August 8

THE YEAR WAS
BY SHERI FENLEY
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

LIFE IN GENERAL

In Springfield, Massachusetts the Duryea brothers (Frank and Charles) drive the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America on public roads.

May 10, 1893 was a day to remember - The Supreme Court of the United States legally declares the tomato to be a vegetable. The case of Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304) was brought about because of the all mighty dollar. You see, under the Tariff Act of 3 March 1883, imported vegetables were subject to a tariff. The plaintiffs - the Nix family was suing Edward Hedden who was the tax collector of the port of New York to recover back duties they had paid. They argued that the tomato was a fruit - as in "of the vine." The justices in their wisdom basically said that tomatoes are served with dinner not dessert and therefore they are vegetables.



The Panic of 1893 - The New York Stock Exchange crashes and throws the country into a depression. The overbuilding of railroads and bankruptcies of over 15,000 businesses are partially to blame.

The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which was written and composed by American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893.

Speaking of songs, here are a few that had people tapping their toes in 1893:

"The Cat Came Back" - words and music by Henry S. Miller

"Do Do My Huckleberry Do" - words by Harry Dillon, music by John Dillon

"Liberty Bell March" by John Philip Sousa

"Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey" - words and music by May Irwin

The average worker is bringing home about $9.42 per week in 1893, while immigrants are thought to be making less than $1 per day.


On 1 May 1893, the World's Fair, also known as the World's Colombian Exposition, opens to the public in Chicago‘s Jackson Park. It was a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing in America. The fairgrounds covered 630 acres.

One of the main attractions of the Expo was "Little Egypt." She belly danced her way into stardom. The barker at the fair was heard to have said:

"When she dances, every fiber and every tissue in her entire anatomy shakes like a jar of jelly from your grandmother’s Thanksgiving dinner. Now, gentlemen, I don't say that she's that hot. But I do say that she is as hot as a red-hot stove on the fourth of July in the hottest county in the state."

The State of Nebraska took a statewide census of all Civil War Veterans.


Here's one more song that was published in 1893 - Katherine Lee Bates, from Colorado, wrote “American the Beautiful.”

POLITICS

Stephen Grover Cleveland has the unusual distinction of being both the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States. He took the Oath of Office as the 24th President on 4 March 1893. Grover Cleveland was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later. Cleveland was the second President to marry while in office but the only President to actually get married IN the White House.



At the age of 49, he tied the knot with 21-year-old Frances Folsom making her the youngest First Lady in history. Despite their age difference, they remained happily married and had five children. Their eldest daughter Ruth had a candy bar named after her - "Baby Ruth."


Women in Colorado are given the right to vote on November 7, 1893.


At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 an estimated 100,000 raced to claim 42,000 parcels of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip.

SPORTS

April 8, 1893 – The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton YMCA.

FASHION





Bust supporter 1893 US patent 507373

I may be wrong, but I don't thing that this was a top selling item. I think this photo says it all, don't you?

These two women are wearing tailor-mades, which were worn outside the home. Tailors, rather than dressmakers, made them, hence the name. They have the wide leg-o-mutton sleeves, fitted bodices, and bell-shaped skirts. Small hats complete the outfits.

LAW & LAWLESSNESS

"Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one."

On 20 June 1893, Lizzie Borden is acquitted by a jury of her peers in the 1892 murder of her parents in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

DISASTERS

Two deadly hurricanes hit the gulf coast in 1893. The Sea Islands Hurricane was the first to arrive on August 27. Nearly 2000 people lost their lives on the Sea Islands, in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. Then on October 13, over 1800 people are killed when a hurricane invades the Mississippi Coast.

MEDICINE

Chicago surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performs the world's first open-heart surgery July 10, saving the life of a street fighter with a knife wound in an artery near his heart.

INVENTIONS

Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for the diesel engine on 23 February 1893.



The “Clasp Locker for Shoes” was invented by Whitcomb L. Judson. After changes and improvements over a 30 year period, it became what we know today as the ZIPPER.

“Cream of Wheat” is manufactured by Nabisco Foods and put on the shelves of grocery stores.



Edward Goodrich Acheson patented a method for making an industrial abrasive he called "Carborundum" or silicon carbide on 28 February 1893.

Juicy Fruit chewing gum is introduced by William Wrigley Jr.