Alternate url for this page:
http://tinyurl.com/californiascope

What Is A Historyscope?

Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to the history of California. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.

About 460M B.C.E. Shasta Bally (near modern-day Redding, Calif.) is created by volcanic magma.

About 214M B.C.E. Pangea begins to separate into N (Laurasia) and S (Gondwana) hemisphere continents; the Sierra Nevada mountains are uplifted.

About 150M B.C.E. North Am. begins to drift away from Europe; the Klamath and Peninsular ranges of coastal California (Calif.) are formed.

About 55M B.C.E. the Calif. River (as big as the modern Colo. River) flows from the Mojave region of S Calif. through Ariz. into Utah in the opposite direction.

About 10M B.C.E. the Sierra Nevada mountain range begins to form; 140 mi. x 5-15 mi. Death Valley is formed, containing the driest, lowest and hottest spot in North Am.; the lowest elev. in the W Hemisphere (-282 ft.) is at Badwater Pond; 85 mi. away is 14,505-ft. (4,421m) Mt. Whitney, highest point in the U.S. outside Alaska.

About 40K B.C.E. the La Brea Tar Pits open for business in modern-day Los Angeles, Calif.

About 9.5K B.C.E. Arlington Springs Man on the Channel Islands of Calif. dates to this time.

About 8.5K B.C.E. stone cutting tools dating to this time are found in Daisy Cave on San Miguel Island in the Channel Islands of Calif. by Jon Erlandson of the U. of Oregon, proving that boat travel is going on?

About 8.5K B.C.E. shell middens (kitchen waste) dating to this time are found on Cedros (Cedar) Island off Baja Calif.; other heaps dating to this time are found on the Andean coast.

In 892 C.E. a 220-year drought begins in Calif. (ends 1112), followed by a 140-year one in 1209 to 1350, causing water levels to drop 50+ ft.

In Jan. 1530 Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) sets sail for Panama accompanied by brothers Gonzalo Pizarro (1510-48) and Hernando Pizarro (1508-78), plus a small group of recruits - with dreams of wealth and power dancing in their heads? A couple of hundred Euro guns and Toledo swords beat an empire of 5M-10M still in the Bronze Age as the Inca Empire (begun 1438) ends so fast that it makes your head spin? In Jan. 1531 after organizing a military expedition in Panama, Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) sets sail for Pizarria, er, New Castile, er, Peru (aided by an El Nino?), lands in Tumbes, and founds San Miguel de Piura at the foot of San Miguel Volcano, becoming the first Spanish city in South Am.; he then gathers more recruits, and in autumn begins traversing one of the convenient adobe-walled Incan royal roads laced with tambos (relay stations); meanwhile handsome 30-y.-o. Atahualpa (1501-33), while fighting his half-brother Huascar (1495-1533) over the succession for Inca (king) learns of the white newcomers through his spies, and, in case they happen to be gods, orders his people to feed and house them along the way, causing them to be the first Euros to taste yummy potatoes and hamsters (the first Euro customers of McDonald's golden arches?); some of his men observe the process of head shrinking, and decide that the Incans are devil worshippers, while the Incans are wowed by their first sight of horses; in early Nov. they leave the coast and begin traversing the Andes; meanwhile Atahualpa receives news from his spy (dressed as a commoner) Apu ("divinity") that they are not gods but men who get sick and die, and plans to kill all of them but the blacksmith, the horse breeder, and the barber (who must have plenty of mojo by the way people enter his tent all worn-out and leave with their skin as fresh as a baby's butt?). Either a big year for Roman Catholic miracles in Mexico, or a load of moose hockey they made up after killing the witnesses and creating a New World Order? In the spring the Spanish reach Queretaro (Querétaro) ("place of the ball game or great city") in C Mexico, inhabited by the ruling Purepecha (Tarasca) (Tarascos) and the subject Otomi, along with a few Chichimecas ("barbarians"), and ally themselves with Otomi chief Conin, striking a deal with the Indians to embrace Spanish rule and the Roman Catholic religion if they are defeated in a weaponless battle, and just as the Spanish are about to lose, St. James the Greater allegedly appears in the darkened sky holding a fiery Holy Cross, causing the Indians to concede; on July 25 the city of Santiago de Queretaro (Querétaro) is founded 160 mi. NW of Mexico City, becoming known as Mexico's 3rd city after Mexico City and Puebla, becoming a staging base for conversion efforts in the N and later used as the starting point for Father Junipero Serra's journey to Alta Calif.

On July 8, 1539 after being sent by Hernan Cortes, Francisco de Ulloa (d. 1540) leaves Acalpulco in three small ships to seek the mythical Strait of Anian leading to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, reaching the Gulf of California, which he calls the Sea of Cortes; on Sept. 12 after one ship is lost in a storm, he resumes his voyage, saling S along the E coast of the Baja California Peninsula, landing at the Bay of La Paz to take on supplies, then rounding the tip and sailing N along the W shore in the Pacific Oean, reaching 28 deg. N near Isla de Cedros before bad weather forces him to turn back, until his ship is swept inland by a tsunami, causing it to become known as the Lost Ship of the Desert; too bad, his reports are used to depict Calif. as an island.

Don't just take your family on a vacation, take them on an adventure? Whitey finally reaches the far side, and it's gone in a flash? On Feb. 23, 1540 Francisco Vazquez (Vázquez) de Coronado (1510-54), gov. of Nueva Galicia leads an expedition of 400 men plus 1.3K-2K Indios, four Franciscan monks, and several slaves from Compostela, Mexico, exploring N Texas and invading New Mexico and conquering the Zunis (Zuñis); on Sept. 8 they establish winter HQ at the Indian pueblos of Kuau and Puaray, using it as a base for vain searches for the riches of Quivira; in 1934 archaeologists unearth ancient paintings of Indian god-demons behind 85 layers of adobe plaster; on May 9 Spanish navigator Hernando de Alarcon (Alarcón) leaves Coronado's party, goes by sea to the Gulf of Calif., then completes the explorations of Francisco de Ulloa the preceding year, satisfying himself that there is no open water passage between the gulf and the South Sea (Pacific Ocean); he then travels up the Colorado River (which he names the Buena Guia), becoming the first Euro to navigate it, viewing Am. bison (buffalo) ("tatanka"); Garcia Lopez de Cardenas (García López de Cárdenas) leaves Coronado's party and discovers the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River in modern-day Ariz.; another lt. of Coronado reaches the pueblos of the Hopi (Moqui); Capt. Hernando de Alvarado leaves Coronado's party and explores the Rio Grande River, stopping halfway at Isleta Pueblo (S of modern-day Albuquerque), which becomes a stopping place for every future Spanish explorer in New Mexico.

On Sept. 28, 1542 Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (-1543), sent by New Spain viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in search of a northern strait discovers California (Calif.), landing at modern-day San Diego, and continuing N, discovering Monterey Bay on Nov. 16, and naming it Bahia de los Pinos because of the forest of pine trees; too bad, colonization is slow, and the first Spanish mission isn't founded until 1769 - why not call it Cabrillofornia? In 1544 Cabrillo dies of gangrene on Santa Catalina Island, and his pilot Bartolome (Bartolomé) Ferrelo (1499-1550) continues the expedition, exploring the Pacific coast as far as Oregon.

In Nov. 1577 not-yet-sir Francis Drake (1543-96), after being presented to the queen and sponsored by Hatton sets out from England with five ships to circumnavigate (not circumcize?) the world via Cape Horn while sacking Spanish towns and harrying Spanish ships that had been attacking English ships ("So it is that I would be revenged on the king of Spain for divers injuries that I have received" - Elizabeth I); his own ship is the Pelican, which he renames the Golden Hind (Hinde) as he enters the Strait of Magellan in honor of Hatton, whose coat of arms is a golden female deer; he completes his epedition in 1580, and is knighted in 1581. In Sept. 1578 English explorer and freebooter sure-to-be-Sir Francis Drake (1543-96) discovers the 400-mi.-wide Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands, rounding the Horn in 17 easy days, easily sailing past the lethal Four Evangelists and Desolation Island at the W end; in 1579 he is chased by the Spaniards up the coast of Calif., hoping to escape by the fabled Northwest Passage, and lands at Laguna Beach (Drake's Bay) near modern-day San Francisco, where the local aborigines mistake the fair English for gods and offer them their entire country, which he accepts, leaving a metal plate announcing the new English country of New Albion (N Calif.) "by the grace of God and in the name of her majesty Queen Elizabeth of England". Luck be a lady tonight, stick with me baby I'm a fellow you can win with, in 1936 San Fran store clerk Beryle Shinn discovers the plate while hunting pheasant, and it ends up on display at the U. of Calif. Of course, the Spanish pooh-pooh Drake's claims, and claim all of California for themselves, although maybe Portugal should be given San Diego for equity, ask the pope, oh yes, he already decided that question, and Cabrillo was working for the Spanish anyway. On Sept. 26, 1580 after crossing the Pacific to the East Indies, Drake arrives in Plymouth, England, becoming the 2nd man to lead a round-the-world voyage (36K mi.) (began 1577); the queen gives him a green silk scarf, but rumors of his pirate habits eventually take the shine off, and the queen keeps 20% of his £800K treasure haul.

On July 5, 1595 Portuguese explorer Sebastiao Rodrigues Soromeno (Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño) (1560-1602) sails from Manila in the San Agustin, reaching land between Point St. George and Trinidad Head in Calif. on Nov. 4, then S to Drakes Bay on Nov. 7, where Native Ams. greet him, but aren't as wowed as when they saw Sir Francis Drake in 1579; after a storm blows them N, their ship sinks, and they switch to a launch named the San Buenaventure, then leave on Dec. 8, heading S as fast as they can, failing to notice San Francisco Gay, er, Bay, discovering Monterey Bay on Dec. 10 and naming it Bahia de San Pedro in honor of St. Peter Martyr, and arriving at Puerta de Chacata, Mexico on Jan. 17.

In 1722 French cartographer Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726) pub. Map of the Americas, showing Calif. as a peninsula.

On Jan. 10, 1769 after getting concerned about Russian incursions along the Pacific coast from their base in Alaska, Spanish minister Jose de Galvez (José de Gálvez) y Gallardo, Marqués de Sonora (1720-87) sends the dual land-sea Portola (Portolá ) Expedition, led by Gaspar de Portola (Portolà) i Rovira (1716-86) to explore and settle Alta Calif. with a system of presidios (military forts) and Franciscan missions, starting with the San Carlos sailing from La Paz, followed on Feb. 15 by the San Antonio sailing from Cabo San Lucas, while the land epedition leaves Velicata on Mar. 25; on July 16 Franciscan Father Miguel Jose "Junipero" Serra y Ferrer (1713-84) ("Apostle of Calif.") founds the first of 21 Catholic missions in Calif. at Mission San Diego de Alcala (Alcalá), becoming the start of El Camino Real (the Royal Road), which becomes an Indian Roman Catholic conversion factory as well as an agricultural estate; the super climate produces early crops of grapes, oranges and olives; over the next 50 years the Franciscans build 20 more missions spaced a day's journey apart along the coast all the way to San Francisco.

On June 3, 1770 Father Junipero Serra founds the San Carlos Borromeo del Carmelo (Carmel) Mission in modern-day Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. (#2 of 21), which becomes his HQ in Alta Calif. until his 1784 death.

In 1770 the city of Monterey, Calif. at the S end of Monterey Bay on Monterey Peninsula (modern-day pop. 27K) is founded as a Presido, becoming the first military establishment W of the Rocky Mts. and the capital of Alta Calif.

On Sept. 8, 1771 (Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary) Father Junipero Serra founds the San Antonio de Padua Mission in Calif. (#3), followed on Sept. 8 by the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel ("Godfather of the Pueblo of Los Angeles") (#4 of 21), with Cordoba, Spain-born missionary-architect Antonio Cruzado designing capped buttresses and tall narrow windows, showing a strong Moorish influence.

On Sept. 1, 1772 Father Junipero Serra founds the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in Calif. (#5 of 21) halfway between Santa Barbara and Monterey on the site of the Chumash village of Tilhini, named after 13th cent. Bishop St. Louis of Toulouse (1274-97).

On Aug. 5, 1775 Spanish Lt. Juan Manuel de Ayala (1745-97) (who left Monterey on July 26) becomes the first Euro explorer to sail through the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay in Calif., naming three islands incl. Alcatraz (Sp. "pelican") Island and anchoring his packet ship Punta de San Carlos (which he takes command of by luck after captain Don Miguel Manrique goes mad?) at Angel Island (Isla de Los Angeles) to wait for the overland expedition of Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza, then on Sept. 18 returns to San Blas via Monterey, telling them how the harbor beats Monterey for having less fog, and how friendly the natives are.

On Oct. 30, 1775 Father Junipero Sierra founds Mission San Juan Capistrano (#7); Indian unrest causes it to be abandoned, and a new one is founded on Nov. 1, 1776; the Acagchemem Indians build a small church now called the Serra Chapel (the oldest bldg. still in use in Calif.); every year on St. Joseph's Day (Mar. 19) the swallows return from their winter migration in Argentina.

In 1775 after being sent by Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua, viceroy of New Spain to explore N Calif. to see if there are Russian settlements, Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta (Hezeta) y Dudagoitia (1743-1807) discovers the Columbia River in W N. Am.; New England ship captain Robert Gray names it in 1792.

In 1775 Monterey becomes the capital and principal city of Alta (Upper) Calif. (until 1846).

In 1775 Spanish Franciscan priest Friar Pedro Font (1737-81) visits the Indians of Calif., reporting female same-sex marriages; "Among the women I saw some men dressed like women, with whom they go about regularly, never joining the men", adding "There will be much to do when the Holy Faith and the Christian religion are established among them"; in 1777 Francisco Palou writes "The couple was caught in the act of committing the nefarious sin. They were duly punished for this crime, but not with the severity it properly deserved... the layman answered that the Joya was his Wife!... Almost every village has two or three. But we place our trust in God and expect that these accursed people will disappear with the growth of the missions. The abominable vice will be eliminated to the extent that the Catholic faith and all other virtues are firmly implanted there, for the glory of God and the benefit of those poor ignorants" - what California Proposition was that?

In Mar. 1776 Spanish Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (1736-88), Lt. Jose Joaquin de la Santisima Trinidad Moraga (1741-85), and Franciscan priest Friar Pedro Font (1737-81) arrive at the tip of San Francisco, and De Anza plants a cross at what is now Ft. Point, becoming the start of the city of San Francisco, Calif. (named after St. Francis of Assisi) (modern pop. 3M/750K). Meanwhile, on the other side of the North American continent? On June 17 Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio 125 mi. NW to San Francisco, and on Sept. 17 they found the Presidio of Yerba Buena (Sp. "good herb") (later the Presidio of San Francisco); on Oct. 9 a group of Spanish Franciscan missionaries arrives led by Father Junipero Serra's companion Father Francisco Palou (1722-90) and founds Mission San Francisco de Asis (Dolores) (#6 of 21).

On Sept. 4, 1781 Spanish gov. of Calif. (1777-82) Felipe de Neve (1724-84) along with the Franciscans found El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles (Town of the Queen of the Angels) (modern-day pop. 3.8M/18.6M) from an Indian village named Yangma; 29 of the first 44 Spanish settlers (Los Pobladores) are of African ancestry.

In 1791 Mission Santa Cruz is founded on the N edge of Monterey Bay in Calif. 75 mi. S of modern-day San Francisco by missionary priest Juan Crespi; in 1797 Villa de Branciforte is founded by the Spanish colonial govt. of Alta Calif. on the E bluff of the San Lorenzo River facing the mission on the other side; in 1866 the city of Santa Cruz, Calif. (modern-day pop. 64K/262K) is incorporated, and chartered in Apr. 1876; in 1905 Branciforte is annexed; in the 20th cent. it calls itself "Surf City", becoming a center of progressive liberal activism.

By 1803 40% of Calif.'s aborigine pop. has embraced Roman Catholicism thanks to the chain of Franciscan missions; European diseases reduce the pop. by two-thirds by 1833; Boston, Mass. Puritan merchant ship Lielya Byrd visits Calif., spending two weeks and making friends with Roman Catholic mission fathers, inaugurating a half-cent. of friendly relations.

You say goodbye and I say hello? On Nov. 15, 1805 after sighting 850-ft. Beacon Rock on the Columbia River, the Lewis and Clark Expedition sights the Pacific Ocean, bringing a closure to the exploration of the continent begun by Columbus 313 years earlier, Clark writing "I landed and formed a camp on the highest spot I could find, from this I could plainly see the extent of our journey in full view of the ocean... Ocean in view! O! The Joy!"; they first see the Calif. condor, describing it as probably the biggest bird in Am.; they then spend a miserable winter near the mouth of the Columbia River, discovering abundant wildlife and rich soil in modern-day Yakima Valley, Wash., which in the 20th cent. becomes known as "the Fruitbowl of the Nation"; they encounter Umatillas using sign language that they interpret as meaning they think the whites are from heaven, but actually they were complaining that the pale morons had shot a flying crane for no good reason?

On Mar. 23, 1806 explorers Lewis and Clark begin their return journey. In Sept. 1806 the Lewis and Clark Expedition (begun May 1804) ends after going 8K mi. and visiting 58 Indian tribes; Clark frees his slave York, who was allowed to carry a gun and whose black skin was a curiosity to every Indian tribe they met (the first black to cross the North Am. continent N of Mexico?); Sgt. Charles Floyd, the only casualty in the party dies of a burst appendix near Sioux City; Pres. Jefferson is presented with two bears, which he houses in cages in the White House; always thinking, Pres. Jefferson envisions an independent nation in NW North Am. called the Repub. of the Pacific, which survives to modern times as a proposal for the Repub. of Cascadia, consisting of British Columbia, Ore. and Wash., plus maybe parts of Idaho, N Calif., the Yukon and Alaska; in 1941-2 the State of Jefferson exists for about 10 mo. until Pearl Harbor kills it.

On Apr. 20, 1822 the Mexican flag is raised over the Presidio of San Diego, Calif. On May 19 after a suitable royal is not found and street demonstrations proclaim him, gen. Agustin (Agustín) de Iturbide (1783-1824), son of a Spanish father and Mexican mother modestly accepts elevation as Emperor Augustus I of Mexico, and is crowned on July 21 (until Mar. 19, 1823); all Californians become Mexicans overnight, but Californios take comfort in the remoteness of Mexico City and stage 10 revolts against Mexican govs. in the next 20 years - how do you like my new horse?

On July 4, 1823 San Francisco Solano in Sonoma becomes the 21st and last Spanish mission founded in Calif.; San Diego de Alacala was the first in 1769.

On Oct. 4, 1824 the repub. of the United Mexican States is proclaimed, with a constitution based on the 1814 Acta Constitucional of Jose Miguel Ramos Arizpe (Arispe) (1775-1843), "Father of Mexican Federalism"; on Oct. 10 epileptic Gen. Jose Miguel Ramon Adaucto Fernandez y Felix renames himself Guadalupe Victoria (1786-1843), and becomes pres. #1 (until Apr. 1, 1829), going on to abolish slavery and establish the Colegio Militar (Military Academy), and establish diplomatic relations with all major powers; Mexico passes a colonization act granting hundreds of huge "rancho" estates to Mexican settlers in Calif., where the rancheros develop a luxurious lifestyle on the backs of Indian slave labor - time for Zorro?

In 1824 Canadian fur trader Peter Skene Ogden (1790-1854) begins exploring the Snake River Valley (until 1830) incl. Ore., Wash., Nev., Calif., Utah, Idaho, and Wyo., incl. the Great Salt Lake, Weber River, and Ogden River; the city of Ogden, Utah is later named for him.

In 1824 Ky. frontiersmen Sylvester Pattie (1782-1828) and his son James Ohio Pattie (1804-51) lead 116 men through the Am. Southwest for six years, suffering from hardships that whittle them down to 16 men by 1827, finally reaching San Diego, Calif., only to be arrested as spies by the Mexican authorities; after Sylvester dies, James is released after producing some smallpox vaccine and vaccinating the pop., then returns to the U.S. in 1830 flat broke; in 1831 he and Timothy Flint pub. The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie of Kentucky.

In 1827 Tioga County, N.Y.-born frontiersman Jedediah Strong Smith (1799-1831) becomes the first white man to cross the Great Basin incl. the Bonneville Salt Flats in NW Utah, becoming the first to make the overland round-trip to Calif.; he explores the Great Salt Lake and names it after himself, but it doesn't stick.

In 1831 French-born Am. explorer U.S. Army Capt. Benjamin Bonneville (1796-1878) of the U.S. Army heads an expedition guided by Jim Bridger (ends 1836) to explore the Intermountain West between the Rocky Mts. and Calif., and finds them not all flat; Bonneville Salt Flats are later named after him by geologist Grove Karl Gilbert.

On Aug. 14, 1834 Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815-82) sails on the brig Pilgrim to Calif., returning in Sept. 1836 on the Alert after witnessing a flogging aboard the Pilgrim that pisses him off, later writing the classic Two Years before the Mast (1840), an account of the hide and tallow trade in Mexican Calif. during a voyage in 1834-6.

In 1834 Roane County, Tenn.-born trapper Joseph Reddeford "Joe" Walker (1798-1876) et al., who set out in 1832 with Benjamin Bonneville on a trapping expedition in the Am. West, killed a bunch of helpless Digger Indians, visited Yosemite and became the first Euros to see the waterfalls, followed by the redwood forests, then holed up in Monterey, Calif. from Nov. 1833-Jan. 13, 1834 discovers 5,250 ft. alt. Walker Pass in the S Sierra Nevada Mts. at the S end of the San Joaquin Valley, which later becomes a major gringo gateway into Calif. during the Calif. Gold Rush.

In 1840 Swiss immigrant John Augustus Sutter Sr. (Johann August Suter) (1803-80), who arrived via Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska in Calif.'s remote Central Valley on Aug. 13, 1839, and persuaded the Mexican govt. to give him a 48K-acre land grant on the American River near its junction with the Sacramento River (modern-day Sacramento) erects a fort called New Helvetia (Sutter's Fort) with 18-ft.-high walls, living like a feudal baron while entertaining illegal gringo immigrants arriving over the California Trail through the Sierras, stretching his credit to buy 2K fruit trees in 1847, founding the Sacramento Valley agriculture industry, and hiring James Marshall to build a sawmill.

