The beauty and peacefulness of the Diag derive in large part from its trees. Many were planted as long ago as the Civil War, some just last week.

Why the University of Michigan doesn’t have a mascot.

How the strange but brilliant Augustus Woodward created the University of Michigan…sort of.

For U-M’s first 50 years or so, grades were unknown. But the push for a rigorous letter-grade system came from an unlikely source.

A wild 1992 video hockey tournament highlighted the rise of personal technology in the average dorm room.

Speeding and “moral decay” provoked a stern crackdown on student drivers in the 1920s.

The Summer Symposia in Theoretical Physics attracted the best minds in the world.

Jim Morrison bombs at the homecoming dance –- and changes rock history.

Video: Take a look behind the scenes as thousands of students arrive at their new homes in the dorms.