On June 27, 1857, the New York Herald predicted the "Panic of 1857" (which began in August).  The founder and publisher of the Herald, James Gordon Bennett, editorialized: "What can be the end of all this but another general collapse like that of 1837, only upon a much grander scale?" 

What did he mean by "all this"? "Government spoilation, public defaulters, paper bubbles of all descriptions, a general scramble for Western lands and town and city sites, millions of dollars, made or borrowed, expended in fine houses and gaudy furniture; hundreds of thousands in silly rivalries of fashionable parvenus, in silks, laces, diamonds and every variety of costly frippery are only a few among the many crying evils of the day." Yes, we've always had Doomsday writers.

Also on June 27, 1893, the "Panic of 1893" began on the New York exchange.  The proximate cause was the abandonment of silver coinage by India, a pro-silver nation.  The U.S. silver dollar sank on world markets to 60-cents.  The #1 subject in the minds of traders was the repeal of the Sherman silver law of 1890, so that silver certificates could be redeemed for their full value ($1) in gold, or the institution of an official bi-metallic standard.  Neither one happened, so the Panic of 1893 spread into a national Depression of 1894, and the "Cross of Gold" speech in 1896.

June 27, 1871 is the birthday of the Japanese yen, the super-strong currency of the Rising Sun. 

Smithson Dies….Smithsonian Born

June 27, 1829: English scientist James Smithson died in Genoa, Italy, after a long illness.  He left a will which stated that, if his only nephew died without an heir, his whole estate should go to the U.S., for an Institution in Washington, DC, for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge."  His nephew Henry died without issue, so the U.S. Congress accepted Smithson's gift in 1836, which included 105,000 gold sovereigns (a quarter-ounce each), worth over $500,000 then.

Famous Firsts on June 27

1847: New York and Boston were first linked by telegraph wires.

1848: Air conditioning was patented by J.E. Coffee, on a hot early summer day.

1867: The Bank of California first opened its doors

1905: Russian sailors mutinied aboard the battleship Potemkin on the same day the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or "Wobblies") were founded in Chicago, for "the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism." Once the IWW became large enough, its leaders planned to call for an "apocalyptic strike" that would effectively end the capitalist system.

1929: The Bell Telephone Lab in New York City gave the first public demonstration of color TV.  Researchers showed images of an American flag, a watermelon, and a bouquet of roses, each in three superimposed images of red, blue, and green, to create one combined color picture.  

1934: The Federal Savings & Loan Association was created.

1955: The first automobile seat belt legislation was enacted (in Illinois).

1962: Ross Perot founded Electronic Data Systems, in Dallas, on his 32nd birthday.

More History >>