Michigan

   is the eighth most populous state in the United States. It has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is the only state to consist entirely of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often dubbed "the mitten" by residents, owing to its shape. When asked where in Michigan one comes from, a resident of the Lower Peninsula may often point to the corresponding part of his or her hand. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as The U.P.) is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km)-wide channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Upper Peninsula is economically important for tourism and natural resources.

The setting for the 1940 science fiction/comedy film, The Invisible Woman is the state of Michigan. This is indicated on one of the classified ads seen in a newspaper right below Professor Gibbs' ad for volunteers for his invisibility experiment.

Michigan is the principal setting of the 1987 film RoboCop, which was set in the city of Detroit of the near future. In the film, the city is facing near economic collapse and is on the verge of turning into a demilitarized zone. The mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products enters into a contract with the Detroit Police Department to provide them with state-of-the-art peacekeeping technology. After their attempts to create robotic sentries meets with failure, they turn towards the world of cybernetics, converting dying police officer Alex Murphy into RoboCop.

Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney, who played Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek series and feature films was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 1st, 1930.

Points of Interest

 * Ann Arbor
 * Detroit

Films that take place in

 * Invisible Woman, The (1940)
 * Real Steel
 * RoboCop
 * RoboCop 2

TV shows that take place in

 * RoboCop (1988 TV series)

Characters from

 * Debra Whitman

People who were born in

 * Dave Lanphear
 * David Crowther
 * David S. Goyer
 * Dean Cain
 * Donald E. Simpson
 * Don Matheson
 * Grace Lee Whitney
 * Jim Starlin
 * John Hughes
 * Lee Majors
 * Matthew Glave
 * Max Wright
 * Michael Moriarty
 * Philip LaZebnik
 * Rich Buckler
 * Rob Paulsen
 * Robert Shaye
 * Sam Raimi
 * Terry Austin
 * Terry Farrell
 * Tom Skerritt
 * Tom Tataranowicz
 * Vondie Curtis-Hall