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Ann Arbor travel guide

about Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Washtenaw County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 114,024. Ann Arbor Charter Township is adjacent to the city on the north and east sides. Ann Arbor is the home of the main campus of the prestigious University of Michigan. Ann Arbor is often referred to by the nickname "A²" (A squared).

Ann Arbor geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 71.7 km² (27.7 mi²). 70.0 km² (27.0 mi²) of it is land and 1.7 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.42% water, that water being part of the Huron River.

Ann Arbor history

Ann Arbor was founded by settlers from various Eastern states in January 1824. The original founders were John Allen (from Virginia) and Elisha Rumsey (from New York). Their wives' names were both Ann (in the latter case, either Ann Rumsey or Ana Rumsey, depending on what text you consult), and Allen and Rumsey decided to name the settlement "Annarbour," for their spouses (after discarding the alternative names Allensville and Anapolis) and for the stands of burr oak in the 640 acres (2.6 km²) of land they had purchased for $800 from the federal government. The Indians of the region knew the settlement as Kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, after the sound of Allen's grist mill. Rumsey died in 1827; Allen eventually became the town's postmaster, newspaper publisher, village president, and all-around promoter.

Several mills, a tannery, and a general store flourished in the settlement. The general store (or tavern, depending on which source you accept) was painted bright red and the corner on which it was established (Huron and Main) became known as Bloody Corners. In 1836, Ann Arbor lost a bid to be established as the state capital.

However, in 1837, Ann Arbor won a bid to be the new site for the University of Michigan when it offered forty acres (160,000 m²) of land free for the site. The Michigan Central Railroad arrived in 1839, making the town a major regional transportation hub.

Ann Arbor became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827, was incorporated in 1833, and was chartered in 1851, which was also the year that John Allen died. The town became home first to large numbers of German immigrants (particularly from the state of Württemberg) and escapees from the Great Irish Famine, though Canadians accounted for the largest percentage of immigrants to the town during most of the 1800s.

During World War I, Germans became targets of animosity because of their alleged sympathy for the German state, and four professors in the University's German department were dismissed because of what were alleged by the regents to be an "excess" of faculty in the department. During World War II, Ford Motor Company's nearby Willow Run plant turned out B-24 Liberator bombers and the population of Ann Arbor exploded with an influx of miltary personnel, war workers, and their families.

In 1960, Ann Arbor was the site of major speeches by both major presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Kennedy outlined his proposal for what would become the Peace Corps at the Michigan Union on October 14, 1960. On May 22, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled his Great Society initiative during a University of Michigan commencement address.

During the 1960s, Ann Arbor became a locus for both the American civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. It was the site of the first major meetings of Students for a Democratic Society in 1960. After a number of protests and an extensive public campaign, the city passed its first fair housing ordinance in 1963.

In June 1969, students and protesters took over portions of South University Avenue over the course of three days of protests and rioting. However, the police, drawn from many surrounding communities, and many with their names and badges covered up, took back the streets with the use of tear gas, police dogs and the threat of firearms. Between 1972 and 1976, the city council went through a period in which members of the Human Rights Party got elected and fought for several measures that at the time and a rent control ordinance. In 1973, Kathy Kozachenko was elected to the Ann Arbor city council and became the first openly gay candidate to run successfully for elected office in the United States.

The economy of Ann Arbor underwent a gradual shift from manufacturing base to a service and technology base over the course of the 20th century, a shift which accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s. As of 1999, Ann Arbor was home to 25 research centers and libraries.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ann Arbor, Michigan".

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