History

• 8,000 years ago; The Los Angeles coastal area is settled by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños) and Chumash Native American tribes.
• 1542; Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese-born explorer, claims the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire.
• 1769, August 2; Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles.
• 1771; The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is built by Franciscan friar Junípero Serra.
• 1781, September 4; a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo called "La Reyna de los Angeles". Two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto.
• 1821, August 24; Representatives of the Spanish crown and House of Iturbide signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which recognized Mexican independence. Mexico becomes California's new ruler.
• 1821, September 15 - 1823; During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico, made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Agustín de Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor of the First Mexican Empire.
• 1823; A revolt against Agustín de Iturbide establishes the United Mexican States.
• 1824, October 4; The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 is enacted. The constitution officially created the United Mexican States. The country is composed of 19 states and 4 federal territories.
• 1824; General Antonio López de Santa Anna suspended the 1824 Constitution and civil war spread across the country.
• 1846, April 25 – 1848, February 2; The Mexican-American War is fought between the United States and Mexico.
• 1847, January 13; The Treaty of Cahuenga is signed by American Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont and Mexican Governor Andrés Pico at Campo de Cahuenga in what is now North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. This ends Mexican rule in the area.
• 1848, February 2; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed formally ending the The Mexican-American War.
• 1876; The first railroad is completed by the Southern Pacific to Los Angeles.
• 1892; Oil is discovered.
• 1912; The Southern Pacific Railroad completes its first major wharf at the Port of Los Angeles.
• 1913; The Los Angeles Aqueduct is completed under the supervision of William Mulholland.
• 1932; Los Angeles host the Games of the X Olympiad (9132 Summer Olympics).
• 1930; Mines Field is opened as the official airport of Los Angeles.
• 1965, August 12; A 5-day riot results in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests and over $40 million in property damage during the Watts Riots.
• 1984; Los Angeles host the Games of the XXIII Olympiad (1984 Summer Olympics).
• 1992, April 29; 1992 Los Angeles riots: A jury acquits three white and one Hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. A six days riot ensues. Fifty-three people are killed, including 10 shot dead by the army and police, with as many as 2,000 people injured.

State History ^[1]

Ancient times ^[5]

• 25,000- 10,000 BP – With the fall of global sea levels during the Pleistocene Epoch, peoples of north-east Asia followed herds of Caribou, bison, and mammoth across the Bering land bridge into the American continents.^[6]
• 8,000 BP - The Chumash settle along the Southern California Coast. A village in Glen Annie has been carbondated to 7,300 BP.


