Any top 10 list is somewhat arbitrary � just as the 125-year mark is an arbitrary milestone to celebrate. With that in mind, though, there�s little doubt that the following stories represent much of what has been most important to the newspaper and the community in a long and far-ranging history:

1
Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37: For 44 days, workers occupied General Motors plants in Flint and elsewhere.

Journal artist Ken Dolan witnessed the Beecher tornado and drew this cover for a special edition a few weeks after the deadly storm.

2
Beecher tornado of 1953: The June 8 storm killed 116 people, injured 900 and destroyed at least 300 homes.

3
Billy Durant, the birth of the auto industry and the creation of GM: Durant�s vision and salesmanship, and a confluence of talent, money, infrastructure, labor and innovation, brought Flint the business that would define it and carry it through the 20th century.

4
Kayla Rolland: The 6-year-old�s death last year from a classmate�s gunshot at her Beecher elementary school became a community�s heartache and world news.

5
Hard times in the 1980s: GM job losses and plant closings
ravaged Flint amid a nationwide recession.

Floyd J. McCree

6
Floyd J. McCree becomes mayor: The Flint
City Council in 1966 picked McCree, a councilman,
to serve as the city�s first black mayor just as civil
rights and freedom from housing discrimination were becoming fever-pitch issues.

7
�Roger & Me�: Michael Moore�s 1989 movie about downsizing put a scathing picture of Flint and GM before the world�s eyes.

8
Charles Stewart Mott and the Mott Foundation: Auto industry pioneer Mott also served on the General Motors board, as Flint mayor and in 1926 established his community-boosting foundation.

9
Buick leaves Flint: Buick in 1999 moved its headquarters from Flint to Detroit and shut down the Buick City Assembly Center � ending Buick production in Flint.

10
Community education: Frank J. Manley, head of physical education for Flint schools, drew the attention of the nation in the 1930s by opening school resources � pools, gyms, classrooms � to men, women and families after school hours and during summers.