On May 16, 1891, a riot broke out in Grand Rapids that was finally quelled by fire hoses. The riot stemmed from some 4,000 furniture workers walking off their jobs at 35 plants. Better pay and working conditions were the aims of this workers’ strike that lasted 19 weeks.
Men with weapons, probably professional strike breakers, continued to intimidate the workers and the threat of widespread violence simmered until the riot broke out. Grand Rapids Police Chief Harvey O. CARR, called in “special police” to patrol the factory areas, which ended the violence at the strike sites.
Source: Michigan Every Day
Joe Zainea’s love for people can be felt the moment he shakes your hand as a gracious welcome to the Detroit bowling alley that’s been in his family for more than 70 years.
Zainea, affectionately known as “Papa Joe,” beams with pride as he recalls his father’s purchase of the Garden Bowl on Woodward Avenue in 1946.
“The owner had died and the wife wanted to sell it. My dad came down here and she decided to sell it to him right on the dime,” Zainea said. “Bowling was for everyone; a working-man’s country club.”
The alley was built in 1913, and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
“It’s the oldest bowling alley, commercial establishment, in the United States,” Zainea said. “And Detroit is actually the largest bowling population in the United States … I think the bowling registry for metro Detroit at one time was 500,000 bowlers.”
The 16-lane alley is complete with original Brunswick machines, neon lights, DJs and an open-door policy – one that Zainea said helped heal a community during a dark time.
“In the early 60s, we had about 1,500 league bowlers. In the 1967/68 season, we had 300. That was just a month-and-a-half after the rebellion,” Zainea said. “Most people refer to them as a riot, I call them a rebellion.”
Zainea was at Tiger Stadium when he first saw the billows of black smoke rise up into the city’s landscape.
“The announcer said, ‘Please leave the stadium orderly and avoid the Grand River and Northwest area,’” Zainea said.
When he got back to the bowling alley, it was packed with people, mostly business owners who had been ordered by the city to shut down because of a curfew.
“It was traumatic days,” Zainea said. “There was a tank on our parking lot across the street, and the rifles were tri-podded, right on my parking lot.”
The family put out a call for police, firemen, National Guard members and anyone else needing relief to come bowl.
“I’d have neighboring businesses call me up and say, ‘How’s my business?’ And I told them, ‘Why don’t you come down here? You’ve got sons just like my brother and I, let them come down and tend to their business, protect it,’” Zainea said. “They didn’t want to do that. They said it was too dangerous. Well, it wasn’t dangerous here; I can assure you of that.”
As a large portion of the city’s population began migrating out of downtown, Zainea said his family had a decision to make.
“Do we follow our customers and close up? Or do we stay?” he said.
His family stayed and started the Learn to Bowl Plus program to rebuild the bowling population.
The alley offered four weeks of free bowling to anyone who taught bowling classes, with the end goal of turning the learners into league bowlers.
“On the fifth week, if you were one of the teachers and you organized the league, we would end up paying you half of what I took in,” Zainea said. “It really sparked something. By 1970, we had 2,800 bowlers.”
Zainea credits one thing to the longevity of his family’s bowling business.
“They key is that those doors are open to everybody,” he said. “It’s a matter of hospitality, and that’s engrained in our bodies. We don’t just have them bowl, take their money and have them leave, we know them. We embrace them.”
Source : Alex Atwell, “Oldest commercial bowling alley in US still going strong in Detroit; Detroit bowling alley was built in 1913“, ClickOnDetroit, May 16, 2017.
Nobody in the long history of baseball ever craved the spotlight more than the zany, ruddy-faced Herman “Germany” Schaefer, for whom no gag was too outrageous or primitive and no audience too small or unfriendly.
Schaefer first pulled off his signature stunt in a game against Cleveland, most likely in 1908 (the exact date is unclear). “They say it can’t be done,” Tigers outfielder Davy Jones told author Larry Ritter many years later, “but I saw him do it.”
Jones was on third base in the late stages of a tied ballgame. Schaefer was on first base. Hoping to draw a throw that would allow Jones to race home with the go-ahead run, Schaefer stole second. However, the catcher, wise to the strategy, held onto the ball.
“So now we had men on second and third,” Jones recalled. “Well, on the next pitch Schaefer yelled, ‘Let’s try it again!’ And with a blood-curdling shout he took off like a wild Indian back to first base, and dove in headfirst in a cloud of dust. He figured the catcher might throw to first — since he evidently wouldn’t throw to second — and then I would come home same as before. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. Everybody just stood there and watched Schaefer, with their mouths open, not knowing what the devil was going on.”
