Pinball Ban & Gwen Frostic Day| May 23

On this day in 1939, the Detroit City Council voted to ban pinball machines from being played outside on the streets, concerned they were being used for gambling. While Los Angeles banned them completely, Detroit opted for a more moderate approach. And today is Gwen Frostic Day in Michigan, as proclaimed by Governor William Milliken in 1978. Born in the Michigan Thumb, Frostic’s art studio near Sleeping Bear Dunes became a nature lover's attraction. She wrote her own epitaph: “Here lies one doubly blessed. She was happy and she knew it.”