On Aug. 13-15, 1842 13,745 ft. (4,189m) Fremont Peak in Wyo. is first climbed by Am. explorer John Charles Fremont (1813-90) (son-in-law of Mo. U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton) on the first of four expeditions of the Am. West., guided by Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson (1809-68), going on to pub. A Report on an Exploration of the Country Lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains on the Line of the Kansas and Great Platte Rivers, which was printed by newspapers across the U.S., making him a celeb, with the nickname "The Pathfinder"; Carson goes on to become the most famous Am. frontiersman after Daniel Boone. In summer 1843 John Charles Fremont (1813-90) goes on his 2nd expedition, crossing the Rocky Mts. N of the Great Salt Lake, and down the Snake River and Columbia River to Oregon, then W to Lake Tahoe, and down the E slopes of the Sierra Nevadas through Carson Pass into the Central Valley of Calif. to scope it out for gringos waiting for da news back east, then down the American River Valley to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, then S along the E edge of the San Joaquin Valley, then E through Tehachapi Pass to modern-day Las Vegas, Nev., then N through Utah to South Pass, proving that the Great Basis doesn't have any river flowing towards the sea, disproving the legend of a Buenaventura River; in 1845 Fremont pub. a new map, which is pub. by Congress and used by thousands of immgrants to Ore. and Calif. in 1845-9 incl. the Calif. Gold Rush, inspiring the Mormons to settle in Utah. On June 1, 1845 John C. Fremont and his 55 men leave St. Louis searching for the source of the Arkansas River, and when they don't find it, they hastily travel to the Sacramento Valley in Calif. next Jan., trying to stur up a war; in Sonoma after hearing of the U.S.-Mexican War a group of gringo Americans capture Mexican Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-90) on June 14 and declare the independent Calif. Repub., making up a flag with a Calif. grizzly and star painted on white cloth; the Bear Flag Revolt begins; by late June Fremont endorses the new repub. and sets out for Monterey, but before he arrives the revolt ends as the commodore of the U.S. Pacific Fleet sends a shore party to raise the Stars and Stripes and proclaim Calif. as part of the U.S.; in July Robert F. Stockton becomes the new commodore and prepares to invade S Calif., enlisting Fremont's band as the Calif. Battalion and promoting him to maj.; the Mexican loyalists flee, and on Aug. 17 Stockton declares himself gov. of Calif., with Fremont as military cmdr. in the N.

In Nov. 1846 after setting out for Calif. in May, the Donner Party, one of the first western migrations to incl. women and children becomes the dinner party when it gets snowed-in in the Sierra Nevada Mts. (Tahoe Nat. Forest SW of Reno, Nev. and W of Truckee, Calif.) during the winter, and dabbles with cannibalism at Donner Lake, until 40 survivors of the original 81 are rescued by Sutter's men next year; on Jan. 12, 2006 U. of Ore. scientists report that 21 of them, incl. all the members of the George and Jacob Donner families were stuck 6 mi. away at Alder Creek because of a broken axle, and didn't resort to cannibalism, although they did eat pet dog Uno; their wagon wheel tracks on the Bonneville Salt Flats in NW Utah survive to modern times.

Eureka, greedy gringos go for the gold in somebody else's territory, haha, their territory? On Jan. 24, 1848 (Wed.) a gold nugget is discovered by Sutter's partner James Wilson Marshall (1810-85) in the tailrace of Sutter's Mill (Sawmill) in Coloma on the Trinity River in the foothills of the Sierras in N Calif. 50 mi. NE of Sutter's Fort on the South Fork of the American River, launching the Calif. Gold Rush (ends 1855) (300K rush in, 100K+ stay, 28.4M troy oz. of gold at $18.89 an oz. worth $536M by 1859) after a publicity stunt is staged by Sutter's Fort store owner Samuel Brannan (1819-89), a Mormon elder hoping to make a fortune outfitting gold seekers in San Francisco, causing most of the town's 800 residents to head for the gold fields within a few days; Brannan becomes the first millionaire of the gold rush; on Aug. 19 the New York Herald reports the discovery, turning on the 500K pop. crowded in too small a space and plagued by horse manure, wild dogs and pigs, and drunks from cheap whiskey; several lucky early miners make sizeable fortunes fast and easy, the news feeding "gold fever"; in Aug. Sutter's son John Augustus Sutter Jr. (1826-97) arrives to help save the claim from squatters and thieves, in vain, causing Sutter Jr. in Dec. to begin laying out the city of Sacramento, Calif. 2 mi. S of New Helvetia on the Sacramento River (modern-day pop. 490K/2.4M), incorporating on Feb. 27, 1850 (oldest incorporated city in Calif.), which becomes an overnight success, causing the father to grow bitter at the son; it is chartered as a city in 1920; on Dec. 5 Pres. Polk confirms the discovery in his Fourth Annual Message, complete with an oyster tin full of gold, starting a nationwide and later a worldwide stampede known as the Forty-Niners, ruining Sutter's land grant with claim jumping, while gold fever is further pumped up by newspaper stories about gold nuggets lining the streets and gold dust so easy to harvest that one could coat oneself with sticky stuff and roll down a hill to collect it; others see the easy riches as proof that the Am. West is God's promised land for whites, and that the U.S. was meant to have Calif. not Indians and beaners; the mining puts mercury in San Francisco Bay, which ends up in fish.

On Feb. 2, 1848 the first Chinese immigrants to the former Spanish mission (founded June 29, 1776) of San Francisco in Calif. (modern pop. 870K/8.7M) arrive in the Eagle one week after the Calif. Gold Rush starts, adding to the seven already there; the city's pop. grows from 1K in 1848 to 25K in Dec. 1849; the city is incorporated on Apr. 15, 1850.

The original sex, drugs and rock & roll in San Francisco? On Feb. 28, 1849 the California Gold Rush begins as the ship SS California arrives in San Francisco Bay, Calif. carrying the first boatload of 365 (called the Argonauts) of 80K white gold-seeking Forty-Niners gold prospectors; Stephen Foster sells the rights to "Oh! Susanna" for $100 to be their theme song?; "I have seen purer liquors, better seegers, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtesans here in San Francisco than in any place I have ever visited, and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America" - anon.; Pretty Juanita becomes the first person hung in the mining camps; U.S. mint official Matthew F. Stephenson stands on the courthouse steps in Dahlonega, Ga. haranguing miners to stay and mine Georgia gold rather than leave for California, pointing to a nearby peak, and exclaiming, "There's millions in it!"; Mark Twain paraphrases him, writing the immortal line, "There's gold in them thar hills!"; aptly-named Ah Toy (1828-1928) becomes the 2nd Chinese woman to arrive in San Francisco, setting up a brothel in an alley off Clay St., where the fact that she's tall and has lily-bound feet causes block-long lines of horny white men after each ship docks; a man later sends a letter from Hong Kong claiming that she's his wife and requesting her return, but she goes to court and a judge grants her leave to stay; she then returns to court to complain of customers paying the 1 oz. fee with brass filings instead of gold, pointing out several in the audience as culprits, but the judge rules insufficient evidence when she can't explain what the services rendered are, giving the lame explanation "to gaze on the lovely Ah Toy"; within a year she imports five additional Chinese "soiled doves" and moves to a fancier house on Pike St. just off Clay St., then disappears in 1859; in 1926 an obituary in a San Fran newspaper says that she married a wealthy Chinese man and vended clams at Alviso; the San Francisco 49er Egg Rush sees 49ers brave the dangerous shark-infested waters around the Farallon Islands 28 mi. offshore to collect seabird eggs; meanwhile U.S. gen. Bennett C. Riley (1787-1853) (leader of the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail in 1829) becomes the 7th and last military gov. of Calif. Territory prior to statehood - where he meets up with Zorro?

In spring 1849 tens of thousands of Forty-Niner families pull up stakes and head west to the Calif. gold fields, where the town of Eureka, Calif. (modern-day pop. 27K) is founded on May 13, 1850 on the coast for gold-prospecting "Argonauts", who tap into the 100 mi. Mother Lode, a quartz vein stretching through Tuolumene, Calaveras, Amador and El Dorado counties; Calif.'s non-Indian pop. grows from 14K in 1848 to 224K in 1852 as the gold grows scarcer and the technology grows more involved; meanwhile whites chase out non-whites and hog everything?

In Sept. 1849 Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, Calif. is set up in on one of Frisco's Seven Hills, and named for a semaphore.

In Sept.-Oct. 1849 the Calif. Constitutional Convention is held in Monterey, Calif., and on Nov. 13 12K ballots are cast in the first Calif. election, after which the new senators head for Washington, D.C. to petition for statehood; the proactive approach allows them to stop Congress from subdividing the state into neat little squares and keep it big big big?

On Dec. 20, 1849 Nashville, Tenn.-born Dem. Peter Hardeman Burnett (1807-95) becomes Calif. gov. #1 (until Jan. 9, 1851), becoming the first to resign.

On Dec. 25, 1849 a 100-wagon train traveling W from Salt Lake City headed for the Calif. gold fields enters a parched depression near the Calif.-Nevada border hoping for a shortcut, and after a stay at Furnace Creek they get stranded near Bennett's Well, sending William Manly and John Rogers for help; 2 weeks later they reach the San Fernando Valley 200 mi. to the SW, obtain supplies, and head back; after 25 days they return, finding all to have survived but one, and as they leave they issue the soundbyte "Goodbye, Death Valley", giving Death Valley its name; by next year small amounts of gold are discovered at Salt Spring, followed by silver, copper and lead.

Starting in 1849 San Francisco, Calif. becomes the primo building site for 48K Painted Ladies, designed in the Victorian style until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, then changing to the Edwardian style until 1915, when war surplus battleship gray Navy paint is used; Postcard Row at 710-720 Stiner St. across from Alamo Square is built in 1892-6; the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake wipes out most of the mansions on Nob Hill, after which mass-produced houses replace them; "Red, yellow, chocolate, orange, everything that is loud is in fashion... if the upper stories are not of red or blue... they are painted up into uncouth panels of yellow and brown."

Waffle and chicken restaurants right ahead? On Mar. 27, 1850 the officially WASP gringo Calif. cities of San Jose (Spanish mission founded Nov. 29, 1777) (modern-day pop. 1M/8.7M) and San Diego (Spanish mission founded July 16, 1769) (modern-day pop. 1.3M/3.3M) are incorporated, followed by Los Angeles (Apr. 4) (Spanish mission founded Sept. 4, 1781) (modern-day pop. 3.8M/18.7M), and San Francisco (Apr. 15) (Spanish mission founded June 29, 1776) (pop. 870K/8.7M).

On June 3-11, 1850 the Nashville Convention in Tenn. is attended by 100+ delegates selected by the legislatures of 9 out of 15 slave states in an effort to establish unity in the face of the debate then going on in Congress; it proposes an extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean; when it is ignored, the convention reconvenes in Nov., attended by delegates from only seven states, and rejects the Compromise, asserting the right of secession; meanwhile late in the decade growing tensions cause pro-Southern residents of Calif. to propose splitting Calif. into Northern and Southern sections, but Congress votes it down; meanwhile the 1850 U.S. Fugitive Slave Act increases the resolve of abolitionists with criminal penalties for citizens concealing or rescuing a fugitive, as well as the award of a $10 fee to commissioners for accepting a slave owner's claim to an escaped slave, versus only $5 for rejecting it.

On Sept. 9, 1850 "Golden State" California (Calif.) is admitted as the 31st U.S. (free) state (2nd largest in the lower 48) (motto: Gr. "Eureka" = "I've found it", the first state motto not in English or Latin, starting a trend, followed by Minn., Mont., Wash., Alaska); there are now 16 free and 15 slave states, forever ending the old balance.

On Sept. 9-20, 1850 the Compromise of 1850 passes after being split into five separate bills: 1: admitting (Calif.)) to the Union as a free state; 2: organizing the New Mexico Territory (N.M.) with the slavery issue to be decided by popular sovereignty, and payment of $10M to Texas to satisfy claims to New Mexico; 3: organizing the Territory of Utah ditto; 4: a stiff new fugitive slave act; 5: an act abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of Columbia; the issue of popular sovereignty is left for future legislative debates, which is what makes the Southerners accept the whole deal; the Mormon Corridor from Utah N through W Wyo. and E Idaho, S to San Bernardino, Calif., W to Mesa, Ariz., and S to the U.S.-Mexico border (area between modern-day Interstate 15 and U.S. Route 89) begins to be settled by Mormons (until 1890).

In 1850 Frederick County, Va.-born mulatto army scout and explorer James Pierson "Jim" Beckwourth (Beckwith) (1798-1867) discovers Beckwourth Pass through the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Calif. 50 mi. N of Lake Tahoe, the lowest pass (5,512 ft.) over the Sierras, and guides the first west-bound wagon trains over it, then gets a group of investors to back him into developing the route, which later becomes the Feather River route of the Western Pacific Railroad, and founds Beckwourth, Calif. (modern-day pop. 36.8k) 15 mi. W of the pass, where he sets up a trading post, becoming the first stop for emigrants to Calif., once meeting 11-y.-o. Ina Coolbrith (1841-1928), who later (1915) becomes the first poet laureate of Calif.; in 1855 he leaves, travels to San Francisco, becomes famous after a book filled with his tall tales is pub., runs a store in Denver, Colo., marries an Indian named Sue, then returns in 1861.

In 1850 Mare Island Naval Yard is established in Vallejo, Calif. 23 mi. NE of San Francisco, becoming the principal seat of the U.S. Pacific fleet.

In the 1850s the zinfandel grape is brought into Calif. from Vienna, Austria (becoming the most commonly grown kind in Calif. until ?), along with the soybean from Japan and alfalfa seed from Chile.

In 1850 Calif. gold fields produce 77 tons.

In the 1850s Chinese workers in the gold mines start the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade (on the 15th day of the new year, AKA the Lantern Festival) to show Yankees their culture, becoming the biggest outside Asia.

In 1851 the town of Dutch Flat, Calif. (AKA Dutchman's Flat, Dutch Charlie's Flat, Charley's Flat) in Placer County 30 mi. NE of Auburn is founded by German-born miners Joseph Dornbach and Charles Dornbach S of Green Valley and W of fellow gold mining camps Cold Springs (Gold Run), Calif. and Little York, Nev., going on to become an important stagecoach stop in 1864-6 until the railroad reaches Cisco 20 mi. away, then becoming known for its large Chinatown, which burns down in 1877, after which it becomes known as the Athens of the Foothills, attracting Mark Twain, Bret Harte et al.

In 1851 the city of Oakland, Calif. on the E side of San Francisco Bay (modern-day pop. 420K) is founded by Galway, N.Y.-born Horace Walpole Carpentier (1824-1918), Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon; it is is incorporated on May 4, 1852, and reincorporated on Mar. 25, 1854, with Carpenter as mayor #1 (until Mar. 8, 1855).

In 1851 the city of San Bernardino, Calif. (modern-day pop. 209K/4.2M) (originally the 1810 Spanish settlement of Politana, named for Bernardino of Sienna) is founded by Mormons, who form San Bernardino County in 1853, and incorporate the city in 1857; in 1857 most of the colonists are recalled to Utah by Brigham Young to fight the Utah War; in 1860 William F. Holcomb discovers gold in nearby Holcomb Valley, causing a pop. spurt.

On Mar. 18, 1852 Wells Fargo and Co. is founded in New York City by Henry Wells (1805-78) and William George Fargo (1818-81) to provide express and banking services to Calif.; in 1866 it buys the stagecoach and overland mail business of "Stagecoach King" Benjamin "Ben" Holladay (1819-87), giving it a monopoly; it goes on to become the 5th largest bank in the U.S. and 9th largest in the world by the 21st cent.

In July 1852 San Quentin State Prison on Point Quentin (named after Coast Miwok warrior Quentin) in Marin County, Calif. on the N side of San Francisco Bay opens, with 700 male inmates housed on death row by Dec. 2015; celeb prisoners incl. Merle Haggard, Charles Manson, actor Danny Trejo, and Sirhan Sirhan; country singer Johnny Cash holds concerts there in 1958 and Feb. 24, 1969.

In 1852 Mills College (originally the Young Ladies' Seminary) is founded in Benicia, Calif., becoming the first women's college W of the Rocky Mts., moving to Oakland, Calif. in 1871.

1853 is the peak year of the Calif. Gold Rush.

In 1853 the Yontoket (Yontocket) (Burnt Ranch) Massacre in Yontocket, NW Calif. sees whites from Crescent City, Calif. attack Tolowa Indians during a prayer ceremony, killing 450+.

In 1853 the U.S. Army establishes Ft. Yuma in Calif. on the W bank of the Colorado River near the mouth of the Gila River to defend the new town of Yuma, N.M. near the Mexican border.

In 1853 the redwood Wellingtonia gigantea, the largest tree on Earth is discovered in Calif.

On Apr. 3, 1854 the San Francisco (Old) U.S. Mint AKA the Granite Lady in San Francisco, Calif. opens; in 1874 it moves to accommodate gold miners; after it survives the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake it is closed in 1937; meanwhile it makes 246 dime-size $2.50 Quarter Eagles from Gold Rush ore; by 2005 only 12 are known to exist, and one brings $253K in a Beverly Hills, Calif. auction.

In 1854 the Sacramento Valley Railroad in Calif. is designed by Bridgeport, Conn.-born chief engineer Theodore Dehone Judah (1826-63), becoming the first railroad built W of the Mississippi River, with construction beginning on Feb. 1855, completed in 1877; Judah goes on to promote the idea of a transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada Mts., becoming known as "Crazy Judah", going on to become chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR), which builds the section of the First Transcontinental Railroad 690 mi. E from Sacramento, Calif. to Promontory Summit, Utah.

In 1858 Chinese immigrants begin coming to Canada; the first Chinese immigrant arrives in New York City; quick-on-the-draw Calif. passes a law banning entry of Chinese, and Mongolians too.

In 1859 at the request of the War Dept., U.S. Army Capt. Randolph Barnes Marcy (1812-87) (who accompanied U.S. Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston on his expedition against the Mormons in Utah in 1857) pub. The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions, with Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific, giving advice for Am. pioneers on stopping points, mileage, gathering of provisions, and ways to handle Indians and bears on the way to Utah, Ore., and Calif., becoming a bestseller for the rest of the cent.; "Perhaps the single most important work on the conduct of frontier expeditions published under the aegis of the War Department." (Andrew J. Birtle)

80 riders and 400 horses cover for the lack of a telegraph system as Americans have finally stolen the continent from east to west? On Apr. 3, 1860 the Pony Express created by the merger of the Central Overland Calif. and Pikes Peak Express Cos. begins service between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento, Calif. (1,850 mi.) (ends Nov. 20, 1861 after 19-1/2 mo.); horses are ridden at full gallop, and are changed at 157 (192?) relay stations 10 mi. (12 mi.?) apart, and each rider rides 100 mi.; founders are William Hepburn Russell (1812-72), William Bradford Waddell (1807-72), and Alexander Majors (1814-1900); posters read "Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week"; the first rider is either Johnny Frye or John William "Billy" Richardson (1850-), who departs St. Jo at exactly 7:15 p.m.; William "Sam" Hamilton becomes the last of 30 men to carry the mail on the westward trip, arriving in Sacramento after midnight on Apr. 14 (about 1 hour less than 10 days total); James Randall picks it up eastbound from San Francisco; when the rider reaches St. Jo, overeager spectators pluck hairs from the horse's tail as souvenirs; meanwhile a steamer carries the mail from Sacramento to San Francisco, and when the Pony Express rider disembarks he is greeted by rockets and a band playing "See, the Conquering Hero Comes"; riders carry their mail in a mochila (saddle mail bag), with 1K or so letters wrapped in water-resistant oiled silk, going from St. Jo to Sacramento via Marysville, Kan., Ft. Kearny, Neb., Julesburg, Colo., Ft. Larami, Wyo., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Friday's Station, Nev.; "Buffalo Bill" Cody is a rider at age 15; the mail costs 10 cents from the East Coast and $5 per half oz. from St. Jo to Sacramento; riders incl. Wild Bill Hickock, and William Frederick Cody, who later becomes Buffalo Bill Cody; the Kansas City Internat. Airport is later built 25 mi. S of St. Jo, "where the Pony Express started and Jesse James ended"; Nicholas, Ky.-born stagecoach tycoon Benjamin "Ben" Holladay (1819-87) buys the Pony Express, establishing the Overland Stage Route over the Overland Trail, starting out with a postal contract for mail service to Salt Lake City and growing to seven routes receiving govt. subsidies of $6M/year until he sells-out to Wells Fargo Express in 1866 for $1.5M.

In 1860 the city of Bakersfield, Calif. at the S end of the San Joaquin Valley (modern-day pop. 376K/839K) is founded by German immigrant Christian Bohna; too bad, it is swept away by floods in 1862, after which Ohio settler Thomas Baker refounds the town at Baker's Field in 1863, growing to 600 pop. by 1870 and incorporating as a city in 1873, becoming the seat of Kern County in 1874 until bad sheriff Alexander Mills causes the town to disincorporate in 1876, not reincorporating until Jan. 11, 1898, going on to become known for agriculture and oil production, and as the birthplace of the Bakersfield Sound.

In 1861 the Calif. state legislature commissions Hungarian-born Count Agoston Haraszthy (1812-69) to bring select varieties of European wine grapes to the state, and he spends $12K of his own money to bring in 100K cuttings representing 300 varieties from Europe's great vineyards, inaugurating modern Calif. wine production; and becoming known as "the Father of Calif. Viticulture"; in 1863 two of his sons marry daughters of Spanish-born Mexican gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-90), assuring a supply of good land.

In 1862 the desert resort city of Palm Springs, Calif. E of Mount San Jacinto in the Coachella Valley 55 mi. E of San Bernardino, 107 mi. E of Los Angeles, 123 mi. NE of San Diego, and 268 mi. W of Phoenix, Ariz. (modern-day pop. 44K) (named after the Calif. fan palm Washingtonia filifera) is founded by Jack Summers as a stagecoach station on the Bradshaw Trail; in 1876 the Southern Pacific Railroad bypasses it 6 mi. to the N, stifling pop. growth; in 1886 Dr. Welwood Murray founds Murray Hotel for health tourists; in 1906 English immigrant photographer-journalist George Wharton James (1858-1923) pub. The Wonders of the Colorado Desert (2 vols.), making fans of U.S. vice-pres. Charles Fairbanks, naturalist John Muir, and Robert Louis Stevenson's widow Fanny Stevenson before it is demolished in 1909; in 1920 J. Smeaton Chase pub. Our Araby: Palm Springs and the Garden of he Sun, causing Pearl McCallum and her husband Austin G. McManus to build the Art Deco Oasis Hotel in 1924, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, starting a luxury resort hotel boom that makes it popular with Hollywood stars in the 1930s.

