It Happened at U-M

  1. September 25, 2023 A photo of Yoko Ono and John Lennon

    ‘They gave him ten for two’

    The concert was scheduled to end at midnight. But the 15,000 people crowded into Crisler Arena were content to hang around. John Lennon was worth the wait. Lennon and Yoko Ono performed at 3 a.m. in support of John Sinclair, a radical imprisoned for possessing two marijuana cigarettes.

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  2. September 18, 2023 A photo of a Time magazine cover featuring Dave Brubeck

    ‘Jazz Goes to College’

    A University of Michigan audience helped make pianist Dave Brubeck an icon of 20th-century jazz. Brubeck made national headlines in 1954 with the release of “Jazz Goes to College,” which lists U-M as the recording venue. The Brubeck quartet actually performed off-campus at the Masonic Temple on Fourth Avenue.

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  3. September 11, 2023 A photo of physicists from 1931.

    Physics, Ann Arbor and J. Robert Oppenheimer

    What began as a modest university summer lecture program featuring notable physicists in 1923 evolved into an extraordinary series of appearances by some of the greatest minds in theoretical physics. The Summer Symposia in Theoretical Physics attracted J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, among many others.

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  4. September 5, 2023 A photo of George G.W. Andree

    A dentist’s silent world

    When George Gregor William Andree entered University Hall to receive his U-M diploma in 1908, he likely saw all the people assembled but did not experience were the sounds of the June ceremony. At 29, Andree received a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, a first for a deaf man in the United States.

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  5. August 28, 2023 Theodore Roosevelt Speigner was a trailblazer in more than one way. He was the first Black man elected to the school board in Durham, North Carolina. Bolstered by a pioneering U-M doctorate, he was an advocate of teaching conservation well before the environmental movement of the 1970s took hold.

    ‘Like life without food’

    Theodore Roosevelt Speigner was a trailblazer in more than one way. He was the first Black man elected to the school board in Durham, North Carolina. Bolstered by a pioneering U-M doctorate, he was an advocate of teaching conservation well before the environmental movement of the 1970s took hold.

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