From 1898 to 1914, the Michigan Agricultural College Aggies had won only once against University of Michigan football teams in 1913, by a score of 12-7 in Ann Arbor. But on this day, the Aggies led by the standout African American tackle Gideon Smith, beat the Wolverines 24-0, and the event quickly became known as “the Slaughter”, at least in East Lansing.
By the way, the University of Michigan enjoyed home field advantage in 44 of the first 50 games.
For a photograph of the MAC team entering Ferry Field on that day, see Steve Grinezel, Michigan State Football : They are Spartans. Arcadia Press, 2003, p.2.
Clarence Monroe Burton (November 18, 1853 – October 23, 1932) was a Detroit lawyer and businessman, historian, and philanthropist.
Once asked by the newspaper what he did for recreation, Clarence Burton replied, “work hard at old books.” Blow him a kiss next time you visit the library.
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Clarence Monroe Burton was born in Whiskey Diggings, a California gold rush town, in November 1853. His parents – Charles Seymour Burton, a doctor, and Annie Monroe Burton, a poet – had come to California in a wagon train from Battle Creek, Michigan, earlier that year.
Whatever fortune they sought there, they must not have found it, because they packed up and set out for home on the steamer Yankee Blade the following fall.
On October 1, lost in fog off the coast of Point Arguello, the Yankee Blade struck a rock. The boat broke in two.
Annie Burton, with baby Clarence on her hip and pieces of gold sewn into her skirts, tried to jump from the ship into a waiting lifeboat. She missed her mark and the two of them plunged into the rocky Pacific waters, but someone in the lifeboat grabbed Annie and pulled her and her son aboard.
Dozens of passengers drowned when the Yankee Blade sank. All of the Burtons survived. By 1855, they were back in New York. Auspicious beginnings for a man who would grow up to be – by most standards of polite society – kind of a bore.
For the rest of the story, see Amy Elliott Bragg, “Detroit’s librarian: Clarence Burton and his incredible historical collection”, Night Train, March 24, 2015.
Sources:
Black and white photo of Henry Ford talking to Jean and Jeannette Piccard in front of the gondola to the balloon used in their Stratosphere Flight, as cosmic ray researcher Dr. William Francis Gray Swann peeks out through the gondola’s hatch.
On October 23, 1934, the husband-and-wife team of Jean and Jeannette Piccard navigated a balloon as high as 10.9 miles above the earth, starting from Dearborn, Michigan, and landing many hours later hundreds of miles away in Ohio. This flight reached the stratosphere.
Along for the ride was Jean’s pet turtle, Fleur de Lys. The couple’s two sons – Don, 8, and Paul, 10 – were among the 45,000 spectators who witnessed the takeoff at the Ford Airport in Dearborn, Mich.
“I was nervous right after the take-off,” Jeannette Piccard told a United Press reporter. “The wind bumped the gondola around a great deal, but before long we began to ascend rapidly and when we got into the upper air it was very calm. We hardly seemed to be moving, but I guess that sometimes we must have been drifting at 90 miles an hour or more.”
Jeannette Piccard’s flight set the women’s altitude record, and held it for 29 years, until Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times solo in the Soviet Union’s Vostok 6. According to the editors of Flying magazine, in their book Sport Flying, published by Ziff-Davis in 1976, Jeannette was “the first woman in space, a claim allowed even by Valentina Tereshkova.” She was also the first woman to pilot a flight to the stratosphere, and according to her obituary in The New York Times, the first person to do so through a layer of clouds.
The Henry Ford has digitized about 40 photographs and documents related to the flight. Here are some reposted by the Detroit Historical Society.
Sources :
Ellice Engdahl, “Just Added to Our Digital Collections: Piccards’ Flight”, Henry Ford Blog, January 20, 2014.
Ben Welter, “Oct. 23, 1934: Journey to the edge of space”, Star Tribune, October 18, 2010.
On October 23, 1959, successful director Sam Raimi was born in Royal Oak. Raimi attended Michigan State University and went on to direct movies including the cult horror Evid Dead series, the original Spider-Man trilogy, “For Love of the Game,” “The Gift,” and Oz the Great and Powerful.