On July 30, 1865 the steamer Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Calif., killing 225.

In 1866 German immigrant Adolf Pfannenschmidt from Rinteln founds the town of Pfannenschmidtstadt on the site of Nopalera (founded 1853) in the Cahuenga Valley of the Santa Monica Mts. in warm sunny S Calif. (355 days of sunshine a year), which in 1886 is named Hollywood by Toronto, Canada-born "Father of Hollywood" Hobart Johnson "H.J." Whitley (1847-1931) on a honeymoon with his wife Gigi after he sees a Chinese man carrying wood in a wagon and uttering the soundbyte "I holly wood"; in 1903 it is incorporated as Hollywood, Calif. becoming known for orange groves, joining the city of Los Angeles in 1910 and becoming the HQ of the U.S. film industry.

In 1866 part-black-but-passes Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904), who claims to be the child of a voodoo priestess and John Hampden Pleasants (1797-1846), youngest son of Va. gov. #22 James Pleasants Jr. becomes the "Calif. Mother of Civil Rights" when she fights for equal rights for blacks on San Francisco trams.

In 1867 the port city of Redwood City, Calif. on San Francisco Bay 27 mi. S of San Francisco and 24 mi NW of San Jose (modern-day pop. 84K) is incorporated, becoming the county seat of San Mateo County in 1866, and the only deepwater port on San Francisco Bay S of San Francisco.

On Mar. 23, 1868 the U. of Calif. at Berkeley (UCB) is founded on 160 acres of land 4 mi. N of Oakland via a merger of the private College of Calif. and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College of Oakland, becoming the first of 10 U of Calif. research univs.

On May 10, 1869 (2:47 p.m. EST) the 1,907-mi. $100M Union Pacific-Central Pacific First Transcontinental Railroad AKA the Overland Route is completed by 3K mainly Irish workers, and the last Golden Spike (originally mahogany with silver plaque, which is stolen) is driven at Promontory Summit, Utah (U-tie?) 66 mi. NW of Salt Lake City at 2:47 P.M. EST by Central Pacific pres. (since 1861) (Repub. Calif. gov. #8 in 1862-3) Amasa Leland Stanford (1824-93) with a silver hammer (first swing misses) (made by Schultz, Fisher and Machling of San Francisco, weighing 18 oz., with a 6-in. nugget attached to the head); the chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad Co. of Calif. is Bridgeport, Conn.-born Theodore Dehone "Crazy" Judah (1826-63), which built 690 mi. (1,110 km) E from Sacramento, Calif.; the Union Pacific Railroad Co. built 1,085 mi. (1,746 km) W from Council Bluffs, Iowa (near Omaha, Neb.) to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory; the Western Pacific Railroad Co. built 132 mi. (212 km) from the W terminus at Alameda/Oakland, Calif. to Sacramento, Calif.; Judah funded the Central Pacific from funds from four Sacramento merchants incl. Stanford, Collis Potter Huntington (1821-1900), Mark Hopkins Jr. (1813-78), and Charles Crocker (1822-88); Union Pacific locomotive #119 and Central Pacific locomotive #60 ("Jupiter") are the first to cross; the word "done" is sent out over the telegraph wires; the golden spike is then withdrawn for safekeeping, and is used in Cecil C. DeMille's 1939 film Union Pacific; the eastbound team covered 690 mi. and the westbound team 1,086 mi.; the Union Pacific Railroad, the first transcontinental (New York City to Sacramento) railroad is chartered; the first train from Sacramento reaches New York City on July 29 after a journey of 6.5 days; the railroad allows East Coast beer to be shipped to the West; during the next decade the U.S. lays down railways at the rate of 10K mi. a year, causing travel on the Oregon Trail to die out; the railroad brings loads of non-Mormon settlers into the gigantic Mormon dream state of Deseret, causing plans to be dropped in favor of the more realistic Mormon state of Utah.

In 1869 the city of El Cajon, Calif. (Sp. "the box") 12 mi. E of San Diego in a boxed-in valley (modern-day pop. 100K) is founded; it is incorporated on Nov. 12, 1912.

In 1869 the city of Livermore, Calif. on the E edge of the San Francisco Bay Area (modern-day pop. 89K/4.5M) is founded by William Mendenhall, who names it for the Livermore Ranch of Springfield, Essex, England-born Robert Livermore (1799-1858), becoming the home of Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab. and the namesake of the chemical element livemorium.

In 1869 the city of Santa Ana, Calif. (Sp. "Saint Anne") on the Santa Ana River 10 mi. from the coast of S Calif. (modern-day pop. 329K) is founded by Ky. immigrant William H. Spurgeon from the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana 1810 Spanish land grant; in 1877 the Southern Pacific Railway builds a branch line from Los Angeles, followed in 1887 by the Calif. Central Railway, which later becomes part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; it is incorporated as a city in 1886 with a pop. of 2K, becoming the seat of newly-formed Orange County in 1889; during WWII Santa Ana Army Air Base is built there, boosting pop. growth after veterans move there after the war, with the Santa Ana Freeway connecting it with Los Angeles; the Santa Ana Mountains straddle the border between Orange and Riverside counties, becoming known for their Santa Ana winds that fuel seasonal wildfires.

On Nov. 8, 1870 the city of Modesto, Calif. on the Tuolumne River 25 mi. SE of Stockton (modern-day pop. 201K/504K) is founded as a stop on the railroad between Los Angeles and Sacramento, allegedly named Modesto because San Francisco financier William Chapman "Billy" Ralston (1826-75) (founder of the Bank of Calif.) was too modest to let his name be used; it is incorporated on Aug. 6, 1884; too bad, Ralston commits suicide on Aug. 27, 1875 after his financial empire collapses.

In 1870 after settlers buy 1-acre plots from the State of Calif. for $1, and the 105-ton steamer The Vaquero captained by Samuel S. Dunnells ignores posted warnings and safely steers through Lower Newport Bay and Upper Newport Bay, the city of Newport Beach, Calif. is named by County Down, Ireland-born James Irvine (1827-86) of San Francisco; in 1905 the Pacific Electric Railway connects it with downtown Los Angeles; on Sept. 1, 1906 the 206 citizens incorporate it as a city, going on to become a favorite beach resort and home of wealthy celebs incl. John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, George Burns, Buddy Ebsen, Shirley Temple, Mamie Van Doren, Dean Koontz, Kelly McGillis, Chuck Norris, and Nicolas Cage. hosting the annual Christmas Boat Parade starting in 1908; in 1878 James Irvine acquires the 110K-acre Irvine Ranch stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Santa Ana River, becoming home to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in 1942-99, and the Irving campus of the U. of Calif. in 1959, and incorporating as the city of Irvine, Calif. (modern-day pop. 266K) on Dec. 28, 1971; in 2003 Irvine annexes the closed 7.3 sq. mi. El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

On Nov. 29, 1872 the Modoc Indians of N Calif., led by Captain Jack (-1873), who had been forcibly relocated to a rez in Oregon along with their enemies the Klamath Indians in 1864, who mistreated them for years, causing them to return and dig in among lava beds S of Tule Lake in 1870, start shooting at U.S. soldiers attempting to disarm them and return them to the hated rez, beginning the Modoc War (ends June 1873).

In 1872 the city of Fresno, Calif. on the San Joaquin River in the geographical center of Calif. 220 mi. N of Los Angeles, 170 mi. S of Sacramento, and 180 mi. SE of San Francisco (modern-day pop. 494K/972K) is founded as a station of the Central Pacific Railroad; it is incorporated in 1885.

In 1880 Folsom State Prison in Calif. on the site of the Stony Bar mining camp on the American River 20 mi. NE of Sacramento opens, becoming known for dark stone cells; in 1895 it becomes the first prison in the U.S. with er, electricity from the new Folsom Power House; on Dec. 13, 1895 it hangs its first prisoner, followed by 92 more by Dec. 3, 1937, after which Calif. executions are transferred to the gas chamber in San Quentin; on Jan. 13, 1968 Johnny Cash performs two shows, which are released as an album, featuring the hit song "Folsom Prison Blues".

In 1880 the U. of Southern Calif. (USC) is founded in Los Angeles, Calif; in 1965-? a member of each graduating class is nominated for an Oscar.

In 1880 the city of Long Beach, Calif. 20 mi. S of Los Angeles (modern-pop. 462K/17.8M) is founded by William E. Willmore, who buys 4K acres of the Rancho Los Cerritos from Jotham Bixby, "the Father of Long Beach", then tries to create the farming community of Willmore City, fails, and sells out to a Los Angeles syndicate; it is incorporated on Dec. 13, 1897, later becoming known as "Iowa by the sea" for its major immigrant group.

On Dec. 4, 1881 the Los Angeles Times (originally the Los Angeles Daily Times) is founded in Los Angeles, Calif. by wealthy St. Louis, Mo. businessman Nathan Cole Jr. (1860-1921) and Glasgow, Scotland-born dandy Thomas Gardiner (1826-89); in July 1882 Marietta, Ohio-born Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917) becomes ed., leaving it to his son-in-law Harry Chandler (1864-1944), who leaves it to his son Norman Chandler (1899-1973), who passes it to his son Otis Chandler (1927-2006) in 1960-80.

In 1881 the town of Calico, Calif. in the Calico Mts. of the Mojave Desert 3 mi. NE of modern-day Barstow, Calif. is founded near the site of a major silver strike, shipping $13M-$20M worth of silver by the time it becomes a ghost town in 1900; in 2005 Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaims it Calif.'s Silver Rush Ghost Town.

On May 10, 1886 the U.S. Supreme (Waite) Court rules in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., to definitively accept the doctrine that the word "person" in the 14th Amendment applies to corporations as well as individuals.

On June 19, 1886 the city of Pasadena, Calif. 10 mi. NE of downtown Los Angeles is incorporated (modern-day pop. 137K), becoming the home of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl football game, along with Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

In 1886 the Watts section of Los Angeles, Calif. (modern-day pop. 34K) starts out as 220 acres of farmland purchased from the 1843 Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant; in 1904 Watts Station is built, becoming its first railroad station; in 1926 it is annexed to Los Angeles, going predominantly black in the 1940s from the Second Great Migration.

On Oct. 14, 1887 Pomona College is founded in Claremont, Calif. 35 mi. E of Los Angeles and 25 mi. W of San Bernardino as a clone of small New England colleges, with a board of trustees from Williams, Dartmouth, Bates, and Yale Colleges, later joining graduate-level Claremont College (founded 1925) and becoming part of the Claremont Colleges, all located within a 1 sq. mi. area, incl. the 5Cs (undergrad colleges) Pomona College, Scripps College (1926) (women only), Claremont McKenna College (1946) (economics, govt., public affairs), Harvey Mudd College (1955) (STEM), and Pitzer College (1963) (alternative interdisciplinary social sciences).

In 1887 Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton E of San Jose, Calif. is founded from a bequest left by James Lick (1796-1876) (wealthiest man in Calif.), whose body is buried under the site; the 36-in. lens is ground by Am. astronomer Alvan Clark (1804-87), who goes on to grind the 40-in. lens for Yerkes Observatory.

In 1887 the city of Whittier, Calif. near Los Angeles, named after Am. Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (modern-day pop. 86K) is founded by Jonathan Bailey, whose Quaker meetings on his front porch attract Quaker settler, who build a meeting house along with Whittier College (originally Whittier Academy); it is incorporated at Feb. 25, 1898; the college is chartered by Calif. in 1901; sports teams are known as the Poets; alumni incl. U.S. pres. Richard M. Nixon.

On Jan. 1, 1890 the first annual Rose (Tournament of Roses) Parade is held in Pasadena, Calif., where the weather is in the 70s even in winter; each float must be made entirely of organic (living) materials, with no artificial coloring; if New Year's Day falls on a Sun., the parade is held on Jan 2.

On Oct. 1, 1891 Stanford U. (originally called Leland Stanford Jr. Univ.) in Calif., founded in 1885 by Calif. gov. #8 (1862-3) Amasa Leland Stanford (1824-93) officially opens, with former (1872-85) Indiana U. pres. David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) (an evolutionist ichthyologist) as pres. #1 (until 1913); it is coed from the start; tuition is free until 1920.

In 1891 Calif. Inst. of Technology (Caltech) (originally Throop Polytechnic Inst.) is founded in Pasadena, Calif. by businessman-politician (mayor #3 of Pasadena in 1888-90) Amos Gager Throop (1811-94), going on to become home of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904.

On May 28, 1892 Dunbar, Scotland-born Am. conservationist ("John of the Mountains") ("the Father of Nat. Parks") John Muir (1838-1914) and a group of professors from UCB and Stanford U. found the Sierra Club in a 14-room mansion in San Francisco, Calif. to protect the Sierra Nevada, with Muir as pres. #1 (until Dec. 24, 1914), going on to get federal protection for the Yosemite Valley and get Glacier Nat. Park and Mount Rainier Nat. Park established.

In 1897 the city of Oxnard, Calif. on the Pacific coast of Southern Calif. 60 mi. W of downtown Los Angeles, Calif. (modern-day pop. 200K) starts as a $1M sugar beet factory operated by Henry Thomas Oxnard (1860-1922) of the Am. Crystal Sugar Co. in Minn.; it is incorporated as a city on June 30, 1903, becoming known for growing strawberries and lima beans, and as home to U.S. Navy bases at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme.

The original Never On A Sunday? On Jan. 1, 1902 (Wed.) the first Rose Bowl is held; Mich. defeats Stanford by 49-0; the next one isn't held until 1916; it is always held on Jan. 1 unless it's a Sun., when it is held on Mon. Jan. 2; the Stanford Cardinals team was originally organized by Herbert Hoover when he was a freshman.

On Jan. 7, 1903 San Francisco, Calif.-born Repub. physician George Cooper Pardee (1857-1941) becomes Calif. gov. #21 (until Jan. 9, 1907), becoming the first born in Calif. after statehood and 2nd native-born after Romualdo Pacheco, going on to deal with the bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco's Chinatown and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake until his bad relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad keeps him from being renominated.

In 1904 after the town of Pacific City (formerly Shell Beach, Smeltzer, Gospel Swamp, and Fairview) cedes power to Oneonta, N.Y.-born Pacific Electric Railway magnate Henry Edwards Huntington (1850-1927) to secure access to the lines of the Pacific Electric Red Car from Los Angeles that stopped at Long Beach, the city of Huntington Beach, Calif. (modern-day pop. 200K) in Orange County builds a 1K-long pier on its 9.5-mi.long sandy beach that attracts beachgoers, and is incorporated on Feb. 17, 1909, becoming known for oil wells, sugar beets processed by Holly Sugar, and the defense contractor McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, known for the Apollo and Skylab space programs.

On July 8, 1905 Calif. sets a record high avg. temp of 104F (until ?), with more than half the state above 105F and more than a third 110F or above; Orland in N Calif. is 120F; CO2 concentration is 300 ppm.

What in Sam Hill? Millennium Feverists get a godsend in Fawlty Towers California? On Apr. 18, 1906 (5:12 a.m.) the 7.8 1-min. 8.25 North Am. Plate 1906 (Great) San Francisco Earthquake in Calif., centered in San Francisco, located on the 600-mi. San Andreas Fault Zone lays 490 city blocks waste, demolishes 25K bldgs., and breaks gas mains and power lines, causing four days of fire and $400M in property damage; 3K-6K are killed and 250K left homeless; the board of supervisors whitewashes it, pegging the official death toll at 478 for decades; Lotta's Fountain (donated in 1875 by dancer Lotta Crabtree) at Market, Geary and Kearny Sts. in downtown is used as a meeting point for survivors trying to locate family and friends; the new (1904) Westin St. Francis Hotel survives, and offers 10 survivors a free room for the night; their breakfast menu is chilled rhubarb, rice griddle cakes, southern hominy, and scrambled eggs; the newly-formed Pentecostal Church sees it as a sign of the End of Times, causing its ranks to swell with don't-let-freezer-burn-happen-to-your-family true believers pretending another quake is coming and rolling around on the floor; Los Angeles overtakes San Fran as the city of choice for Calif. newcomers; as it is rebuild the famously crooked Lombard St. winds down Russian Hill; Pacific Heights becomes home to classic Victorian homes; 710 Ashbury St. at its intersection with Haight St. later becomes home to the Grateful Dead; the S turntable for cable cars is at Market and Powell Sts.

In 1906 the city of El Centro, Calif. (modern-day pop. 42.5K) in the Imperial Valley of S Calif. near San Diego (150 mi. SE of Los Angeles and 10 mi. N of Mexicali, Mexico) is founded by W.F. Holt and C.A. Barker, who purchase the land for $40//acre and put $100K into improvements; it starts out desert until irrigation from the Colorado River turns it into a major fruit-vegetable growing region of rubber and Chinese tung trees about 15 mi. to the SW.

On Jan. 9, 1907 Viroqua, Wisc.-born Repub. James Norris Gillette (1860-1937) becomes Calif. gov. #22 (until Jan. 3, 1911), going on to sign Calif.'s first eugenics law, resulting in 19K people sterilized by 1950, and the 1909 Calif. State Highway Bond Act, establishing the Calif. state highway system; too bad, his connections with the Southern Pacific Railroad cause Progressives to get him replaced with Hiram Johnson.

In 1908 the Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Owens River in the E Sierra Nevada Mts. to Los Angeles, Calif. is begun, drastically curtailing agriculture in the Owens Valley; water reaches the San Fernando Valley in Nov. 1913; a 2nd aqueduct is built in Sept. 1965-June 1970.

On June 17, 1909 Francis W. Boggs' In the Sultan's Power (Selig Studio) debuts, starring Hobart Bosworth, Betty Harte, Frank Montgomery, and Tom Santschi, becoming the first motion picture made completely in Los Angeles; the film debut of Sherman, Tex.-born Stella Adams (1883-1961), who survives the talkie era poorly, appearing in films until 1936.

On Oct. 1, 1910 the Los Angeles Times Bldg. in Los Angeles, Calif. is dynamited, starting a fire that kills 21 nonunion workers and injures 100 more., causing the newspaper to call it "the crime of the century"; right-wing anti-union owner Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917), whose L.A. home the Bivouac was also targeted claims a labor conspiracy; brothers J.B. McNamara and John J. (J.J.) McNamara are tried for it, with Clarence Darrow as their atty.; too bad, they confess to escape execution, giving the labor movement a serious setback.

On Jan. 3, 1911 Sacramento, Calif.-born Progressive isolationist populist Repub. Hiram Warren Johnson (1866-1945) becomes Calif. gov. #23 (until Mar. 15, 1917), going on to add initiative, referendum, and recall to the state govt. to give it an unmatched degree of direct democracy, establish a railroad commission to regulate the Southern Pacific Railroad, and support the Calif. Alien Land Law of 1913 preventing Asians from owning land in Calif; in 1912 he helps found the Progressive Party, which nominates him to their pres. ticket along with former Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, carrying Calif. by 0.2% of the votes; in 1914 he is reelected with almost double his opponent's vote total.

In 1911 Loyola Marymount U. in Los Angeles, Calif. starts out as Los Angeles College, successor to St. Vincent's College (founded in 1865), which becomes Loyola College of Los Angeles in 1918, and Loyola U. of Los Angeles in 1930; in 1973 it merges with Marymount Junior College (founded in 1932).

In Oct. 1912 the city of Torrance, Calif. on the Pacific Ocean in SW Los Angeles County (modern-day pop. 147K) is founded by real estate developers led by Gowanda, N.Y.-born Jared Sidney Torrance (1853-1921), who hire landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and incorporate on May 12, 1921, becoming known for great climate and beaches, 30 city parks, 90K street trees, and the highest percentage of Japanese-descent residents in Calif. (9%).

On July 22, 1916 a bomb is thrown into the Preparedness Day Parade in San Francisco, Calif. near the Stock Exchange, killing nine and injuring 40, becoming the worst attack in San Francisco history (until ?); four labor leaders, incl. anti-war activist Thomas Joseph "Tom" Mooney (1882-1942) and Warren Knox Billings (1893-1972) are arrested, and Mooney is sentenced to death next Feb. in a sham trial, being hailed as an internat. labor martyr; in 1918 after a telegram from Pres. Woodrow Wilson to review his case, Calif. gov. #24 (1917-23) William Stephens (definitely not Ahnuld?) commutes both sentences to life, and in 1939 Mooney is pardoned and released; Billings is released in 1939, and pardoned in 1969 by Calif. gov. Edmund G. Brown.

On Mar. 15, 1917 Eaton, Ohio-born Progressive Repub. Calif. lt. gov. #27 (since July 22, 1916) William Dennison Stephens (1859-1944) becomes Calif. gov. #24 (until Jan. 8, 1923), going on to fight militant labor radicals by getting the 1919 Calif. Criminal Syndicalism Act passed, and working to exclude Japanese immigration as a threat to the U.S.

On Dec. 17, 1917 (11:55 p.m.) the Calif. Gov. Mansion Bombing in Sacramento sees 20 sticks of dynamite exploded near the rear porch, failing to injure Calif. gov. William Stephens and his wife Flora.

In Feb. 1918 the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles, Calif. is opened by Sidney Patrick "Sid" Grauman (1879-1950), becoming the first movie palace on the U.S. West Coast.

In 1919 Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif. is begun, designed by San Francisco, Calif.-born architect Julia Morgan (1872-1957) (finished 1947).

In 1919 the Huntington Library is founded in San Marino, Los Angeles County, Calif. by railroad magnate Henry Edwards Huntington (1850-1927), going on to collect Am. and Euro art and become known for its Japanese Garden, Chinese Garden, and Desert Garden.

In the 1920s jazz-influenced Western Swing originates in small towns in Tex., Okla., and Calif., influenced by Dixieland jazz, featuring the steel guitar and an up-tempo dance beat.

On Jan. 1, 1921 the Ambassador Hotel at 3400 Wiltshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, Calif. opens, designed by Pasadena architect Myron Hunt (1868-1952), becoming a favorite spot for Hollywood celebs, Academy Award ceremonies, and U.S. presidents from Hoover to Nixon, who all groove on the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, going on to become the hotel where RFK is killed on June 6, 1968.

