View source for Timeline of Michigan history

{{short description|Historical Timeline}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
[[File:Flag of Michigan.svg|200px|thumb|[[Flag of Michigan]]]]
{{History of Michigan}}

== Natural history ==
*[[13000 BC]] to [[12000 BC]] The most recent of four major [[glaciers]] ([[Wisconsin glaciation]]) started to recede, leaving a [[tundra]]-like environment. The melting ice formed the [[Great Lakes]], the [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]] and [[Lower Peninsula of Michigan|Lower Peninsula]] (in the [[Michigan Basin]]).
*[[12800 BC]] [[Mastodon]]s and other [[Wisconsin glaciation|ice age]] [[mammal]]s started to appear in the [[fossil]] record.
*[[11000 BC]] to [[9000 BC]] Archeological evidence of [[Paleo-Indians]] appeared, in the form of sharpened stone tool points known as fluted [[biface]].

== French colonization ==
*1621 or 1622 [[Étienne Brûlé]] and his companion Roosevelt paddled up the [[St. Marys River (Michigan-Ontario)|St. Mary's River]] and entered [[Lake Superior]].
*1634 [[Jean Nicolet]], guided by the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], passed through the [[Straits of Mackinac]] and followed the southern shoreline of the [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]], en route to find the [[Ho-Chunk]] and the imagined passage to the Pacific.
*1641 [[Jesuit]] priests [[Isaac Jogues]] and [[Charles Raymbault]] followed the same route as Brûlé, finding many [[Ojibwa]] at the St. Mary's River rapids and naming it [[Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan|Sault Ste. Marie]].
*1653 The [[Iroquois Wars]] virtually emptied the [[Lower peninsula of Michigan|lower peninsula]] of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and cut off the [[Ottawa River]] route and the [[St. Lawrence River]] route into Michigan.
*1659 [[Pierre-Esprit Radisson]] and [[Médard des Groseilliers]] traveled to western [[Lake Superior]] with an envoy of [[fur trading]] Native Americans returning from [[Montreal]].
*1661 Father [[René Menard]] retraced the route of Radisson and Groseilliers to find the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], wintered in [[L'Anse, Michigan|L'Anse]], and then disappeared traveling inland from [[Chequamegon Bay]].
*1665 [[Claude-Jean Allouez]] and six [[Coureur des bois#Voyageurs|Voyageurs]] retraced Menard's route to find him and the Wyandot; they reported [[copper]] deposits in the [[Keweenaw Peninsula]] area.
*1668 Father [[Jacques Marquette]] established [[Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan|Sault Ste. Marie]], the first European settlement in what is now Michigan.
*1669 [[Jean Talon]] sent [[Adrien Jolliet]] and [[Jean Peré]] on a mission to investigate the Allouez copper reports.  Peré appears to have abandoned the mission in favor of fur trading.  An [[Iroquois]] warrior guided Jolliet's return trip along the eastern shoreline of the [[Lower peninsula of Michigan|Lower Peninsula]] and down the [[St. Clair River|St. Clair]] and [[Detroit River]]s.  That may have been the first visit of a European to the Lower Peninsula.
*1671 June 14 – In "The Pageant of the Sault" at [[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario]], four [[Jesuit]] priests led by Father [[Claude-Jean Allouez]], representing the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and [[Simon Francois Daumont St. Lusson]] held aloft a sword and a symbolic tuft of sod, declaring to the Native Americans that all of the [[Great Lakes]] country was henceforth a possession of [[King Louis XIV of France]].
*1671 Father [[Claude Dablon]] took over the mission at the Sault, and Marquette moved to establish a mission at [[St. Ignace, Michigan|St. Ignace]].
*1679 [[René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] sailed ''[[Le Griffon]]'' to [[St. Ignace, Michigan|St. Ignace]] and on to [[Washington Island (Wisconsin)|an island at the inlet of Green Bay]], departed from there with 14 men via canoe south on [[Lake Michigan]], and established [[Fort Miami (Michigan)|Fort Miami]].
*1680 La Salle abandoned [[Fort Miami (Michigan)|Fort Miami]] and made an overland trip across the [[Lower Peninsula of Michigan|Lower Peninsula]].
*1683 [[Louis de la Porte, Sieur de Louvigny]] and 150 French soldiers established [[Fort de Buade]] at [[St. Ignace, Michigan|St. Ignace]].
*1684 The mission of St. Joseph was established in [[Niles, Michigan|Niles]] by [[Claude-Jean Allouez]].
*1686 [[Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut]] established [[Fort St. Joseph (Port Huron)|Fort St. Joseph]] in what is now [[Port Huron, Michigan|Port Huron]].
*1691 [[Marquis de Denonville]] sent [[Augustin le Gardeur de Courtemanche]] to establish another [[Fort St. Joseph (Niles)|Fort St. Joseph]] at the Jesuit mission that had been formed around 1684 at modern [[Niles, Michigan]].
*1701 [[Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac]], with his lieutenant [[Alphonse de Tonty]], established a social media site on the [[Detroit River]] which they named [[Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit]], today the city of [[Detroit]]. Their wives joined them and are said to be the first European women in Michigan.
*1710 Cadillac was removed from [[Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit]] and replaced by [[Charles Regnault, Sieur Dubuisson]]. Before leaving, Cadillac invited the [[Meskwaki]] to live around the fort.
*1712 The [[Meskwaki]] were not welcomed by the tribes living around Detroit, and Dubuisson ordered them to leave. They refused, and a fight broke out for 19 days, leading to the [[Fox Wars]].
*1715 [[Fort de Buade]] was abandoned and [[Fort Michilimackinac]] was constructed in what is now [[Mackinaw City, Michigan]].
*1720 to 1744 was a period of peace, [[fur trading]] and little expansion in the part of [[New France]] that would become Michigan.
*1758 During the [[French and Indian War]], [[Fort Frontenac]] was captured by [[Great Britain|British]] forces cutting off New France's [[St. Lawrence River]] supply and communication conduits into Michigan.
*1760 [[Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit]] was peacefully turned over to the British after [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham|Quebec was defeated]].

