Today is Friday, July 5, 2013. This is the 186th day of the year, with 179 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: Greatest Show on Earth P.T. Barnum Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey’s circus, the Greatest Show on Earth, was the brainchild of a man who said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” P.T. Barnum was born on this day in 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut. His first ‘pull the wool over their eyes’ act happened in 1830, when he had people believing that an elderly black woman, Joice Heth, was George Washington’s childhood nurse. The gullible public supported him successfully for over three decades as owner of the P.T. Barnum’s Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome. The museum housed several improbable attractions including the Fiji Mermaid (a fishtailed doll with a dried monkey head & torso). P.T. did have some legitimacy. He displayed Jumbo, the world’s largest elephant, and General Tom Thumb, the world’s smallest man, the first set of Siamese twins, and the famous soprano Jenny Lind. He even arranged a successful tour for her. Most of what Barnum had to offer would be considered the side show of today’s circus. But it was he who created the circus as we know it. Merging with Mr. Bailey and later, the Ringling Brothers in 1907, P.T. Barnum left us the lasting legacy of the circus extravaganza, housing true attractions along with the fake. The most successful and outrageous showman of the times, Phineas Taylor Barnum was still a man of his word. After all, was there ever a greater show than the Greatest Show on Earth? Bring on the cotton candy, the clowns, the daring young man on the flying trapeze, and the parade of elephants. We’re ready to be suckered. Events 1791 - George Hammond was appointed the first British ambassador to the United States. 1811 - Venezuela became the first South American country to declare independence from Spain. 1892 - Andrew Beard was was issued a patent for the rotary engine. 1943 - The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, began. 1946 - The bikini, designed by Louis Reard, made its debut during an outdoor fashion show in Paris. 1951 - Dr. William Shockley announced that he had invented the junction transistor.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 09:46:31 +0000
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