ROSS SIMPSON

James Wilson Marshall
(October 8, 1810 – August 10, 1885)

The caption with this photo at the Library of Congress
claims that this was Marshall in front of the mill in 1850.

On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill on
the American River in Northern California. After James W.
Marshall, who’d been overseeing the sawmill’s construction,
found the gold nuggets he and his boss, John Sutter,
attempted to keep

the discovery a secret. However, word soon spread and by
1849 thousands of prospectors, who became known as 49ers,
were flocking to Coloma, California, site of Sutter’s Mill, and
the surrounding region, hoping to strike it rich.

   
James Marshall’s cabin.

   

    
    
    
   
John Augustus Sutter
(February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880)

The spot where Marshall first discovered the gold that
started the California Gold Rush.

ROSS SIMPSON

John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982)

Comedian, actor, and musician John Belushi was one
of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch
comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) that premiered
October 11, 1975.

.

Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is 78 today.

(FoxNews) – An extremely rare 1854 $5 gold coin could sell for millions of
dollars when it is auctioned this month.

The 1854-S half eagle coin was struck in April 1854 one day after the opening
of the San Francisco Mint, according to auction house Stack’s Bowers
Galleries.

“To help deal with the overwhelming amount of gold discovered in California
during the Gold Rush, the United States set up an official government Branch
Mint in San Francisco in April 1854, the first such facility west of the
Mississippi,” it said in a statement.

The coin, which is the first 1854-S half eagle minted, is one of just three
examples known to exist.

“It has been graded AU-58+, far finer than the EF-45 example that brought
$2.16 million in August 2018,” said Stack’s Bowers Galleries in a
statement.

The $5 coin will be auctioned on March 20 in Baltimore.

Harvey G. Stack (left) and his son Lawrence R. Stack.

            ROSS SIMPSON

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided
Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, died in
London at the age of 90.

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993)

Marshall served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991
and was the Court’s first African-American justice.