History
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October 6, 2025
Leaders and Best — Where it all began for so many
While U-M is heralded for the Big House, it’s often in much smaller Ann Arbor student homes and campus dorms where big dreams begin. This map plots where 42 notable alumni once hung their maize and blue hats.
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September 29, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: JFK made Peace Corps proposal 65 years ago
In the early hours of Oct. 14, 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy delivered an unscripted campaign speech outside the Michigan Union that helped change the course of American public service.
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September 22, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: Where the wild things were
For more than 30 years, U-M was home to something few universities can claim: a zoo. From 1929 until its closure in 1962, the “Animal House Zoo,” as it was sometimes called, was a quirky fixture of campus life.
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September 15, 2025
A dive into the enduring impact of named professorships
Named professorships, a tradition at U-M for more than a century, play a critical role in nurturing research, perpetuating the values of their namesakes, and enabling the work done at U-M to make a lasting difference.
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September 15, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: A cozy respite from campus bustle
Drake’s Sandwich Shop opened nearly a century on N. University Ave. For generations of U-M students, faculty and staff, Drake’s was the go-to spot for a quick bite, a cup of tea, a glass of limeade or penny candy.
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September 8, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: Karen England broke barriers as first female drum major
In the fall of 2001, when the Michigan Marching Band stepped onto the field at the Big House, the familiar spectacle boasted a first: Karen England leading as drum major — the first woman to hold the role.
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September 2, 2025
School of Dentistry marks 150th anniversary of its founding
The School of Dentistry has long embraced a “leaders and best” commitment to its mission of providing outstanding dental education, innovative patient care and transformative scientific research.
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September 2, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: How research at U-M helped end World War II
Sept. 2, 2025, marked 80 years since the end of World War II, offering an opportunity to reflect on how U-M’s contributions to wartime research, training and service impacted that period.
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August 25, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: The Wave Field turns 30
The Wave Field, one of U-M’s most popular public art spaces, was designed 30 years ago, in 1995, by architectural artist Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C..
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August 11, 2025
It Happened at Michigan: First Haven Hall burned down 75 years ago
Late in the afternoon of June 6, 1950, a fire erupted inside Haven Hall at the northwest corner of central campus. The nearly 90-year-old building, built during the Civil War, was a known fire trap.
