On Oct. 20, 1871, former Gov. Fred Green was born in Manistee. A veteran of the Spanish American War, Green served as the city attorney for Ypsilanti for a spell until he moved to Ionia. There, he ran for and won the mayor’s seat in 1913 and served until 1916. While mayor He was instrumental in the establishment of the Ionia Free Fair in 1915 – at one time the world’s largest free-admission event of its kind.
On November 2, 1926, Green was elected Governor of Michigan. He was re-elected to a second two-year term in 1928. On May 18, 1927, the afternoon of the Bath School disaster, Green assisted in the relief work, carting bricks away from the scene. In 1928, he served as a delegate to the RNC which nominated Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover for president. During his administration, Green expanded a fish planting program and took part in the acquisition of seven state parks. He initiated a comprehensive budget system, authorized a new code of criminal practices, secured appropriations for a state hospital building program, and improved workmen’s compensation.
The Green administration was notably important in modernizing Michigan’s highways. He is touted as the “inventor of the no passing lane“, which was adopted as an important safety improvement throughout the country. He was also an early proponent of the Mackinac Bridge.
On October 22, 1927, Governor Green participated in the dedication of the new University of Michigan Football Stadium: “Michigan Governor Fred W. Green and his Ohio counterpart Vince Donahey, and Presidents C.C. Little of Michigan and George W. Rightmire of Ohio, led the massed bands of the two universities onto the field from the east tunnel. The bands paraded to the flag pole where the national ensign was raised and the vast throng stood bareheaded during the playing of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘The Yellow and Blue.’
In 1927, he appointed Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg, who was editor of the Grand Rapids Herald, to the United States Senate to replace as the late Senator Woodbridge N. Ferris. He chose Vandenberg only when pressured to do so by the state Republican organization.
In 1928, Green’s campaign created the slogan “Keep Michigan Green” as a part of a fire prevention program.
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Governor Fred Green (far left, holding hat) with Eagle Scouts— including future Pres. Gerald Ford (with x over his head) on Mackinac Island, Michigan (1929)
Sources:
Governor Fred Green Wikipedia Entry.
On October 20, 1902, the first Cadillac was assembled (although some sources say October 16 or 17th). This photograph shows men wearing aprons, overalls, and suits gathered around what is noted as “the first ‘Cadillac’ about to start for the first time on its own power.”
Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company. After a dispute between Henry Ford and his investors, Ford left the company along with several of his key partners in March 1902. Ford’s financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment in preparation for liquidating the company’s assets. Instead, Leland persuaded the pair to continue manufacturing automobiles using Leland’s proven single-cylinder engine. A new company called the Cadillac Automobile Company was established on 22 August 1902, re-purposing the Henry Ford Company factory at Cass Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It was named after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit in 1701.
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Cadillac’s first automobiles, the Runabout and Tonneau, were completed in October 1902. They were two-seat horseless carriages powered by a 10 hp (7 kW) single-cylinder engine. They were practically identical to the 1903 Ford Model A. Many sources say the first car rolled out of the factory on 17 October; in the book Henry Leland—Master of Precision, the date is 20 October; another reliable source shows car number three to have been built on 16 October. Cadillac displayed the new vehicles at the New York Auto Show in January 1903, where the vehicles impressed the crowds enough to gather over 2,000 firm orders. Cadillac’s biggest selling point was precision manufacturing, and therefore, reliability; a Cadillac was simply a better-made vehicle than its competitors.
Source : Cadillac Wikipedia Entry
Originally founded as The School of Automotive Trades by Albert Sobey under the direction of the Industrial Fellowship of Flint on October 20, 1919, Kettering University has a long legacy with the automotive industry. The university became known as the Flint Institute of Technology in 1923 before being acquired by General Motors in 1926, becoming the General Motors Institute of Technology and eventually the General Motors Institute in 1932.
