Answer:
his house being burned down in Omaha, Nebraska in 1929
Explanation:
I believe that the Knight would be the obvious answer.
The answer is 1. In this sentence, the speaker describe a statement believed by many people, with which the speaker agrees. But to reinforce the argument to try to make others think the same, they use an unnecessary part: "The CEO of an auto<em>mobile company once said..."</em>, which is The Appeal to Authority falacy. Getting an authority fugure to back one's position.