During the War of 1812, the Detroit River served as a major barrier between the American Michigan Territory and British Upper Canada, especially during the Battle of Fort Detroit in August 1812, when Detroit briefly fell to the British.

Prior to statehood, there were five governors of the Michigan Territory.

* 1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.

* 1805 – The U. S. Congress organizes the Michigan Territory.

* 1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.

* 1769 – Solomon Sibley, American politician and former Delegate to the U. S. House of Representatives from Michigan Territory ( d. 1846 )

The city was founded in 1833 on the west bank of the Maumee River, originally incorporated as part of Monroe County, Michigan Territory, then re-founded in 1837, after conclusion of the Toledo War, when it was incorporated in Ohio.

An almost bloodless conflict between Ohio and the Michigan Territory, called the Toledo War ( 1835 – 1836 ), was " fought " over a narrow strip of land from the Indiana border to Lake Erie, now containing the city and the suburbs of Sylvania and Oregon.

The strip — which varied between five and eight miles ( 13 km ) in width — was claimed by the state of Ohio and the Michigan Territory due to conflicting legislation concerning the location of the Ohio-Michigan state line.

Map of the Northwest Territory as established by the U. S. Congress in the Northwest Ordinance, shown with present-day state borders, and correct spatial relationship between Lakes Michigan and Erie.

Ohio would thus be granted access to most or all of the Lake Erie shoreline west of Pennsylvania, and any other new states carved out of the Northwest Territory would have access to the Great Lakes via Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior.

When Congress created the Michigan Territory in 1805, it used the Northwest Ordinance's language to define the southern boundary, which therefore differed from that in Ohio's state constitution.

Thus, townships that were established north of the line assumed they were part of Michigan Territory.

Michigan Territory Governor Stevens T. Mason ( 1832 – 1839 )

Ohio asserted that the boundary was firmly established in its constitution and thus Michigan's citizens were simply intruders ; the state government refused to negotiate the issue with the Michigan Territory.

The university was founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, about 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state.

The University of Michigan was established in Detroit in 1817 as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, by the governor and judges of Michigan Territory.

* January 11 – Michigan Territory is created.

This status was renewed and reinforced by the Quebec Act of 1774, which expanded Quebec's territory to include part of the Indian Reserve to the west ( i. e., parts of southern Ontario ), and other western territories south of the Great Lakes including much of what would become the United States ' Northwest Territory, including the modern states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.

The Michigan Territory was held under British control until it was abandoned in 1813.

Many other battles were fought in American territory bordering Upper Canada, including the Northwest Territory ( most in modern day Michigan ), upstate New York and naval battles in the Great Lakes.

The British Empire had ceded the Northwest Territory — comprising the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — to the United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Its charter was granted on April 22, 1833, the first school chartered by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan.

In 1992, an amendment to the Michigan constitution imposed a lifetime term limit of two four-year terms for the office of governor.

Governor Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of Michigan

When the results of the survey were made public, Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass was unhappy, since it was not based on the Congressionally approved Ordinance Line.

* October 27 – Stevens Thomson Mason, first governor of Michigan ( d. 1843 )

The Secretary of the Army, Wilber Brucker, the former governor of Michigan — was apparently under pressure from his home state to award the contract to a company in Michigan.

During the bitter Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914, the Michigan National Guard was called in after the sheriff petitioned the governor.

In late-1836, President Andrew Jackson, who disliked the Michigan Territory's “ boy governor ” Stevens T. Mason, intervened on behalf of Ohio and gave the Toledo Strip to Ohio in exchange for Michigan getting the Upper Peninsula — then considered a wasteland — when it became a state on January 26, 1837.

* James Blanchard, Michigan governor, born and raised in Ferndale and attended Ferndale public schools.

* Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan

Shingleton was a station on the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad named " Jeromeville " in 1882, after David H. Jerome, then the governor of Michigan ( 1881 – 1883 ).

* Cyrus G. Luce, Michigan governor

* Frank Murphy-an historically important Detroit mayor, Recorder's Court Judge, Michigan governor, United States Attorney General, and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Patterned after the ' Mackinac Bridge Walk ' led by Michigan's governor, this was an opportunity to learn a bit more about the history and culture of a small town in Michigan, and enjoy the holiday.

Schoolcraft was a key member of the 1820 Cass Expedition, organized by territorial governor Lewis Cass to explore the Michigan Territory ; the expedition played an important role in encouraging settlement of the territory.

Because of confusion with another Huron River south of Detroit, on July 17, 1824, the Michigan Territorial Legislature renamed both the township and the river after DeWitt Clinton, the popular governor of New York from 1817 to 1823 who was largely responsible for building the Erie Canal which enabled many settlers to come to Michigan.

* George W. Romney, father of Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate in 1968, and former governor of Michigan

Southfield was surveyed in 1817 according to the plan by Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass.

Lewis Cass, the third governor of Michigan Territory, established the boundaries of Oakland County in 1819.

His son, George Bryan Porter, was appointed governor of Michigan Territory by Andrew Jackson.