All eventsConcerts, festivals and markets, tonight and this weekend
Annual festivalsJazz, techno, cars and parades: Michigan’s year, festival by festival
Holidays & seasonsPumpkin season, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Fourth
Sports: games & scoresLions, Red Wings, Pistons, Tigers: live scores and trophies
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Metro Detroit mapWhat Metro Detroit is, and what every town is about
The Henry FordRosa Parks’ bus, Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory
RenCen: live trackerThe Renaissance Center’s past, present and future, up to the minute
Gordie Howe BridgeThe new bridge to Canada: live waits, tolls, and yes, you can walk it
ToursBy boat, by bike or on foot, with a local guide
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Plan a meetingVenues, hotels and what’s on in town on your dates
Detroit A–ZFrom limos to chambers of commerce: every business and service in one place
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Wellness & rechargeA riverside sauna, spas, yoga and running trailsDETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
Hungarian ties 31 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
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Science & invention · 1847–1931
Thomas Edisoninventor, businessmanAmerica's best-known inventor, who grew up in Port Huron, sold newspapers on the Grand Trunk trains to Detroit, learned telegraphy at Mount Clemens, and whose Menlo Park laboratory Henry Ford rebuilt in Dearborn.
Science & invention · 1911–1997Melvin CalvinbiochemistNobel Prize–winning chemist who traced how plants turn carbon dioxide into sugar; he grew up in Detroit, where his parents kept a grocery store, and finished Central High School in 1928.
Science & invention · born 1954Jeffrey Sachseconomist, public policy analystEconomist and longtime United Nations adviser on poverty and sustainable development, born in Detroit and raised in suburban Oak Park.
Science & invention · 1912–2004
Herbert C. BrownchemistNobel Prize–winning chemist of boron compounds who taught at Wayne University in Detroit from 1943 to 1947, early in his career.
Science & invention · born 1946Robert J. ShillereconomistYale economist and Nobel laureate known for the Case–Shiller home-price index and for warning of the dot-com and housing bubbles; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1920–2000
John Harsanyieconomist, game theoristBudapest-born Nobel laureate in economics and a founder of modern game theory, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1961 to 1963.
Science & invention · born 1951Ben Carsonpediatric neurosurgeon, author, politicianDetroit-born pediatric neurosurgeon who led the first separation of twins joined at the back of the head, later a presidential candidate and U.S. housing secretary.
Science & invention · born 1948Paul MilgromeconomistStanford economist who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize for auction theory and helped design the U.S. radio-spectrum auctions; born in Detroit and raised in Oak Park.
Science & invention · 1928–2011Jack Kevorkianpathologist, right-to-die activistPontiac-born pathologist who assisted in the deaths of scores of patients in metro Detroit in the 1990s and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999.
Science & invention · born 1932Alvin PlantingaphilosopherLeading Christian philosopher of religion and Templeton Prize laureate, born in Ann Arbor, who began his professorial career at Wayne State University in Detroit (1958–1963).
Science & invention · 1944–1986Gregory Jarvisengineer, astronautDetroit-born satellite engineer who died as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.
Science & invention · 1928–2018Hayden Whitehistorian, literary theoristHistorian whose Metahistory (1973) changed how scholars think about historical writing; he studied and then taught at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1872–1942Heber Doust CurtisastronomerAstronomer who argued in the 1920 'Great Debate' that spiral nebulae are other galaxies; he went to school and briefly taught Latin in Detroit, and later ran the University of Michigan's observatories.
Science & invention · 1923–2015
Carl Djerassichemist, novelist, playwrightChemist known as a father of the birth-control pill, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit through most of the 1950s and later wrote plays and novels.
Science & invention · born 1954Bill Joycomputer scientist, entrepreneurAuthor of the vi editor, a key developer of BSD Unix and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, born in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills.
Science & invention · 1924–2021Isadore SingermathematicianMathematician who, with Michael Atiyah, proved the Atiyah–Singer index theorem, a bridge between geometry and physics; born and raised in Detroit.
Auto industry · 1876–1958Charles F. Ketteringinventor, engineer, head of GM ResearchInventor of the electric self-starter, first fitted to the 1912 Cadillac, and head of General Motors research from 1920 to 1947, whose laboratory stood in Detroit's New Center.
Science & invention · 1934–2015Marshall Rosenbergpsychologist, mediatorPsychologist who created Nonviolent Communication; the Detroit race riot of 1943, which broke out a week after his family moved to the city, shaped his life's work.
Politics · born 1984Abdul El-Sayedepidemiologist, public health official, politicianMetro Detroit-raised epidemiologist and Rhodes Scholar who rebuilt the Detroit Health Department after the city's bankruptcy and became Michigan's 2026 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
Politics · born 1964
Fuat Oktaypolitician, engineer, academicTurkey's first vice president (2018–2023), who earned his master's degree and doctorate in engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1928–2023
Natalie Zemon DavishistorianHistorian of early modern France and author of The Return of Martin Guerre, born in Detroit and educated at Cranbrook's Kingswood School.
