The only “recognized” monarchy to reign in the United States died on this date.
Joshua Norton was a businessman in San Francisco in the 1800s. In the 1840s, just before the Gold Rush, he attempted to corner the market on rice – and failed spectacularly. He went from being very wealthy to utterly destitute almost overnight, and the experience appears to have shattered his reason. A couple of months later, he donned a formal admiral’s uniform, complete with gold braid and epaulets, and strode into the office of a newspaper. There, he handed the editor a large, official-looking proclamation which stated, in quite formal language, that due to popular demand he hereby declared himself Emperor Norton I of the United States and Protector of Mexico. He bade all his subjects to show him loyalty and extend the courtesies due a person of such eminent stature.
On the evening of January 8, 1880, Joshua Norton collapsed at the corner of California Street and Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) while on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Sciences. His collapse was immediately noticed by another citizen, who raised the alarm, and “the police officer on the beat hastened for a carriage to convey him to the City Receiving Hospital.” Norton died before the carriage could arrive.
Norton’s funeral was a solemn, mournful, and remarkably large affair. Some accounts report that as many as 30,000 people lined the streets to pay their respects, and that the funeral cortege stretched for two miles. He was buried at the Masonic Cemetery at the expense of the City of San Francisco.
The day after his funeral, January 11, 1880, the skies over San Francisco were darkened by a solar eclipse.
(Please check out the new goal of adding the Emperor’s name to the Clock Tower of the San Francisco Ferry Building in his honor.)
The Haus of Dcaligari 