Sometimes referred to as the “West Point“ of industry,” GMI focused on creating business and industry leaders through the unique co-op model (following the development of this program at the University of Cincinnati in 1907). GMI also pioneered freshmen level manufacturing courses (Production Processes I & II), and automotive degree specialties. A fifth-year thesis requirement was added in 1945, along with the ability to grant degrees. The first bachelor’s degree was awarded on August 23, 1946. The co-op program required applicants to find a GM division to be their sponsor. Work and school were mixed in six-week rotations, dividing the student body into A-section and B-section. At any given time, when A-section was in school, B-section was at work. After six weeks, B-section would go back to school and so on. This resulted in students moving eight times per year and a 48-week school/work year. Because General Motors used the school to train its engineers, tuition was partially subsidized. In June 1979 (the Class of 1984) co-op rotations were expanded to twelve weeks.
Split from GM
After GM reduced operations in Flint, the company and the university separated on July 1, 1982. The name of the institution became “GMI Engineering & Management Institute” and the letters “GMI” were retained to allow easy identification with the old General Motors Institute. The university began charging full tuition as an independent private university. The university kept the cooperative education model, expanding the number of co-op employers for students. The university also began offering graduate programs for both on- and off-campus students
Name change and expansion of programs
The university’s name was formally changed to Kettering University on January 1, 1998, in honor of Charles Kettering. The name change allowed the university to create a separate identity from General Motors as well as publicize the fact that academic programs were expanding beyond just automotive-related offerings.
The university launched a physics program in 1995, and had the first ABET-accredited applied physics program in the world in 2013. A chemical engineering program as well as a pre-med course of study were launched in 2008. The chemical engineering program received ABET accreditation in 2013. The computer science program received ABET accreditation in 2007. The university added an applied biology program in 2013.
Source : Kettering University Wikipedia Entry.
The Ford Model A of 1928–1931 was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years.
Almost 5 million Model A’s rolled off the assembly line beford production ended in March 1932.
Source : Wikipedia
The date was Oct. 20, 1934, and the opponent was Georgia Tech. It was a rare occurrence in those days for Michigan to play a team from outside the Midwest, but Fielding H. Yost — the legendary coach who was then U-M’s athletic director — had been looking for a Southern squad to fill out the 1934 schedule. Georgia Tech got the invite.
There was one big problem, though. In those days, Jim Crow was a sad fact of life in college football, and teams from the South generally refused to play against any team that fielded a black player.
U-M’s best player that year was an incredible athlete from Detroit named Willis Ward. He was tall and strong and very fast. He was also black.
Georgia Tech was well aware that Michigan had an African-American on the roster. From the outset, the Yellow Jackets told Yost they would refuse to play the game if Ward were allowed to take the field.
Yost’s feelings on matters of race were no secret. The son of a Confederate soldier, he had never allowed an African-American to play for Michigan during his 25 seasons as coach. Still, as 1934 dragged on, Yost refused to say what he was going to do about Willis Ward and Georgia Tech.
Despite Yost’s silence, word leaked out a couple of weeks before the game that Ward might be benched. This caused a firestorm the likes of which the Ann Arbor campus had never seen.
Angry letters were written to Yost and Coach Harry Kipke, virtually all of them demanding that Ward be allowed to play. The story was front-page news across the country. Petitions were circulated. Rallies were held.
And at the center of it all was a 21-year-old college kid who simply wanted to play football.
No official announcement was made, but a few days before the game, Yost made his decision: Willis Ward would be benched against Georgia Tech. For the first and only time in the proud history of the University of Michigan, a player was going to be sidelined solely because of his race.
When Ward’s teammates found out, they were furious, especially his best friend on the team, a tall lineman from Grand Rapids named Gerald Ford.
Jerry Ford and Willis Ward had met on their first day at U-M, during freshman orientation. They became fast friends and eventually decided to room together on road trips. When their senior year rolled around, they were both going to be starters, and they were thrilled.
That excitement disappeared, though, when the Georgia Tech incident surfaced. Ford was irate at what was happening to his friend, so on the eve of the game, he went to Kipke and said just two words: “I quit.”
Ford eventually agreed to play against Georgia Tech, but only because Ward personally asked him to. “You need to play — and you need to pound them,” he said.
