Statue of Christopher Columbus, at the corner of Elmwood Ave and Reservoir Ave, Providence, RI. This statue is on the National Register of Historic Places.
On this date in 1892, Chicago threw a parade to dedicate the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Columbian Exposition was a world’s fair commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Planning for the exposition had begun in the 1880s. Several great American cities vied for the honor of hosting the celebration. City officials pleaded their case vociferously and persistently, but in the end it was the last-minute fundraising efforts of banker Lyman Gage, who managed to raise several million dollars above what the second-place city — New York — had come up with. Congress awarded the World Columbian Exposition to Chicago. Although the original plan was to hold the exposition in 1892, infighting and construction setbacks delayed the opening until May 1, 1893. The fair ran until October 30 and drew 27 million visitors. The author Hamlin Garland urged his parents: “Sell the cookstove if necessary and come. You must see the fair.”
Many products made their debut at the Columbian Exposition: Juicy Fruit gum, Cracker Jack, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and Cream of Wheat among them. In June 1893, a bridge builder named George Washington Gage Ferris Jr. unveiled his invention: a 264-foot-tall wheel that bore his name. The first Ferris wheel carried two thousand people at a time, at a cost of 50 cents each, and it saved the Exposition from financial ruin. And Gottlieb Daimler displayed a boat and an automobile powered by combustion engines: an exhibit that would inspire Henry Ford to come up with his own “Quadricycle,” his first car, which he successfully tested three years later.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2022
“May the Church be overcome with joy. If she should fail to rejoice, she would deny her very self, for she would forget the love that begot her. Yet how many of us are unable to live the faith with joy, without grumbling and criticizing? A Church in love with Jesus has no time for quarrels, gossip and disputes. May God free us from being critical and intolerant, harsh and angry!… For those who love, as the Apostle Paul teaches, do everything without murmuring (cf. Phil 2:14). Lord, teach us your own lofty gaze; teach us to look at the Church as you see her. And when we are critical and disgruntled, let us remember that to be Church means to bear witness to the beauty of your love, to live our lives as a response to your question: Do you love me? And not to act as if we were at a funeral wake.”
Pope Francis
The Vibrant Channeled Creator 