In addition to film, Raimi has worked in television, producing such series as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess, both featuring his younger brother Ted Raimi and long-time friend Bruce Campbell, American Gothic, Cleopatra 2525, M.A.N.T.I.S, 13: Fear is Real, Young Hercules, and Jack of All Trades. In 2008, Raimi executive produced a syndicated TV series called Legend of the Seeker, based on Terry Goodkind’s best-selling The Sword of Truth fantasy series. He is also the executive producer of Starz original television series Spartacus : Blood and Sand and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Spartacus: Vengence and Spartacus: War of the Damned. He directed the pilot episode of Ash vs Evil Dead for Starz.
Sources :
Michigan Every Day
Sanjay Gupta, born on October 23, 1979 in Novi, is a notable American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer.
In the 1960s, Gupta’s parents moved from India prior to their marriage and met in Livonia, Michigan, where they worked as engineers for Ford Motor Company. Gupta graduated from Novi High School, and Gupta went on to receive his Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and his M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1993. He was part of Inteflex , a since discontinued accelerated medical education program that accepted medical students directly from high school.
Gupta is known for his many TV appearances on health-related issues. First and foremost, he is the Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN. He is the host of the CNN show Sanjay Gupta MD for which he has won multiple Emmy Awards.. Gupta also hosted the 6 part mini series, Chasing Life. He is a frequent contributor to other CNN programs such as American Morning, Larry King Live, CNN Tonight, and Anderson Cooper 360°. His reports from Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina led to him winning a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast. He is also a special correspondent for CBS News.
Gupta publishes a column in Time magazine. He has written three books: Chasing Life, Cheating Death, and Monday Mornings: A Novel.
Sources:
Sanjay Gupta wikipedia entry.
Jeff Seidel, “Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a U-M grad, is consumed by coronavirus coverage — even in his dreams“, Detroit Free Press, May 8, 2020.
Peggy Lue McCreery has a hunger in her soul for trees, for the shade of maples and oaks, for the silvery rustle of a birch in the wind.
Season after season she has tried to coax a leafy bower from the red earth of the Oklahoma plains, planting oaks and poplar seedlings she found in Chicago. She didn’t understand her longing for tall trees until her husband discovered he had married into a family of American Indians, the Potawatomi (Pot-ah-WAT-ah-mee).
Her ancestors once lived where the trees were so thick, legend has it, a squirrel could cross from branch to branch from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie and never touch the ground.
For the full article, see Jennifer Dixon, “She Finds Her Roots Are Indian, In Michigan Woman Discovers Pride in Potawatomi Heritage”, Detroit Free Press, October 23, 2000.
Note: The Michigan State University Provides Online Access to the Detroit Free Press via Proquest Gannett Newstand.
An earthquake occurred north of Albion, MI at approximately 1:33 am.on October 1, 2001.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
Also see Ohio Seismic Survey report.
On October 23, 2001, Margaret Chiara was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan. She was forced to resign on March 16, 2007.
On March 23, 2007, the New York Times reported that Chiara was told by a senior Justice Department official that she was being removed to make way for a new attorney that the Bush administration wanted to groom.
Sources:
On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher from Bay City became the first person to conquer Niagara Falls in a barrel. Annie Edson Taylor hoped plunging over the falls would help her earn some money on the lecture circuit.
She was a widow who had recently failed at an attempt to start a dance school and was near financial ruin. She survived the stunt with just a few minor injuries, and said, “Nobody ought ever to do that again.” Taylor was unable to cash in on her fame, however, and her life ended in poverty. She spent her last years autographing postcards at Niagara Falls.
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
Marvin Kusmierz , Anna Edson Taylor (1839-1921) entry from Bay Journal.
Robert Fish, a native of Gladwin, MI, joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, received his wings in 1940, and would serve in the military for the next 30 years.
During World War II, he played an instrumental role in planning and executing a secret military operation : “Operation Carpetbagger”. The Carpetbaggers completed 1860 sorties, delivering 20,495 packages of supplies to resistance fighters, and released more than 1000 Joes and Josephines (parachutists) into enemy territy between January 1944 and May 1945.
For more information, see Bernice Miller Sizemore, Remembering Michigan’s Carpetbaggers, Michigan History, January/February 2013, pp. 47-51.