Pound them he did. A couple of plays into the game, a lineman from Georgia Tech named Charlie Preston started hurling vile racist insults at the Wolverines. Ford had heard enough. He put a devastating block on Preston, knocking him out of the game. “That was for Willis,” he said.
Michigan won the game, 9-2, and it ended up being its only win in a miserable 1-7 season. The Georgia Tech game had sucked the soul out of the Wolverines.
Brian Kruger and Buddy Moorehouse, “Willis Ward, Gerald Ford and Michigan football’s darkest day”, Detroit News, August 9, 2012.
For more information, see
James Tobin, Lonely As Hell, University of Michigan Heritage Project which relates a number of stories about early African American Athletes at the University of Michigan.
Stephen J. Nesbitt, “The Forgotten Man: Remembering Michigan trailblazer Willis Ward”, Michigan Daily, October 18, 2012.
Mike Lopresti, “Michigan to honor black player benched 78 years ago”, USA Today, October 19, 2012.
Joey Nowak, “Future president Gerald R. Ford stood up for teammate against racist policy“, MLive, February 25, 2011.
Black and blue : the story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech football game / Stunt3 Multimedia presents a Brian Kruger and Buddy Moorehouse film. [Grosse Point, MI] : Stunt3 Multimedia, c2011. 1 DVD videodisc (ca. 56 minutes) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in. MSU Library Digital and Multimedia Center (4 West) GV958.M43 B53 2011 VideoDVD
Photograph : Teammates, roommates, friends: Gerald Ford (48) threatened to quit the University of Michigan football team in 1934 if fellow Wolverine Willis Ward (61) was benched against Georgia Tech because of the southern school’s refusal to play against black players.
In 1953, Milo Radulovich, 26, a WWII veteran, was attending the University of Michigan on the GI Bill. He was hoping to get a degree in physics so he could advance in his career as a meteorologist. He lived in Dexter, Mi., with his wife Nancy and their two daughters. He had joined the Army Air Corps in 1944 and became a meteorologist. He was a first lieutenant when he was discharged in 1952. As a weather forecaster, he had top-secret clearance and was required to remain in the reserves. In September 1953 he received a letter informing him he was being dismissed from the reserves as a poor security risk because his continued relationship with his father and sister who were deemed left-wing sympathizers.
To make a long story short, the famous newscaster Edward R. Murrow was looking for a case where an ordinary citizen was being persecuted unfairly because of Senator McCarthy’s Anti-Communist, Red Scare, Campaign. He chose Milo and was able to clear his name. The Detroit News also played a part as well, carrying stories about his plight before the national telecast on CBS.
After dropping out of school, he moved to California, where he became a meteorologist, eventually securing a position with the National Weather Service. He later returned to Michigan to serve as chief meteorologist at Lansing’s Capital City Airport until his retirement in 1994. He lived in Lodi, Calif., until his death.
Years later, after his death, the University of Michigan issues Milo an honorary degree to make up for his dropping out of school because of the Red Scare witchhunt.
In 2005 Academy Award-nominated film “Good Night, and Good Luck” retold the incident.
For the full article, see Julie Morris, “The man who fought McCarthy’s red smear”, Detroit News, May 5, 2004.
For another, see Darryn Fitzgerald, “Student ousted in Red Scare granted honorary degree”, Michigan Daily, November 23, 2008.
For another, see Michael Stoll, “How journalism saved one man, and the rest of us, from McCarthyism”, Grade the News, Feb. 20, 2006.
Jack Lessenberry, “To Strike at a King”, Dome, March 20, 2015: Jack Lessenberry recalls a man of rare personal conviction. Ken Sanborn stood up for Milo, defending him for free against the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Government, aggravating his fellow Republicans, for the cause of democracy. Even though he lost a sham trial, he gained the attention of Edward R. Murrow, who used the case to bring down McCarthy.
