282, signed by Orville Wright.
Abrams began taking pictures from airplanes when he was a gunner in World War I, and his pictures were used to plan military maneuvers.
In 1923, he and his wife, Leota, founded the Abrams Aerial Survey Company. It was hired to photograph the route for a major north-south highway in Michigan, and that road, U.S. 27, became the first highway built using aerial photographs.
Beginning in 1945 Ted funded the Talbert Abrams Award for gifted students in science education. He also set up engineering scholarships through various engineering societies. Michigan State University had for years promoted a project to build a modern planetarium on the campus. In 1961 it became obvious that contributions were not going to cover the construction cost. Then Talbert Abrams, through the Talbert and Leota Abrams Foundation contributed the remaining $250,000 needed to build “One of the finest facilities of it’s kind in the world”. This was just another indication of his generosity toward his community. Michigan State University directed that the new facility be named The Talbert and Leota Abrams Planetarium. The Foundation also provided extensive funding to the Library of Michigan to finance purchasing of genealogical materials.
Ted continued to receive impressive honors for his community service and generosity. One such honor was a tribute from the Michigan Senate for his “outstanding service in the field of aerial surveying”. He was presented honorary doctorates from three Universities. He was the first individual inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. In 1973 he was installed into the OX-5 Hall of Fame, along with Jimmy Doolittle, Eddie Rickenbacker, Admiral Byrd, and Amelia Earhart. Ted was on the first scheduled flight to Moscow after WWII. He made the trip twice.
Abrams flight time is unlikely to be challenged. In one of his many testimonials he noted that he had “mapped 1,720 American cities, 515 counties, 5,800 miles of highways, 48,000 miles of utility lines, plus more than 1,000 major projects in 96 countries.
Every year, the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) presents the Talbert Abrams Award to a person who makes an outstanding contribution to aerial photography and mapping. Mount Abrams in the Antarctic is also named after him.
Sources:
Wayland Mayo, Talbert “Ted” Abrams : Father of Aerial Photography, A Tribute to Lansing’s Fallen Eagle:.
Talbert “Ted” Abrams, courtesy of Michigan State University Abrams Planetarium.