Great Lakes Timeline of Events

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Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume behind Baikal in Russia...

Timeline of Events

1678

8.3.1678

Robert LaSalle builds the ''Le Griffon'', the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.

1679

8.7.1679

The brigantine ''Le Griffon'', commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.

1915

7.24.1915

The passenger ship ''S.S. Eastland'' capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

1920

3.28.1920

Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.