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Founded by reporter and newspaperman (having previously established a publication in St Louis) Stilton Hutchins in 1877 to advance the views of the Democratic Party, the venerable institution the Washington Post (previously here and here) had issued its first edition on this day. After a series of mergers with competing area gazettes a decade into reporting, Hutchins sold the press to former US Postmaster General, Frank Hatton, and Ohio congressional representative Beriah Wilkins, whom together commissioned US Marine Band Leader John Philips Sousa to compose a march to celebrate the occasion. The eponymous tune (you’ll know it the second you hear it) was also the subject of a dance craze at the end of the nineteenth century.