• Indigenous peoples of California^[8]
• Atsuge (Atsugewi), northeastern California
• Ahwahnechee people, eastern-central California
• Cahuilla people, southern California
• Chumash people, coastal southern California
• Barbareño
• Cruzeño, Island Chumash
• Inezeño, Ineseño
• Obispeño, Northern Chumash
• Purisimeño
• Ventureño
• Chilula people, northwestern California
• Chimariko, extinct, northwestern California
• Coso people, southeastern California
• Cupeño people, southern California
• Eel River Athapaskan peoples
• Eel River Athapaskan peoples, northwestern California
• Mattole, Bear River, northwestern California
• Nongatl, northwestern California
• Sinkyone, northwestern California
• Wailaki, Wai-lakki, northwestern California
• Esselen, west-central California
• Hupa, also spelled Hoopa, northwestern California
• Tsnungwe
• Juaneño, Acjachemem, southwestern California
• Karok, northwestern California
• Kato, Cahto people, northwestern California
• Kawaiisu, southern-central California
• Kitanemuk, southern-central California
• Konkow, northern-central California
• Kucadikadi, eastern-central California
• Kumeyaay people, Diegueño, Kumiai, southern California
• Cuyamaca complex, late Holocene precolumbian culture
• Ipai, southwestern California
• Jamul, southwestern California
• Tipai, southwestern California and northwestern Mexico
• La Jolla Complex, southern California, ca. 6050—1000 BCE
• Luiseño people, southwestern California
• Maidu, northeastern California
• Miwok, Me-wuk, central California
• Coast Miwok, west-central California
• Lake Miwok, west-central California
• Plains and Sierra Miwok, eastern-central California
• Mohave or Mojave people, southeastern California
• Monache (see Western Mono)
• Mono people, central California
• Nisenan, eastern-central California
• Nomlaki people, northwestern California
• Ohlone, also known as the Costanoan, west-central California
• Awaswas
• Chalon
• Chochenyo
• Karkin
• Mutsun
• Ramaytush
• Rumsen
• Tamyen
• Yelamu
• Patayan, southern California
• Patwin people, central California
• Suisun, Southern Patwin, central California
• Pauma Complex, southern California, ca. 6050—1000 BCE
• Pit River tribe, northeastern California
• Achomawi (Achumawi, Ajumawi)
• Aporidge
• Astariwawi (Astarawi)
• Atsuge (Atsugewi)
• Atwamsini
• Hanhawi (Hammawi)
• Hewisedawi
• Ilmawi
• Itsatawi
• Kosalextawi (Kosalektawi)
• Madesi
• Pomo people, northwestern and central-western California
• Salinan, coastal central California
• Antoniaño
• Migueleño
• Serrano, southern California
• Shasta (or Chasta), northwestern California
• Konomihu, northwestern California
• Okwanuchu people, northwestern California
• Tataviam, Allilik (Fernandeño), southern California
• Timbisha, southeastern California
• Tolowa, northwestern California and southern Oregon
• Tongva people, also referred to as the Gabrieleño, Fernandeño, San Clemente tribe, coastal southern California
• Tübatulabal people, south-central California
• Bankalachi, on west slopes of the Greenhorn Mountains
• Palagewan, on the Kern River above its confluence with the South Fork of the Kern River
• Tübatulabal people, on the lower reaches of South Fork of the Kern River
• Wappo, north-central California in the areas of Napa Valley
• Washoe people, northeastern California and Nevada
• Whilkut, also known as "Redwood Creek Indians" or "Mad River Indians", northwestern California
• Wintu people, northwestern California
• Wiyot people, Humboldt Bay, California and nearby environs
• Yana people, northern-central California
• Yahi
• Yokuts people, central and southern California
• Casson, also known as Gashow
• Choinumni
• Chukchansi, Foothill Yokuts, central California
• Lakisamni, Stanislaus River, California
• Tachi tribe (Tache), Southern Valley Yokuts, south-central California
• Wukchumni
• Yuki people, Ukomno'm (Valley People), northwestern California
• Huchnom, northwestern California
• Yurok people, northwestern California

• 1533; Two ships landed at Baja in La Paz Harbor, local residents killed 20 and ships retreated.
• 1535; Hernando Cortes led expedition to La Paz, established small colony.
• 1540; Sea expedition led by Hernando de Alarcon up Gulf of California to mouth of Colorado River, became first Europeans on California soil.
• 1542; Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo became the first European to explore California, landed at San Diego, discovered Catalina Islands, sites of San Pedro and Santa Monica and Santa Barbara Channel Islands.
• 1579; Sir Francis Drake landed north of San Francisco Bay, claimed the territory for England.
• 1669; Gaspar de Portolá, governor of the Californias, led an expedition up the Pacific coast, established California's first mission on San Diego Bay.