In 1921 Italian immigrant Sabato "Simon" "Sam" Rodia (1879-1965) begins building the Watts Towers (Nuestra Pueblo) in Watts, Los Angeles, Ca., finishing in 1954; after he relocates to Martinez, Calif. and dies on July 17, 1965, it emerges unscathed from the Aug. 11-16, 1965 Watts Riots and ends up as a state historical park.

On Jan. 9, 1923 Friends Colony, Mich.-born Quaker ex-Progressive Repub. newspaper publisher Friend William Richardson (1865-1943) becomes Calif. gov. #25 (until Jan. 4, 1927), going on to reverse the Progressive reforms of previous govs. Hiram Johnson and William Stephens, fighting the legislature after Progressives regain control in 1924 and pocket-vetoing a bill to create a prof. state bar.

In 1923 Vienna-born Modernist architect Richard Joseph Neutra (1892-1970) emigrates to the U.S., working for Frank Lloyd Wright before hooking up with fellow Viennese immigrant (Vienna U. of Tech. chum) Rudolf Michael Schindler (Schlesinger) (1887-1953) in Calif. and going on to design numerous Internat. Style bldgs. incl. the Lovell Health House in Los Angeles (1929), becoming the first steel frame house in the U.S., pioneering gunite (sprayed-on concrete).

On Nov. 16, 1924 (his birthday) Newport, R.I.-born "Civilization" filmmaker (inventor of the detailed shooting script and the assembly line system of filmmaking, founding Inceville in Palisades Highlands) Thomas Harper Ince (b. 1880) takes sick mysteriously aboard Oneida, the yacht of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) among a bevy of Hollywood stars, then dies three days later at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., after which Hearst takes great pains to cover up the facts (that he might have shot him and/or that he died on the ship?); in 1996 Patty Hearst pub. a novel about it titled "Murder at San Simeon"; subject of the 2001 film "The Cat's Meow".

On Oct. 15, 1925 George B. Seitz' The Vanishing American debuts, filmed on Catalina Island, for which purpose bison are brought in, becoming a tourist attraction as the numbers increase yearly.

On Jan. 4, 1927 Lisbon, N.H.-born ex-Progressive Repub. h.s. Englsh teacher Clement Calhoun "C.C." Young (1869-1947) becomes Calif. gov. #26 (until Jan. 6, 1931), going on to reorg. state commissions and depts. into his cabinet, finance the state highway system via a fuel tax instead of bonds, create women's only prisons, and sign bills creating the Calif. State Parks Commission and Calif. Highway Patrol.

On May 18, 1927 $1M Grauman's Chinese Theater at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, Calif., built by failed Alaska gold prospector Sidney Patrick "Sid" "Little Sunshine" Grauman (1879-1950) opens, the first of the Fox chain, with 2.2K seats; the first film shown is the debut of Cecil B. De Mille's King of Kings at $2 a ticket; Hollywood actress Norma Talmadge (1893-1957) accidentally stumbles onto a freshly laid sidewalk outside the new theater, and press agents soon turn it into a distinction and a tradition to leave one's handprints and footprints, along with a signature, followed by her sister Constance Talmadge (five footprints in her slab), Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

In May 1927 Studio City (originally Laurelwood) is founded in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, Calif. on a triangular lot bisected by the Los Angeles River by film producer Mack Sennett; in 1933 he declares bankruptcy and sells it to Mascot Pictures, which in 1935 merges with Monogram Pictures and Consolidated Film Corp. to form Republic Pictures, becoming Republic Studios, producing B-Westerns starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne et al.; in the 1950s Republic leases space to Revue Productions (founded in 1943 by MCA), which produces "Leave It To Beaver" et al. before moving to Universal City; meanwhile Four Star Productions leases space to produce "The Rifleman", "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater", "The Big Valley" et al.; Republic Pictures ceases film production, leasing the lot to CBS-TV, producing "Gunsmoke", "Rawhide", "My Three Sons", "Gilligan's Island", and "The Wild Wild West"; in Feb. 1967 CBS-TV purchases the lot for $9.5M, renaming it CBS Studio Center; in 1970 it rents space to the new MTM Enterprises; meanwhile in 1927 the Sherman Oaks neighborhood in Los Angeles, Calif. is founded W of Studio City, which ends up bordered on the N by Valley Village, on the E by Universal City and Toluca Lake, on the S by Hollywood Hills West, and on the SW by Beverly Crest.

On Nov. 24, 1927 (11:00 a.m.) (Thanksgiving Day), a riot in Folsom Prison in Calif. begins while convicts are watching a movie in the prison schoolhouse, taking several prison guards hostage, causing Calif. gov. #26 (1927-31) C.C. Young to call out the Calif. Army Nat. Guard, which arrives with heavy machine guns and two tanks, causing the rioters to give up.

In May 1928 the first Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee is held in Angels Camp, Calif., based on Mark Twain's 1865 story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", where frog jockeys are allowed to let their frogs jump 3x and land while coaxing them by yelling, stomping, and blowing on them.

On Oct. 1, 1928 Hangar 1, named for real estate agent William W. Mines, the first modern air terminal in Los Angeles, Calif. is constructed on Mines Field in S Westchester, opening in 1930 as the beginning of Los Angeles Internat. Airport (LAX) (originally Los Angeles Municipal Airport, then Los Angeles Airport in 1937-49), which is purchased by the city of Los Angeles in 1937.

In 1929 an agreement entitles Calif. to 4.4M acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado River, most of it for agriculture (one acre-foot is 325K gal.).

On Jan. 6, 1931 San Francisco, Calif.-born Repub. San Francisco, Calif. mayor #30 (since Jan. 8, 1912) James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Jr. (1869-1934) becomes Calif. gov. #27 (until June 2, 1934), going on to praise the citizens of San Jose for their Nov. 1933 lynching of the confessed kidnapper-murders of local dept. store heir Brooke Leopold Harte (1911-33) and promise to pardon anybody involved, earning the nickname "Governor Lynch".

In 1931 Kellyville, Tex.-born singing cowboy Carl Stuart Hamblen (1908-89) debuts his Family Album radio show in Calif., which features performers incl. Ken Carson (Hubert Paul Flatt) (1914-94) (AKA Hubert "Shorty" Carson), who leaves in 1932 to join the Beverly Hill Billies, the first Southern Calif. Western band, who pretend to live in log cabins, and incl. comic stutterer George Clinton "Shug" Fisher Jr. (1907-84) (first bass fiddler in a country band); in 1934 Hamblen becomes the first artist signed by the U.S. subsidiary of Decca Records; too bad, his horse race gambling, drinking, and brawling lands him frequently in jail, until he is converted by Billy Graham at a crusade in Los Angeles in 1949, then refuses to do alcohol commercials, getting him fired, writing the song It's No Secret What the Lord Can Do after John Wayne offers him a drink and he gives him that answer, the The Cowboy Church of the Air (1949-52); in 1950 he almost wins an election for Dem. rep. from Calif.'s 20th district (41%); in 1952 he is the U.S. pres. candidate for the Prohibition Party; in 1954 he writes This Ole House, which becomes a #1 U.S. and U.K. hit for Rosemary Clooney, along with the chipmunky Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In), which becomes a hit for the Cowboy Church Sunday School (#8 in the U.S.), and is covered by Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm on The Flintstones on Sept. 17, 1965; in 1956 he releases Hell Train; in 1963 Graham holds another crusade in Los Angeles (his first coast-to-coast TV broadcast), and calls Hamblen's conversion "the turning point" in his ministry, which caused the small crowds to swell.

In 1931 the Electric Guitar was invented for jazz musicians by George Delmetia Beauchamp (1899-1941), who founds the Ro-Pat-In (Electro-Patent-Instrument) Co. in Los Angeles, Calif. along with Swiss-born Adolph Rickenbacker (1886-1976) (cousin of WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker), and Paul Barth. Rickenbacker invented the Frying Pan (Pancake) Guitar, made of cast aluminum, first produced in 1932, and discontinued in 1939 after 2.7K were made. The first solid body Spanish style electric guitar is made by Vivi-Tone in 1934, followed by the Electro Spanish, makes of Bakelite and marketed by Rickenbacker in 1935 after they change the co. name to Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Co.

On July 2, 1932 German-Am. Jewish MGM studio exec Paul Bern (Levy) (b. 1889) marries glamorous actress Jean Harlow, then on Sept. 5 commits suicide, found naked and shot in the head in their secluded driveway on Easton Dr. in Beverly Hills, Calif. with a note saying "Last night was only a comedy", becoming a big scandal for MGM when she refuses to talk, and his former common-law wife Dorothy Millette (b. 1886) commits suicide on Sept. 7 by jumping in the Sacramento River after taking her shoes and jacket off; the official story is suicide because of sexual impotence; mob-connected MGM vice-pres. Edgar Joseph "Eddie" Mannix (1891-1963) (who is later implicated in the death of George Reeves but is not charged) becomes a suspect but is never charged; she wouldn't let the animal perform perverted sex on her so he ended it?; he was impotent, so that's why he ended it?; murdered by Millette?; a studio coverup, with the suicide note really being an earlier makeup note?

The Babelympics? On July 30-Aug. 14, 1932 the Olympic Flame is inaugurated in the X (10th) Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif., held smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression, causing less than half of the 1928 participants to attend, even being stood up by Pres. Herbert Hoover, becoming the first Olympic Games not attended by the sitting head of the govt. of the host country, which doesn't stop them from making $1M profit; 1,332 athletes from 37 nations participate in 116 events in 14 sports; the first Olympic Village is built in the Baldwin Hills (men only); the first use of a victory podium; Jim Thorpe is a press reporter at the Games; Paavo Nurmi is banned for being a pro; the U.S. wins bronze in field hockey because there are only two other nations competing (India gold, Japan silver); Thomas Edward "Eddie" Tolan (1908-67) ("the Midnight Express") of the U.S. wins gold in the 100m and 200m, becoming the first African-Am. world's fastest human; Stanislawa Walasiewicz (Stella Walsh) (1911-80) of Poland wins gold in the women's 100m, and after her death it's discovered that she's intersex; Baron Takeichi Nishi (1902-45) of Japan wins a gold in the equestrian show jumping individual event on his horse Uranus, becoming a tank unit cmdr. and getting KIA during the Battle of Iwo Jima; "unnatural" (not delicate or feminine) Port Arthur, Tex.-born Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson (1911-56) ("the female Babe Ruth") sets four world records in one afternoon during the Olympic trials, then sets world records in the javelin throw (143' 4") and 80m hurdles (11.7 sec.) for two golds, then wins a silver in the high jump (nobody's perfect?); she earns All-Am. honors in basketball 1930-2, appears in vaudeville, then takes up golf; actress-swimmer Eleanor G. Holm (1913-2004) wins gold in the 100m backstroke, setting a world record in that plus the 200m backstroke, then despite having not lost a race in seven years and being the first female swimmer chosen for three U.S. Olympic teams, she is unceremoniously thrown off the team in 1936 by Avery Brundage after being caught drinking, shooting craps, and singing in cabarets past the 9 p.m. curfew on the boat trip to Germany, although if a man did it no action would have been taken?; the publicity makes her a star with the press, and she meets Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, who gives her a silver swastika, which she has later copied in gold with a diamond Star of David inside it after she marries Jewish hubby Billy Rose in 1939; they divorce in 1954.

In 1933 Edwards Air Force Base (originally Muroc) is established near Rogers Dry Lake in Kern County, Southern Calif. 22 mi. NE of Lancaster and 25 mi. E of Rosamond, named after USAF Capt. Glen Edwards (1918-48), becoming a top aircraft test site, home of the USAF Test Center and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, known for Chuck Yeager's 1947 sound barrier breaking in a Bell X-1, the first landings of the Space Shuttle in the early 1980s, and the 1986 around-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager.

In 1933 the Western singing trio The Ranch Boys is formed in Southern Calif. by Ken "Shorty" Carson (Hubert Paul Flatt) (1914-94), Joe "Curley" Bradley (George Courtney) (1910-85), and Jack Ross (AKA Pinto Pete), appearing on the radio show The Fitch Bandwagon on NBC-Radio in Chicago, Ill., and signing with Decca Records, releasing songs incl. Casey Jones, Buffalo Gals, and There's a Home in Wyoming; in 1936 after appearing in the 1934 Clark Gable film It Happened One Night, they are signed by the Tom Mix radio show, with Ross playing Mix (1 episode), Curley playing Pecos, and Carson playing bit parts; later Bradley becomes radio's last Tom Mix until 1950; on May 10, 1938 they begin a 4-mo. 3,975-mi. cross-country horseback ride from Calif. to New York City as a publicity stunt, presenting mayor (1934-45) Fiorello La Guardia with a plaque from Calif. gov. (1934-9) Frank Merriam; they disband in 1941.

On May 9, 1934 the West Coast Waterfront (Longshoremen's) Strike in Everett and Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and San Francisco, Calif., organized by Australian-born Alfred Renton "Harry" Bridges (1901-90) of the Internat. Longshoremen's Assoc. begins, demanding 6-hour workdays, closed shops, and the right to freely unionize, soon joined by the Teamsters; on July 5 (Bloody Thur.) police aid picket line breakers by firing on the strikers, killing two and wounding dozens, causing new (since June 2) Calif. gov. Frank Merriam to order 1.5K Nat. Guard troops into San Francisco and place U.S. Army troops in the Presidio on standby, with the soundbyte: "The leaders of the striking longshoremen are not free from Communist and subversive influences... There will be no turning back from the position I have taken in this matter", after which the strike ends on July 7; in the fall the U.S. govt. tries to get Bridges railroaded on trumped-up federal charges of being a Communist, but their case falls apart, which doesn't stop them from trying again, and this time he has to be saved by the U.S. Supreme Court, who reverses his conviction in 1945, after which they go for a 3rd try, and get him convicted again, but the Supreme Court overturns it again.

On June 2, 1934 after Calif. Gov. (since Jan. 6, 1931) James Rolph (b. 1869) dies of a heart attack and he defeats Socialist muckraking author Upton Sinclair, leader of the End Poverty in Calif. Movement with help from newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Hopkinton, Iowa-born Frank Finley Merriam (1865-1955) becomes Repub. Calif. gov. #28 (1934-9) (until Jan. 2, 1939), going on to deal with the 1934 Longshoremen's Strike and alienate conservatives by proposing a $107M tax increase along with a state personal income tax and sales tax rate of 3%, which is passed in 1935.

On May 27, 1937 (Thur.) after it is finished on Apr. 19, the orange vermilion-painted Calif. Golden Gate Bridge in the 3 mi. x 1 mi. Golden Gate Strait in San Francisco Bay, connecting San Francisco and Marin County (begun 1932) opens to foot traffic; Donald Bryan (a sprinter from San Francisco Junior College) becomes the first person to cross it; on May 28 Pres. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, D.C. signalling that vehicular traffic is free to cross; between 1937-2006 about 1.2K people (one every couple of weeks) jump off over the 4 ft. safety railing and die, traveling 25 stories in 4 sec. and hitting the water at 75 mph.

On Sept. 21, 1937 Pepperdine U. in Malibu, Calif. is founded by Western Auto Supply Co. magnate George Pepperdine and affiliated with the Churches of Christ; its sports team name is the Waves.

In 1937 after abandoning soft focus pictorialism for highly-detailed photographic images, Highland Park, Ill.-born Edward Henry Weston (1886-1958) becomes the first photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, going on to produce 1.4K 8x10 negatives by 1939, focusing on the trees and rocks in his adopted home of Point Lobos, Calif., and nearby Death Valley, Calif.; "Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn't photogenic."

On Jan. 2. 1939 Filllmore, Utah-born New Dealer Culbert Levy Olson (1876-1962) becomes Dem. Calif. gov. #39 (until Jan. 4, 1943), refusing to say "so help me God" during his oath of office because he is an atheist, instead saying "I will affirm"; he goes on to reverse the policies of conservative predecessor Frank Merriam, developing friendly relations with labor unions and pardoning labor activist Tom Mooney while opposing the intrusions of the Roman Catholic Church in the state education system, causing them to help get his successor Earl Warren elected; meanwhile he dumps his liberal principles to back his hero FDR in locking Japanese in internment camps, with the soundbyte: "Because of the extreme difficulty in distinguishing between loyal Japanese Americans, and there are many who are loyal to this country, and those other Japanese whose loyalty is to the Mikado. I believe in the wholesale evacuation of the Japanese people from coastal California."

In 1939 Am. guitarist Les Paul (1915-2009) invents the Log, one of the first solid-body electric guitars, along with Charles Leonidas "Leo" Fender (1909-91), whose electric guitar is the first to be mass-produced. In 1946 the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Co. (later Fender Musical Instruments Corp.) is founded in Fullerton, Calif. by Fender to design and produce electric guitars and amplifiers, helping to launch rock and roll, starting with the Telecaster in fall 1949, followed by the Stratocaster in 1954. In 1952 the Gibson Les Paul solid body electric guitar is first sold by the Gibson Guitar Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich., becoming a worthy competitor. In 1957 the Epiphone Co., founded in 1873 in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey by Anastasios Stathopoulos (-1915) to makes fiddles and lutes, which moved to the U.S. in 1903 and began making guitars in 1928 is acquired by their main rival Gibson, going on to produce the Epiphone Casino guitar, which is makes famous by the Beatles.

On Jan. 24, 1940 John Ford's B&W The Grapes of Wrath (20th Cent. Fox) debuts, written by Nunnally Johnson based on the 1939 John Steinbeck novel, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, Russell Simpson as Pa Joad, Charley Grapewin as Grandpa Joad, John Carradine as Jim Casy, Dorris Bowdon as Rosasharn et al. as the Okie Joad family migrating to Calif. to get away from the Dust Bowl, only to be treated like merde and go Socialist; it ends with Tom Joad (Fonda) uttering the soundbyte: "I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look, wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there, too", after which Ma Joad (Jane Darwell) utters the soundbyte: "Can't lick us. Can't wipe us out. We'll go on forever 'cause we're the people"; does $2.5M box office on an $800K budget; watch trailer.

On Jan. 26, 1940 Hollywood actor Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) marries actress Jane Wyman (Sarah Jane Mayfield) (1917-2007) (until June 28, 1948) in Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church in Forest Lawn, Calif.; they have one adopted son, Michael (b. 1945) and two daughters, Christine (born and died on June 26, 1947), and Maureen Reagan (1941-2001).

On Oct. 4, 1940 Lloyd Bacon's Knute Rockne: All American (Warner Bros.) debuts, becoming the major film debut of Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004), and his signature performance as Notre Dame U. football star "The Gipper" George Gipp, who dies in hospital room #23; Pat O'Brien plays Knute Rockne, uttering the immortal soundbyte: "Tell the boys to win one for the Gipper", which is deleted from the TV airing of the film after the Gipp family files a lawsuit. On Jan. 26, 1940 Hollywood actor Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) marries actress Jane Wyman (Sarah Jane Mayfield) (1917-2007) (until June 28, 1948) in Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church in Forest Lawn, Calif.; they have one adopted son, Michael (b. 1945) and two daughters, Christine (born and died on June 26, 1947), and Maureen Reagan (1941-2001).

On Oct. 31, 1940 the $1.6M art deco Hollywood Palladium at 6215 Sunset Blvd. between Argyle and El Centro Aves. in Los Angeles, Calif., built on the original Paramount Pictures lot by Norman Chandler opens, featuring a 11.2K sq. ft. kidney-shaped maplewood dance floor (cap. 4K), designed by Hoover Dam and LA Times Bldg. architect Gordon Kaufmann, hosting a dance featuring Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra and vocalist Frank Sinatra attended by Lana Turner and her hubby Artie Shaw; during WWII it hosts radio broadcasts by Betty Grable; in 1961 it becomes the home of the Lawrence Welk Show.

Executive Order 9066 = Executive Order 666 for Japs with thick eyeglasses? On Feb. 19, 1942 (Thur.) U.S. Pres. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, creating de facto martial law on the West Coast and ordering 115K West Coast Japanese-Ams. ("yellow devils") interned in camps; Calif. Dem. gov. (1939-43) Culbert Levy Olson (1876-1962) calls them a "menace"; Wyo. Repub. gov. (1939-43) Nels Hansen Smith (1884-1976) says that they should be "hanging from every pine tree", etc.; only Colo. Repub. gov. Ralph Lawrence Carr (1887-1950) stands up to FDR, saying that the Constitution must apply to "every man or we shall not have it to protect any man", adding "If you harm them, you must harm me. I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened the happiness of you and you and you", causing thousands of protest letters and cables threatening to kill or impeach him, ending his political career in 1943; on Apr. 1 Calif. announces that all Japanese citizens will be arrested and deported to internment (concentration) camps in Idaho.

On Feb. 24-25, 1942 the Battle of Los Angeles, Calif. against invading Japanese forces turns out to be a false alarm; it was really a UFO attack?

On June 19, 1942 after meeting him at age 15, Norma Jeane Baker (b. 1926) marries James Edward "Jim" Dougherty (1921-2005), who works with Robert Mitchum in a defense plant, and next year joins the U.S. Merchant Marine, heading for Santa Catalina Island, where she joins him, then heading overseas in 1944 while she works for the Radioplane Co. in Burbank, Calif., which features her in some war propaganda photos that are pub. in the Aug. 2, 1945 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly, becoming her start as a model; after getting ideas about going bigtime, she divorces him on Sept. 13, 1946; in 1947 he joins the Los Angeles Police Dept. and marries Patricia Scoman.

On Nov. 3, 1942 centrist Los Angeles, Calif.-born Calif. atty. gen. #20 (since Jan. 3, 1939) Earl Warren (1891-1974) (son of a Norwegian immigrant father named Varren and a Swedish immigrant mother) is elected Repub. gov. #30 of Calif., taking office next Jan. 4 (until Oct. 5, 1953); he is reelected in 1946 as the nominee of both the Repub. and Dem. parties, and reelected again in 1950, becoming the first person elected to three consecutive terms (until ?) - and could have gone on forever if they hadn't kicked him upstairs to the Supreme Court?

In 1942 songwriter John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer (1909-76), songwriter-film producer George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva (1895-1950), and record store owner Glen Wallichs (1910-71) found Capitol Records (originally Liberty Records) in Los Angeles, Calif., becoming the first record company on the U.S. West Coast.

On June 3-7, 1943 white racism against Mexican-Americans sparks the Zoot Suit Riots by U.S. Navy personnel in Los Angeles, Calif., followed by more riots around the country; the zoot suit, consisting of a "killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell" (Malcolm X) (wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged tramas or trousers, and long carlango coat, plus a felt hat with long tapa, tanda or feather, worn with a long keychain and a ducktail haircut) becomes the garb for jitterbugging U.S. hepcats incl. whites and blacks.

