The Peace Treaty signed in August of 1701 between the French and the Iroquois removed what had been a major obstacle to the expansion of French influence in the Great Lakes region. Even before the treaty was formally concluded, Cadillac and his party of soldiers and workmen were on their way to the confluence of Lakes Erie and Huron, with plans to establish a fort and permanent settlement. The French hoped to head off a British attempt to do likewise, thus gaining strategic access to and control of the upper Great Lakes through Le Detroit, or “the strait.”
Fort Ponchartrain, which was located roughly on the site of the present-day Civic Center, was named for Louis XIV’s chief minister, Count Ponchartrain, a major supporter of French expansion into the western lands.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
For more information, see History of Detroit, 1701-2001
Also see A History of Detroit, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
The Grand Rapids Daily Democrat of July 25, 1880 reports that the first electric lights were turned on in Grand Rapids Stores on the night before, enabling visitors to read even the smallest print. Interestingly enough, the light fixtures were leased on an annual basis, at $120 per year.
“First Electric Lights”, Grand Rapids Daily Democrat, July 25, 1880, p.4. Courtesy of the Grand Rapids Historical Commission.
Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company — the earliest predecessor of Consumers Energy of Jackson, Michigan — began operation of the world’s first commercial central station hydroelectric power plant on Saturday, July 24, 1880, getting power from Wolverine Chair and Furniture Company’s water turbine.
Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company buildings (left to right) William T. Powers’ Sawmill built in 1868 and used from September 1880 to November 1881, G.R.E.L.&P. First Hydroelectric Power Plant with steam-engine backup system (Winter 1880–81), City Lighting Plant (Nov 1881), north brick building possibly late-1880s. Photo circa late-1890s.
The rest of the story:
Grand Rapids lays claim to the first hydroelectric power plant in the world, and the first to supply commercial electric lighting service. Among the big figures in the use of water power for the city’s infant furniture industry was William T. Powers an enterprising manufacturer. In 1865 and 1866 he purchased the necessary river frontage and in the two following years constructed the West Side Water Power Canal, completing it in September 1868. He became interested in electricity after he had heard of an exhibit to take place at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia in 1877, of an electric carbon-arc lighting system. Powers organized the Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company, March 22, 1880, which incorporated the following week on March 30, 1880.
Associated with William T. Powers in this venture were William H. Powers (son of William T.), Amasas B. Watson, James Blair, Henry Spring, John L. Shaw, Thomas M. Peck, and Sluman S. Bailey. The company acquired a sixteen-light (Charles) Brush generator which was installed in the factory of the Wolverine Chair and Furniture Company. The machine was belt-driven from the line shafting of the factory, and this was driven by a waterwheel operated by water from the West Side Power Canal.
On Saturday evening, July 24, 1880, the first electric light glowed in Grand Rapids. The customers whose premises were for the first time so illuminated were Sweet’s Hotel, Powers’ Opera House, E. S. Pierce’s Clothing Store, Spring & Company’s Dry Goods Store, Mill & Lacey’s Drug Store, A. Preusser’s jewelry store, and the Star Clothing House. The brilliant new lights proved such a drawing card for the merchants that the demand soon outgrew the capacity of the original installation, and the little machine was moved to Powers’ sawmill at the downstream end of the canal, and the capacity was increased by the installation of a new forty-light generator. The growth of the business, augmented by a street lighting contract made March 29, 1881, justified more extensive operations. Powers transferred from the West Side Water Power Company to the Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company sixteen first run of stone, amounting to two hundred and forty horsepower (256 HP). (A “run-of-stone” was a millers measure. A dam in a given area of a certain size in a certain stream was calculated to have enough power to run a given number of grindstones of more or less standard size.) On May 27, 1881, a contract was awarded to John H. Hoskin for the construction of a permanent power house to be completed by August 1, 1881. It was actually completed Nov 1, 1881.
The operation provided arc lighting — a technique where an electric spark in the air between two conductors produces a light. The Grand Rapids operation used direct current technology.
The first U.S. commercial installation of an alternating current hydropower plant occurred at the Redlands Power Plant in California in 1893. Alternating current allowed power to be transmitted longer distances so became the more common method of delivery.
Sources :
History of electric power transmission wikipedia entry
History of Hydropower courtesy of Energy.gov
Powers Behind Grand Rapids : Grand Rapids Electric Light and Power Company blog post.
Julieann Louise “Julie” Krone (born July 24, 1963 in Benton Harbor, Michigan ), is a retired American jockey. In 1993, she became the first (and so far only) female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she captured the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair. In 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and in 2003 became the first female jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup race.
She would go on to make appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the issue of May 22, 1989, one of only eight jockeys so recognized (the others are Willie Shoemaker, Bill Hartack, Eddie Arcaro, Johnny Longden, John Sellers, Robyn Smith and Steve Cauthen). In 1993 she received an ESPY Award as Female Athlete of the Year.
Because of her success in the face of severe injuries sustained while racing, Krone was named by USA Today as one of the 10 Toughest Athletes and was honored with the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Krone also had been inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2013 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where she joins such iconic individuals as Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Ella Fitzgerald, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Billie Jean King.
Source: Julie Krone wikipedia entry
Funeral services were held Monday for former Rep. Martin Buth (R-Comstock Park), who in his 24 years in the House was able to blend a conservative sense with ensuring government provided needed services.
Mr. Buth was also one legislator able to work with Democrats and help build trust between the two parties.
Mr. Buth died on July 24, roughly four months shy of his 100th birthday.
For most of his life, Mr. Buth lived on the same dairy farm where he was born in 1917, located on Buth Drive in Comstock Park, and which he worked with his father and brother.
He graduated from what was then Michigan State College and did graduate work at the University of Michigan. He met his wife, GeorgeAnn at Michigan State. She predeceased Mr. Buth.
In the 1950s Mr. Buth became active in elective politics, winning a seat with the Plainfield Township Board of Trustees.
In 1959, he ran to fill a vacancy in the House, and then was re-elected in 1960 and elected again each term until he retired from the House in 1982.
While conservative, Mr. Buth also recognized that government could be a force to help with development and economic growth, and spent much of his time focused on legislation and actions to assist the Grand Rapids area that had lagged the Detroit region in many respects.
The region did not have a state university or college. Mr. Buth sponsored the legislation that helped create what became Grand Valley State University. He also helped ensure funding as the college began construction.
He sponsored an amendment to an appropriations measure that allowed for the planning and construction of the Grand Rapids Beltline, which served as a major conductor of development in the area.
And he played an active role in helping win a license for a new television station license in the Grand Rapids area, testifying before the Federal Communications Commission.
Mr. Buth served on a number of different committees, which befit his wide variety of interests. He was probably best known for his knowledge of taxation during a turbulent era that saw the creation of the personal income tax, the Single Business Tax and a number of other changes as the state veered from economic vibrancy to a series of devastating recessions.
Because Democrats controlled the chamber for most of his tenure, Mr. Buth was never the chair of the Taxation Committee. But as the minority vice-chair he was often a calming foil to the legendary chair Detroit Democrat George Montgomery who was known for his sharp temper as well as his mastery of tax issues.
The two, in fact, were fast friends. During a time when members of the two parties could negotiate, collaborate and socialize with each other, Mr. Buth and Mr. Montgomery shared an apartment in downtown Lansing, which was a rarity even then.
And the two sat at adjoining desks in the House chamber.
Mr. Montgomery died shortly after leaving office in 1980. And Mr. Buth decided not to seek re-election in 1982.
But his political life was not finished. Mr. Buth served four years after leaving state office as a member of the Kent County Board of Commissioners.
Sources:
“Martin Buth, 99, Republican With A Bipartisan Spirit Has Died”, Gongwer News, July 31, 2017.
Dominick Mastrangelo, “Former dairy farmer turned state representative dies at 99“, MLive, July 25, 2017.
On July 25, 1812, six American soldiers died in the skirmish with a group of Indians near Turkey Creek, on the east side of the Detroit River, making it the first record of U.S. casualties in the War of 1812.
The rest of the story:
On July 25 1812, the Americans suffer the first casualties of the war. There had been periodic skirmishes on the border, near the River Canard, since the invasion of Upper Canada by General Hull. According to Robert Lucas, the night before, Major Denny with a detachment of about 150 men had gone out ’for the purpose of Waylaying and Cutting of a Detachment of Indians that was reported to be ranging in the woods.’ The next day Major Denny was ambushed by native warriors near Turkey Creek Bridge. Lucas reports that six American soldiers were killed while others say four Americans were killed. One of the dead was Avery Powers who received several shots thought his body was tomohawked but not scalped. According to some the ambush of the American force had been organized by Tecumseh. The Americans fought back but eventually retreated back to Sandwich. Lucas reports that some native warriors were killed and one was scalped. Lucas writes: ’Capt McCollock this day killed and Scalped an Indian it being the only Scalp that was taken’. This appears to have been the first recorded scalping of the war.
