Next month, Academy Award-winning film director Kathryn Bigelow will release Detroit, a recounting of the city’s devastating 1967 race riot, the most destructive period of civil unrest in American history. The riot marks its 50th anniversary this week. Lasting for a total of five days (July 23 through July 27), the riot literally tore the once gleaming Midwest metropolis, apart at the seams resulting in 43 deaths, over 7,000 arrests, the burning, looting and destruction of more than 2,000 buildings and pieces of property with a damage bill ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Detroit opens on August 4. Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker) directs a cast highlighted by John Boyega (Star Wars franchise), Will Poulter (The Revenant, We’re The Millers), Anthony Mackie (8 Mile, The Hurt Locker, Captain America franchise) and John Krasinski (TV’s The Office). The film focuses on the notoriously-tragic July 26, 1967 Algiers Motel Murders. Using The Detroit Free Press newspaper Twitter feed and its brilliantly-crafted #Detroit67 thread as a guide, below is a timeline of the first day of the infamous uprising in the Motor City. Detroit 1967 Race Riot Timeline – Day 2: July 24, 1967 12:00 a.m. – Governor George Romney declares a state of emergency 12:05 a.m. – The riot experiences its first reported fatality, 45-year old looter Walter Grzanka is shot to death by a store owner 1:15 a.m. – Sharon George, a 23-year old pregnant mother of two is murdered, is shot to death as she drove up Woodward Avenue 2:15 a.m. – Governor Romney calls U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and tells him federal assistance is needed in reestablishing order in the city of Detroit 2:45 a.m. – National Guardsmen shoot 23-year old Clifton Pryor to death amid conflicting reports whethe he was a sniper or an unarmed civilian 3:00 a.m. – U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark tells Romney he must officially declare Detroit under “insurrection” before the U.S. Armed Forces can be called in to assist 3:01 a.m. – Governor Romney holds televised news conference 3:30 a.m. – Detroit firefighter John Ashby is electrocuted by a hanging high-voltage wire while fighting a blaze 4:30 a.m. – Looting, arson and sniper fire is reported on Jefferson Avenue near St. Jean in the DPD’s 5th Precinct 8:00 a.m. – Fred Williams, 49, is electrocuted to death outside his burning home by touching a downed power line 9:45 a.m. – U.S. Military vet Herman Ector, 30, is shot to death by security guard after getting into argument over security guard’s behavior towards looters 10:47 a.m. – Governor Romney reaches out to President Lyndon B. Johnson via telegram and requests help from the U.S. Armed Forces, writing “Time could be of the essence” 11:00 a.m. – Detroit Tigers pro baseball franchise announces it is moving series with Baltimore Orioles to Maryland 1:25 p.m. – Looter Robert Beal is shot by police inside auto parts store on Oakland Avenue 1:45 p.m. – Looter Daniel Jennings is shot to death by owner of drug store after he broke in 1:46 p.m. – Looter Joe Chandler is shot and killed by police robbing market on 2nd Street 2:30 p.m. – Looter Herman Canty, 46, is shot and killed by police robbing grocery store on W. Grand Boulevard 3:00 p.m. – U.S. Army paratroopers arrive at Selfridge Air Force in Mount Clemens, 25 miles outside the city limits 4:00 p.m. – Al Peachlum is shot and killed and two innocent female bystanders wounded by police inside Joy Road super market (Peachlum is mistaken for a looter) 4:15 p.m. – Members of President Johnson’s White House staff led by Cyrus Vance and U.S. Army General John Throckmorton arrive at Detroit Police headquarters for briefing 4:16 p.m. – Looter Alphonso Smith is shot by police inside a market on Dexter Avenue 4:30 p.m. – Looter Nathaniel Edmonds is shot by a civilian at corner of Harper and Baldwin 5:00 p.m. – White House rep Cyrus Vance and General Throckmorton tour pockets of riot with Governor Romney under heavy guard 5:20 p.m. – Looter Eddie Kemp is shot and killed by police at convenient store on Mack Avenue 8:05 p.m. – White House rep Cyrus Vance holds press conference announcing U.S. Military personnel won’t be dispatched to Detroit yet 8:28 p.m. – Looter Richard Sims is shot and killed by police attempting a break-in 8:30 p.m. – President Johnson is informed in the Oval Office by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover “They’ve lost all control of Detroit” 8:55 p.m. – Mayor of Detroit Jerry Cavanaugh and Governor Romney talk to President Johnson on the phone, plead for aid and military support 9:15 p.m. – Reports of sniper fire on 12th Street 9:28 p.m. – A sniper begins firing on the Detroit Police Department’s 7th Precinct at Mack and Gratiot 9:30 p.m. – Fleeing looter Frank Tanner is shot by police, but gets away before he can be arrested 9:32 p.m. – U.S. Army troops arrive at Michigan State Fairgrounds at Detroit city limits on 8 Mile Road and Woodward, having been summoned from Selfridge Airforce Base 9:45 p.m. – Governor Romney calls U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and pleads for help from the military 10:22 p.m. — Police take sniper fire on eastside, officers duck for cover at corners of Charlevoix & Lycastle and Fairview & Goethe 11:00 p.m. — White House rep Cyrus Vance calls Washington and tells President Johnson the local authorities in Detroit need federal assistance 11:30 p.m. — Detroit firefighter Carl Smith is killed, caught in crossfire between police and snipers on Mack Avenue 11:55 p.m. — Per a press release from City Hall, almost 500 buildings burned to the ground throughout the second day of the riot