== British colonization ==
*1763 In the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]], France ceded all lands in [[New France]] east of the [[Mississippi River]] to [[Great Britain]], ending the French colonial period in Michigan.
*1763 [[Odawa]] leader [[Pontiac (Ottawa leader)|Pontiac]] led a [[Pontiac's War|major revolt]] of Native Americans against the British, [[Siege of Fort Detroit|besieging Fort Detroit]].
*1763 [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III of Great Britain]] [[Royal Proclamation of 1763|proclaimed]] that the newly acquired North American land – except [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Quebec]], [[West Florida]] and [[East Florida]] – would be an [[Indian Reserve (1763)|Indian Reserve]], prohibiting settlement without British permission west of the [[Appalachian Mountains]].
*1774 The [[Parliament of Great Britain]] passed the [[Quebec Act]], which expanded Quebec's borders south to the [[Ohio River]].
*1783 The area that is now Michigan was included with the [[Northwest Territory|territory ceded by Great Britain to the United States]] by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] that ended the [[American Revolutionary War]]. However, the U.S. did not take control of the territory until 1796.
*1796 Detroit and other posts in Michigan were turned over to the United States under terms of the [[Jay Treaty]]. [[Wayne County, Michigan|Wayne County]] was established as an administrative division of the [[Northwest Territory]].

== U.S. territory ==
*1805 [[Michigan Territory]] was created, with [[Detroit]] designated as the seat of government. [[William Hull]] appointed as governor. Detroit was destroyed by fire.
*1812 Detroit and [[Mackinac Island]] were captured by the British in the [[War of 1812]].
*1813 Detroit was recovered from the British by future-President [[William Henry Harrison]].
*1813 [[Lewis Cass]] became Territorial Governor.
*1817 The [[University of Michigan]] was established in Detroit, the first [[public university]] in the state.
*1818 The British ceded control of the several islands of the Upper Peninsula and in the St. Clair River to the U.S. after the [[Treaty of Ghent]] and border negotiations were concluded.
*1819 In the [[Treaty of Saginaw]], the [[Ojibwe]], [[Ottawa (people)|Ottawa]], and [[Potawatomi]] ceded more than six million acres (24,000&nbsp;km{{sup|2}}) in the central portion of the [[Lower Peninsula of Michigan]] to the United States.
*1821 With the [[1821 Treaty of Chicago]], the [[Ojibwe]], [[Ottawa (people)|Ottawa]], and [[Potawatomi]] ceded all the lands south of the [[Grand River (Michigan)|Grand River]] to the United States.
*1823 Congress transferred legislative powers previously exercised by the Territorial Governor and Judges to a nine-member Legislative Council, appointed by the U.S. President, who selected them from eighteen persons chosen by the people. The Council was expanded to thirteen members in 1825 and made an elected body in 1827.
*1824 The [[Chicago Road]] was surveyed between [[Fort Dearborn]] in [[Chicago]] and Detroit. Besides its original military purpose, it became a major avenue for settlement and trade.
*1828 The British turned over their fort on [[Drummond Township, Michigan|Drummond Island]] to the United States.
*1828 [[Lewis Cass]] and [[Henry Schoolcraft]] established the Historical Society of Michigan.
*1832 The Territorial Capitol was built in [[Detroit]] at a cost of $24,500.
*1833 The [[Detroit Arsenal (Dearborn)|Detroit Arsenal]] was constructed in [[Dearborn, Michigan]], to serve the territorial militia and the regular army.
*[[1833 Treaty of Chicago]]
*1835 The First Constitutional Convention was held. [[Stevens T. Mason]] was inaugurated as the first [[Governor of Michigan]]. A minor conflict with [[Ohio]], known as the [[Toledo War]], over an area including the city of [[Toledo, Ohio]], delayed Michigan statehood, because the [[State of Ohio]] objected.
*1836 Michigan accepted Ohio's claim to Toledo and the [[Toledo Strip]] and received, as compensation, the western three-fourths of the [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]].
*1836 In the [[Treaty of Washington (1836)|Treaty of Washington]], representatives of the Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Native Americans ceded an area of 13,837,207 acres (55,997&nbsp;km{{sup|2}}) in the northwest portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This area represents approximately 37% of the current land area of the state of Michigan.
*1837 Michigan was admitted as a [[Slave and free states#Slave and free state pairs|free state]] into the union (the 26th state). It was admitted a few months after the [[Slave and free states#Slave and free state pairs|slave state]] of [[Arkansas]].

