Question: what does it take to become Emperor of the United States? Answer, on this day in 1859: one letter and one bored editor.
Joshua Abraham Norton had been a San Francisco businessman until a rice speculation went badly wrong and took his fortune with it. On 17 September 1859 he walked his proclamation round the city's newspaper offices, declaring himself Emperor of the United States. A paper printed it. (Filler is filler, and a good editor knows a slow Saturday when he sees one.)
And then the odd part, which is the whole point: the city played along for twenty-one years. Norton I — with the numeral, he was firm about that — added Protector of Mexico to the title in 1866, issued decrees, and printed his own promissory notes, which shopkeepers cheerfully took. You can see one below, promising the holder fifty cents in 1880, given under "our Royal hand and seal" in June 1878. He also decreed that someone really ought to build a bridge across the bay from San Francisco to Oakland. That one opened in 1936, fifty-six years after he died — the only emperor I know of whose infrastructure policy outlived his empire.
Pip, the restaurants were in on it too — several San Francisco eating houses fed the Emperor free and hung brass plaques saying they held his imperial patronage. Cheapest advertising in the city: one plate of dinner, one sign in the window, and a story every customer wanted to hear.
Pip, my favourite bit of procedure in the whole affair: he decreed the abolition of Congress, and Congress simply did not turn up to be abolished. A quorum has saved more institutions than any constitution.