It Happened at Michigan

April 8, 2024
It Happened at Michigan — The ‘harrowing experience’ of meeting Robert Frost

Robert Frost came to campus in the fall of 1921 to be U-M’s inaugural Creative Fellow in the Creative Arts, an experiment carried out by President Marion L. Burton.
April 1, 2024
It Happened at Michigan — ‘Michigan is not to be outdone’

When U-M established a course in the principles of aerodynamics in 1914, the seven young men who gathered before a professor in the West Engineering Building quietly made history.
March 18, 2024
It Happened at Michigan — Born to handle winning

When Jim Abbott pitched his first Little League game as an 11-year-old growing up in Flint, he fired a no-hitter. It was a glimpse of the extraordinary career to come.
March 11, 2024
It Happened at Michigan — Dr. Death comes to campus

Nicknamed “Dr. Death” early in his medical career because of his strong support of euthanasia, Jack Kevorkian was a 1952 graduate of the Medical School.
January 22, 2024
It Happened at Michigan — Racing to win a historic title

Orval Wardel Johnson, a member of the U-M track team, faced All-American quarterback Pete Elliott in a bid to serve as president of the LSA Class of 1949.
December 4, 2023
It Happened at Michigan — ‘You’ve got to be excellent’

Willie Hobbs first stepped foot on U-M’s campus as an 18-year-old first-year student in 1952. Twenty years later she was the first African American woman in the U.S. with a Ph.D. in physics.
November 20, 2023
It Happened at Michigan — ‘I’m just like everybody else’

Marina Oswald was left widowed when her husband was shot and killed in 1963. Two years later, she enrolled at U-M for classes at the English Language Institute.
November 6, 2023
It Happened at Michigan — Sharing more than a birthday

Joan and Janice Ottenbacher were always close as sisters. A lifesaving operation at University Hospital in 1964 made their bond extraordinary.
October 30, 2023
It Happened at Michigan — Breaking barriers and making gay rights history

U-M student Kathy Kozachenko, who campaigned in residence halls and student neighborhoods, made history in 1974 by becoming the country’s first openly gay elected official.
October 16, 2023
It Happened at Michigan — Teaching farmers in Ann Arbor

No one will mistake today’s U-M for an agricultural college. But for a few years before the Civil War, leaders were determined to teach the art and science of farming.