1701 Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, accompanied by approximately one hundred fellow Frenchmen and an additional one hundred Algonquian Indians, established Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on a site that is today in downtown Detroit.
1796 - Fort Shelby and all other British posts in Michigan are turned over to the United States under terms of the Jay Treaty. Wayne County, containing Fort Shelby, was established as an administrative division of the Northwest Territory.[1]
19th century
1805
June 11: The Great Fire of 1805 burns virtually the entire city.[3] The city's motto, Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus ("We hope for better things, it will rise from the ashes") dates from this event.
1812 - August 16: Detroit surrenders without firing a shot to a small British-Indian army under General Isaac Brock in the War of 1812.[3]
1813 - September: British forces retreat from Detroit after the Battle of Lake Erie, and the city would serve as a base for the American invasion of Upper Canada.
1815 - October 24: territorial governing council enacts the charter for the City of Detroit to be governed by a five-person board of trustees.[1]
1911: Chevrolet opens its first factory in Detroit. This was significant in the birth of Detroit as the center of the American automobile industry, something that became huge in the city's economy and overall identity.
1917: The World War I Draft occurred. Known as the Selective Service Act of 1917, 24 million men between the ages of 18 and 45 registered to fight. This created many more jobs for African Americans in the city of Detroit as a lot of working men went off to war.
1920: Detroit becomes the 4th largest city in America
1920s: All throughout the 1920s, patterns arose of whites beginning to define black neighborhoods by race. The 8 mile Wyoming colonie became a prominent arena for African Americans. White bureaucrats decided to erect a wall known as the"Detroit Wall" to segregate a black neighborhood in Detroit for real estate purposes. Paradise Valley also became a place that many blacks were confined to during this time.
1923: The Ford Motor Company and African American churches align. During this time, due to Henry Ford's strong relationship with prominent Black ministers in the city, his company was the largest employer of African American workers in all of Detroit. Ford and church leaders worked together in the black community to employ thousands and prevent conflicts between black and white workers.
Ossian Sweet riots. A large crowd was protesting outside Ossian Sweet's house because they did not want him moving into their neighborhood. Rocks were thrown at his home and many windows were broken. Sweet responded by shooting into the crowd and was subsequently charged with murder.
Formation of Home Owners' Loan Cooperation (HOLC). Established as part of the New Deal, this group mainly served to help refinance home mortgages that faced a risk of foreclosure due to the 1929 economic crash and the housing industry collapse.
1934: Formation of the Federal Housing Authority. The FHA is responsible for setting standards for construction and insuring and underwriting loans made by various lenders.
1935
The United Auto Workers labor union was founded. Ford was the first company to sign a contract with them, again showing the impact that the Ford Motor Company has had throughout Detroit's history.
1936: 239 maps were commissioned by FHLB for the HOLC and the FHA. The FHLB determined which neighborhoods were safe for loans and which were not. This resulted in redlining and Blacks found it very difficult to get loans.
1948: Shelley v Kraemer. The decision ruled that restrictive covenants cannot be enforced. However, it was ineffective to get people to stop using them because they didn't want their neighborhood to get a poor rating.
1949: Taft Ellender Wagner Act is passed. This resulted in more funding for public housing.
Detroit's population reaches its height at 1.85 million.[12]
1951 - Detroit celebrates its 250th anniversary with exhibitions, parades, lectures, entertainments, historical publications, new building construction and more.
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.[35]
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.
2002 - 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.
"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.
2006 - February: 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.[40][41] Kilpatrick was succeeded in office on an interim basis by City Council President Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.
2009 - Following a special election in May 2009, businessman and former Detroit Pistons star Dave Bing became the Mayor and was subsequently re-elected to a full term of office.
December: Governor Rick Snyder announced that Detroit had emerged from bankruptcy, and that he had accepted Orr's resignation as emergency manager, returning control of Detroit to its elected government.
2016 - June: CNU24, the 24th Congress for the New Urbanism, is held in Detroit. Congress focuses on the city's resurgence and legacy projects.
2017 - October: National Women's Convention held.[49]
2018 - Bedrock Detroit, owned by Dan Gilbert, announces a $900 million, two building project on the site of the former J.L. Hudson store (which once had the tallest retail tower in the world), including a 58-story tower.[50]
Robert C. Brooks (1901), "Detroit, Mich.", Bibliography of Municipal Problems and City Conditions, Municipal Affairs, vol. 5 (2nd ed.), New York: Reform Club, OCLC1855351
Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds. Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980. online; see index at p. 408-9 for list.
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