 

Franciscan Missions in California (1769–1823)^[4]


 

• Mission San Diego de Alcalá founded in 1769
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded in 1770
• Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in 1771
• Mission San Gabriel founded in 1771
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded in 1772
• Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) founded in 1776
• Mission San Juan Capistrano founded in 1776
• Mission Santa Clara de Asís founded in 1777
• Mission San Buenaventura founded in 1782
• Mission Santa Barbara founded in 1786
• Mission La Purísima Concepción founded in 1787
• Mission Santa Cruz founded in 1791
• Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad founded in 1791
• Mission San José founded in 1797
• Mission San Juan Bautista founded in 1797
• Mission San Miguel Arcángel founded in 1797
• Mission San Fernando Rey de España founded in 1797
• Mission San Luis Rey de Francia founded in 1798
• Mission Santa Inés founded in 1804
• Mission San Rafael Arcángel founded in 1817 – originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Francisco de Asís
• Mission San Francisco Solano founded in 1823 – originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Rafael Arcángel

• 1769; The the chief scout for Gaspar de Portolá´s 2nd land expedition to Alta California, Sergeant José Francisco Ortega discovered entrance to San Francisco Bay.
• 1776, March 28; Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís founded.
• 1812; Commerce Counsellor Ivan Kuskov of the Russian-American Company, establishes Fort Ross.
• 1821, August 24; Representatives of the Spanish crown and House of Iturbide signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which recognized Mexican independence. Mexico becomes California's new ruler.
• 1821, September 15 - 1823; During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico, made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Agustín de Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor of the First Mexican Empire.
• 1823; A revolt against Agustín de Iturbide establishes the United Mexican States.
• 1824, October 4; The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 is enacted. The constitution officially created the United Mexican States. The country is composed of 19 states and 4 federal territories.
• 1824; General Antonio López de Santa Anna suspended the 1824 Constitution and civil war spread across the country.
• 1826; Native Americans attacked Mission San Francisco Solano.
• 1839; Start of the Opium War between China and Great Britain.
• 1842, August 29; The Treaty of Nanking is signed, first "Unequal Treaty" after China met defeat in Opium War. Opened ports of Canton, Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo, and Shanghai to trade. China ceded Hong Kong to the British.
• 1846, June 14; settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt.
• 1846; William B. Ide becomes the first and only president of the Republic of California.
• 1846, April 25 – 1848, February 2; The Mexican-American War is fought between the United States and Mexico.
• 1846–1848; Mexican-American War; Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States.
• 1846-47; The Donner Party becomes snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating those who had succumbed to starvation and sickness.
• 1847, January 13; The Treaty of Cahuenga is signed by American Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont and Mexican Governor Andrés Pico at Campo de Cahuenga in what is now North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. This ends Mexican rule in the area.
• 1848, February 2; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed formally ending the The Mexican-American War.
• 1848; Gold is discovered at Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork American River in Coloma, CA.
• 1849; California Gold Rush begins.
• 1849, December 24; Fire devastated the city of San Francisco (see Great Fires, December 24, 1849).
• 1850; California became 31st state.
• 1853; Work begins on Fortress Alcatraz.
• 1854, May; Weaverville War of 1854 in California between the people of Sze Yup and Heung Shan.
1854, June 1; The latern is lit at the Alcatraz Island Lighthouse. This is the first lighthouse on the west coast.^[7]
• 1854; A branch of the United States Mint is opened in San Francisco. In its first year of operation, the San Francisco mint turns $4 million in gold bullion into coins.
• 1860s; The Six Chinese Companies called Tongs formed to represent and organize Chinese interests in San Francisco and California.
• 1861, June 28; The Central Pacific Railroad of California is incorporated. The companies officers are; Amasa Leland Stanford as president, Collis Potter Huntington as vice-president, James Bailey as secretary and Theodore Dehone Judah as chief engineer. ^[2]
• 1861 - 1865 American Civil War. [More Information]
• 1861, January 10: First Shot of the Civil War fired at the Union Ship "Star of the West" as it attempted to reinforce Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.
• 1861, February 18: Jefferson Davis becomes the President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1861, March 4: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States.
• 1861, April 9: The Confederate cabinet at a meeting in Montgomery, AL, decides to open fire on Ft. Sumter. President Jefferson Davis orders General P. T. Beauregard to "reduce" Fort Sumter.
• 1861, April 12: Bombardment of Fort Sumter begins at 4:30 A.M. The bombardment lasts 33 hours and the Confederates fire 3,000 shells. No one on either side is killed and only one injured at Fort Sumter. Edmund Ruffin is credited with the first shot. Captain James fired the signal shell from a ten inch mortar on Johnson's Island but the first gun from the iron clad battery on Morris Island is generally considered the first shot. Roger A. Pryor declined the honor of firing the signal shell. Ruffin later wraps himself in the Confederate Flag and commits suicide.
• 1861, April 13: Fort Sumter surrenders at 2:30 PM on Saturday. Major Robert Anderson is allowed to fire a 100 gun salute to the United States Flag but only 50 guns are fired. One of the guns explodes and Private Daniel Hough is killed and five are injured. Some authors say two were killed. Perhaps one died of wounds.
• 1861, April 15: Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers for three months service.
  
