While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory on August 16, 1896, George Carmack reportedly spotted nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparked the last great gold rush in the American West.
Hoping to cash in on reported gold strikes in Alaska, Carmack had traveled there from California in 1881. After running into a dead end, he headed north into the isolated Yukon Territory, just across the Canadian border.
In 1896, another prospector, Robert Henderson, told Carmack of finding gold in a tributary of the Klondike River. Carmack headed to the region with two Native American companions, known as Skookum Jim and TagishCharlie.
George Washington Carmack (September 24, 1860 – June 5, 1922)
(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.
On this day in 1848, James Wilson Marshall (October 8, 1810 – August 10, 1885) found a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of ’49’.
The spot where Marshall first discovered the gold that started the California Gold Rush.
John Sutter’s sawmill in 1850. The historians at Marshall Gold State Historic Park concluded the person seen in the above photo was the photographer’s assistant who was used to show scale.
On this day in 1896, the Klondike gold rush was set off by George Carmack (above) discovering on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.
Robert Fulton’s "North River Steam Boat" (known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its successful round- trip to Albany on this day in 1807.
It was on this day in 1987 Rudolf Walter Richard Hess(April 26, 1894 – August 17, 1987)
Actor Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is 75 today.
Legendary actor Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 boxing film Raging Bull and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in the 1974 classic The Godfather Part II. His many other celebrated films include Taxi Driver (1976), Cape Fear (1991), and The Deer Hunter (1979).
On this day in 1848, James W. Marshall (below) discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of ’49.
Sir Winston Churchill died at the age of 90 on this day in 1965.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)
Churchill was a British statesman, army officer and writer, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
The bust of Winston Churchill is said to be a replica of one given to 1960s leader Lyndon B Johnson and first appeared in the Oval Office during former George W Bush’s administration. However it was replaced by a bust of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The bust of Churchill (far left) was returned to the White House’s Oval at President Donald Trump’s request just hours after Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.
On this day in 1989, Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida‘s electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12- year-old Kimberly Leach.
Theodore Robert Bundy(born Theodore Robert Cowell) (November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989)
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
High School yearbook photo.
John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982)
Actor, Saturday Night Live cast member, and Blues Brothers comedian John Belushi posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on April 1, 2004. Three of the four movies he starred in were with Dan Akroyd; the exception is the 1978 cult comedy film Animal House. John was an All- American football player and wanted to become a coach. He was the brother of actor Jim Belushi.
Food Fight !!!
John Belushi in National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978.