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
Also see War of 1812 documentary from YouTube.
On July 25, 1932, artist Diego Rivera began the actual painting of his frescoes in the Garden Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rivera had begun his research and preparation in April. The 27-panel work was entitled “Detroit Industry” was completed on March 13, 1933 and first seen by the public a couple weeks later.
Source : Detroit Historical Society Facebook page
On July 25, 1966, Secretary of State James Hare appointed 26-year-old Gordon Alexander as Michigan’s first and the nation’s second state ombudsman who took on the task of handling complaints about their government.
Source: Mich-again’s Day
On July 25, 1974—only 38 years ago—the Supreme Court in Milliken v. Bradley restricted its earlier decision about school busing, now holding that outlying districts were exempt from aiding the desegregation of inner-city school systems.
Three years earlier, the Supreme Court in Swann v. Mecklenburg Board of Education had upheld busing programs designed to speed racial integration. By that time, it had been 17 years since the milestone Brown v. Board of Education had outlawed racial segregation in public education; the case set an important precedent for schools across the country as each went through its own desegregation process.
However, in 1974, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments surrounding the desegregation of the public schools in Detroit, Michigan. Its decision would have profound effects.
The NAACP sued Michigan Governor William Milliken, charging that the public school system was racially segregated as a result of a policy he had put into effect. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a district court decision that the system was indeed segregated, and ordered the state to adopt a desegregation plan which encompassed 54 outlying school districts.
The Supreme Court, however, decided 5-to-4 in favor of Milliken, holding the lower court’s order as impermissible and stating that “desegregation, in the sense of dismantling a dual school system, does not require any particular racial balance.”
Stating that there was no evidence that the outlying districts had deliberately engaged in segregation, the Court emphasized the importance of local control over the operation of schools. The decision read, in part:
The inter-district remedy could extensively disrupt and alter the structure of public education in Michigan, since that remedy would require, in effect, consolidation of 54 independent school districts historically administered as separate governmental units into a vast new super school district, and, since—entirely apart from the logistical problems attending large-scale transportation of students—the consolidation would generate other problems in the administration, financing, and operation of this new school system.
It was a controversial and complex decision. The five justices in the majority placed high importance on maintaining local control over schools; however, as the four justices in the minority feared, exempting suburban districts from the desegregation process made possible the continued “white flight” from cities to the suburbs.
Busing remained controversial throughout the country—and in fact continues to be a topic of discussion today, as school systems debate the important balance between shortening students’ commutes and maintaining racial, ethnic, and economic diversity.
To listen to the oral argument and opinion announcement, check out this page from The Oyez Project.
To read the full text of the Supreme Court opinion, check out this page from the Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
To learn more, check out Joyce Baugh’s The Detroit School Busing Case: Milliken v. Bradley and the Controversy over Desegregation (University Press of Kansas, 2011).
To learn more about Governor Milliken, check out Dave Dempsey’s William G. Milliken: Michigan’s Passionate Moderate (University of Michigan Press, 2006).
To learn more about how student busing played out in another large city, check out Ronald Formisiano’s Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s (UNC Press 2004).
For discussions about racial integration and educational policy, check out Integrating Schools in a Changing Society: New Politics and Legal Options for a Multiracial Generation (UNC Press 2011, edited by Erica Frankenberg and Elizabeth DeBray).
Source : Alison Shay, this Day in Civil Rights History, July 25, 2012.
On Sunday, July 25th 2010 an estimated 1.1 million gallons of raw tar sands crude oil burst from a pipeline into a creek that feeds the Kalamazoo River.
The oil spread quickly in the flooded river, coating wildlife, saturating marshlands, backyards, businesses and farm land. The flow of the oil was contained before reaching Lake Michigan.
The raw tar sands oil disaster was caused by a break in a pipeline owned by Canadian tar sands giant, Enbridge, which knew of safety problems with the pipeline for years before the disaster.
For more information, see Enbridge Oil Spill in Michigan, National Wildlife Federation website.