On Jan. 15, 1945 after taking over from Jimmy Wakely at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Calif., Grand, Okla.-born part-Cherokee Western swing fiddler Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (1910-69) and His Western Dance Gang release Shame on You (#1 in the U.S.), which becomes his signature song, going on to become known as "the King of Western Swing"; the first song pub. by Hill & Range Pub. Co. of Los Angeles, Calif., founded by Vienna, Austria-born Julian J. Aberbach (1909-2004) et al., which goes on to dominate country music (75% of the action in Nashville), contracting with Elvis Presley in 1955 to pub. all his songs, which keeps him from pub. his own material until the early 1970s. In 1945 Spade Cooley and His Orchestra release I've Taken All I'm Gonna Take from You (#4 country), followed by Detour (1946) (#2 country), You Can't Break My Heart (1946) (#3 country), and Crazy 'Cause I Love You (1947) (#4 country). In June 1948 Cooley begins hosting a radio show on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, Calif, becoming the #1 draw on the West Coast. Too bad, in 1961 Cooley is convicted of the head-bashing stomach-stomping murder of his 2nd wife Ella Mae Evans, ending his career.

In Jan. 1945 John Steinbeck (1902-68) pub. Cannery Row, about a sardine fishery in Monterey, Calif. during the Great Depression; Lee Chong the grocer; Mack, leader of the Palace Flophouse and Grill throws a party for Doc the marine biologist that goes wrong; "A poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream"; followed by "Sweet Thursday" (1954). filmed in 1982.

On Sept. 28, 1945 Michael Curtiz' B&W Mildred Pierce (Warner Bros.) debuts, based on the 1941 John M. Cain novel, starring Joan Crawford (first for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM) as a Southern Calif. housewife whose hubby leaves her during the Depression, forcing her to scramble to open a successful chicken and wafffle restaurant chain while juggling beaus incl. Wally Fay (Jack Carson), Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett), and Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), only to be undone by her pianist daughter Veda (Ann Blyth); does $5.6M box office on a $1.45M budget; "Father, Wally, Monte, you have what you need."

In 1946 after serving in the U.S. Navy in WWII, Plainsburg, Calif.-born Western Swing singing cowboy Steve "Dude" Martin (John Stephen "Steve" McSwain) (1915-91) and his Roundup Gang become popular on radio in the San Francisco, Calif. area, releasing Strawberry Roan (1948), Deepfreeze Dinah, and Pistol Boogie, hosting The Dude Martin Show on TV in 1949-51; his partner and bandleader is San Francisco, Calif.-born accordion player Harry Theodore "Ted" "Hezzie" Johnson (1916-2011) of the Nevada Night Herders.

In 1946 Stockton, Calif.-born Hollywood Barn Dance performer Cliffie Stone (Clifford Gilpin Snyder) (1917-98), son of Cliff "Herman the Hermit" Snyder joins Capitol Records as a talent scout, discovering Tennessee Ernie Ford, Molly Bee, Hank Thompson, and Stan Freberg, and helping Merle Travis relocate to Hollywood from Nashville. In 1947 he and his Barn Dance Band release their first country hit Silver Stars, Purple Sage, Eyes of Blue (#4 country) (Capitol Records), followed by Peepin' Thru the Keyhole (Watching Jole Blon) (1948) (#4 country), When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again (by Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan) (1948) (#11 country), The Popcorn Song (w/Bob Roubian) (1955) (#14 in the U.S.), and Little Pink Mack (w/Kay Adams) (1966) (#30 country).

What happens in Hollyweird stays in Hollyweird? On Jan. 15, 1947 in Los Angeles, Calif. the mutilated remains of 22-y.-o. aspiring actress Elizabeth Short (b. 1924) (known as the Black Dahlia for her dark outfits) are found dumped in a vacant lot in the residential L.A. neighborhood of Leimert Park; she had been hung upside down and tortured, her body cut in half, and her face carved into a hideous rictus; the case is never solved, even though the perp sends the girl's birth certificate and address book, with one page ripped out, to the police; later Steve Hodel claims it was his L.A. cop father?

On Mar. 17, 1948 the Hells Angels under-25 middle-class dropout motorcycle gang in Calif. is founded, known for filthy Levis and denim tops, Nazi helmets and badges, and a symbiosis with hippies in the 1960s, policing their gatherings; to join one must perform an outrageous revolting act; the babes are classed as Mammas (free to all) or Old Ladies (attached).

In Dec. 1949 the Sat. night Hometown Jamboree debuts on KXLA-AM in Pasadena, Calif., and KLAC-TV/KCOP in Los Angeles, Calif., hosted by Cliffie Stone (Clifford Gilpin Snyder) (1917-98) at the Am. Legion Stadium in El Monte, Calif., later at the Harmony Park Ballroom in Anaheim, Calif., launching the careers of Tennessee Ernie Ford, Speedy West, Billy Strange, Bill Aken (Zane Ashton) et al.; in 1953 it moves to KTLA-TV in Los Angeles; it is canceled in 1959.

In 1949 the Googie (Space Age) (Coffee Shop) (Doo-Wop) (Populuxe) style of commercial architecture begins in West Hollywood, Calif. with the Googie (Ship's) Coffee Shop at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights (demolished in 1989), designed by John Edward Lautner (1911-94), inspired by the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Jet Age, and car culture, characterized by crazy kinetic confections of oblique lines with jagged steel roofs sporting neon signs in wild hipster font ("Tomorrowland Meets the Flintstones"); a Googie icon is the little 1950s McDonald's Man in white chef's hat and black bow tie; the White Spot coffee shops, Bob's Big Boy (founded 1936), and Denny's restaurants (founded 1953), designed by Calif. architects Louis Logue Armet (1914-81) and Eldon Davis are the height of the style, which starts to be discontinued during the Vietnam War protest era and is killed by the environmental movement.

On Aug. 5, 1950 a USAF B-29 Superfortress carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb crashes shortly after takeoff from Fairfield-Suisun AFB into a residential area in Calif., killing 12 of 20 aboard and seven on the ground incl. five firefighters, and injuring 49 after high explosives in the bomb detonate 20 mi. after the crash, spreading burning fuel and wreckage over a 2 sq. mi. area.

On Sept. 9, 1950 Calif. celebrates its centennial.

On Sept. 20-26, 1950 a U.S. Navy ship releases microbes into the air off the coast of San Francisco, Calif. in a secret biological weapons test.

On Nov. 5, 1950 U.S. Rep. (R-Calif.) (since Jan. 3, 1947) Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913) defeats good-looking (in her underwear?) bleeding heart liberal Dem. Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-80) (former Hollywood actress) for the U.S. Senate in Calif. with 59% of the vote (500K votes, largest plurality in the nation) in a dirty fear campaign that frames her as a Commie dupe for opposing the House Un-Am. Activities Committee (HUAC), distributing pink leaflets calling her "pink right down to her underwear", to which she responds by coining his perfect nickname "Tricky Dick(y)"; Nixon is sworn-in on Dec. 1 (until Jan. 1, 1953); Nixon doesn't just defeat opponents, he destroys them personally?; JFK donates $1K to help Nixon defeat her.

On Nov. 11, 1950 the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, Calif. is founded, becoming the first U.S. gay liberation org.

In 1950 Cardston, Alberta, Canada-born swimsuit designer Rose Marie Reid (nee Yancey) (1906-78) of Los Angeles, Calif. files for a patent on a 1-piece bathing suit using elastic fabric sans buttons, which is both fashionable and functional, using photopermeable fabric to allow full body tanning; it catches on, capturing 10% of the women's swimwear market, and she is named Designer of the Year by Sports Illustrated, and Woman of the Year by Time in 1955; meanwhile she uses her free time to proselyte Jews for the Mormon faith.

Early in the 1950s the San Francisco Renaissance in poetry and the arts in Calif. is launched by modernist poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-82) et al. Auschwitz survivor Karel Ancerl (1908-73) becomes conductor of the Czech Philharmonic on Oct. 20 (until 1968). Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar (1929-96) makes her debut in Oran, Algeria as Maruxa, then begins working for the Berlin Opera in 1958, staying on for 30 years.

In fall 1951 the Sat. night Town Hall (Ranch) Party, a clone of Art Linkletter's House Party for country music fans debuts on KXLA-AM radio in Pasadena, Calif., expanding to KFI-AM in Los Angeles, and KTTV-TV, which is picked up by the U.S. Armed Forces TV Service, and NBC-Radio; the MC is Jay Stewart (Fix) (1918-89); regulars incl. Cyrus Whitfield "Johnny" Bond (1915-78), Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (1905-74), Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams (1917-85), Merle Robert Travis (1917-83), the Collins Kids incl. Lawrencine "Lorrie" Collins (1942-) and Lawrence "Larry" Collins (1944-), William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (1928-75), Enos William "Skeets" McDonald (1915-68), Merle Robert Travis (1917-83), Pee Wee Adams, Shirley Adams, Buddy Dooly, Ray Klein, Dortha Wright, Wesley Tuttle and Marilyn Tuttle, Joe Maphis and Rose Lee Maphis, Jenks "Tex" Carman, Eddie Kirk, Fiddlin' Kate (Margie Warren), Freddie Hart, Billy Hill, Mary Lou Brunell, Bobby Charles, Mary John Johnson, Les "Carrot Top" Anderson, Quincy Snodgrass, and Tex Tiny; the 10-member Town Hall Party Band incl. Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Marian Hall, Billy Hill, Fiddlin' Kate, PeeWee Adams, Jimmy Pruit, Billy Mize, and Cliff Crofford; in 1954 guest performer Gene Autry sets attendance records; in Apr. 1958 Town Hall patrons help boost the new Los Angeles Dodgers, owned by Gene Autry, which wins the 1959 World Series; in Dec. 1958 the new Showboat Hotel in Las Vegas begins hosting Town Hall Party shows featuring Tex Ritter and other regulars, hurting its audience; the last show is aired on Jan. 14, 1961.

On Dec. 16, 1951 the 30-min. police procedural drama Dragnet, "a Mark VII Production", based on the 1949-57 NBC radio show debuts on NBC-TV for 276 episodes (until Aug. 23, 1959, then 1967-70, 1989-91, 1 hour show in 2003-4), displaying a badge with the number 714; John Randolph "Jack" Webb (1920-82) plays morally rigid Sgt. Joe Friday; the cool Dragnet Theme is by Walter Schumann; the opening says "This is the city, Los Angeles, California. Every 60 seconds a crime is committed in Los Angeles. In the Los Angeles Police Dept.'s communications center, the telephone rings every 20 seconds, 24 hours a day. Of the 3 million people who live in Los Angeles, 35 thousand of them are known murderers, rapists and thieves. They outnumber the police force seven to one. Every time a policeman answers a call, he takes a calculated risk. There will always be somebody out there who doesn't like him. There are over five thousand men in this city who know that being a policeman is an endless, thankless, glamorous job that's got to be done. I know it too, and I'm damn glad I'm one of them"; the wrapup says "The story you have just seen is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent"; 15 shots are fired in the first 60 episodes.

In 1952 Filmways (Pictures) is founded in Sonoma County, Calif. by Martin Ransohoff (1927-2017) and Edwin Kasper, going on to produce CBS-TV's "rural comedies" incl. "Mister Ed", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Petticoat Junction", and "Green Acres", along with films incl. "The Sandpiper", "The Cincinnati Kid", "Ice Station Zebra", "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out", helping launch the careers of actresses Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret, and Sharon Tate; by 1963 it makes $13M a year; in 1983 it is acquired by Orion Pictures, becoming Orion TV Productions.

In 1952 Pacific Jazz Records in Los Angeles, Calif. is founded to release cool jazz and West Coast jazz music by producer Richard Bock (1927-88) and jazz drummer Roy S. Harte (Hartstein) (1924-2003), going on to sign Chet Baker, Paul Demond, the Jazz Crusaders, Gerry Mulligan, Joe Pass, and Gerald Wilson; in 1954 Harte co-founds Nocturne Records in Hollywood, Calif. with jazz bassist Yervant Harry "the Bear" Babasin Jr. (1921-88), which in 1954 releases the album Jazz in Hollywood before merging with Liberty Records on Mar. 2, 1955; in 1957 Pacific Jazz Records becomes World Pacific Records, signing Indian musicians incl. Ravi Shankar; in 1965 it is acquired by Liberty Records, producing the hit Elusive Butterfly by Bob Lind in 1966; in 1970 it is acquired by United Artists Records, which in 1979 is acquired by EMI.

On Oct. 5, 1953 Norwegian-Swedish-Am. Calif. gov. #30 (since Jan. 4, 1943) Earl Warren (1891-1974) is sworn-in as U.S. Chief Justice #14 and the 88th U.S. Supreme Court justice (until June 23, 1969), succeeding Fred M. Vinson (d. 1953), who was chief justice since June 20, 1946 but nobody remembers because the New Deal was settled and the court wasn't into civil rights activism yet?; Provo, Utah-born Calif. lt. gov. #35 (since Jan. 5, 1947) Goodwin Jess "Goodie" Knight (1896-1970) becomes Repub. gov. #31 of Calif. (until Jan. 5, 1959), proving to be a moderate who is sympathetic to organized labor.

In 1953 City Lights Bookstore (named after the 1931 Charlie Chaplin film City Lights) at 261 Columbus Ave. in San Francisco, Calif. is founded by unwholesome-but-not-exiled bearded New York-born poet Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (1919-) and Peter D. Martin as the first all-paperback bookstore in the U.S., and it becomes home to the growing anti-materialist nonviolent anti-establishment Beatnik Movement (AKA the Beat Generation) (they have grappled with affluence and lost, and are consequently beat?), which begins in Los Angeles' Venice West; males liked beards, khaki trousers, and sandals; females liked tousled hair, black leotards, and thick "raccoon" makeup around their eyes; Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac (1922-69), Irwin Allen Ginsberg (1926-97), and William Seward Burroughs II (1914-97) becomes the Beat Trinity, producing benzedrine-fueled speed-rap "bop kaballa"; Times Square bi con artist and junkie Herbert Huncke (1915-96), AKA "the Mayor of 42nd St." give the Beats their name.

On Jan. 1, 1954 the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. becomes the first color nat. TV broadcast in the U.S.; Michigan State defeats UCLA by 28-20 in the 1954 Rose Bowl.

In Apr. 1954 Am. Internat. Pictures (AIP) is founded in Los Angeles, Calif. by James Harvey Nicholson (1916-72) and Samuel Zachary Arkoff (1918-2001) to package independent low-budget B films as double features for teenagers, mainly by Roger Corman and Alex Gordon, using the ARKOFF Formula (Action, Revolution, Killing, Oratory, Fantasy, Fornication), pioneering the use of focus groups; in 1979 they are acquired by Filmways Inc., becoming Filmways Pictures.

On Sept. 11, 1954 the 1955 (28th) Miss America beauty pageant is televised for the first time, and after reciting a John Millington Synge monologue to show she's not a dumb blonde, wholesome straight white Los Angeles, Calif.-born Lee Ann Meriwether (1935-) (Miss Calif.) is crowned Miss America 1955 to the Bernie Wayne song There She Is, Miss America; on Aug. 1, 1956 a UPI wire photo of her and Joe DiMaggio falsely announces their engagement, later traced to Walter Winchell, but it works well enough to launch her acting career, and she goes on to reach the heights by starring in er, "Star Trek"?

In Dec. 1954 Am. gay "Jewish Buddhist" poet Irwin Allen Ginsberg (1926-97) meets poet-model Peter Orlovsky (1933-) in San Francisco, Calif., and they become lifetime lovers; Ginsberg undergoes a year of psychotherapy this year and next, and ditches his career as a fledgling market research consultant, producing his poem "Howl!" in a nonstop frenzy.

In 1954 retired Portland, Ore.-born Hunt's Foods industrialist Norton Winfred Simon (1907-93) begins collecting art, acquiring a Gaugin, a Bonnard, and a Pissarro this year, opening the Norton Simon Museum (originally Pasadena Art Museum) in Pasadena, Calif., becoming known for putting on an early Pop Art show in 1962 and a Marcel Duchamp retrospective in 1963; a new bldg. is completed in 1969.

In 1954 Ruth E. Norman (nee Nields) (1900-93) (AKA Uriel) and her hubby Ernest L. Norman (1904-71) (who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus and Archangel Raphiel) found the Unarius Academy of Science in Los Angeles, Calif.; too bad, in 1974 Ruth predicts the coming of the Space Brothers, a fleet of benevolent ETs, and when they don't show up she keeps setting new dates - welcome to sunny California, home of every kook religion known, even before the PC revolution?

In 1954 Hidden Valley brand buttermilk-based ranch dressing is first served at the new Hidden Valley Dude Ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif.

On Mar. 7, 1955 NBC-TV airs the 7th Annual Emmy Awards, hosted by Steve Allen from the Moulin Rouge Nightclub in Hollywood, Calif., becoming the first coast-to-coast Emmy Awards telecast; Fredric March becomes the first actor to be nominated for two different works in the same category, losing 2x for best actor in a single performance.

On Mar. 9, 1955 Elia Kazan's East of Eden (Warner Bros.) debuts, based on the 1952 John Steinbeck novel ripping off the Biblical Cain and Abel story set in Monterey and Salinas, Calif. in 1917, becoming "new Marlon Brando" James Dean's first starring role as angst-ridden adolescent Caleb "Cal" (Cain) searching for love and acceptance from his ho mother Kate (Eve) (Jo Van Fleet), and his Bible-thumping daddy Adam Trask (Adam) (Raymond Massey), ending up taking it out on his brother Aron (Abel) (Richard Davalos); does $5M box office; Julie Harris plays Aron's babe Catie (Eve); the only one of Dean's three films to be released during his lifetime, making him a teen star.

On June 3, 1955 good-looking ho addict Barbara "Bloody Babs" Graham (b. 1923) becomes the first female executed in the state of Calif., along with two accomplices for the murder of elderly widow Mabel Monahan; Susan Hayward portrays Babs in the 1958 film I Want to Live!, which claims she was framed.

On July 17, 1955 (Sun.) 1K-employee Disneyland (begun 1954), built on a 160-acre site near Anaheim, Calif. opens in an ABC-TV event to 30K visitors incl. Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston, and Debbie Reynolds, charging $1 admission for adults, 50 cents for kids, plus 10-35 cents per ride for the 23 attractions; Ronald Reagan emcees the event; with temps pushing 110 deg. F and a plumbers strike causing water fountains to run dry, a counterfeiter selling thousands of fake tickets, and a power outage, Walt Disney refers to the opening as "Black Sunday"; by 2005 the only U.S. presidents to not visit are LBJ, Clinton, and George W. Bush; Main Street U.S.A. is modeled after his boyhood town of Marceline, Mo.; the "Bathroom of Tomorrow" is exhibited later this decade; "To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world." (Walt Disney)

On Oct. 7, 1955 the Six Gallery Reading, AKA Six Angels in the Same Performance at the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St. in San Francisco, Calif., organized by gay poets Irwin Allen Ginsberg (1926-97) and Jack Spicer (1925-65) brings the East and West Coast factions of the Beat Generation for his first public reading of "Howl", the audience chipping in to buy jugs of wine first, poets incl. Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, and Philp Whalen; old fart poet Kenneth Rexroth introduces them; Jack Kerouac shows up drunk, cheering the other poets on; the next day Lawrence Ferlinghetti telegrams Ginsberg offering to pub. his work; UCB student Ann Charters first meets Kerouac, going on to pub. his bio. "Kerouac" in 1973.

In 1955 the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian org. opens in San Francisco, Calif.; homosexual relations between women are illegal in all U.S. states, but they face that problem and lick it in the closet?

On Jan. 6, 1956 Edward R. Murrow interviews 35-y.-o. eternal bachelor (closet gay) entertainer Liberace (1919-87) on Person to Person in his bedroom in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and after Murrow asks him if he'd like to get married one day, Liberace zings him with the soundbyte "Princess Margaret... she's looking for her dream man too"; he later says "I have nothing against old ladies, but I like young ladies too."

In 1956 Los Angeles, Calif.-born "the Singing Fisherman" John Gale "Johnny" Horton (1925-60) releases his first country hit Honky-Tonk Man (#9 country), followed by I'm a One-Woman Man (1956) (#7 country), The Woman I Need (1957) (#9 country), All Grown Up (1958) (#8 country), When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below) (1959) (#1 country), and The Battle of New Orleans (1959) (#1 country) (#1 in the U.S.); #1 for 6 weeks even though it's totally anachronistic (coded message for Southern white supremacists fighting the feds on integration?); "In 1814 we took a little trip/ Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip/ We took a little bacon and we took a little beans/ And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans"; (chorus) "We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin/ There wasn't near as many as there was awhile ago/ We fired once more and they began a runnin'/ Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico." He follows it with North to Alaska (1960) (#1 country), Sink the Bismarck (1960) (#6 country), and Sleepy-Eyed John (1961) (posth.). (#9 country). On Sept. 26, 1953 he marries Billie Jean Williams. Too bad, on Nov. 5, 1960 he is killed in a head-on collision on a narrow bridge with an intoxicated truck driver in Milano, Tex.

In fall 1957 five student activists at the U. of Calif. at Berkeley (UCB) run for student govt. office on a common slate, forming the org. known as SLATE, beginning campus activism in the U.S.

On Oct. 3, 1957 (Thur.) the sitcom The Real McCoys debuts on ABC-TV for 224 episodes (until June 23, 1963) after switching to CBS in 1962), about a hillbilly family from Smokey Corners, W. Va. who moved to the San Fernando Valley of Calif., starring Walter Andrew Brennan (1894-1974) as Grandpa Amos McCoy, Richard Donald "Dick" Crenna (1926-2003) as his grandson Luke, Kathleen "Kathy" Nolan (Jocelyn Schrum) (1933-) as his new bride Kate, Lydia Reed (1944-) as his teenie sister Tallahassee "Hassie"", and Michael L. Winkelman (1946-99) as his 11-y.-o. brother Little Luke; Puerto-Rican bandleader Tony Martinez (1920-2002) plays Mexican farm hand Pepino Garcia, who on the Jan. 8, 1962 episode becomes a U.S. citizen and changes his surname to McCoy, becoming a big breakthrough in casting.

