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Jamie Hyneman's Birth & Michigan's 2nd State Fair | September 25

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Today in 1956, Jamie Hyneman, future MythBusters co-host, was born in Marshall, Michigan. On the same day in 1849, Detroit hosted its second state fair, a major event that drew crowds from all directions and set the stage for Michigan's rich tradition of state fairs.

TRANSCRIPT

Today in 1956, a Mythbuster was born in Marshall, Michigan. Jamie Hyneman, future special effects expert and co-host alongside Adam Savage of the Discovery Channel’s hit show Mythbusters, said about his youth, "I was a problematic kid, to be sure. I left home when I was 14 and hitchhiked all over the country."

State Fairs are an American tradition and while the first was not in Michigan but New York, the second took place in Detroit on this day in 1849, sponsored by The Michigan State Agricultural Society. In the next issue of The Michigan Farmer, they said of the fair, “On Monday the great gathering commenced and on Tuesday the multitudes came pouring in from every quarter and through every channel, by railroad, by steamboat, by stage, in wagons, on horseback and on foot until the streets swarmed with people.”

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