Plenty of history took place on this day, Oct. 13, in Detroit.
1874 – The American Woman Suffrage Association held its annual meeting at the Detroit Opera House. The AWSA was founded in 1869 by such trailblazers as Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe.
1921 – WWJ became Michigan’s first commercially licensed broadcast radio station. WWJ is believed to be the first station to broadcast regular news reports, regularly scheduled religious broadcasts, and play-by-play sports broadcasts.
1960 – Cobo Hall was dedicated in Detroit, at the time, the world’s largest exhibition hall. Expanded in 1989, it now has 2,400,000 square feet of exhibition space, it’s now no longer even in the top ten largest exposition centers.
1997 – “Whale Tower,” a 180-foot-high mural by the artist known as Wyland painted on the east facade of the David Broderick tower, was dedicated. There was a public outcry in 2006, when the mural was covered by a vinyl billboard.
2003 – “Transcending,” a monument in Hart Plaza celebrating the state’s contributions to the labor movement, is dedicated. This monument stands close to where Dr. Martin Luther King first gave his “I Have a Dream” speech on June 20, 1963
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2014.