In 1957 The Troubadour nightclub at 9081 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, Calif. near Beverly Hills, owned by 6'6" Alexander Douglas "Doug" Weston (1926-99) opens, becoming a major venue for folk music acts, and later for rock acts, hosting comedian Lenny Bruce (who is arrested in 1962 for obscenity for using the word "schmuck"), Joni Mitchell, The New Christy Minstrels, The Everly Brothers, Hoyt Axton, Leonard Cohen, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Arlo Guthrie, Buffalo Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Carole King, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison et al.; on Aug. 25, 1970 Neil Diamond introduces Elton John in his first U.S. show; in 1974 pals John Lennon and Harry Nilsson are ejected for drunkenly heckling the Smothers Brothers; launches the careers of Randy Newman, Steve Martin, Cheech & Chong, Guns N' Roses et al.; in the late 1970s it switches to heavy metal and glam bands incl. Motley Crue, Poison, and Warrant, later helping launch the careers of Radiohead, Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Papa Roach et al.

On June 2, 1958 the folk group The Kingston Trio, from Palo Alto, Calif., incl. Donald David "Dave" Guard (1934-91), Robert Castle "Bob" Shane (Shoen) (1934-), and Nicholas Wells "Nick" Reynolds (1933-2008), who is later replaced by John Coburn Stewart (1939-2008) release their debut album The Kingston Trio (#1 in the U.S.), which helps make LPs popular; incl. Tom Dooley (#1 in the U.S.) (3M copies); based on Confed. soldier Thomas C. "Tom" Dula (1845-68), who was hanged in Statesville, N.C. for murdering Laura Foster. They go on to release 19 top-100 albums incl. 14 top-10s and 5 #1s, becoming "the undisputed kings of the folk-singing rage by every yardstick." (Herbert Kamm)

In 1958 Philly-born teen idol Frankie Avalon (Francis Thomas Avallone) (1939-) releases his debut single De De Dinah (#7 in the U.S.), holding his nose while recording it. He goes on to chart 31 U.S. Billboard-200 singles, by late 1962, incl. Bobby Sox to Stockings (1959) (#8 in the U.S.), A Boy Without A Girl (1959) (#10 in the U.S.), Just Ask Your Heart (1959) (#7 in the U.S.), and his big hits Venus (1959) (#1 in the U.S., #16 in the U.K.), and Why (1959) (#1 in the U.S., #20 in the U.K.), call him a 1-year wonder. In 1960 as his singing career faded fast, he branched out into acting, starting with John Wayne's The Alamo (Oct. 24, 1960), about the 1836 white-is-right battle, starring Wayne as Col. Davy Crockett, Laurence Harvey as Col. William Travis, Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie, and Frankie Avalon as Smitty, who sings Ballad of the Alamo; the Mexican army has 7K extras; John Ford helped Wayne direct the finale; "The mission that become a fortress. The fortress that becomes a shrine." Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (July 12, 1961) stars Walter Pidgeon as Adm. Harriman Nelson, designer of the U.S. submarine Seaview, Robert Sterling as Capt. Lee Crane, and Joan Fontaine as pshrink Dr. Susan Hiller; Frankie Avalon appears and sings the theme song Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. William Asher's Beach Party (Aug. 7, 1962) (American-Internat.) stars teen pop idols Frankie Avalon (1939-) and Annette Funicello (1942-) as corny moral Catholic Italian-Am. (but you're not supposed to notice) heteros playing with fire on the beaches of S Calif., while square Robert Cummings, er, Cummings plays a scientist studying teenage mating habits; Beach Boy Brian Wilson appears as an extra; although the other girls wear bikinis, Funicello wears a modest 1-piece swimsuit, but later loosens up to a bikini reaching to her navel. The sequel William Asher's Muscle Beach Party (Mar. 25, 1964), starring Frankie, Annette, and foot-long muscleman "Rock Stevens" (Peter Lupus) features Dick Dale and The Del-Tones, and the last screen appearance of Peter Lorre, as well as the screen debut of "Little" Stevie Wonder. There are a total of seven Am. Internat. beach party movies, incl. "Bikini Beach" (1964), "Pajama Party" (1964), "Bikini Blanket Bingo" (1965), "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965), and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), finally becoming irrelevant when the real beachgoers gets into heavy sex, drugs and rock & roll, along with VD, ODs and radicalism, while counting themselves lucky for not having been wasted in Vietnam.

In 1958 Vallejo, Calif.-born "Godfather of R&B" Johnny Otis (Ioannis Aleandres Veliotes) (1921-2012) (a dark Greek who preferred to live as a black), known for Double Crossing Blues (1948) releases Hand Jive (#9 in the U.S.).

On Jan. 5, 1959 after Gov. Goodwin Knight is talked by Pres. Eisenhower, Vice-Pres. Nixon, and Senate Majority Leader William Knowland into running for Knowland's Senate seat while Knowland runs for Knight's governorship in the "Big Switch", and Knowland makes the mistake of supporting unpopular Proposition 18 (a right-to-work law), losing by 59%-40%, San Francisco, Calif.-born Repub.-turned-Dem. Calif. atty. gen. #23 (since Jan. 8, 1851) Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr. (1905-96) (nicknamed Pat after giving Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech at street corners at age 12 to sell Liberty Bonds) becomes Dem. gov. #32 of Calif. (until Jan. 2, 1967), going on to sponsor the Edmund G. Brown Calif. Aqueduct and oppose the death sentence, commuting 23 death sentences except railroad case Caryl Chessman and Elizabeth Duncan, last female executed before the nat. moratorium; in 1963 he defeats Richard Nixon by 52%-47% to win reelection, then loses in 1966 to upstart actor Ronald Reagan by 58%-42%; meanwhile the 1958 election sees many Calif. Repubs. defeated by Dems., incl. Knight, who loses 55%-45$ to Clair Engle, leaving Nixon in control of the Calif. Repub. Party and in line for the U.S. pres. election ahead of Knowland and Knight.

On Feb. 3, 1959 the Day the Music Died sees Lubbock, Tex.-born "Peggy Sue" star Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) (b. 1936), Pacoima, Calif.-born "La Bamba" star Ritchie Valens (Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes) (b. 1941), and Sabine Pass, Tex.-born "Chantilly Lace" star The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry "J.P." "Jape" Richardson Jr.) (b. 1930) killed shortly after takeoff in an airplane crash near Clear Lake (outside Mason City), Iowa in a chartered Beech Bonanza N3749N headed for their next engagement in Moorhead, Minn. (sister city of Fargo, N.D.); after leaving the Crickets, Holly hired a new band consisting of bassist Waylon Arnold Jennings (1937-2002), guitarist Tommy Allsup (1931-) (who leaves his wallet onboard, which is later recovered), and drummer Carl Bunch (1939-2011) to play the Winter Dance Party Tour; Jennings and Allsup relinquished their seats at the last minute as Jennings give up his seat to the Big Bopper and Valens won a coin toss with Allsup; on Feb. 4 the audience in Fargo expecting to see them saw Bobby Vee and the Shadows for the first time instead; Holly leaves Puerto Rico-born widow Maria Elena Holly (nee Santiago) (1935-), and Valens' girlfriend Donna Ludwig already kicked off. Buddy Holly's hits incl. Peggy Sue (1957) (#3 in the U.S.), and Oh Boy! (1957) (#10 in the U.S.). Ritchie Valens' big 1958 hits are La Bamba (#22 in the U.S.), and Donna (#2 in the U.S.). The Big Bopper's big 1958 hit is Chantilly Lace (#6 in the U.S.). While much has been makes of their sudden deaths, the truth is that they are all square 1950s throwbacks and wouldn't have done well in the 1960s, although we'll never know for sure.

On Apr. 10, 1959 Paul Wendkos' Gidget ("girl midget") (Columbia Pictures) debuts, based on the 1957 Frederick Kohner novel "Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas" about summer surfing, starring Sandra Dee (Alexandra Zuck) (1942-2005) as 17-y.-o. Frances Lawrence AKA Gidget,who chases surfer Moondoggie (James Darren), mainstreaming the white Southern Calif. surfing culture and becoming so popular that it spawns two movie sequels, two TV sequels, and a TV series starring Sally Field, who uses surfboards designed by Dale Velzy; the Gidget Theme is performed by The Four Preps from Hollywood High School in Calif., incl. Bruce Belland (1936-), Ed Cobb (1938-99), Glen Larson (1937-), and Marv Ingram (Marvin Inabnett), who have a #2 U.S. hit in 1958 with 26 Miles (Santa Catalina), and a #13 U.S. hit in 1960 with Down By the Station; Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) stars Deborah Walley, with James Darren continuing as her beau Moondoggie, and has a bit part for "Jeopardy!" announcer Johnny Gilbert; Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) stars Cindy Carol and James Darren; Philadelphia, Penn.-born James Darren (James William Ercolani) (1936-) goes on to score with hit singles Goodbye, Cruel World (#3 in the U.S.), composed by Noel Regney (1922-2002) and Gloria Shayne Baker (1923-2008), which sells 1M copies, followed by Her Royal Majesty (1962) (#6 in the U.S.).

On Oct. 10, 1959 (Sat.) the detective series 77 Sunset Strip (B&W) debuts on ABC-TV for 205 episodes (until Feb. 7, 1964), starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (1918-) as ex-secret agent detective Stuart "Stu" Bailey, Roger LaVerne Smith (1932-) (who marries Ann-Margaret in 1967 after Myasthenia gravis ends his acting career in 1965, becoming her mgr.) as his ex-secret agent partner Jeff Spencer, who operate out of a posh office in Los Angeles, Calif. between La Cienega Blvd. and Alta Loma Rd. on the S side of the Strip next door to Dino's Lodge; Jacqueline Beer plays the French switchboard operator; Edd "Kookie" Byrnes (Edward Byrne Breitenberger) (1933-) as Dino's hair-combing parking attendant Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III, who popularizes the expressions "ginchy" and "piling up Zs"; features the 77 Sunset Strip Theme by Mack David and Jerry Livingston; in May 1960 Kookie becomes a partner of the detective firm, and Robert Logan becomes the parking lot attendant.

In 1959 new U. of Calif. pres. (1958-67) Clark Kerr (1911-2003) utters the immortal soundbyte: "The employers will love this generation [of college students]... They are going to be easy to handle. There aren't going to be any riots." Also in 1959 the word "bit" came into vogue in U.S.: "the protest bit", "the love bit", etc.; nothing about 1s and 0s yet, although the same year Austrian-born Am. business expert Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909-2005) coined the term "knowledge worker", who's the ultimate, guess, starts with TLW.

In 1959 Sherman, Tex.-born Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (1929-2006), who moved to Bakersfield, Calif. in 1951 and signed a recording contract with Capital Records in Feb. 1957 releases his first hit country song Second Fiddle (#24 country), backed by the Buckaroos, followed by Under Your Spell Again (1959) (#4 country), Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache) (1960) (#2 country), Foolin' Around (1961) (#2 country) (#113 in the U.S.), Mental Cruelty (w/Rose Maddox) (1961) (#8 country), Save the Last Dance for Me (1962) (#11 country), Act Naturally (1963) (#1 country), Love's Gonna Live Here (1963) (#1 country), My Heart Skips a Beat (1963) (#1 country) (#94 in the U.S.), I Don't Care (Just as Long as You Love Me) (1964) (#1 country) (#92 in the U.S.), I've Got a Tiger by the Tail (1964) (#1 country) (#25 in the U.S.), Before You Go (1964) (#1 country) (#82 in the U.S.), Only You (Can Break My Heart (1964) (#1 country) (#120 in the U.S.), Together Again (1964) (#1 country), Buckaroo (1965) (#1 country) (#60 in the U.S.), Waitin' in Your Welfare Line (1966) (#1 country) (#57 in the U.S.), Think of Me (1966) (#1 country) (#74 in the U.S.), Open Up Your Heart (1966) (#1 country), Where Does the Good Times Go (1966) (#1 country) (#114 in the U.S.), Sam's Place (1967) (#1 country) (#92 in the U.S.), Your Tender Loving Care (1967) (#1 country), How Long Will My Baby Be Gone (1968) (#1 country), Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass (1969) (#1 country) (#106 in the U.S.), Johnny B. Goode (1969) (#1 country) (#114 in the U.S.), Tall Dark Stranger (1969) (#1 country), The Great White Horse (w/Susan Raye) (1970) (#8 country) (#9 in the U.S.), Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (1971) (#2 country), Made in Japan (1972) (#1 country). In 1986 he leaves Hee-Haw. In 1988 he and Dwight Yoakam release Streets of Bakersfield (#1 country). In 1998 he and Cledus T. Judd release First Redneck on the Internet. He goes on to release 97 singles incl. 21 #1 country hits, becoming the only country star to have a hit record that is later done by the Beatles ("Act Naturally" in 1965, with Ringo Starr singing lead, plus a duet with Owens in 1989).

On Feb. 19, 1960 after pressure on Calif. gov. (1959-67) Pat Brown by J. Edgar Hoover, the U. of Calif. regents retract the following question from its Subject A aptitude test for high school applicants: "What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police organization, like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive to public criticism" - duh, assassinations and coverups?

On May 2, 1960 St. Joseph, Mich.-born "Red Light Bandit" rapist and best-selling author (of "Cell 2455, Death Row") Caryl Whittier Chessman (b. 1921) (convicted of 17 counts of robbery, kidnapping, and rape, but not murder), who was railroaded under the Calif. version of the Little Lindbergh Law (which makes a capital offense out of kidnapping with any kind of "bodily harm", and which was repealed in 1955, after which other death row inmates except him were converted to lifers), is gassed at San Quentin Prison in Calif. after 12 years on death row and mucho worldwide publicity, during which time he became the cause celebre for anti-capital punishment forces, dooming him?; a last-minute stay of execution is ignored since the peach blossom and bitter almond cyanide fumes have already been released - checkmate?

On May 13, 1960 U. of Calif. students are barred from entering a meeting of the House Un-Am. Activities Committee (HUAC) investigating Calif. KPFA/KQED-TV broadcaster William Marx "Bill" Mandel (1917-2016) in San Francisco's city hall, and it turns into a riot, with 12 injured and 52 arrested; on May 14 2K-5K protesters are greeted by the pigs with fire hoses; student protesting is born in San Fran. ("I was a political virgin, but I was raped on the steps of city hall"); to lead counsel Richard Arens' question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?", Mandel utters the immortal soundbyte: "Honorable beaters of children, sadists, uniformed and in plain clothes, distinguished Dixiecrat wearing the clothing of a gentleman, eminent Republican who opposes an accommodation with the one country with which we must live at peace in order for us and all our children to survive. My boy of fifteen left this room a few minutes ago in sound health and not jailed, solely because I asked him to be in here to learn something about the procedures of the United States government and one of its committees. Had he been outside where a son of a friend of mine had his head split by these goons operating under your orders, my boy today might have paid the penalty of permanent injury or a police record for desiring to come here and hear how this committee operates. If you think that I am going to cooperate with this collection of Judases, of men who sit there in violation of the United States Constitution, if you think I will cooperate with you in any way, you are insane!"

In 1961 Jewish-Am. entrepreneurs Phillip Harvey (Harvey Phillip) "Phil" Spector (1939-) and Lester Sill (1918-94) found Phillies Records (combo of Phil and Les) in Philly, soon moving to Los Angeles, Calif. and setting up Gold Star Studios at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Vine St., going on to issue He's a Rebel by the Crystals, followed by 38 more singles and 12 albums by The Crystals, The Ronettes, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, Ike Turner (1931-2007) and Tina Turner (1939-), and The Righteous Brothers, all characterized by innocence, until the arrival of the Beatles kills it by 1966; Spector develop his Wall of Sound musical production technique there with Jewish-American audio engineer Larry Levine (1928-2008), which sounds well on AM radio and jukeboxes, using large numbers of electric and acoustic guitars in parallel, plus a resonant echo chamber in the bathroom; they use the Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians that goes on to work with The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Monkees (getting them into trouble with fans), Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, The Partridge Family, John Denver et al. The 1963 album A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector features Bobby Sheen and Darlene Love, and becomes the greatest rock & roll Xmas album of all time; it features the tracks The Bells of St. Mary's, and Here Comes Santa Claus, by Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans.

On Oct. 29, 1962 The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson (1942-), Carl Wilson (1946-98), Dennis Wilson (1944-83), Mike Love (1941-), Al Jardine (1942-), David Marks (1948-), and Bruce Johnson (1942-) (four of whom are related) introduced their new cool skin-cancer-friendly mainly white Southern Calif. musical style with their hit Surfin' Safari. Album #11 Pet Sounds (May 16, 1966) becomes of the top albums of all time, featuring the hits Wouldn't It Be Nice, and Sloop John B, and God Only Knows. Their hit single Good Vibrations, releases on Oct. 10, 1966, title based on mommy telling them that dogs could sense things, was described as "a pocket symphony" by Derek Taylor; it uses the electro-Theremin AKA Tannerin. In 1968 they release the single Blue Birds Over the Mountain; ithe B-side is "Never Learn Not to Love", which they stole from the song "Cease to Exist" by guitar-playing Charlie Manson (whom Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson befriended and helped to makes a studio album, which is released in 1974), pissing him off and causing him to threaten to kill Dennis and come to his house only to get beaten-up by him. On Apr. 1, 1969 the Beach Boys sue Capitol Records for $2M in unpaid royalties, causing them to retaliate by deleting most of their titles from their catalog.

On Nov. 6, 1962 (Tues.) JFK's younger brother Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009) is elected Dem. U.S. Sen. in liberal Mass. (until Aug. 25, 2009); on Nov. 7 after losing the Calif. gov. race to gov. (since Jan. 5, 1959) Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr. (1905-96), by 300K votes after revelations that his Washington, D.C. home had been sold under restrictive covenants preventing a black or Jewish buyer, Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-94) tells reporters "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference", adding "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more"; Howard K. Smith of ABC-TV presents the documentary The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon, which incl. an interview with Nixon's nemesis Alger Hiss, pissing-off sponsors, who cause his show (since 1962) "Howard K. Smith: News and Comment" to be canceled, and the new show "ABC News Reports" to replace it in 1963-4 - I like to lick dick not kick dick?

On Dec. 10 1962 Salinas, Calif.-born novelist John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (1902-68) is awarded the Nobel Lit. Prize "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"; most of his work is set in the Salinas Valley and Coast Ranges of C Calif.; chosen as the best of a poor list of candidates incl. Jean Anouilh, Karen Blixen, Lawrence Durrell, and Robert Graves; the New York Times disses him as an author whose "limited talent is, in his best books, watered down by tenth-rate philosophising."

In 1962 the San Diego, Calif.-based vocal group The Cascades (formerly the Silver Strands and the Thundernotes), incl. John Claude Gummoe (1938-) (vocals), Eddie Snyder (guitar), Von Lynch (keyboards), Ronald Lynch (keyboards, sax), Dave Stevens (bass), and Dave Szabo (drums) release their 1-hit wonder Rhythm of the Rain (#3 in the U.S.).

Also in 1962 the 1-hit wonder The Rivingtons, a black doowop group from Calif., incl. Carl White (1933-80) (lead vocals), Al Frazier (-2005) (tenor), John "Sonny" Harris (baritone), and Turner "Rocky" Wilson Jr. (bass) release their novelty hit Papa Oom Mow Mow (#48 in the U.S.), followed by The Bird's the Word, produced by Kim Fowley (1939-).

On Mar. 9, 1963 after getting pulled over for having no rear license plate light, petty thieves Gregory Ulas "Greg" Powell (1933-2012) and Jimmy Lee "Youngblood" Smith (1929-2007) (AKA Jimmy Youngblood) kidnap then murder police officer Ian James Campbell (-1963) and attempt the murder of his partner Karl Francis Hettinger (1934-94) in the Onion Field Killing near Bakersfield, Calif., who rabbits; they are tried on July 15-Sept. 12, and given the death sentence, which is reduced to life after Powell becomes a jailhouse lawyer, filing appeals until he gets out after 19 years; meanwhile Hettinger is scorned by fellow officers for letting the punks get the better of him, and he resigns from the LAPD in 1966, suffering from guilt and PTSD; subject of the 1973 novel "The Onion Field" by Joseph Wambaugh, and a 1979 film starring James Woods as Powell.

On Mar. 21, 1963 (first day of er, spring?) Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, Calif. is closed after 29 years by order of U.S. atty.-gen. Robert F. Kennedy; Marion Federal Penitentiary in Williamson County 9 mi. S of Marion, Ill. and 120 mi. SE of St. Louis, Mo. opens to replace Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary; on Oct. 22, 1983 violence forces a long-term lockdown, making it the first control unit in the U.S., with 22-23 hours/day of solitary confinement (until 2006).

On Sept. 13, 1963 after environmentalist efforts to stop it fail, the last bucket of concrete is poured on the 710-ft.-tall 1.3M KW Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River on the Ariz.-Utah border above the Grand Canyon (begun 1956) to form Lake Powell (named after Civil War vet John Wesley Powell, who explored the Colorado River in 1869), causing complaints about losing the canyon, side canyons, flow to the Grand Canyon etc. in order to light up Sin City Las Vegas, Nev. and irrigate desert golf courses; First Lady Lady Bird Johnson dedicates it on Sept. 22, 1966; over 1M acre ft. of water ends up wasted annually by evaporation and seepage from the desert lake, while historically the Colo. River has busted through much bigger lava dams?