Science & invention · born 1967Dominic A. Antonelliastronaut, naval aviatorNASA astronaut and Navy fighter pilot who piloted two Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1921–2017Isabella Karlechemist, crystallographerDetroit-born chemist whose practical methods for solving X-ray crystal structures transformed chemistry and drug design; a National Medal of Science laureate.Douglas McGregormanagement theorist, psychologistManagement theorist of Theory X and Theory Y, born in Detroit into the family that ran the McGregor Institute, a mission for homeless men, and a graduate of today's Wayne State.
Science & invention · born 1964Leland Melvinastronaut, engineer, former football playerNASA astronaut who flew two Space Shuttle missions after an NFL career that ended in the Detroit Lions' 1986 training camp.
Science & invention · 1919–1974Clyde CowanphysicistCo-discoverer of the neutrino in the 1956 Cowan–Reines experiment, born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1927–2021Edmund GettierphilosopherPhilosopher whose three-page 1963 paper 'Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?', written while he taught at Wayne State in Detroit, created the famous Gettier problem.
Science & invention · born 1940John Grinderlinguist, author, consultantLinguist who co-created neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) with Richard Bandler in the 1970s; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · born 1954Geoffrey MarcyastronomerAstronomer whose team found many of the first known planets around other stars; born in the Detroit suburb of St. Clair Shores.
Literature · 1858–1939Charles Eastmanphysician, writer, reformerSantee Dakota physician and author, one of the best-known Native American writers of his time, who spent his last winters in Detroit, died here in 1939 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Press & broadcasting · born 1969Sanjay Guptaneurosurgeon, CNN chief medical correspondent, authorCNN's chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon, born and raised in the Detroit suburb of Novi to parents who were Ford engineers.
Science & invention · born 1947Theda Skocpolsociologist, political scientistHarvard sociologist and political scientist known for States and Social Revolutions, born in Detroit in 1947.
Science & invention · born 1969Tony Fadellengineer, designer, entrepreneurEngineer known as the 'father of the iPod', co-creator of the iPhone and founder of Nest Labs; he grew up in the Detroit area and graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School.
Science & invention · born 1981Adam Grantorganizational psychologist, authorWharton organizational psychologist and best-selling author of Give and Take and Think Again, born in West Bloomfield and raised in the Detroit suburbs.David Hahnamateur experimenterThe 'Radioactive Boy Scout' who, as a teenager in suburban Detroit, tried to build a breeder reactor in a backyard shed in Commerce Township, prompting an EPA cleanup in 1995.
Literature · born 1955Geoffrey A. LandisNASA scientist, science-fiction writer, poetDetroit-born NASA engineer and Hugo and Nebula–winning hard science-fiction author who works on Mars rovers and solar power.
Politics · born 1964Dave Bratpolitician, economist, diplomatEconomics professor and Virginia congressman who unseated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014; born in Detroit and raised in Alma, Michigan.
Science & invention · born 1955Jerry M. Linengerastronaut, Navy physicianNavy flight surgeon and NASA astronaut from East Detroit who spent almost five months aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1997, surviving a fire on board; a Wayne State medical graduate.
Science & invention · 1922–2012Stanford R. Ovshinskyinventor, physicist, entrepreneurSelf-taught inventor of the nickel-metal hydride battery and thin-film solar panels, who built his company Energy Conversion Devices in Detroit and Troy over half a century.
Science & invention · 1919–2009Russell L. Ackofforganizational theorist, operations researcherPioneer of operations research and systems thinking in management, who began his academic career at Wayne State University in Detroit (1947–1951).Robert John Braidwoodarchaeologist, anthropologistPioneer of scientific archaeology who searched for the origins of farming in the Near East, born in Detroit and trained at the University of Michigan.
Science & invention · 1923–1969Walter Pittslogician, computational neuroscientistSelf-taught Detroit-born logician who, with Warren McCulloch, wrote the 1943 paper that introduced the first mathematical model of a neural network.Leonard Jimmie Savagemathematician, statisticianDetroit-born statistician whose Foundations of Statistics (1954) laid the groundwork for modern Bayesian statistics and decision theory.
Science & invention · born 1963
Ulana Suprunphysician, activist, health minister of UkraineDetroit-born radiologist from the city's Ukrainian community who trained at Wayne State and Henry Ford Hospital and later served as Ukraine's acting health minister (2016–2019).
Science & invention · 1919–1997Robert B. Leightonexperimental physicist, astronomerCaltech physicist who co-edited The Feynman Lectures on Physics, discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations and helped take the first close-up pictures of Mars; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1868–1953Armin Otto Leuschnerastronomer, educatorFounder of astronomy teaching and research at the University of California, Berkeley, born in Detroit and educated at the University of Michigan.Robert Kearnsengineer and inventor of the intermittent windshield wiperDetroit-educated engineer who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and fought Ford and Chrysler in court for decades; his story is the film Flash of Genius.
Science & invention · 1927–2005Emmett Leithelectrical engineer, physicistDetroit-born co-inventor of three-dimensional laser holography, who studied at Wayne State and did his pioneering work at the University of Michigan's Willow Run Laboratories.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗
