California History Timeline

Events 1 - 100 of 438

• 1542-09-28 Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo is the first European to sail into San Diego Bay, naming it San Miguel and claiming it for Spain
• 1542-10-07 Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, on a voyage for Spain, is the first European to discover Catalina Island off the coast of California

• 1769-07-14 The de Portolá Expedition establishes a base in California, and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California)

• 1770-06-03 Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo founded in California
• 1771-07-14 Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in California
• 1771-09-08 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel founded in California (just east of modern downtown LA) [1]
• 1772-09-01 Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California
• 1776-11-01 Mission San Juan Capistrano founded in California
• 1777-01-12 Franciscan Order establishes La Misió La Misión Santa Clara de Thamien in California
• 1777-11-29 Spanish expeditionary soldier José Joaquín Moraga establishes El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (The Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe) in California
• 1798-06-13 Mission San Luis Rey de Francia founded in California
• 1812-03-15 1st Russian settlement in California at Russian River

• 1841-11-04 First wagon train arrives in California after a five and a half month and 1,730 mile journey over the Sierra Nevada from Missouri [1]
• 1846-06-14 California (Bear Flag) Republic proclaimed in Sonoma, declaring independence from Mexico
• 1846-07-21 Mormons found 1st English settlement in California (San Joaquin Valley)
• 1846-08-17 Commodore Robert F. Stockton of the US Navy, annexes California
• 1847-01-09 1st San Francisco newspaper published (California Star)
• 1847-01-16 John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory

• 1848-02-02 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War. Mexico loses 55 percent of its territory to the US, including California, Nevada and Utah in exchange for $15 million.
• 1848-05-30 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and Mexico comes into force, giving California Nevada, Utah and most of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona to the US in return for $15 million

• 1849-02-18 1st regular steamboat service to California starts (or 02/28)
• 1849-03-12 1st gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to California
• 1849-06-22 Stephen C. Massett opens concert at San Francisco courthouse using only piano in California
• 1849-09-01 California Constitutional Convention convenes in Monterey
• 1849-09-19 1st commercial laundry established, in Oakland, California
• 1849-11-13 Peter Burnett elected first governor of California
• 1850-01-05 California Exchange opens
• 1850-01-22 Alta California becomes a daily paper, 1st such in Calif
• 1850-02-18 California Legislature creates nine Bay Area counties
• 1850-08-31 California pioneers organized at Montgomery & Clay Streets
• 1850-09-09 California is admitted as the thirty-first state of the Union
• 1851-01-31 San Francisco Orphan's Asylum founded, 1st in California
• 1851-03-25 Yosemite Valley discovery made public by Major James D. Savage and Captain John Boling after being shown by Indian guides in California
• 1852-04-19 California Historical Society is founded
• 1852-07-03 Congress authorizes US's 2nd mint (San Francisco, California)
• 1852-11-23 Just past midnight, a sharp jolt likely caused by heavy rains causes Lake Merced, California, to drop 30 feet (9m)
• 1853-07-25 Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californian bandit known as "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed by California Rangers
• 1853-09-11 1st electric telegraph used - Merchant's Exchange, San Francisco to Pt Lobos, California
• 1856-01-08 Dr John Veatch discovers large disports of borax at Tuscan Springs, California
• 1857-01-09 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon, California
• 1858-09-16 1st overland mail for California

