On This Day in 1859 Joshua Norton issued the following statement by dropping these words off at the San Francisco Bulletin:

At the peremtory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the past nine years and ten months of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U.S., and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in the Musical Hall of this city on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

I kid you not. He ate for free in restaurants; he had free access to the bus system and taxed small business men a quarter each (industrialists had to pay three bucks). He abolished the Congress, dissolved the Republic and issued Imperial Bonds to fund his new empire. When he died in 1880 his friends chipped in and gave him an elaborate funeral worthy of a statesman of his class. Now, I ask you: what is it about Dictators which make them so darn popular?