The Panic of 1893 ruined Grover Cleveland’s second term as President. He was blamed for it, even though it resulted from unwise policies he opposed, such as passage of the 1890 Sherman Silver Pur chase Act. Banks and railroads failed, triggering a crisis of confidence in the economy. Cleveland got the Sherman Act repealed, but the damage had been done.

In other events of 1893:

• Lizzie Borden was acquitted of killing her father and stepmother by repeatedly hacking them with an ax. Although she kept her freedom, she remained the object of scorn – and a spinster – until her death in 1927.
• The Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City was dedicated.
• President Cleveland underwent secret surgery for oral cancer on a friend’s yacht on Long Island Sound. Part of his upper jaw was removed. The surgery went undetected at the time.
• Mahatma Gandhi committed his first act of civil disobedience in India.
• A tornado ravaged the coastal cities of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, killing up to 2,000 people.
• The Ferris wheel made its debut at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. An astounding 27 million Americans visited the fair – a figure equivalent to one-third of the country’s population.
• Nabisco Foods invented Cream of Wheat.
• Thomas Edison built the world’s first movie studio in West Orange, New Jersey. His first short film was a close-up of a sneeze.
• R.W. Rueckheim invented Cracker Jack.
• Two Kentucky kindergarten teachers composed a song for their young pupils called “Good Morning to All.” It won international fame under a new name: “Happy Birthday to You.”

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