• 1861: Construction begins on the Confederate submarine, H.L. Hunley in Mobile, Alabama. For more information; visit the Online Library; SHIPS of the CONFEDERATE STATES, Submarine H.L. Hunley (1863-1864).
• 1861: Fortress Alcatraz is used to house Civil War prisoners.
• 1862, June 16: In early June Major General David Hunter transports Horatio G. Wright's and Isaac I. Stevens's Union divisions under immediate direction of Brigadier General Henry Benham to James Island where they entrenched at Grimball's Landing near the southern flank of the Confederate defenses around Charleston, SC. Without orders, Benham launched an unsuccessful frontal assault against Fort Lamar at Secessionville.
• 1862, September 22: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.
• 1863, July 1-3: Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1863, July 13-16: Draft Riots in New York City.
• 1863, August 12: the Hunley arrived by train in Charleston.
• 1863, September 19 - 20: Confederate Victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, GA. The battle is the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
• 1863, November 15: William T. Sherman arrives in Chattanooga, TN.
• 1863, November 19: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1864, December 21: United States troops occupy Savannah, GA.
• 1865, April 8: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Station, VA.
• 1865, April 14: Lincoln shot by John Wilks Booth at Fords Theater on Good Friday.
• 1865, April 14: General Robert Anderson raises the same flag over Fort Sumter that he lowered 4 years before.
• 1865 May 26: Civil War ends; when General Kirby Smith surrendered Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River.
• 1862; Pacific Railroad Bill provided government aid to build transcontinental railroad.
• 1863, January 8; The ground-breaking ceremony for Central Pacific Railroad of California takes place at Sacramento, California, at the foot of "K" Street at the waterfront of the Sacramento River.^[3]
• 1865; Charles Crocker hired first 50 Chinese men in response to white workers' threatening a strike; within two years, 90 percent of the work force on the Central Pacific Railroad was Chinese.
• 1865, December 6; The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified by Georgia, thus officially abolishing slavery.
• 1867; June 25, railroad strike: the Chinese laborers, without support of other workers, won concession over wages.
• 1868; Twelve thousand Chinese working in construction of the railroad. Union Pacific joined the Central Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10.
• 1869; The first westbound train arrived in San Francisco.
• 1876; Southern Pacific Railroad constructed railroad to Los Angeles.
• 1882; Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring all Chinese immigration.
• 1896; Plessy v. Ferguson decision by U.S. Supreme Court establishes "separate but equal" doctrine in racial policy.
• 1898, February 15; The USS Maine (ACR-1) exploded and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba.
• 1898; Spanish-American War.

