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The Michigan Daily

student newspaper of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ7751250
Source-derived summary

The Michigan Daily, also known as "The Daily", is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was established on September 29, 1890.

A print edition of the paper is published once a week during the fall and winter terms, traditionally on Wednesdays.

History

On April 12, 1955, when the success of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was announced at the University of Michigan the Daily was the first newspaper to report it. In 1957, the Daily sent a staff member to Little Rock, Arkansas who, pretending to be a student, attended classes on the first day of integration.

In February 1967, the Board in Control of Student Publications rejected the nomination of student Roger Rapoport for editor-in-chief, deeming him too controversial. Students fiercely opposed this administrative overreach and launched a successful pressure campaign that forced the Board to accept the students' chosen editorial slate. Two years later, in 1969, the U-M Board of Regents passed a resolution that stripped the Board of its editorial influence and its power to select editors.

The paper was the subject of national press coverage in 1967, when it urged the legalization of marijuana, and again during the Gulf War in 1991, when it called for the reinstatement of the military draft.

The Daily was instrumental in the spread of the "Paul is dead" urban legend.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Michigan Daily” is student newspaper of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Michigan, Daily and student, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1890, 1955, 1957, 1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1890-01-01. For this dossier, Michigan, Daily and student is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “student newspaper of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7751250. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1955, 1957 and 1967.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Michigan Daily”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Michigan Daily primary sources, The Michigan Daily archive and Michigan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Michigan Daily”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Michigan Daily” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.