In 1848, US President James K. Polk sparks the 1849 Gold Rush by certifying a gold find in California.
People had previously made false claims that they had discovered gold, thus the Gold Rush did not begin until December 1848, when President James Polk backed up the discovery. The prospect of getting wealthy by collecting gold nuggets from the ground was akin to trying to win the lottery! Prospectors arrived from all over the world to try their luck in 1849. A few people made a tiny fortune. Others returned home destitute. Many instead made a livelihood by operating stores, saloons, laundries, and boarding houses, resulting in the formation of towns and communities that still exist in California.
Related On This Day
Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid campaigner, political prisoner, and South African President, died of a lung illness in 2013 at the age of 95.
Shekhar Kapur, an Indian filmmaker (Bandit Queen), was born in Laghore, British India, in 1945.
Larry Bird, American Basketball Hall of Fame forward, coach, and executive, was born in West Baden, Indiana in 1956.
Pramukh Swami Maharaj, an Indian Hindu spiritual guru (BAPS), was born in Chansad, Gujarat, in 1921.
B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian politician, lawyer, and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement, dies of diabetes at the age of 65 in 1956.
Hara Prasad Shastri, an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist, and Bengali literature historian, was born in Khulna, Bengal, in 1853.
Walter Elias Disney, American animator, producer, and co-founder of Walt Disney Company, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1901.
Apollo 17, the final manned lunar landing mission, launched in 1972, with the crew taking the iconic "blue marble" shot of the whole Earth.
Jayaram Jayalalitha, an Indian actress and politician who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1996 to 2016, died of a heart attack at the age of 68.