Posted on January 24, 2022
This is an update of my post published on January 24, 2011:
J
ames Marshall was a pretty average guy—a carpenter and a sawmill operator. But on this date in 1848, he made a discovery that changed his life. Heck, it changed a whole lot of people’s lives!He was examining the channel below the sawmill he was constructing in partnership with John Sutter in California, which then belonged to Mexico.
However, Marshall’s discovery did not make him rich. Instead, his sawmill failed when everybody dropped everything to search for gold, and his later business ventures, a vineyard and a gold mine, eventually failed as well. Neither Marshall, the guy who actually discovered the gold, nor Sutter, the guy who owned the land on which the discovery was made, benefitted from the discovery!
You may already know that people came to California from all over the world to search for gold (or to sell things to miners searching for gold). It is estimated that some 300,000 people came during the Gold Rush!
Also on this date:
Economic Liberation Day in Togo
Plan ahead:
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January holidays
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January birthdays
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Historical anniversaries in January
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February holidays
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Historical anniversaries in February