Glen Bell Jr. - Founded Taco Bell

Glenn Bell Jr, the founder of the Taco Bell food chain died at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California at the age of 86 on January 17, 2010.

In 1948, Bell opened his first restaurant called Bell's Drive-In after seeing the success of MacDonald's. He felt California was the ideal place to take advantage of America's car culture by beginning to serve hot-dogs and hamburgers through a drive-in window.

He opened several other restaurants in the state before launching Taco Bell in 1962. He started selling franchises in 1964 before selling his 868 Taco Bell restaurants in 1978 to PepsiCo for $125 million in stock.

Taco Bell was later purchased by Yum!Brands and now serves over 37 million orders weekly in 5,600 locations across America.

Art Clokey - Created "Gumby"

Art Clokey, who created the animated "Gumby" figure died at the age of 88 on January, 8, 2010. He died in his sleep at his home in Los Osos, California.

He created "Gumby" as part of a student project while attending the University of Southern California in the early 1950's. As a result, he started to create short features for the "Howdy Doody Show' using "Gumby" and his sidekick "Pokey".

"Gumby's" sloping head was based on the cowlick hairdo of his father. Clokey's wife came up with the idea of "Gumby" having the body of gingerbread man.

"Gumby" had a great surge in popularity in the 1980's after comedian Eddie Murphy portrayed the character on Saturday Night Live as a cigar-smoking show business primadonna.

Clokey enjoyed Murphy's character, especially because it created a large increase in the amount of licenced merchandise sales. This was the greatest financial windfall for Clokey in his career as he did not make a large amount previously.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi - Survived Two Atomic Bombs

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was credited with being the only person to have survived the atomic bomb blasts on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. He Died on January 3, 2010 from stomach cancer.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his ship building company when the city was devastated by the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. He suffered serious burns to his upper body. After spending the night in the city, he returned to his home-town of Nagasaki about 190 miles away. That city was attacked three days later.

He spent his later years speaking out against nuclear weapons. He spoke at the United Nations in 2006, wrote books and appeared in a documentary about the bombings.

Jeanette Scola Trapani - 1906 Earthquake Survivior

Jeanette Scola Trapani was one of the oldest survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. She died on December 28, 2009 at the age of 107 at her home in El Dorado Hills, California.

Although she was only four years old at the time of the quake and fire, she had life-long memories of the smell of smoke that permeated the city as it burned.

She was born in the Telegraph Hill part of the city and spent most of her life in the city.