Proclamation

Proclamation issued and signed by Mayor Coleman A. Young, on July 24, 1974, commemorating Detroit's 273rd birthday celebration and its designation as a Bicentennial Community. The certificate features a color photo of Detroit with fireworks over the Detroit river on the top left and is embossed and stamped with the Mayor's seal on the bottom left. The proclamation is mounted on cardboard and enclosed in a Mayor Coleman A. Young folder. The text of the proclamation is as follows:

"On July 24, 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and 100 Frenchmen---dispatched by King Louis XIV to establish a village on the shores of a great body of water---landed at what they were to call La Ville d'Etroit, or, the City of the Strait.

It was from the great fire of 1802 which completely destroyed the stockade and the several hundred buildings that the City of Detroit drew its motto: "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus" (We Hope for Better Things; It Shall Rise Again from the Ashes).

Over the decade and centuries the City of Detroit has carved a proud and colorful face in the pages of history, rising to great heights in times of national emergency, demonstrating time and again the true character and ability of her people.

Detroit now is in the midst of a renaissance which will fulfill the promise and potential Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac saw when he landed on the shores of La Ville d'Etroit.

Today, 273 years after her founding, Detroit will be designated as a Bicentennial Community, not only marking the anniversary of the founding of the city, but recognizing the efforts of Detroit in the observance of the 200th anniversary of the birth of this nation.

Therefore, I, Coleman A. Young, Mayor of the City of Detroit, issue this proclamation and call upon all citizens to celebrate this festive occasion with appropriate ceremony and contemplate the past, present and future greatness of both our City of Detroit and of our United States of America.

Coleman A. Young
Mayor"