Phineas Taylor Barnum Is Born

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-91) was born in Bethel, Connecticut, on July 5, 1810. Barnum did not invent the modern three-ring circus, nor did he even apply his flair for publicity to the circus until he was more than sixty years old; but his name continues to be associated with the spectacle that he called "the greatest show on earth."

In 1835, one year after moving to New York City, having already worked as a clerk, a merchant, a lottery agent, and a journalist, Barnum joined the ranks of professional showmen by introducing to the public an elderly woman named Joice Heth as George Washington's 161-year-old nurse. Although at the time of Heth’s death in 1836, the story was exposed as a hoax, Barnum had found his calling in the world of entertainment and in the power of novelty to draw and delight a crowd.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His successes may have made him the first "show business" millionaire.[citation needed] Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and sometime politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me," and his personal aims were "to put money in his own coffers." Barnum is widely but erroneously credited with coining the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute."

Born in Bethel, Connecticut, Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties, and founded a weekly paper, The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury in 1829. He moved to New York City in 1834 and embarked on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called "Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", and soon after by purchasing Scudder's American Museum, which he renamed after himself. Barnum used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the ""Feejee" mermaid" and "General Tom Thumb." By late 1846, Barnum's Museum was drawing 400,000 visitors a year. In 1850 he promoted the American tour of singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights.