John Hetherington, a London haberdasher was hauled before the Lord Mayor on January 15, 1797, charged with inciting a riot. His breach of the peace had caused
passers by to panic, women to faint, children to run screaming, dogs to yowl and one poor lad to suffer a broken arm from being trampled by the mob.
What had Hetherington done to cause such turmoil? According to authorities, he had appeared in public wearing upon his head “a tall structure having a shiny luster calculated to frighten timid people.” That is, he was the first person to wear a top hat on the streets of London. And for his act of flamboyant haberdashery, he was forced to post a ₤500 bond.
Hetherington’s chapeau was a silk topper also known as a high hat, silk hat, beaver hat, or stove pipe hat. It became popular soon after Hetherington’s breach and remained so through the middle of the 20th century. Folks associated with the top hat include Fred Astaire, Charlie McCarthy, Uncle Sam, and Rich Uncle Pennybags (the Monopoly man).
In 1814, Louis Comte became the first magician to pull a rabbit out of a top hat, and in 1961, John F. Kennedy became the last president to be inaugurated in one.
Don’t Be Nasty, Thomas
No, the adjective nasty did not refer to the noted political cartoonist Thomas Nast, but one could certainly be forgiven for thinking so. Nast was the first artist to picture the Democratic Party as a donkey– in Harper’s Weekly, January 15 1870. He also gave us the modern concepts of both Uncle Sam (with a top hat) and Santa Claus.
While the Democratic party was a hopelessly stubborn creature, Nast would go on to characterize the Republican party as an oversized oafish elephant, lumbering about in a clueless daze. Neither animal wore as top hat.
The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to trust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn’t bother to stop because they’d want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night as the country club. — Dave Barry
Wretched Richard's Almanac 