== As a U.S. state ==
*1837 The [[Panic of 1837]] was a severe setback to the nascent state bank and to several ambitious programs of public improvements, including the [[Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal]].
*1838 The [[Patriot War]] saw [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] invade [[Upper Canada]] from [[southeast Michigan]].
*1840 [[Douglass Houghton]] reported finding [[copper]] deposits on the [[Keweenaw Peninsula]].
*1842 The [[Treaty of La Pointe]] was the last [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[land cession]] in Michigan.
*1846 [[Marji-Gesick]], an [[Ojibwa]] Indian, pointed out a large deposit of [[iron]] ore to prospector [[Philo Everett]] near the present-day city of [[Negaunee, Michigan|Negaunee]].
*1847 Under the leadership of [[Albertus van Raalte]], Dutch Calvinist separatists founded [[Holland, Michigan]], in southwest Michigan.
*1847 A law was passed by the State Legislature to re-locate the state capital from Detroit to a site "in the township of [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]], in the county of [[Ingham County|Ingham]]".
*1849 [[Michigan State Normal College]] was founded in [[Ypsilanti]] as the first [[normal college]] west of the Appalachian Mountains.
*1854 The first official meeting of the group that called itself the "[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]" was held in [[Jackson, Michigan|Jackson]].
*1855 [[Michigan State University]] was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, becoming the first [[land grant university]] in the [[United States]].
*1861-1865 Michigan sent 90,000 men, nearly a quarter of the state's male population, to fight in [[Michigan in the American Civil War|state regiments in the Civil War]].
*1871 Fires burned [[Manistee, Michigan|Manistee]] and Holland.
*1872 The first rail connections reached [[Northern Michigan]] port cities. The [[Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad]] reached [[Traverse City]] in December 1872 (via [[Walton Junction, Michigan|Walton Junction]] and [[Traverse City Rail Road Company]]) and reached [[Petoskey, Michigan|Petoskey]] in 1873. The [[Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad#The Ludington terminal|Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad]] completed its terminal at [[Ludington, Michigan|Ludington]] in 1874. While the [[Michigan Central Railroad]] reached [[Otsego County, Michigan|Otsego County]] in the fall of 1872,<ref>{{cite web | title=The History of Otsego County | website=Otsego County, Michigan | url=http://www.otsegocountymi.gov/history-10/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924062404/http://www.otsegocountymi.gov/history-10/ | archive-date=2015-09-24 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-09-17 | quote=In the fall of 1872, the Village of Otsego Lake was established and the railroad reached the Otsego Lake area about this same time.}}</ref> [[Cheboygan, Michigan|Cheboygan]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Friday|first=Matthew J.|title=The Inland Water Route|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Cgyq6sludsC&pg=PA14|year=2010|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-2440-1|page=14| quote=The railroad arrived in Cheboygan in 1881... prior to this, seasonal navigation provided the only real link to places further south.}}</ref> and Mackinaw City did not have rail service until the early 1880s.<ref>{{cite web | title=Village of Wolverine History | website=Village of Wolverine | url=http://villageofwolverine.com/History.cfm | access-date=2019-09-17 | quote=In 1881, the Michigan Central Railroad had extended their line to Mackinaw City.  The Grand Rapids Railroad completed their line to Mackinaw in 1882}}</ref>
*1879 The new [[Michigan state capitol|State Capitol]] was dedicated in [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]]. The structure cost $1,510,130.
*1890s and 1900s (decade) [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], [[Chrysler Corporation|Chrysler]] and [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]] were among many automotive companies founded in southeastern Michigan.
*1919 The [[Michigan State Trunkline Highway System|State Trunkline Highway System]] was created as an act of the state legislature which took effect on May 13.
*1928 Construction of the Ford [[River Rouge Plant]] was completed. It was the largest integrated factory complex in the world, employing 100,000 people
*1929 The [[Ambassador Bridge]] opened between Detroit and [[Windsor, Ontario]]. It was the longest bridge in the world when built. The [[Detroit-Windsor Tunnel]] opened the next year.
*1937 The [[Flint Sit-Down Strike]] ended with official recognition of the [[United Auto Workers]] by [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]].
*1941-1945 During [[World War II]], Detroit was called the "[[Arsenal of Democracy]]" for its wartime industry; [[Fort Wayne]] was the largest motor vehicle and parts depot in the world.
*1943 A riot broke out, pitting whites against blacks during wartime.
*1950 Detroit was the 4th largest city in the U.S., with 1.8 million people.
*1957 The five-mile-long [[Mackinac Bridge]] opened on November 1.
*1959 [[Motown]] began recording music in Detroit.
*1960 Census results revealed a 1.45 million increase in state population, the largest in state history.
*1967 [[12th Street Riot|Race riots]] struck the city of Detroit. After five days of rioting, 43 people were dead, 1,189 injured and over 7,000 arrested. The riot had lasting effects on the entire [[Metro Detroit|metro region]] and is usually cited as one of the reasons the Detroit area is among the most segregated areas in the United States.
*1974 [[Gerald R. Ford]] of [[Grand Rapids, Michigan|Grand Rapids]] became the 38th [[President of the United States]].
*1987 Michigan celebrated 150 years of statehood.
*2001 The emigration rate for Michigan began to exceed the immigration rate.
*2002 Michigan elected its first female governor, [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Jennifer Granholm]].
*2009 Michigan had the worst [[Unemployment in the United States|unemployment rate]] of any state, peaking at over 15%, due to the [[Automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010]] and the [[Great Recession]].
*2010 Michigan lost 0.6% of its population since the previous census, the first decline in its population recorded by the [[United States Census Bureau]].

