1932: Birthday of Mary Moore, who became part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, playing for the Battle Creek Belles from 1950 to 1952. Inspired by Detroit Tigers' Eddie Lake, Moore developed a love for baseball. She participated in the reunion scene at the end of the film "A League of Their Own" along with 40 other league alums, including a memorable slide into home plate.

1944: D-Day. General Eisenhower famously ordered "Full victory – nothing else" to the 101st Airborne Division, captured in an iconic photograph. He conversed with Lieutenant Wallace Strobel, a native of Saginaw, Michigan, mentioning his fondness for the state's fishing. Strobel survived the war, living until 1999, passing away a day after his 22nd birthday and fifty-five years after D-Day.

1914: Birthday of Elly Peterson, a trailblazer in Michigan politics as first woman to chair a major political party in the state. Despite losing a 1964 Senate race, she later served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party and assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee. Disillusioned with her party's stance on women's rights, she became an independent in the 1970s. Peterson was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1984.

1896: Henry Ford tested his hand-built Quadricycle, marking a milestone in automotive history. Ford's Quadricycle featured a basic design with four bicycle wheels and a simple gas engine mounted to a carriage frame. Despite its rudimentary construction, it reached a top speed of 20 mph. Today, the original Quadricycle is housed at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

1943: Hurley Smith, a Bellaire, MI engineer, patented the pocket protector to prevent staining white shirts with ink and pencil marks. He experimented with plastics, folding them into rectangular shapes to cover shirt pockets. This practical invention later became a geeky stereotype by the 1980s.

2010: Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers nearly achieved a perfect game against the Cleveland team. However, an umpire's controversial call on the final batter, Jason Donald, denied him the milestone. Despite Galarraga's impressive pitching stats, including 28 batters faced with only one hit allowed, the game remains famous as an "Imperfect Game."

1863: Michigan initiated the recruitment of Native Americans for the Civil War, forming Company K, who notably flew a live eagle instead of a flag and fought valiantly to end slavery. 1910: The Dodge Brothers began construction on a car parts factory in Hamtramck, transforming it into a city of nearly 50,000, primarily inhabited by Polish immigrants. However, by 1980, Dodge Main was considered obsolete and closed down.

1855: The Soo Canal, linking Lake Huron and Lake Superior, opened after two years of construction, showcasing a remarkable engineering feat. 1884: In Battle Creek, Michigan, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg stumbled upon corn flakes while searching for a bread substitute, leading to a patent application that forever changed breakfast.

On this day in 1848, Abraham Lincoln coined the term "Michigander" in reference to Lewis Cass, sparking a linguistic debate that endures to this day. Learn about the origins of this term and its significance in Michigan's history.