JANUARY 24 — 1848 Gold discovered in California; 1935 1st canned beer goes on sale; INVENTION/PATENT: 1899 Humphrey O’Sullivan patents rubber heels for shoes, 1922 Christian Nelson patents Eskimo Pie; 1982 49ers beat Bengals in Super Bowl XVI
JANUARY 24
1848 – Gold discovered in California. John Sutter wasn’t the first one to see it, he was the second. Swiss immigrant John Sutter moved to Alta California, under Mexican ownership of the time, and became a Mexican citizen and won 50,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley at the convergence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. He named it New Helvetia, which means new Switzerland, and setup and agricultural and trading colony. He had local Indians working for him but he treated them as little more than slaves. If they escaped, they were brought back to face brutal whippings or even death.
As more EuroAnglos came to move to California, the Mexican American war started. California as a result became a possession of the United States. On January 24, 1848 one morning James Marshall was building a sawmill and discovered flakes of gold. He then ran to tell John Sutter, which is how he became the second person to discover the gold. This was actually published in the San Francisco newspapers but nobody believed the story. Sutter gathered as much gold flakes as he could while it was a secret, but the secret was soon out and in just a few months a tremendous stampede came to California, completely overrunning Sutter’s fort. The local newspapers closed down because everyone who worked there was panning for gold. By 1852 Sutter was bankrupt and passed away in 1880. He might be pleased to know that his legacy still stands in the New Helvetia Brewery that’s right here in Sacramento on Broadway. Check it out! Speaking of beer,
1935 – First canned beer goes on sale, brought to us by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company. Prior to this, there were canned foods, but canned beer was a new concept. This invention catapulted the success of Krueger’s Brewery to one of the top selling beer makers in America, right up there with Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. And why not! The Consumer doesn’t need to pay a deposit, cases were easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. Esquire mag rates Dale’s Pale Ale is the best canned beer.
1899 — Humphrey O’Sullivan, an Irish immigrant-laborer to the United States, patented the rubber heel for shoes. O’Sullivan worked in a print shop in Lowell, Massachusetts, where standing on the shop floor all day resulted in sore feet and other ailments. To ease his aching feet, he started to stand on a small rubber mat, which acted as a makeshift cushion; it proved to be a good idea, saving O’Sullivan from further physical stress, though his print shop colleagues kept taking the mat for their own personal use. 1922 – Eskimo Pie is patented by Christian K. Nelson of Iowa. He was not an eskimo. He made an empire out of a chocolate covered ice cream on a stick.
1982 – 49ers bet the Bengels 26-21 in Super Bowl 16. Joe Montana was the MVP. Diana Ross sang the National Anthem, and the half time show was performed by Up With People doing a tribute to 60’s and Motown music. A 30-second commercial cost $324,000, and John Madden and Pat Sumerall announced it.