Burns started smoking cigars when he was 14.

On March 9, 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer
George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California,
just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.

George Burns is one of the few entertainers whose career
successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television.

 
                                                             Zenith Console Floor Radio
                                                             Model 11S474, 1940s.

Burns and Allen’s radio show was inducted into the National Radio
Hall of Fame in 1994.

Burns is also a member of the Television Hall of Fame, where he
and Gracie Allen were inducted in 1988.

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show premiered on
CBS on October 12, 1950 and ran through 1958. 

1977

MIKE GRACIA

A plane similar to the one in which Patsy Cline died.

A Kansas City resident named Mildred Keith snapped what
is believed to be one of the last photographs of the country music star.

The comedic star John Candy died suddenly of a heart
attack on March 4, 1994, at the age of 43. At the time of
his death, he was living near Durango, Mexico, while
filming Wagons East, a Western comedy co-starring 
comedian Richard Lewis. Lewis died recently on
February 27th.

1987

Richard Philip Lewis (June 29, 1947 – February 27, 2024)

Following a battle with Parkinson’s since April 2023, Lewis died
of a heart attack on February 27, 2024.

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.