In 1963 after spending the 1950s in and out of priz, then getting out of priz in 1960 and going straight, Oildale, Calif.-born Bakersfield sound pioneer Merle Ronald "Hag" Haggard (1937-2016) releases his first hit Sing A Sad Song by Wynn Stewart (#19 country). In 1965 he marries Buck Owens' Blanchard, Okla.-born ex-wife Bonnie Owens (nee Campbell) (1929-2006) (until 1978) after she is named 1965 female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music, becoming his singing partner. His debut duet album with Bonnie Owens (Just Between the Two of Us) (Sept. 6, 1966) (#9 country) (Capitol Records) features Just Between the Two of Us (w/Bonnie Owens) (by Liz Anderson) (#28 country). His debut album Strangers (Sept. 6, 1965) (#9 country) (Capitol Records) features (All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers (w/Bonnie Owens) (by Liz Anderson) (#10 country), causing him to name his backing group The Strangers. Album #2 Swinging Doors (Oct. 3, 1966) (#1 country) features Swinging Doors (#5 country), and The Bottle Let Me Down (#3 country). Album #3 I'm A Lonesome Fugitive (Mar. 4, 1967) (#3 country) (#165 in the U.S.) features I'm A Lonesome Fugitive (#1 country) Album #4 Branded Man (Aug. 28, 1967) features Branded Man (#1 country), and I Threw Away the Rose (#2 country). Album #5 Sing Me Back Home (Jan. 2, 1968) (#1 country) features Sing Me Back Home (#1 country). Album #6 The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde (Apr. 8, 1968) (#6 country) features The Legend of Bonnie Clyde (co-written by Bonnie Owens) (#1 country). Album #7 Mama Tried (Oct. 3, 1968) (#4 country) features Mama Tried (#1 country). Album #8 Pride in What I Am (Feb. 3, 1969) (#11 country) (#189 in the U.S.) features I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am (#3 country. Album #9 Same Train, Different Time (1969) features covers of Jimmie Ridgers songs. Album #10 A Portrait of Merle Haggard (Sept. 2, 1969) (#3 country) (#99 in the U.S.) features Workin' Man Blues (#1 country), and Hungry Eyes (#1 country). Album #11 Okie from Muskogee (Dec. 29, 1969) (#1 country) (#46 in the U.S.) features Okie from Muskogee (#1 country), a big counter-hippie hit for rednecks; "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee,/ We don't take our trips on LSD,/ We don't burn our draft cards down on main street/ We like living right and being free/ We don't make a party out of lovin'/ We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo/ We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy/ Like the hippies out in San Francisco do/ I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee/ A place where even squares can have a ball/ We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse/ And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all/ Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear,/ Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen,/ Football's still the roughest thing on campus,/ And the kids here still respect the college dean." Introducing My Friends the Strangers (Apr. 6, 1970) (#34 country) features Street Singer (#9 country) (#124 in the U.S.). Album #12 The Fightin' Side of Me (1970) (#1 country) features The Fightin' Side of Me (#1 country) (#92 in the U.S.), and Medley of Impersonations. Album #13 A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (My Salute to Bob Wills) (1970) features six remaining members of The Texas Playboys. Album #14 Hag (Apr. 22, 1971) (#1 country) (#66 in the U.S.) features Jesus, Take a Hold (#3 country) (#107 in the U.S.), I Can't Be Myself (When I'm With You) (#3 country) (#106 in the U.S.), Soldier's Last Letter (#3 country) (#90 in the U.S.), and Sidewalks of Chicago. Album #15 Someday We'll Look Back (Aug. 9, 1971) (#4 country) (#108 in the U.S.) features Someday We'll Look Back (#2 country), and Carolyn (#1 country). Album #16 Let Me Tell You About a Song (June 1972) (#7 country) (#166 in the U.S.) features Grandma Harp (#1 country), and Daddy Frank (Guitar Man) (#1 country). Album #17 It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) (Dec. 1972) (#1 country) features It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) (#1 country). Album #18 Merle Haggard's Christmas Present (Nov. 1973) (#4 country) features If We Make It Through December (#1 country) (#28 in the U.S.), which becomes a recession anthem. Album #19 If We Make It Through December (Feb. 1974) (#4 country) (#190 in the U.S.) features you guessed it. Album #20 Merle Haggard Presents His 30th Album (Aug. 1974) (#1 country), which features Album #21 Keep Movin' On (Apr. 1975) (#1 country) (#129 in the U.S.) features Movin' On (from the TV series), and Kentucky Gambler (by Dolly Parton). Album #22 It's All in the Movies (Feb. 1976) (#1 country) features It's All in the Movies, and The Seeker (by Dolly Parton). Album #23 My Love Affair with Trains (July 1976) features My Love Affair with Trains (by Dolly Parton) (#7 country), and Here Comes the Freedom Train (by Stephen H. Lemberg). Album #24 The Roots of My Raising (Nov. 1976) (#8 country), which features The Roots of My Raising (#1 country), and Cherokee Maiden (#1 country). Album #25 Ramblin' Fever (May 1977) (MCA Records) (#5 country) features Ramblin' Fever. Album #26 A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today (Sept. 1977) (#28 country) (Capitol Records) features A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today, and Making Believe (by Jimmy Work). Album #27 My Farewell to Elvis (Oct. 1977) (#6 country) (#133 in the U.S.) (MCA Records) features From Graceland to the Promised Land (#4 country). Album #28 I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall (June 1978) (#17 country) features I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall (by Chuck Howard). In 1978 he and his Vienna, Mo.-born 2nd wife (1978-83) Leona Williams (Leona Belle Helton) (1943-) release The Bull and the Beaver (#8 country). Album #29 Serving 190 Proof (May 18, 1979) (#17 country) features Heaven Was A Drink of Wine (#4 country), I Must Have Done Something Bad (#4 country), My Own Kind of Hat (#4 country), and Red Bandana (#4 country). Album #30 The Way I Am (Apr. 1980) (#16 country) features The Way I Am (#2 country). Album #31 Back to the Barrooms (Oct. 10, 1980) (#8 country) features Misery and Gin (#10 country) (from the 1980 film Bronco Billy). Album #32 Songs for the Mama that Tried (Sept. 1981) (#46 country) (MCA Records) eatures When God Comes and Gathers His Jewels (by Hank Williams Sr.). Album #33 Big City (Epic Records) (#3 country) (#161 in the U.S.) (500K copies) features Big City (#1 country), My Favorite Memory (#1 country), Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver) (#2 country). Album #34 A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (with George Jones) (Aug. 1982) (#4 country) (#123 in the U.S.) features Yesterday's Wine (#1 country), and C.C. Waterback (#10 country). Album #35 Going Where the Lonely Go (Nov. 1982) (#3 country) features Going Where the Lonely Go (#1 country), and You Take Me for Granted (by Leona Williams) (#1 country). The duet album Pancho & Lefty (Jan. 1983) (#1 country) (#37 in the U.S.) with Willie Nelson is their breakthrough album; it features Pancho & Lefty (by Townes Van Zandt) (#1 country), and Reasons to Quit (#6 country). Album #38 That's the Way Love Goes (Aug. 1983) (#8 country) features That's the Way Love Goes (#1 country), Someday when Things Are Good (#1 country), and What Am I Gonna Do (With the Rest of My Life) (#55 country). Album #39 It's All in the Game (1984) (#1 country) features It's All in the Game. In 1984 he releases the single A Place to Fall Apart (w/Janie Fricke) (#1 country). In 1987 Haggard releases his 38th #1 hit. In 1994 the album Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard is released. He goes on to release 76 studio albums and 96 singles incl. 38 #1s.

On May 17, 1964 (6:49 a.m.) Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near Danville, Calif., killing all 41 passengers and three crew aboard; the cockpit recorder indicates that the pilot and copilot were shot by a suicidal passenger.

On Oct. 1, 1964 the Berkeley Free Speech Movement (FSM) is launched at the U. of Calif. at Berkeley (UCB) by physics student Mario Savio (1943-96) when police arrest CORE volunteer Jack Weinberg (1940-) for setting up an unauthorized table to distribute political material in Sproul Plaza then failing to show an ID, and 3K students surround the police car in a standoff that lasts 32 hours; on Dec. 2 Savio makes a speech on behalf of the FSM that causes hundreds of students to take over Sproul Hall in Berkeley, incl. then soundbyte: "There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies on the gears, and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop"; on Dec. 3 police move in and arrest 780 (largest mass arrest in U.S. history so far), causing a student strike and protest rally on Dec. 4 by 10K, with speakers incl. Willie Brown and John Burton, after which on Dec. 8 the UC academic senate passes resolutions affirming the rights of students to participate in political activity, causing the regents on Dec. 18 to forbid Vietnam War protests on school property; next Mar. 12 the San Francisco FBI sends a secret 33-page report on Savio to the main HQ.

In 1964 the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) (The Brand) Neo-Nazi white supremacist gang is founded in San Quentin State Prison in Calif. by Irish-Am. bikers in reaction to the Black Panthers, with the motto "Kill or be killed"; their logo is a shamrock and swastika.

In 1964 the IBM Aerospace Bldg. in Los Angeles, Calif. designed by Eliot Fette Noyes (1910-77) (designer of the IBM Selectric Typewriter) is completed; Noyes goes on to design the IBM bldg. in Garden City, N.Y. (1966), the IBM Pavilion Hemisfair in San Antonio, Tex. (1968), and the IBM Mgt. Development Center in Aramonk, N.Y. (1980); meanwhile he designs a new look for Mobile gas stations.

In Mar. 1965 the New York City-based folk rock vocal group The Mamas and the Papas, one of the first unisex bands, named after the women of the Hell's Angels, originally The Magic Circle, from New York City, incl. "Papa" John Edmund Andrew Phillips (1935-2001) and Michelle Phillips (nee Gilliam) (1944-) (both of The New Journeymen),and Dennis Gerrard Stephen "Denny" Doherty (1940-2007) and "Mama" Cass Elliot (Ellen Naomi Cohen) (1941-74) (both of The Mugwumps) release their debut single Go Where You Wanna Go, which fails to chart; in Dec. they release their first hit California Dreamin' (#4 in the U.S., #23 in the U.K.). In Mar. 1966 they release their debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (only #1 album in the U.S., #3 in the U.K.); the cover features a toilet, which is considered obscene, causing a scroll reading "California Dreamin'" to be inserted over it; way better in the vocals dept. than the Beatles?; incl. California Dreamin' (#4 in the U.S., #23 in the U.K.), Monday, Monday, I Call Your Name. Album #2 The Mamas and the Papas (Sept. 1966) (#4 in the U.S., #24 in the U.K.) features And I Saw Her Again, Words of Love, Dancing in the Street, and Dancing Bear. Album #3 The Mamas and the Papas Deliver (Feb. 1967) (#2 in the U.S.), referring to unmarries Mama Cass' baby Owen features Dedicated to the One I Love (by Ralph Bass and Lowman Pauling) (#2 in the U.S.), Creeque Alley (#5 in the U.S.), Look Through My Window (#24 in the U.S.), My Girl (by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White), Sing for Your Supper, Twist and Shout; Glad to Be Unhappy. Album #4 (last) The Papas & the Mamas (May 1968) (#15 in the U.S.) features Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon), Safe in My Garden, Dream a Little Dream of Me, For the Love of Ivy, and Gemini Childe. They break up after a trip to London where John Phillips insults Cass Elliott in front of Mick Jagger and she quits; they first return to finish the album, and appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in summer 1968, after which they officially split in July 1968 after releasing five studio albums and 17 singles incl. six top-10 singles, selling a total of 40M records worldwide; John and Michelle divorce in 1970, after which she marries Dennis Hopper on Oct. 31-Nov. 8, 1970 (8 days).

In June 1965 country singer Johnny Cash (1932-2003) starts a forest fire in Los Padres Nat. Forest Calif. when his truck's wheel bearing overheats, burning 508 acres and driving off 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors, getting him sued by the federal govt., which is awarded $125,172, reduced to $82,001 in a settlement, with Cash uttering the soundbyte: "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards."

During summer 1965 several hundred protesters try to stop Vietnam troop trains on the Santa Fe tracks in West Berkeley, Calif.; in Oct. after a silent vigil on Mar. 19-23, 10K+ stage a march from the Berkeley campus to the Oakland Army Terminal.

Assume the position, suckah? On Aug. 11-16, 1965 after two black youths clash with the Calif. Highway Patrol, the Watts Riots (worst race riots since 1943 Detroit?) begin in the 98% black Watts section of South Los Angeles, Calif. (only five black cops in a 205-man force), causing 34 deaths, 857 injured, 2.2K arrested, and $50M-$200M in property damage; it all starts when white that's-me-in-the-leather-jacket-and-tight-shoes Calif. Highway Patrol (CHiPS) officer Lee W. Minikus stops black driver Marquette (Ronald) Frye (1944-86) (who had been drinking vodka and orange juice) at the corner of Avalon Blvd. and Imperial Hwy. during the 4th day of a heat wave, and his mommy shows up and jumps the honky as he tries to arrest her son and force him into his car, allegedly brutally beating him; rumors begin that the pigs had hit a pregnant woman in the belly with a club and/or tried to choke her, causing a mob to form by 10 p.m, and at 11 p.m. 2K pissed-off blacks begin roving and looting; on Aug. 12 at 7:45 p.m. the riots resume, and black comedian Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (1932-2017) is wounded in the leg as he tours with a bullhorn begging for order; on Aug. 13 at 10 a.m. two white salesmen are attacked, followed by a white pig wounding a black looter at 11 a.m., causing 20K Nat. Guard troops to arrive by the afternoon as 5K rioters roam a 150-block area throwing Molotov cocktails; at 9:40 p.m. a sheriff's deputy is mortally wounded, followed by three more deaths; looters ignore signs on stores reading "Owned by a Brother"; on Aug. 14 snipers begin picking off soldiers and pigs, and the Nat. Guard force is increased to 14K, with a curfew imposed; the riots end on Aug. 16 after six days; on Aug. 18 police arrest 35 blacks after a gunfight at a Black Muslim mosque.

On Sept. 7, 1965 the Delano Grape Strike in Calif. of downtrodden Filipino grape workers begins (ends July 1970), with the AFL-CIO affiliated Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee demanding federal min. wage and decent working conditions; on Sept. 19 Cesar Chavez and the Mexican, er, Nat. Farm Workers Assoc. join, spreading to 2K workers, after which a nat. grape boycott puts on the screws; it finally ends in July 1970 after five years with a collective bargaining agreement covering 10K farm workers. On Sept. 9 French pres. Charles de Gaulle has de gall to announce that France is withdrawing from NATO in protest of U.S. domination; meanwhile Socialist

On Oct. 10, 1965 up-and-coming Repub. leader, former B-movie actor Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) gives a speech at Coalinga Junior College in Calif., calling for an official declaration of war in Vietnam - in Vietnam his job was to kill, period?

On Jan. 4, 1966 former "Bedtime for Bonzo" B-movie actor and "Death Valley Days" host Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) (who supported Barry Goldwater in 1964) announces his candidacy for Repub. gov. of Calif., promising to "clean up the mess in" Bonzo, er, "Berkeley"; his press secy. is Calif.-born journalist Franklyn C. "Lyn" Nofziger (1924-2006); on Jan. 9 he appears on Meet the Press and is asked why he has not disavowed the John Bonzo, er, Birch Society, replying that a committee had looked into the group and found Bonzo, er, "nothing of a subversive nature".

On Oct. 15, 1966 Monroe, La.-born Huey Percy Newton (1942-89) and Liberty, Tex.-born Robert George "Bobby" Seale (1936-) found the rev. Socialist Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, Calif., with the motto "Power to the people"; too, blacks decide to exclude whites (esp. liberal Jews) from the U.S. civil rights movement, causing Jewish orgs. in the U.S. to stop representing Am. Jewish interests in favor of backing Israel; it becomes defunct in 1982.

On Oct. 30, 1966 the Zodiac Killer murders his first female college student in Riverside, Calif.; the police later claim that the first confirmed killing isn't until Dec. 20, 1968; he goes on to kill up to 28-38 in the Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco area by Oct. 1969 while sending taunting letters to the press that incl. four cryptograms, incl. the soundbyte ""[killing] gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl" - not too late for 666 zombie points? On Dec. 20, 1968 the Wing Walker boot-wearing Zodiac Killer murders teenie lovers David Arthur Faraday (17) and Betty Lou Jensen (16) in their car on lover's lane in Lake Herman Road in Benicia, Calif. with a .22-cal semi-auto pistol, becoming the first of up to 37 murders in N Calif. that the police attribute to him by Oct. 1969, confirming seven victims (four men, three women), of whom two survive; he gets his jollies by sending letters to the Bay Area Press containing four cryptograms, only one of which is solved; he isn't caught until ?.

On Jan. 2, 1967 Tampico, Ill.-born Hollywood B-actor Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) is sworn-in as Repub. gov. #33 of Calif. (until Jan. 6, 1975), promising to "reduce the cost of government", starting with the U. of Calif., whose budget he cuts by 10% while proposing charging tuition, causing pres. Clark Kerry to freeze admissions; three weeks later the regents dismiss him, causing him to later utter the soundbyte: "All that effort, all that passion, all that turmoil was mostly for naught."

On Aug. 18, 1967 Calif. gov. Ronald Reagan calls for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam because "too many qualified targets have been put off-limits to bombing".

Another great American what-if? On June 4, 1968 U.S. pres. candidate (D.-N.Y.) Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (b. 1925) wins the Calif. Dem. pres. primary, beating Eugene McCarthy (Hubert Humphrey was not entered) and giving him a total of 174 delegate votes, incl. those won in Ind. and Neb., and his loss in Ore.; too bad, on June 5 (Wed.) (12:50 a.m. PDT) he is shot as he exits through the kitchen after a campaign speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif. (opened in 1921) (where he stands beside UFW leader Dolores Huerta, and utters the soundbyte "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it") by Jerusalem-born Jordanian Christian Sirhan Bishara "Sol" Sirhan (1944-), who lived in the U.S. since the 1950s; he dies 26 hours later on June 6 in Good Samaritan Hospital; singer Andy Williams (a friend of the Kennedy family) is present at the speech, and Bobby had asked him to be a delegate for him even though he is a Repub.; RFK's bodyguards incl. Rafer Johnson and Rosey Grier; Sirhan uses a snub-nose 8-shot .22-cal. Iver-Johnson revolver (Model 55SA), given to him by his big brother Munir "Joe" Sirhan, an employee at Nash's Dept. Store, originally purchased for $31.95 in Aug. 1965 by a Los Angeles resident for protection during the Watts Riots; Sirhan receives the death sentence, which is commuted to life in priz in 1972 when the Calif. Supreme Court invalidates the death penalty; in 2006 he comes up for parole at a time when gov. Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger is married to Maria Shriver, daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, RFK's sister, and is denied; singer Rosemary Clooney is present at the assassination; ABC-TV journalist Howard K. Smith is anchoring coverage of the Calif. pres. primary at 3 a.m. as the closing credits are airing when word comes in of the shooting, causing him to leave the camera showing a wide shot of the newsroom for several min. while he goes backstage to confirm the story and return with a special report, continuing to air reports of RFK's condition for several hours; the RFK assassination turns Jackie Kennedy against the U.S., with the soundbyte: "I hate this country. I despise America and I don't want my children to live here anymore. If they're killing Kennedys, my children are number one targets... I want to get out of this country"; singer Bobby Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto) (1936-73) is present during the assassination, and later this year discovers that he had been brought up by his grandparents, not his parents, and that the girl he thought was his sister was actually his mother, freaking him out and sending him into a long period of seclusion; was the CIA behind the assassination because the fatal shot came from behind RFK, perhaps from security guard Eugene Cesar, while Sirhan was standing in front, and they couldn't let RFK become pres. and figure out that they were behind the muddah of his bruddah?; 11 bullets were found that supposedly came from Sirhan's 8-bullet gun?; the coroner found powder burns on RFK's ear next to the fatal shot in the back of his head and testified that the gun had to be only 2-3 in. away for that effect, but that Sirhan fired his pistol in front of RFK and was 3-6 ft. away?; an expert on hypnotism hypnotizes Sirhan in prison, and says he could have been programmed under hypnotism prior to the assassination?; how did Sirhan know that RFK would be sneaking through the pantry?; Bobby's brother Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009) becomes the target of constant death threats, incl. a $1M reward offered by Sirhan Sirhan to a jailmate to kill him (which he declines), causing him to delay his run for U.S. pres. for 12 years; liberal Jewish-Am. U.S. rep. (D-N.Y. (1969-71) Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (1929-80) later exposes the anomalous forensic evidence on William F. Buckley Jr.'s PBS-TV show Firing Line in 1975.

On Sept. 21, 1968 (Sat.) the Los Angeles, Calif. cop series Adam-12 (Adam precinct, car 12), starring Martin Sam Milner (1931-2015) and Kent Franklin McCord (1942-) debuts on NBC-TV for 174 episodes (until May 20, 1975), helping the U.S. TV public know that their cops are square, honest and hip too, and mostly white; on Sept. 26 copycat Hawaii Five-O debuts for 278 episodes (until Apr. 26, 1980) on CBS-TV with Brooklyn-born actor Jack Lord (John Joseph Patrick Ryan) (1920-98) as Detective Steve "Book 'em, Dano" McGarrett (HQ in 'Iolani Palace) (after Richard Boone, who persuades Leonard Freeman to film exclusively in Hawaii rather than in S Calif. bugs out), and James Gordon MacArthur (1937-) as his partner Dan "Danno" Williams, who try to prove that paradise doesn't spoil cops?; Det. Chin Ho Kelly, played by Kam Fong (1918-2002) does ballistics testing; the longest-running U.S. crime TV show until "Law & Order" in 2003; the Hawaii Five-O Theme (Walk Don't Run) by the Ventures becomes a hit.

On Nov. 6, 1968 the Third World Liberation Front supported by the SDA, Black Panthers, and students at San Francisco State College strike, demanding open admission and a Third World (Ethnic) (Black) Studies Dept., causing the college to close on Nov. 19; on Nov. 26 after pres. Robert R. Smith resigns, Vancouver, B.C., Canada-born Japanese-descent English prof. (since 1955) Samuel Ichiye "S.I." Hayakawa (1906-92) is appointed acting pres of the college, followed by permanent pres. next July 1969 (until July 10, 1973); on Dec. 6 after pulling the wires from loud speakers on the protesters' van at an outdoor rally, Hayakawa relents and creates the first College of Ethnic Studies in the U.S. after reopening the campus on Dec. 2, then closes it early for the Christmas vacation to avoid having high school students join the protest; the strike ends next Mar. 21.

On May 15, 1969 ("Bloody Thursday") police storm People's Park in Berkeley, Calif., some land owned by the Univ. of Calif. which had been turned into a park by students; on May 16 day Calif. Gov. Ronald Reagan calls in the Nat. Guard, railing against sympathetic faculty members; after more riots, the Univ. of Calif. Regents vote on June 20 to turn the park into a parking lot and soccer field - they paved paradise and created a what?

On July 27, 1969 Santa Barbara, Calif.-born Manson Family associate Robert Kenneth "Bobby" Beausoleil (1947-) stabs music teacher Gary Hinman to death for failing to pay money owned the Manson Family for a mescaline transaction, and is given a life sentence; Charles Manson slices off part of his ear with a sword before ordering the murder; it was intended as the first of a series of murders by the Manson Family to spark Helter Skelter, and was staged to look like the Black Panthers did it?