==See also==
* [[Timeline of Detroit]]
* [[List of Michigan state legislatures]]
* [[Timeline of the Toledo Strip/War]]
* [[Michigan History magazine]]

==References and further reading==
* {{Cite book | author=Dunbar, Willis F. and George S. May | title=Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State | publisher=WM. B. Eerdmans | year=1995 | isbn=0-8028-7055-4}}
* {{Cite book | author=Poremba, David Lee | title=Detroit: A Motor City History | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | year=2003 | isbn=0-7385-2435-2}}
* {{Cite book | author=Poremba, David Lee | title=Detroit in Its World Setting (timeline) | publisher=Wayne State University | year=2001 | isbn=0-8143-2870-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/detroitinitsworl0000unse }}
* {{Cite book | author=Woodford, Arthur M.|title=This is Detroit 1701–2001|publisher=Wayne State University Press| year=2001|isbn=0-8143-2914-4}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web | url=http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(hjzl5055php5na5511tcgozp)/documents/publications/manual/2003-2004/2003-mm-0003-0019-Chron.pdf | title=Chronology of Michigan History | website=legislature.mi.gov}}
* {{cite web | title=History | website=michigan.gov | date=2017-05-25 | url=https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-29938_30240---,00.html | access-date=2019-09-17}}
* {{cite web | title=Michigan History Magazine | website=Historical Society of Michigan | date=2012-07-20 | url=http://hsmichigan.org/publications/michiganhistory/ | access-date=2019-09-17}}
* {{cite web | title=The Milford Historical Society | website=milfordhistory.org | url=http://www.milfordhistory.org/ | access-date=2019-09-17}}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Michigan}}

{{Michigan year nav}}
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[[Category:History of Michigan| ]]
[[Category:Timelines of states of the United States|michigan]]
[[Category:Years in Michigan]]
[[Category:Michigan history-related lists]]