• 1860-04-13 1st Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California
• 1861-10-26 Pony Express (Missouri to California) ends after 19 months
• 1862-01-23 Agoston Haraszthy, 1st vintner in Sonoma Valley, California imports 10,000 grape vine cuttings
• 1866-05-24 Berkeley, California named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne)
• 1867-06-27 Bank of California opens doors
• 1868-03-23 University of California founded in Oakland, California
• 1868-06-09 1st meeting of Board of Regents, University of California
• 1868-10-21 Severe earthquake at 7:53 AM, centered in Hayward, California
• 1869-01-18 Elegant California Theater opens in San Francisco
• 1869-04-18 1st international cricket match, held in San Francisco, won by California
• 1870-02-10 City of Anaheim in California incorporates for the 1st time, but disincorporates after two years as the tax burden was too high
• 1870-03-14 California legislature approves act making Golden Gate Park possible
• 1870-03-18 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland California)
• 1871-10-24 Mob in Los Angeles, California hangs 18 Chinese
• 1872-01-20 California Stock Exchange Board organized
• 1872-02-14 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)
• 1872-03-26 7.8 earthquake shakes Owens Valley, California
• 1873-02-20 University of California gets its first Medical School (UC/San Francisco)
• 1873-08-18 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494')
• 1875-06-07 California Rifle and Pistol Association founded
• 1876-06-04 An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
• 1876-06-14 California Street Cable Car Railroad Co gets its franchise
• 1878-03-18 City of Anaheim in California incorporates for the 2nd time
• 1878-03-26 Hastings College of Law founded in San Francisco, California
• 1878-04-10 California Street Cable Car Railroad Co starts service
• 1878-07-26 In California, poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box found later with a taunting poem inside.
• 1879-02-10 1st electric arc light used (California Theater)
• 1880-10-04 University of California founded in Los Angeles, California
• 1881-03-04 California becomes 1st state to pass plant quarantine legislation
• 1884-03-17 John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight at Otay, California
• 1885-03-03 1st US state (California) establishes a permanent forest commission
• 1887-02-01 Harvey Wilcox of Ks subdivides 120 acres he owned in Southern California & starts selling it off as a real estate development (Hollywood)
• 1888-06-01 California gets its 1st seismograph
• 1888-08-11 California Theatre closed (now a Pac Tel Phone Store)
• 1890-01-01 The Rose Parade, then known as the Tournament of Roses, is first held in Pasadena, California
• 1890-10-01 US Congress establishes Yosemite National Park (California)

• 1896-05-26 James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California
• 1896-06-16 Temperature hits 127°F at Fort Mojave, California
• 1899-02-18 80°F recorded in San Francisco, California
• 1899-07-29 Southern California Golf Association forms
• 1901-09-16 Alturas, California, is incorporated as the only city in Modoc County
• 1902-04-02 "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California
• 1905-01-02 Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine in San Jose, California
• 1906-02-22 Black evangelist William J Seymour arrives in Los Angeles, California

• 1907-05-11 A derailment outside Lompoc, California, kills 32 Shriners when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot
• 1907-06-13 Lowest temperature ever in 48 US states for June, 2°F in Tamarack, California
• 1907-07-04 Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns KOs Bill Squires of Australia in round 1 in Colma, California, his 6th title defense
• 1908-01-09 Muir Woods National Monument, California, established
• 1908-01-16 Pinnacles National Monument, California established

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 2,936

• 1796-08-25 James Lick, American land baron in California, born in Stumpstown, Pennsylvania (d. 1876)
• 1801-07-26 John Drake Sloat, 1st Military Governor of California (Union Navy), born in Sloatsburg, New York (d. 1867)
• 1810-10-23 William Leidesdorff, Mixed-race early Californian businessman, born in Christiansted, Virgin Islands, Danish West Indies (d. 1848)
• 1814-11-22 Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician and lawyer (3rd Attorney General of California), born in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York (d. 1893)
• 1819-11-23 Josiah Dwight Whitney, American Geologist who led the California Geological Survey (Mount Whitney and Whitney Glacier are named for him), born in Northampton, Massachusetts (d. 1896)
• 1820-05-23 Lorenzo Sawyer, 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, born in Le Roy, New York (d. 1891)
• 1820-09-03 George Hearst, American businessman and politician (U.S. Senator from California), born in Sullivan, Missouri (d. 1891)
• 1822-08-22 George Stoneman, US Union general-major and Governor of California (1883-87), born in Busti, NY (d. 1894)

• 1838-08-17 Laura de Force Gordon, California lawyer, a prominent suffragette, and 1st woman to run a daily newspaper in the US (Stockton Daily Leader, 1874), born in North East, Pennsylvania (d. 1907)
• 1848-09-04 Jennie Lee, American actress (The Birth of a Nation), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1925)
• 1851-05-18 James Budd, American politician, Governor of California (1895-99), born in Janesville, Wisconsin (d. 1908)
• 1855-11-20 Josiah Royce, American philosopher (Conception of Immortality), born in Grass Valley, California (d. 1916)
• 1857-09-06 Zelia Nuttall, American Mexican archeologist and historian (Codex Nuttall), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1933) [1]
• 1859-01-19 Alice Eastwood, Canadian-American botanist (Handbook of Trees of California), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1953)
• 1861-10-08 Theodore Roberts, American actor (Roaring Road, 10 Commandments), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1928)

