There’s no one widely accepted story for how the recast bell got its now-famous crack. One account asserts that the bell fractured during Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to the City of Brotherly Love in 1824. Another insists that it cracked while tolling a fire warning later that year. Craftsmen tried to prevent further damage by boring out hairline cracks on the bell, keeping them from expanding dangerously.
Two legends about the Liberty Bell’s infamous fracture remain the most popular: one contends that the bell cracked during the 1835 funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall, though it may not be historically true—Philly newspaper stories about the funeral don’t mention the bell ringing.
The cause that stuck (at least according to official city reports) was that the Liberty Bell was irreparably damaged in 1846, when Philadelphia mayor John Swift ordered the bell rung to commemorate George Washington’s birthday. The bell had been repaired earlier that year when a thin crack started throwing off the sound of the bell, but after it cracked again, it hasn’t been rung since.
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