1. In 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior off the coast of Michigan. All 29 crew members lost their lives in the wreck. The tragedy inspired the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot.

2. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, but had a connection to Michigan. Just a few hours before his death, JFK gave a speech at the dedication of the Michigan State University Medical School.

3. The first recorded Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. However, the first recorded Thanksgiving celebration in the Midwest occurred in Michigan in 1619, two years earlier than the Pilgrim's feast.

4. In 1865, the Sultana steamboat exploded and sank in the Mississippi River, killing around 1,800 people. Many of the passengers were Union soldiers returning from Confederate prison camps, including several from Michigan.

5. On November 22, 1950, the first successful artificial heart transplant was performed at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Forest Dodrill implanted a plastic and metal device in a 41-year-old man whose heart had been fatally damaged by rheumatic fever. The patient lived for another 90 minutes after the surgery.