Although William Williams Keen created a number of innovative surgical techniques in the 19th century, he is probably better known as the surgeon who took part in the secret operation on President Grover Cleveland in 1893. Keen, who was born on this date in 1837, worked with Joseph Bryant to remove part of Cleveland’s left upper jaw, which had a malignant tumor. Amazingly, the two surgeons performed the procedure aboard a yacht sailing on the Long Island Sound to prevent an investment panic (the United States was in the middle of a financial crisis). The operation was performed entirely within the president’s mouth to conceal any scars, and he later was fitted with a prosthetic jaw to prevent his cheek from caving in. The operation was not revealed to the public until many years later.

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