• 1864-01-16 Frank Bacon, American playwright, actor and author (Lightnin'), born near Yuba City, California (d. 1922)
• 1864-04-10 Tully Marshall, American actor (Let's Go, Red Dust), born in Nevada City, California (d. 1943)
• 1864-10-28 Adolfo Camarillo, American prominent land owner, horse breeder, and rancher, born in Ventura, California (d. 1958)
• 1864-12-31 Robert G Aitken, American astronomer (Binary Stars), born in Jackson, California (d. 1951)

• 1866-09-02 Hiram Johnson, Progressive politician, US Senator, Governor of California (1911-17), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1945)
• 1867-04-11 Mark Keppel, Superintendent of Los Angeles County Schools (1902-2)8, born in Butte County, California (d. 1928)
• 1867-07-04 Stephen Mather, American industrialist and conservationist (organized US National Park Service), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1930)
• 1869-06-27 Kate Carew [Mary Williams], American caricaturist, born in Oakland, California (d. 1961)
• 1869-08-23 James (Sunny Jim) Rolph, San Francisco mayor (1912-31), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1934)
• 1869-09-10 Caro Roma [Carrie Northey], American composer and singer, born in California (d. 1937)

• 1870-09-07 Thomas Curtis, American athlete (Olympic 1896 Gold), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1944)

• 1874-06-14 Edward Bowes, American radio host (Major Bowes Amateur Hour), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1946)
• 1874-10-08 Nance O'Neil, American actor (Cimarron), born in Oakland, California (d. 1965)
• 1876-09-30 Katherine Griffith [Kiernan], American actress (Pollyanna, Fast Company), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1921)
• 1877-01-10 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, American inventor (electrostatic precipitator), born in Oakland, California (d. 1948)
• 1877-04-30 Alice B. Toklas, American-Parisian avant-garde and companion of Gertrude Stein, born in San Francisco, California (d. 1967)

• 1877-06-17 Russell Simpson, American actor (San Francisco, Abraham Lincoln), born in Danville, California (d. 1959)

• 1877-09-13 Stanley Lord, Captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster, born in Bolton, Lancashire, England (d. 1962)
• 1878-05-24 Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American psychologist and industrial engineer (CIOS Gold Medal-1954), born in Oakland, California (d. 1972)
• 1878-08-31 Frank Jarvis, American athlete (Olympic gold 100m 1900), born in California, Pennsylvania (d. 1933)
• 1878-10-09 Robert Warwick, American actor (Falcon's Adventure), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1964)
• 1879-12-12 Laura Hope Crews, American actress (Camille; Gone With The Wind), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1942)
• 1881-08-06 Leo Carrillo, American actor (American Empire, Cisco Kid), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1961)
• 1882-05-25 Harry Fox [Arthur Carringford], American vaudeville dancer, comedian and actor (Talent Scout), born in Pomona, California (d. 1959)

• 1884-04-30 Albert Elkus, American composer, born in Sacramento, California (d. 1962)
• 1884-09-22 Minerva Urecal [Dunnock], American stage, radio, and screen character actress (Accent on Love; The Adventures of Tugboat Annie; Peter Gunn; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao), born in Eureka, California (d. 1966)
• 1884-10-17 Lewis Bennison, American actor (The Road Called Straight), born in Oakland, California (d. 1929)
• 1885-10-03 Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist, born in Stockton, California (d. 1970)

• 1886-02-08 Charlie Ruggles, American actor (Bringing Up Baby, The Patchwork Girl of Oz), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1970)
• 1886-12-20 Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1909-11, 19), born in Healdsburg, California (d. 1974)
• 1887-03-24 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, American actor (The Bell Boy, Moonshine, Keystone comedies), born in Smith Center, Kansas (d. 1933)
• 1887-08-24 Harry Hooper, American Baseball HOF right fielder (World Series 1912, 15, 16, 18 Boston Red Sox), born in Bell Station, California (d. 1974)
• 1888-04-18 Duffy Lewis, American baseball left fielder (World Series 1912, 15, 16; Boston Red Sox), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1979)
• 1888-04-26 Anita Loos, American screenwriter, novelist (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) and playwright, born in Sisson, California (d. 1981)
• 1888-07-16 Percy Kilbride, American stage and screen actor (The Egg and I; Ma and Pa Kettle films), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1964)
• 1888-07-23 Gluyas Williams, American cartoonist (Fellows Citizen), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1982)
• 1888-11-18 Frances Marion, American screenwriter and actress (Pollyanna), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1973)
• 1889-02-04 Walter Catlett, American actor (Climax, Front Page, Tale of 2 Cities), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1960)

