History of Detroit, Michigan - Timeline

Timeline

For more dates see David Lee Poremba, Detroit in Its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001 (2001).

• 1701 - July 24, Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac, with his lieutenant Alphonse de Tonty and a company of 100 men, establishes a trading post on the Detroit River under orders from the French King Louis XIV. They named it Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, in homage to the Count of Pontchartrain, the Royal Minister of Marine.
• 1701 - Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church is the first building built in Detroit, started within two days of Cadillac's landing.
• 1760 - British Major Robert Rogers and a group of his Rogers' Rangers take formal command of Fort Detroit during the French and Indian War.
• 1763 - Chief Pontiac besieges Detroit during Pontiac's Rebellion.
• 1783 - The area south of the Great Lakes (including all of Michigan) is ceded by Great Britain to the United States by the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War. However, the British kept actual possession.
• 1796 - Detroit and all other British posts in Michigan are turned over to the United States under terms of the Jay Treaty. Wayne County, containing Detroit, was established as an administrative division of the Northwest Territory.
• 1802 - February 1, the town of Detroit is incorporated by the territorial legislature.
• 1805 - June 11, a fire burns virtually the entire city. The city's motto, Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus ("We hope for better things, it will rise from the ashes") dates from this event.
• 1806 - September 13, the city of Detroit is incorporated by the territorial governing council.
• 1809 - February 24, the territorial governing council repeals the 1806 incorporation of the city.
• 1812 - August 16, Detroit surrenders without firing a shot to a small British-Indian army under General Isaac Brock in the War of 1812.
• 1813 - September, The British retreat from Detroit, which served as a base for the American invasion of Canada.
• 1815 - October 24, the territorial governing council enacts the charter for the City of Detroit to be governed by a five-person board of trustees.
• 1824 - August 5, the newly formed territorial legislature reorganizes city government, creating the Common Council and office of mayor.
• 1833 - June 14, Blackburn Riot
• 1837 - Detroit becomes capital of the State of Michigan (until 1847).
• 1837 to 1838 - Small bands of self-proclaimed "Patriots", some operating from Detroit, invade Canada in the Patriot War.
• 1863 - Anti-draft and race riot in Detroit.
• 1877 - Detroit College (now the University of Detroit Mercy and U of D Jesuit HS) is founded by the Society of Jesus.
• 1890 - Reforming mayor Hazen Pingree establishes vegetable gardens for the poor, which came to be called Pingree's Potato Patches.
• 1903 - Ford Motor Company is founded by Henry Ford in Detroit.
• 1914 - Detroit Institute of Musical Arts is founded.
• 1929 - Ambassador Bridge construction complete.
• 1930 - Detroit-Windsor Tunnel construction complete.
• 1930 - Detroit's electric streetcar systems peaks in size with 30 lines stretching over 534 miles.
• 1941 - Electric streetcars run on Woodward Avenue every 60 seconds at peak times.
• 1943 - A race riot, spurred by competition among black and white residents for wartime factory jobs, resulted in 34 deaths.
• 1950 - Detroit's population reaches its height at 1.85 million.
• 1956 - Electric streetcar service discontinued on Detroits last line along Woodward Avenue.
• 1961 - Jerome Cavanagh is elected mayor and launches a series of reforms.
• 1963 - Great March to Freedom.
• 1967 - On July 23, the 12th Street Riot, one of the worst riots in United States history, begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city (43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned).
• 1968 - Focus: HOPE organization is founded by Fr. William Cunningham. Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers of the American League defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series in seven games.
• 1973 - Coleman Young is elected Detroit's first black mayor—a position he would hold for 20 years.
• 1979–1980 Saddam Hussein makes large donations to a Detroit church and receives a key to the city. Hussein's relationship with Detroit began in 1979, when the Reverend Jacob Yasso of Chaldean Sacred Heart congratulated Hussein on his presidency. Yasso said that in return his church had received $450,000 from the former Iraqi dictator.
• 1980 - The national economic malaise of the 1970s culminated in Detroit hosting the Republican National Convention which nominated Ronald Reagan who stayed at the Renaissance Center while in Detroit. The Detroit convention kicked off Reagan's campaign to a landslide election.
• 1984 - Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers of the American League defeat the San Diego Padres to win the World Series in five games.
• 1987 - Pope John Paul II visits Detroit.
• 1992 - November 5, black motorist Malice Green dies after struggling with white policemen Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn during a traffic stop. The officers were later convicted and sentenced to prison. The convictions were overturned, but the officers were retried and convicted of lesser charges.
• 1996 - In November, Michigan votes to allow the operation of three casinos in Detroit.
• 1997 - In June, the Detroit Red Wings win their first Stanley Cup in 42 years.
• 1999 - The Detroit Tigers play their final baseball game in classic Tiger Stadium, which had opened in 1912. The team relocated to the new Comerica Park downtown in 2000.
• 2002 - The Detroit Lions football team begin play in the new, state-of-the-art Ford Field, returning to downtown Detroit after 27 years in suburban Pontiac.
• 2004 - The "restored" Campus Martius Park opens in downtown Detroit. Featuring an ice-skating rink, it is the focal point of the city's new Winter Blast festival.
• 2005 - Comerica Park hosts Major League Baseball's All-Star Game.
• 2006 - In February, the city hosts Super Bowl XL, and in October, the Detroit Tigers, only three years after having a 119-loss season, defeat the Oakland A's in the American League Championship Series, winning the Penant. They then play in their first World Series since 1984, losing to their 1968 series rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, in five games.
• 2008 - Kwame Kilpatrick resigned his office as mayor effective September 19, 2008, after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice and no contest to one count of assaulting and obstructing a police officer. Kilpatrick was succeeded in office on an interim basis by City Council President Kenneth Cockrel, Jr..
• 2009 - Following a special election on May, 2009, businessman and former Detroit Pistons star Dave Bing became the Mayor and was subsequently re-elected to a full term of office.
• 2013 - The state governor declares a financial emergency and appoints an emergency manager for the city