page_title: 1974 in Michigan
section_title: April
hierarchical_section_title: 1974 in Michigan / Chronology of events / April
caption_attribution_description: Tracks of tornadoes generated during the 1974 Super Outbreak.
context_page_description: Events from the year 1974 in Michigan.
  The Associated Press selected the top news stories of 1974 in Michigan as follows:
  Gerald Ford's elevation to President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon;
  The decline of the automobile industry tied to the 1973 oil crisis with layoffs of more than 200,000 automobile workers;
  The re-election of William Milliken as Governor of Michigan despite a general tide in favor of Democrats;
  The United States Supreme Court ruling in Milliken v. Bradley reversing a lower court order requiring cross-district busing of public school students among 53 school districts in metropolitan Detroit and instead directing the creation of a desegregation plan limited to the Detroit schools;
  Voters' repeal of the state sales tax on food and drugs;
  Gasoline shortage;
  Contaminated feed forces the slaughter of thousands of farm animals;
  Democrats take the Fifth and Eighth Congressional Districts and then hold them in post-Watergate elections resulting in Democrats taking control of the Michigan Legislature and the state's Congressional delegation;
  The worst snowstorm of the century hit southern Michigan; and
context_section_description: April 1 – Voters in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti passed amendments to their city charters reducing the penalty for possession or use of marijuana to a fine of five dollars.
  April 4 – In the 1974 Tornado Super Outbreak that left 320 dead from Alabama to Canada, three persons in Michigan.
  April 10 – President Nixon appeared in Michigan's Thumb to campaign for James Sparling in Michigan's 8th Congressional District One week later, Sparling lost to J. Bob Traxler, the first Democrat to win the District since 1932.
  April 18 – The U.S Navy suspended Project Sanguine (later known as Seafarer), a proposed extremely low frequency (ELF) radio antenna intended to cover up to 3,000 square miles of the Upper Peninsula.
  April 26 – General Motors  announced that its first quarter profits were down 85% for the company's worst showing since 1948.
  April 29 – Chrysler announced that its first quarter profits were down 98%.
caption: 1974 Super Outbreak
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