1. The first game of the Detroit Red Wings was played on February 23, 1927, at the Detroit Olympia. The Red Wings faced off against the Chicago Blackhawks, winning with a score of 2-1.

2. On February 23, 1867, the University of Michigan dedicated its first building, nicknamed "Masonry College," in Ann Arbor. The building's design was based on the University of Virginia's Rotunda, designed by Thomas Jefferson.

3. The Michigan State Police, the first state police agency in the United States, were founded on February 23, 1917. Its first commander, Roy C. Vandercook, is memorialized with a statue at the Michigan State Police Headquarters.

4. On February 23, 1973, John Paul Getty III, the grandson of billionaire oil tycoon John Paul Getty, was released by kidnappers after his family paid a $2.9 million ransom. The case was later dramatized in the 2017 film "All the Money in the World."

5. February 23, 1834, marked the beginning of the Temperance Movement in Michigan, as the first temperance society was organized in Marshall. The movement aimed to promote abstinence from alcohol and eventually led to the passage of Prohibition in 1920.