• 1900; Oil discovered along Kern River.
• 1906; San Francisco earthquake killed more than 3,000, left 225,000 homeless.
• 1910; Angel Island opened, entry point to U. S. for immigrants.
• 1911; Women win right to vote in California.
• 1921, August 10; The battleship USS California (BB-44) is Commissioned. The USS California was a Tennessee class battleship. Her main armament was 12 x 14 inches guns and had a top speed of 21 knots. The USS California was sunk by the Japanese at Perl Harbor on December 7, 1942. She was refloated, reconstructed and saw action during World War II. She was decommissioned on February 14, 1947.
• 1914 - 1920 The First World War. [More Information]
• 1917; Fort Jackson, SC, the nation's largest U.S. Army training facility, established to prepare soldiers for World War I.
• 1917, February 3: US severs diplomatic ties with Germany.
• 1917, April 6: The US declares war on Germany.
• 1918, March 3: Russia and Germany sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk.
• 1918, May 28: US forces make their first offensive, at Cantigny, France.
• 1918, November 11: Armistice Day. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Germany signs an armistice with the Allies. The war is officially over. More than 8.5 million have been killed and over twice as many wounded from across the globe. New technology has been created, America has risen to prominence as an economic power and new countries are forming in Europe and the Middle East.
• 1920, August 18; Women win the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by Tennessee.
• 1928; Great Highway and Ocean Beach Esplanade in San Francisco completed.
• 1929 - 1940; The Great Depression and New Deal.
• The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States is associated with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The depression had devastating effects in both the industrialized countries and those which exported raw materials.
• 1933; The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is created as part of the The New Deal to develop resources of poor Appalachian South.
• The New Deal is the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to a sequence of programs and promises he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving relief, reform and recovery to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression.
• 1933; Long Beach earthquake, a magnitude of 6.4, caused widespread damage throughout southern California.
• 1933, October 12: The United States Department of Justice aquires the United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island. In August 1934, Alcatraz Prison opens. It will close 29 years later.
• 1931, September 18, Japan invades Manchuria.
• 1934; Bloody Thursday riots took place in San Francisco.
• 1936; San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened The west span of the bridge is 10,304 feet long and the east span is 10,176 feet long.
• 1937, April 19; The Golden Gate Bridge is completed. The bridge opened on May 27, 1937.
• 1936; Parker Dam completed.
• 1939 - 1945 World War II. [More Information]
• Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) versus Allies (U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia).
• 1939: Germany invades Poland.
• 1941, December 7: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
• 1942; Japanese Americans relocated to U.S. Japanese-American internment camps. A Japanese submarine shelled an oil field near Goleta.
• 1942, February 23; Japanese Navy's submarine I-17 shells the oil refinery near Santa Barbara, CA.^[9]
• 1942, March; Construction begins at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California.
• 1942, April: American and Filipino prisoners of war are forced to endure World War II Bataan Death March in the Philippines.
• 1945, April 12: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia.
• 1945, May 8: Victory in Europe, V-E Day.
• 1945, September 2: Victory over Japan, V-J Day Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri (BB-63).
  
• 1945; United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco.
• 1950 - 1953; The Korean War is fought in Korea.
• 1952; Bakersfield hit by earthquake, caused over $50 million in property damage.
• 1954; U.S. Supreme Court decides in Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka that "separate" schools cannot be "equal". This paved the way for desegregation and the civil rights movement.
• 1969; Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island.
• 1978, November 27; San Francisco Mayor George Richard Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Bernard Milk shot and killed.
• 1989; 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Bay Area.
• 1992; California became first state to elect two women to U.S. Senate - Barbara Levy Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
• 2000; Electricity crisis caused blackouts and large rate increases.
• 2002, October 27; The Los Angeles Angels win the World Series championship.
• 2003; Governor Davis recalled; Arnold Schwarzenegger elected.
• 2004, June 5; Former President, Ronald Reagan, died at age 93.
• 2006, December 26; Former President, Gerald Ford, died at age 93.
• 2007; Wildfires forced evacuation of over half million residents, 400,000 acres burned, 1,300 homes destroyed.
• 2008; Two-train collision killed 25, injured over 130.
• 2011; Jerry Brown sworn in as new governor, served as governer from 1975 to 1983.
• 2011; Massive power cut caused blackouts in California, Arizona and Mexico, over 5 million people affected.
• 2011; New law enacted allowing illegal immigrants to receive state aid for college.
• 2011, October 5; Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, died.