Even if the catcher had thrown to first, Jones said, he was too flabbergasted to move. “The umpires were just as confused as everybody else. However, it turned out that at that time there wasn’t any rule against a guy going from second back to first, if that’s the way he wanted to play baseball, so they had to let it stand. So there we were, back where we started, with Schaefer on first and me on third. And on the next pitch, darned if he didn’t let out another war whoop and take off again for second base. By this time the Cleveland catcher evidently had enough, because he finally threw to second to get Schaefer, and when he did I took off for home and both of us were safe.”
In 1919 baseball’s rules committee issued an overdue clarification after Schaefer’s death: “A base-runner having acquired legal title to a base cannot run bases in reverse order for the purpose of confusing the fielders or making a travesty of the game.” The clause was officially known as Rule 52, Section 2, but most people in baseball referred to it as the Germany Schaefer rule.
For more stories about Germany Schaefer, see Richard Bak, “Profile: Detroit Tigers’ Prankster Herman “Germany” Schaefer”, Hour Detroit, April 2012.
On May 16, 1956, the General Motors Technical Center was dedicated in Warren. Costing around $100 million–or about half a billion in today’s dollars–to develop and staffed by around 4,000 scientists, engineers, designers and other personnel, the GM Tech Center was one of the largest industrial research centers in the world. Designed by Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen, it was his first independent project, and it would bring him immediate acclaim. Construction took place between 1949 and 1955. The scale & visual beauty of the center invited comparisons to a 20th-century version of the royal complex at Versailles, France.
Source : Detroit Historical Society Facebook page
On May 16, 1972, by a 2-1 margin, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing a state lottery.
Sources:
Michigan History
Originally released May 16, 1986, “Top Gun” grossed approximately $171.1 million by the end of the year. When the home video market was in its infancy, the release of “Top Gun” on videocassette in March 1987 was bracketed by an $8 million advertising campaign, including the famous Diet Pepsi tie-in commercial. It was one of the first movies on video to be priced in the $20 range and it brought in about $79 million in rentals, according to the Internet Movie Database. Its 2004 DVD release further boosted sales, which now total about $354 million worldwide.
The soundtrack included chart-topping hits from Kenny Loggins (Danger Zone) and Berlin (Take My Breath Away). It also breathed new life into the Righteous Brothers’ 1964 classic You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. Sales of Ray-Ban sunglasses and leather bombers spiked, as did enlistment in the Air Force and the Navy.
Jack Epps, Jr., a 1972 Michigan State University graduate and screenwriter, co-wrote the screenplay to Top Gun with the late Jim Cash, his longtime writing partner and a former instructor at MSU.
The late Cash, a Boyne City native, graduated from Michigan State University in 1970 with an undergraduate degree in English and a graduate degree in television and radio in 1972. He taught screenwriting and film history at his alma mater and was considered one of the university’s most popular instructors.
“Jim was a terrific instructor,” Epps recalled. “He loved his students. He was really popular. He loved getting people excited. Anything people wanted to do creatively, Jim was there to support them”, recalled Epps.
The two stayed in touch, and Cash suggested they become writing partners. Cash remained in East Lansing, while Epps relocated to Santa Monica. The two never worked together in the same room and collaborated via computer.
In addition to Top Gun, they co-wrote 1986’s comic thriller Legal Eagles, which starred Robert Redford and Debra Winger; 1987’s Michael J. Fox comedy The Secret of My Success; 1989’s Turner & Hooch, with Tom Hanks; 1990’s Dick Tracy, with Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Madonna; the 1997 monster movie Anaconda, with Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube; and 2000’s The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
Source : Kurt Anthony Krug, “Top Gun at 25”, Lansing City Pulse, July 6, 2011.
For more about Jack Epps Jr, see Jack Epps Jr. : USC School of Cinematic Arts Directory Profile
The Lebanon-born beauty and Dearborn resident (since 2003, when she moved from Queens, N.Y.) is the third Michigan woman to capture the Miss USA title. Fakih previously won the Miss Michigan pageant on September 19, 2009.
Fakih is widely believed to be the first Lebanese American, the first Arab American and the first Muslim to win the Miss USA title; however, pageant officials stated their records are not detailed enough to confirm these claims.
Sources :
Marissa Frobes, “Vegas Bound : Miss USA Rima Fakih vies for the Miss Universe Crown in Vegas”, Hour Detroit, August 2010.
The Tigers first baseman hit his 400th home run in the first inning of today’s game against the Cardinals, swatting a full-count fastball from left-hander Tyler Lyons over the centerfield fence.
