The Day The Elephants Cried

Continuing on from my previous post, note this excerpt:

Oddly, before I saw this post, I dreamt last night about seeing the last elephants of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey circus, with ladies riding them in costumes with these colors — blues and pinks. I could not figure out why I had that dream until now. 🙂 

Note from the wiki page of  Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus:  

Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows was a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry.

Of the names above, four have their dates of birth and death recorded on their wiki pages: 

•  Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891)
• James Anthony Bailey (July 4, 1847 – April 11, 1906)
• Charles Edward Ringling (December 2, 1863 – December 3, 1926) 
• John Nicholas Ringling (May 31, 1866 – December 2, 1936)

For sure, something's going on around here!!  The first two are born one day apart... not to mention the following related cluster recorded in this blogs header: 

On July 4th, 3 Of the first "5" US Presidents had died: Jefferson "5" hours before Adams, and Monroe "5" years later on the "55th" Independence Day.

And then John Ringling dies on his brother Charles birthday... and Charles dies one day after his birthday and  so John also died one day after the anniversary of Charles death.  Now THAT'S a mouthful!!!

I continued on the Circus' wiki page, specifically looking for an elephant, and the first I came across:

The Hartford Circus Fire

Edit

John Ringling North (right) and Frank Buck, who was the circus's featured attraction in 1938

The Hartford Circus Fire occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, during an afternoon performance that was attended by approximately 7,500 to 8,700 people. It was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. Although the Hartford Fire Department responded quickly, the fire was fanned by the fact that the canvas circus tent had been waterproofed through a mixture of highly flammable paraffin and gasoline.^[16]During the ensuing panic Emmett Kelly, the tramp clown, threw a bucket of water at the burning canvas tent, and a poignant photograph of his futile attempt was transmitted around the world as news spread of the disaster.^[17]At least 167 people were killed in the disaster, and hundreds more were injured. Some of the dead remain unidentified to this day, even with modern DNA techniques.^[18]

Do note the date!! And this isn't the first time I posted about this event, note from my earlier Toumai Blog on December 13, 2011,  re The Day the Clowns Cried