• 1889-06-11 Wesley Ruggles, American actor, producer and director (I'm No Angel, Arizona, Too Many Husbands), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1972)
• 1889-07-15 Marjorie Rambeau, American stage, silent and sound screen actress (Primrose Path; Torch Song), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1970)
• 1889-12-02 William Gaxton [Arthur Gaxiola], American stage and screen actor (A Connecticut Yankee; Destry; Convoy), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1963)
• 1889-12-10 Ray Collins, American stage, radio, and screen character actor (Homecoming; Citizen Kane; Rose Marie; Perry Mason), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1965)

• 1890-01-10 Ernest Milton, American actor (Cat Girl, Fiddler's Three), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1974)
• 1890-01-16 Lloyd Bacon, American actor (Charlie Chaplin films), born in San Jose, California (d. 1955)
• 1890-04-26 Edgar Kennedy, American silent and sound screen character actor famous for his 'slow burn' (Laurel & Hardy films; Duck Soup; "Average Man" shorts) and director (From Soup to Nuts), born in Lake San Antonio, California (d. 1948)
• 1890-07-20 Verna Felton, American actress (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, December Bride), born in Salinas, California (d. 1966)
• 1890-07-25 Julian Rivero, American actor (Son of Oklahoma, Via Pony Express), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1976)
• 1890-07-25 Tom O'Brien, American actor (Physical Evidence), born in San Diego, California (d. 1947)
• 1890-07-26 Daniel J. Callaghan, US Admiral (Medal of Honor), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1942)
• 1890-08-02 Marin Sais, American actress (The Pony Express Girl), born in San Rafael, California (d. 1971)
• 1890-10-24 Kathleen Lockhart Manning, American composer, born in Hollywood, California (d. 1951)
• 1890-12-25 Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts (Believe it or Not), born in Santa Rosa, California (d. 1949)

• 1891-02-07 Ann Little [Mary Brooks], American actress, born in Mount Shasta, California (d. 1984)

• 1891-05-22 Robert Gordon Sproul, American educator and college president (University of California), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1975)
• 1891-06-03 Mary Browne, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1912-14), born in Ventura County, California (d. 1971)
• 1891-06-26 Sidney Coe Howard, American dramatist (Swords, Pulitzer 1925), born in Oakland, California (d. 1939)
• 1891-09-07 Roscoe Karns, American actor (Capt Shafer-Hennesey), born in San Bernardino, California (d. 1970)
• 1891-09-28 Myrtle Gonzalez, American silent film actress regarded as Hollywood's first Latin and Hispanic movie star actress (Missy, The Chalice of Courage, Her Great Part), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1918)
• 1891-12-07 Fay Bainter, American actress (Jezebel, Our Town, State Fair), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1968)
• 1892-03-03 Edmund Lowe, American actor (Black Sheep, Good Sam, Dillinger, Hot Pepper), born in San Jose, California (d. 1971)
• 1893-03-03 Bill Nestell, American actor (Dangerous Venture, Buckskin Frontier), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1966)
• 1893-05-04 Edgar Dearing, American actor (Pollyanna, Abraham Lincoln, Free & Easy), born in Ceres, California (d. 1974)
• 1893-10-12 Velvalee Dickinson, American spy, convicted of espionage against the United States on behalf of Japan during World War II, born in Sacramento, California (d. 1980)
• 1893-11-03 Robert Lindley Murray, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1917-18), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1970)
• 1893-11-22 Harley Earl, American automobile designer (1st head of design at General Motors), born in Hollywood, California (d. 1969)
• 1894-02-10 Roy D'Arcy [Roy Giusti], American actor (Warning Shadows, Revolt of Zombies), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1969)
• 1894-03-26 Will Wright, American actor (Adam's Rib, Living Christ Story), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1962)
• 1894-08-02 Hal Mohr [Harold Leon Mohr], American Cinematographer and husband of Evelyn Venable (Captain Blood), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1974)
• 1894-08-03 Harry Heilmann, American Baseball HOF outfielder (4 × AL batting champion, Detroit Tigers) and broadcaster (WXYZ), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1951)
• 1894-10-12 Charles Hodge, NYU professor (Answers for Americans) (d. 1964)

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