At the first induction ceremony and dinner held October 20, 1983 in Dearborn, 18 women were recognized, among them Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth), a former slave who became a nationally known crusader for human rights; Anna Howard Shaw, a minister and physician who succeeded Susan B. Anthony in leading the National American Women’s Suffrage Association; and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, the state’s foremost spokesperson for coeducation during the last half of the 19th century and founder of the women’s club movement in Michigan. Among the contemporary inductees were Martha Griffiths, a congresswoman, primary sponsor of the ERA in that body, and first woman elected lieutenant governor in Michigan, and Rosa Parks, often called the mother of the modern civil rights movement.
Civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo. Former first lady Betty Ford. Singer Aretha Franklin. The late comedian Gilda Radner. What do they have in common? They’re all women of achievement with Michigan ties. And they’re among the dozens of honorees in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame wikipedia entry
Michigan Women Forward Hall of Fame Timeline
Michigan Women Forward #HERStory formerly Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame
In honor of Detroit’s role in the Underground Railroad, the development group Detroit 300 commissioned two sculptures by Ed Dwight, one in Detroit and the other in Windsor and dedicated the monuments on this day in 2001.
Several routes of the Underground Railroad went through Michigan. This statue commemorates the route through Detroit. Another favorite crossing point was south of Detroit near where Amherstburg, Ontario is located. This is, perhaps, the narrowest Point in the Detroit River. And by the mid-1830s, there was a modest population of former slaves living there who aided other to escape to freedom.
The sculpture in the United States, Gateway to Freedom, shows six fugitive slaves ready to board a boat to cross to Canada. The gentleman pointing from Detroit to Windsor is George DeBaptist, a Detroit resident who helped slaves to get across the river to freedom. The monument in Windsor features a former slave raising his arms to celebrate his emancipation while a Quaker woman offers assistance to a woman and her child. Another child in that monument looks back toward Detroit. The plaque associated with this monument mentions several Detroit institutions that were active in the Underground Railroad and continue to serve the city’s population in the Twenty-first century: Bethel African-Methodist Episcopal Church and Second Baptist Church
Sources :
Michigan Every Day
Kirk Jones, a 40-year-old unemployed salesman from Canton, survived a fall over Niagara Falls without anything protecting him, like a barrel, life jacket or boat, on Oct. 20, 2003.
Jones — who’d drunk vodka and Coke before he jumped and had carefully placed his driver’s license, Social Security card and business card in a Ziploc bag in his shirt pocket — blamed his plunge over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls on depression, which he called “a terrible thing.”
Kirk was fined $2,260 in U.S. dollars, barred from Niagara Park for a year and ordered to repay $1,060 to make up for the 45 minutes the tourist site was closed after the stunt.
However, his confidence in life has been restored.
For the full article, see Zlati Meyer, “This Week in Michigan History : Canton man survives unprotected jump into Niagara Falls”, Detroit Free Press, October 20, 2013.
The 2018 Detroit Marathon was held October 20-21, 2018 and was sponsored by both the Detroit Free Press and Chemical Bank.
Source : Kayla Daugherty, “How non-running newspaper guy launched the Detroit Free Press marathon“, Detroit Free Press, September 29, 2017.
Bandon Folsom,”Detroit marathon: Christopher Chipsiya wins men’s full marathon“, Detroit Free Press, October 21, 2018.
Brandon Folsom, “Detroit marathon: Lioudmila Kortchaguina wins women’s full again“, Detroit Free Press, October 21, 2018.
More Detroit Free Press/Chemical Bank Marathon information.
Detroit Free Press Marathon Facebook Page.
From previous marathons:
Detroit Marathon 2017: Relive our favorite tales from the long runs“
Marathon notes: They beat rain, fatigue for race medals“, Detroit Free Press,
This year’s marathon events had a record-breaking 27,833 people register, said Executive Race Director Barbara Bennage. The roster of events was comprised of a 5K and kids fun run on Saturday, which drew more than 2,000 participants, followed by the main events Sunday: the marathon, international half-marathon and U.S.-only half-marathon, as well as marathon relays, officials said. For the full article, see J. C. Reindl, “Detroit marathon sets record, inspires proposals”, Detroit Free Press, October 19, 2015.