High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin`s aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no connotation of homosexuality as in present-day usage. The phrase, "The Gay Nineties," was not coined until 1926. This decade was also part of the Gilded Age, a phrase coined by Mark Twain, alluding to the seemingly profitable era that was riddled with crime. In the United States, the 1890s were marked by a severe economic depression sparked by the Panic of 1893, as well as several strikes in the industrial workforce. As of November 25, 2011, there were 35 verified living people who were born in the 1890s.