The home run was estimated at 428 feet. It was his 10th home run of the year.
With the home run, Cabrera passed Andres Galarraga for most by a Venezuelan-born player and Tigers legend Al Kaline, who both have 399 career home runs. He tied Adrian Beltre for 52nd in major league history and Willie Horton for fourth in Tigers history, with 262 home runs.
For the full article, see Anthony French, “Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera hits his 400th home run”, Detroit Free Press, May 16, 2015.
A 90-year-old veteran was honored Tuesday more than 70 years after becoming one of the first African-Americans to join the U.S. Marines.
A smiling John Willie Jordan of Farmington — on a walker and proudly sporting his original green military campaign hat — was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township.
The medal is the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress, Peters noted as he handed the boxed medal to Jordan in a ceremony in the basement of the Groves-Walker American-Legion Post 346 on Grand River.
“I thought I had been forgotten,” Jordan said after the ceremony, adding he had unfortunately lost track of many of his fellow Marines in recent years.
“I don’t think any of them are around anymore … I don’t know if they are alive or dead.”
Between 1942 and 1949 about 20,000 African-Americans, such as Jordan, trained at Camp Montford Point, a segregated facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina, outside Camp Lejeune where only the white recruits were allowed to train and live. African-American recruits were not permitted to even visit Camp Lejeune without a white Marine escort.
In July 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed an order abolishing racial discrimination in the armed forces which eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.
For the full article, see Black Marine honored 7 decades after he served country“,
Michigan State has agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits filed by 332 alleged victims of disgraced former sports physician Larry Nassar, both sides announced Wednesday, ending the university’s involvement in litigation over the former Olympic gymnastics doctor’s rampant sexual abuse of girls and women under the guise of medical treatment. It’s the largest amount of money in history settled by a university for a sexual abuse case.
“This historic settlement came about through the bravery of more than 300 women and girls who had the courage to stand up and refuse to be silenced,” said John Manly, one of several attorneys representing victims, in a statement. “It is the sincere hope of all of the survivors that the legacy of this settlement will be far reaching institutional reform that will end the threat of sexual assault in sports, schools and throughout our society.”
Nassar, 54, is serving an effective life sentence in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting nine girls and women in Michigan, as well as to federal child pornography crimes. At his sentencing hearing in January, the emotional testimony of more than 150 girls, women and parents triggered national outrage about the Nassar case, prompting fallout that continues for the organizations through which Nassar accessed his victims.
The settlement will pay $425 million to the 332 girls and women who have come forward to date, averaging about $1.28 million per victim. Michigan State will set aside an additional $75 million in a trust fund for any victims who come forward in the future.
“Michigan State is pleased that we have been able to agree in principle on a settlement that is fair to the survivors of Nassar’s crimes,” said Robert Young, a lawyer for the university.
The settlement applies to only Michigan State. The United States Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, and famed former Olympic coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi all still face lawsuits filed by Nassar victims, who include Olympians Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas.
Before 2016, Nassar was a respected longtime Michigan State sports physician and was renowned for his lengthy tenure as the team physician for USA Gymnastics women, where he worked with young gymnasts at the Olympics and other international competitions and national team camps. Signed photos of Olympic gymnasts covered the walls of his office at a campus clinic, where he treated Michigan State athletes as well as young gymnasts, some who traveled from several counties over with their parents in seek of medical treatment from the same doctor who worked with the United States’ Olympic heroes.
But in August 2016, Rachael Denhollander, a Louisville woman, filed a police report accusing Nassar of sexually assaulting her years prior, when she was a teenage gymnast seeking his treatment, and then told her story to the Indianapolis Star. Nassar denied the accusations, but dozens of women across the country, after reading the Star story of Denhollander’s abuse, realized that what they had thought was unusual medical treatment — in which Nassar digitally penetrated them without gloves or warning — was actually sexual assault.
Sources :
Will Hobson and Cindy Boren, “Michigan State settles with Larry Nassar victims for $500 million“, Washington Post, May 16, 2018; subsequently updated.
Douglas Belkin, Louise Radnofsky, and Melissa Korn, “Michigan State to Pay Victims of Larry Nassar Abuse $500 Million”, Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2018.
Dan Wetzel, “Larry Nassar’s reign of terror amounts to $500 million in payouts from Michigan State“, Yahoo Sports, May 16, 2018.
Mary Pillon, “‘How Much Is a Little Girl Worth?’: The Painful Financial Fallout of the Larry Nassar Case”, Fortune, June 27, 2019.