Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Milton Cage Jr. was born on the 5th of September 1912 at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles and died on the 12th of August 1992 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. He was 79 years old when he passed away while preparing evening tea for himself and his partner Merce Cunningham.
At the age of 18 months, John Cage ingested two or three strychnine tablets, a fatal poison that left doctors despairing for his life. A stomach pump was administered with success, saving the child who would one day redefine the boundaries of music.
John Cage traveled to New York City in 1933 to study with Arnold Schoenberg after Henry Cowell suggested the arrangement. Cage could not afford Schoenberg's price, but when he stated he would devote his life to music, Schoenberg offered to tutor him free of charge.
On the 29th of August 1952, pianist David Tudor premiered 4′33″ at a concert in Woodstock, New York, instructing the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The content of the composition was intended to be the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance.
In early 1951, Christian Wolff presented John Cage with a copy of the I Ching, which became a tool to compose using chance in practically every work composed after 1951. Cage would come up with questions to ask the I Ching, and the book was used in much the same way as it is used for divination to imitate nature in its manner of operation.
According to his wishes, John Cage's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ramapo Mountains near Stony Point, New York. This location was the same place where he had scattered the ashes of his parents.