On Aug. 8, 1969 (eve.) 8-mo.-pregnant actress Sharon Marie Tate (Polanski) (b. 1943) (wife of movie dir. Roman Polanski) and four other people, Hollywood hair stylist Jay Sebring (b. 1931), coffee heiress Abigail Folger (b. 1943), her common-law hubby Vojciech "Voytek" Frykowski (b. 1936), and delivery boy Steven Parent (b. 1951) are brutally murdered (Parent is shot and the rest stabbed a total of 100x) in her Bel-Air, Los Angeles home in Benedict Canyon at 10050 Cielo Dr. (formerly owned by record exec Terry Melcher (1942-2004), son of Doris Day (1924-), who had refused to record an album for Cincinnati, Ohio-born self-described Flower Power singer-songwriter (hey-hey-I'm-a-Monkee-wannabe) Charles Milles "Charlie" Manson (nee Maddox) (1934-2017) (who has done plenty of hard time, but was let out, allowing him to portray himself as a guru in San Fran's Haight-Ashbury district during the 1967 Summer of Love, while he picked up hippie women then used his study of Scientology and its psycho-babble to hypnotize them, helped by his super sexual stamina that turned them into sexual slaves), and saw him there when he was shacking up with girlfriend Candice Bergen) during a party by uninvited Manson Family members Charles Denton "Tex" Watson (1945-) (a religiously-raised boy who was picked up hitchhiking by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and taken home, where he meets Manson), Susan Atkins (1948-2009) (who starred in "Witches Sabbath" by Anton Szandor LaVey), Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel (1947-), and Leslie Louise Van Houten (1949-); Atkins writes "Pig" on the front door in blood; novelist Jerzy Kosinski (1933-91) (invited by Frykowski) misses his plane (and the party), later writing the novel Blind Date about the close call; on Aug. 10 wealthy married business people Leno LaBianca (b. 1925) and Rosemary LaBianca (b. 1931) are murdered in their Los Angeles home; this time "Death to Pigs" (Pigz) is written in blood on a wall, and "Helter Skelter" on the refrigerator door, referring to a song in the Beatles' White Album which Charlie Manson thinks prophesies a race war in which the blacks will kill all whites; on Oct. 12 the Tate-La Bianca Murders are traced to Charles Manson and three female members of his Manson Family, who are arrested while holing up in the Barker Ranch house in the Panamint Mts. of Calif. W of Death Valley, and who are later given death sentences (later reduced to life imprisonment); after the arrests hippies in the Los Angeles area can no longer count on hitchhiking. In 1974 Hibbing, Minn.-born Manson Family prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. (1934-2015) and Lamar, Colo.-born Curtis Marsena "Curt" Gentry (1931-2014) pub. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, which claims there is no conspiracy and it's a simple slam dunk case for a prosecutor of his caliber in this 1.5M-word 1,612-page book, devoting much space attempting to shred conspiracy theorists; "The case is a very simple case" - or your mind is a very simple case?

On Dec. 6, 1969 the Rolling Stones appear at a free rock concert at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore (near San Francisco), Calif. before 300K fans, hiring the Hells Angels for security (big mistake); too bad, after "Woodstock West" gets out of control, the Angels strike back with pool cues, and four die, incl. Meredith Hunter (b. 1951), a high-on-meth black teen in a turquoise suit who is kicked and stabbed to death by Hell's Angels as he tries to reach the stage allegedly holding a handgun.

In 1969 Houston, Tex.-born Raymond Lee Washington (1953-79) and Shreveport, La.-born black stud Stanley Tookie Williams III (1953-2005) found the Baby Avenues black gang in South Central Los Angeles, Calif., which is renamed the Crips (originally Cribs), soon getting into bloody battles with the rival Bloods black gang for control of the drug trade, and expanding across the U.S.; meanwhile in 1971 two U.S. congressmen visit Vietnam, and report that 10% of U.S. servicemen (up to 16% of whom are black) are addicted to heroin, causing Pres. Nixon to announce in June 1971 that his admin. will give drugs top priority, with emphasis on treatment centers.

On July 17-23, 1970 6K Teamster drivers and packing workers in the Salinas Valley of Calif. strike, preventing delivery of the summer lettuce crop to consumers and causing prices to triple, pissing-off the United Farm Workers (UFW); on Aug. 23 the Salad Bowl Strike by 5K-7K UFW workers against the Teamsters begins, doubling the price of lettuce again, after which in Sept. the UFW asks consumers to boycott non-UFW-picked lettuce, leading to the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history (until ?); on Dec. 4 UFW leader Caesar Chavez is arrested by federal marshals (his first arrest), and after being visited by RFK's widow Ethel Kennedy and Olympic star Rafer Johnson he is released on Dec. 23, and calls for more strikes; the strike ends next Mar. 26 with a new jurisdictional agreement between the UFW and Teamsters, but their mutual animosity continues.

On Feb. 9, 1971 (6:00:41 a.m. PST) the 6.5-6.7 San Fernando (Sylmar) Earthquake in Calif. kills 58-65 and injures 200-2K, becoming the inspiration for the 1974 film "Earthquake".

On Sept. 16, 1971 (Thur.) the legal drama series Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law debuts on ABC-TV for 69 episodes (until Aug. 14, 1974), starring Arthur Edward Spence Hill (1922-2006) as compassionate Santa Barbara, Calif. defense atty. Owen Marshall, David Soul (David Richard Solberg) (1943-) as asst. Ted Warrick, Reni Santoni (1939-) as asst. Danny Paterno, and Lee Majors (Harvey Lee Yeary) (1939-) as asst. Jess Brandon.

On Jan. 15, 1972 (Sat.) Jack Webb's and Robert A. Cinader's Emergency! debuts on NBC-TV for 129 episodes (until May 28, 1977)), based on the 1971 Calif. Wedworth-Townsend Pilot Paramedic Act making Los Angeles County the first in Calif. with paramedics, starring Randolph Mantooth (1945-) (of Seminole descent) as Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 51 paramedic Johnny Gage, and Anglo actor Kevin Tighe (Jon Kevin Fushborn) (1944-) as his partner Roy De Soto, plus Robert Wesley "Bobby" Troup Jr. (1918-99) (composer of the 1946 song "Route 66") as neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Early, Troup's wife Julie London (nee Peck) (1926-2000) (known for her sultry singing) as nurse Dixie McCall, and "Jess Harper in Laramie" star Robert "Bob" Fuller (Leonard Leroy "Buddy" Lee) (1933-) as Dr. Kelly Brackett.

On Feb. 18, 1972 the Calif. Supreme Court strikes down the state's death penalty, giving death row inmates life sentences - did the law get a fair trial before being executed?

On Apr. 19, 1972 the U.S. Supreme (Burger) Court rules 4-3 in Sierra Club v. Morton to reject a lawsuit by the Sierra Club seeking to block the development of a ski resort in Mineral King Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mts. because it has no standing under the U.S. Administrative Procedure Act; Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William Rehnquist recuse themselves; dissenting Justice William O. Doulas writes the soundbyte that trees should be granted legal personhood, allowing them to sue for their own protection; after the court hints that the Sierra Club can amend their complaint based on club outings in the valley, they do it on June 23, causing Calif. gov. Ronald Reagan to withdraw support for the project in Aug., and the project is never developed.

In 1972 the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders of female hitchhikers in North Bay, Calif. begin, with the nude victims found in embankments and creed beds, stopping at seven next year; they are unsolved until ?.

In 1972 the space-age 853-ft. (260m) 48-story Transamerica Pyramid Bldg. at 600 Montgomery St. in San Francisco, Calif. is completed, designed by Am. architect William Leonard Pereira (1909-85), whose portrait bears a striking resemblance to Hollywood actor Richard Tiffany Gere (1949-)?

On May 29, 1973 Thomas J. Tom" Bradley (1917-98) is elected as the first black mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (#38), defeating incumbent Sam Yorty and being sworn-in on July 1 (until July 1, 1993).

On June 5, 1973 Doris A. Davis (1935-) becomes the first African-Am. woman to govern a city in a major U.S. metro area when she is elected mayor of Compton, Los Angeles, Calif. (until 1977); blacks succeed her until ?.

Three films gross $100M at the box office this year, "The Exorcist", "The Sting", and "American Graffiti"? On Aug. 1, 1973 George Lucas' American Graffiti debuts, a coming-of-age flick set in pre-JFK assassination 1962 in Modesto, Calif. and centered around graduation, Mel's Drive-In, a sock hop, and a drag race, rocketing dir. George Walton Lucas Jr. (1944-) to stardom, along with Ronald William "Ron" Howard (1954-) (as Steve Bolander), Richard Dreyfuss (1947-) (as Curt Henderson), Harrison Ford (1942-) (as Bob Falfa), Suzanne Somers (Suzanne Marie Mahoney) (1946-) (as blonde in white T-Bird), Cynthia Jane "Cindy" Williams (1947-) (as Laurie Henderson), Candace June "Candy" Clark (1947-) (as Old Harper and '58 Impala-loving Debbie "Deb" Dunham), Paul Le Mat (1945-) (as John Milner), and even nerdy Charles Martin Smith (1953-) (as Terry "the Toad" Fields), to the cool voice of radio disc jockey Wolfman Jack; features a sock hop with the band Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids from the U. of Colo. at Boulder, who perform At the Hop, She's So Fine, and er, Louie, Louie; the original film was 210 min. long, cut down to 112; #3 grossing film of 1973 ($115M).

On Nov. 6, 1973 the up-and-coming Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) (motto: "Death to the Fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people") assassinates black Oakland, Calif. school superintendent (since 1970) (first black) Marcus Aurelius Foster (b. 1923) and wounds his asst. after they announced a proposed student ID program. The classic case of a white babe who tastes some black and never wants to come back? On Feb. 4, 1974 19-y.-o. Am. newspaper heiress Patricia Campbell "Patty" Hearst (1954-), granddaughter of late newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) is kidnapped from her apt. in Berkeley, Calif. by two black male and one white female terrorists calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), who also beat her math tutor boyfriend (UCB philosophy grad student) Steven Weed (1957-); on Feb. 12 the SLA sends a letter to KPFA 94.1 FM Radio in Berkeley demanding $230M in free food for the poor and social justice, plus $2M in ransom; on Feb. 19 cheapo daddy Hearst announces a $2M food giveaway program called People in Need, but before it's over she joins them, adopts the name Tanya (Che Guevara's girlfriend), and on Apr. 3 announces on tape her "decision to stay"; on Apr. 3 a tape-recorded statement sent to KSAN Radio by Patty Hearst denounces her family, and says that she has decided "to stay and fight" with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) (how many times as big as she's used to?); on Apr. 15 she helps the SLA rob the Sunset Branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco of $10,960, an automatic camera at the bank taking a famous photo of Hearst (alias Tanya) holding a submachine gun; on May 16 SLA members William "Bill" Harris (1945-) and Emily Harris (Emily Montague Schwartz) (1947-) get caught shoplifting ammo at the Mel's Sporting Goods store in Inglewood, Calif., getting in a shootout with owner Bill Huett and escaping in a stolen red VW bus with driver Patty Hearst - the power of black ideals, or the ideal power of black mamba snake? On May 17, 1974 LA police and FBI agents engage in a gun battle with SLA members in the bungalow HQ, which catches fire, and six bodies are recovered, incl. William "Willie" Wolfe (Patty Hearst's lover), Nancy Ling "Fahizah" Perry (b. 1947), Angela DeAngelis "Gen. Gelina" Atwood (b. 1949), Donald "Cinque" DeFreeze (b. 1943), Patricia "Mizmoon" Soltysik (b. 1950), and Camilla Hall (b. 1945); Patty Hearst is not there; on May 22 she is formally charged in Los Angeles, Calif. with 19 crimes. On Apr. 21, 1975 members of the SLA rob the Crocker Nat. Bank in Carmichael (suburb of Sacramento), Calif., during which Emily Harris shoots and kills 42-y.-o. Myrna Opsahl (b. 1932), a mother of four depositing money for her church, and Patty Hearst drives the getaway car, later fingering Kathleen Ann Soliah (1947-) for kicking a pregnant woman in the abdomen and causing a miscarriage; on Aug. 21 Soliah and other members of the SLA place a pipe bomb under a parked police car at an Internat. House of Pancakes restaurant on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, Calif., plus another in front of a police dept. 1 mi. away; after being profiled on "America's Most Wanted", she is finally apprehended on June 16, 1999 under the assumed name Sara Jane Olson in St. Paul. Minn. after having pub. the cookbook "Serving Time: America's Most Wanted Recipes", and receives two consecutive 10-life terms, reduced to 14 years, after which she pleads guilty to the Myrna Opsahl murder and gets another 6 years, and is paroled on Mar. 17, 2008, rearrested, then paroled again on Mar. 17, 2009. On Sept. 18, 1975 Patty Hearst and Wendy Yoshimura are arrested by the FBI in San Francisco in the kitchen of their apt.; Hearst wets her pants during the arrest; on the same day Emily and William Harris are arrested while jogging to the same apt. at Precita Ave.; Hearst is convicted of bank robbery and serves over 22 mo. in federal prison, when Pres. Carter commutes her sentence in 1979.

On Sept. 13, 1974 (Fri.) the police drama Police Woman debuts on NBC-TV for 91 episodes (until Mar. 29, 1978), starring big-chested blonde babe Angie Dickinson (Angeline Brown) (1931-) as Sgt. Leann Pepper Anderson, an undercover cop working for the LAPD; Henry Earl Holliman (1928-) plays her boss Sgt. William "Bill" Crowley.

On Sept. 13, 1974 (Fri.) the detective series The Rockford Files debuts on NBC-TV for 122 episodes (until Jan. 10, 1980), starring "Maverick" star James Garner (1928-) as charismatic "$200 a day plus expenses" James Scott "Jim" Rockford, his dilapidated mobile home-office in Malibu, Calif., his answering machine, and an agile Pontiac Firebird; an ex-con pardoned from San Quentin for a wrongful conviction for armed robbery, he prefers closed criminal cases (no domestic cases) to avoid dealing with police, except for friend Sgt. Dennis Becker, played by Joe Santos (1931-); also stars Noah Beery Jr. (1913-94) (nephew of Wallace Beery) as Garner's father Joseph "Rocky" Rockford; created by Roy Huggins, who produced the 1957-62 TV show "Maverick", who teams with up-and-coming Stephen Joseph Cannell (1941-2010) (rhymes with channel).

On Dec. 14, 1974 John Guillermin's The Towering Inferno (20th Cent. Fox) (Warner Bros.) (first major Hollywood studio joint feature) debuts, based on the novels "The Tower" by Richard Martin Stern and "The Glass Inferno" by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson about a San Fran skyscraper on fire, starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen leading an all-star cast incl. William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Dabney Coleman, and Jennifer Jones (last film appearance); does $139.7M box office on a $14.3M budget (highest-grossing film of 1974).

On Jan. 6, 1975 Dem. Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. (1938-), son of Calif. gov. (1959-67) Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr. becomes Calif. gov. #34 (until Jan. 3, 1983), going on to outdo Reagan in fiscal conservatism and rack up a $5B budget surplus while forsaking the 20K sq. ft. governor's mansion in Carmichael and living in a $250/mo. apt. in downtown Sacramento, driving to work in a Plymouth Satellite sedan; in 1975 he gets the depletion allowance repealed, and in 1977 sponsors the first-ever tax incentive for rooftop solar, vetoing the death penalty until the legislature overrides him. On May 3 new Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown begins a round of private meetings to resolve the issues between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union; on June 5 he announces the new Calif. Agricultural Labor Relations Act, a temporary truce in the struggle between the state's farm workers and farmers; on ? he announces "I consider Doonesbury one of my key political advisors", to attempt to shrug off artist Gary Trudeau's portrayal of him as a "flake".

On June 21/22, 1975 after breaking with Anton LaVey over the latter's denial of the existence of Satan, U.S. Army officer Michael A. Aquino (1946-) founds the Temple of Set in Santa Barbara, Calif., with the goal of invoking Satan as Set.

On Sept. 5, 1975 (Fri.) (10:04 a.m.) Charles Manson sex slave disciple (who lived with him during the 1969 murders, and carved an X in her forehead with other supporters during his trial) Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (1948-) pulls a .45-cal. pistol from a thigh holster and stages a mock assassination attempt on Pres. Ford as he approaches the Calif. State Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., pointing but not firing her M1911 pistol because it has four bullets in the magazine but none in the chamber; after a zany trial where she tries to represent herself, tries to call Charles Manson as a witness, throws an apple at the judge and is removed for violent outburst, she is convicted on Nov. 26, and sentenced to life on Dec. 17 in Sacramento federal court, then paroled from a Tex. prison on Aug. 14, 2009; in 1987 she escapes from a low security woman's prison in Alderwon, W. Va. to be closer to her Charlie, but is recaptured two days later; she claims she did it for the cause of environmentalism in accordance with Manson's ATWA (Air, Trees, Water, Animals) (All the Way Alive) philosophy, with the soundbyte: "I stood up and waved a gun (at Ford) for a reason, I was so relieved not to have to shoot it, but, in truth, I came to get life. Not just my life but clean air, healthy water and respect for creatures and creation." Everybody doesn't like Sara Jane? On Sept. 22, 1975 (Mon.) Charles Manson disciple (former FBI informant) Sara Jane Moore (1930-) attempts to assassinate Pres. Ford in San Francisco, Calif. outside the Westin St. Francis Hotel (bordering Union Square) with a .38-cal. Smith & Wesson pistol from 40 ft. away across the street after he leaves the English Grill, firing one shot, which is deflected, after which gay ex-U.S. Marine Oliver W. "Billy" Sipple (1941-89) knocks the gun out of her hand, after which the news that he's gay makes him a San Francisco treat for gays; the bullet hole next to one of the hotel awnings becomes a tourist attraction; she pleads guilty on Dec. 12, and on Jan. 15 becomes another lesbian-meat lifer - two misses in 17 days?

On July 15, 1976 25 school children and their bus driver in Chowchilla, Calif. are kidnapped by three young men, Richard and James Schoenfeld, and Newhall Woods; they are herded into a moving van, buried in a quarry near Livermore, and held for $5M ransom, but the children escape after 16 hours and their captors are captured within two weeks, and are sentenced to life in prison.

On Sept. 18, 1976 NASA publicly commissions the first Space Shuttle, the Enterprise at ceremonies in Palmdale, Calif., attended by seven members of the original Star Trek TV cast while the Air Force band plays the Star Trek Theme - is that like having the Fairy Godmother around?

On July 1, 1977 Los Angeles, Calif.-born gay necrophile Patrick Wayne Kennedy (1939-) is arrested, confessing to the murders of 35 young men in Calif. since 1962, becoming known as "the Freeway Killer", and "the Trash Bag Killer" from his habit of disposing of their bodies along Calif. highways, and is convicted of 21 murders and given a life sentence.

On July 24, 1977 Led Zeppelin plays their last U.S. concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Calif. (opened Sept. 18, 1966); too bad, fighting erupts between the crew and the staff of promoter Bill Graham, resulting in criminal assault charges for drummer John Bonham et al.

On Sept. 15, 1977 (Thur.) the cop show CHiPs debuts on NBC-TV for 139 episodes (until May 17, 1983), starring Larry Wilcox (1947-) as straightlaced Jonathan "Jon" Baker, and Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada (1949-) as wild Francis "Frank" "Ponch" Poncherello, Calif. Highway Patrol officers touring Los Angeles while reporting to Sgt. Joseph Getraer, played by Robert Pine (1941-); since real officers ride alone, they explain that Ponch is on probation and has to be watched over by Baker.

On Oct. 17, 1977 the Hillside Strangler(s), really Rochester, N.Y.-born Angelo Anthony Buono Jr. (1934-2002) (the brains of the outfit) and his cousin Kenneth Alessio Bianchi (1951-) murder their first victim in the Los Angeles, Calif. area, followed by nine more by Feb. 16, 1978; their modus operandi is to pose as police officers, pick them up in an unmarked car, then abuse and strangle them; on Jan. 12, 1979 after revealing to Buono that he applied to become an LAPD officer and had ridden with them searching for the Hillside Strangler, causing a death threat that makes him flee, Bianchi is arrested in Bellingham, Wash. near Seattle one day after luring two female univ. students into his house and murdering them and leaving dumb clues, leading to Buono's arrest; both end up getting life sentences in Wash. after playing legal games that backfire.

On Nov. 8, 1977 Harvey Bernard Milk (1930-78) is elected city supervisor in San Francisco, Calif., becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in Calif. history, known for the soundbyte "Hello, I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you" - bend over backwards jokes here? Speaking of saving butts? White milk moustaches on gays jokes here? On Nov. 7, 1978 Calif. Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative), which would have banned gays, lesbians, and "anyone advocating a homosexual lifestyle" from teaching in Calif. public schools, sponsored by conservative Orange County legislator (1967-75) John V. Briggs (1930-) and backed by Anita Bryant is defeated, becoming a big V for new (since Jan. 8) gay Jewish San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk; too bad, on Nov. 27 he and San Francisco mayor #37 (since Jan. 1976) George Richard Moscone (b. 1929) are gunned down inside City Hall by straight Roman Catholic ex-supervisor Daniel James "Dan" White (1946-85), who resigned on Nov. 10 but wants his job back, and gets pissed-off at Moscone's refusal to reinstate him, killing Moscone, then figuring it's 2-for-1 day and going to Milk's office, shooting him 5x then turning himself in 35 min. later at the city's Northern Police Station, after which he gets a voluntary manslaughter instead of murder conviction by raising the yummy "Twinkie Defense", then serves five years, and commits suicide two years later after becoming the most hated man in San Francisco history; in 2016 the U.S. Navy announces plans to name a U.S. Military Sealift Command fleet oiler after Milk - sweet harvest milk with mascarpone = twinkies?

On June 6, 1978 Proposition 13, sponsored by cigar-smoking vodka-drinking Mormon-raised Repub. taxpayer advocate Howard Jarvis (1903-86) passes overwhelmingly (62.6% of 10.1M votes) in Calif., cutting property taxes by 60% ($7B), launching a wave of anti-big govt. initiatives across the U.S.

On Nov. 18, 1978 (Sat.) after arriving to investigate complaints of mistreatment of relatives, and being told by 20 members that they want to leave, then accompanying him to Port Kaituma Airport, anti-cult crusading U.S. Rep. (D-Calif.) (since Jan. 3, 1973) Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. (b. 1925) and four others are killed in Jonestown, Guyana by Larry Layton and three other members of Rev. Jim Jones' Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ of San Francisco, Calif. (founded 1955), making Ryan the first U.S. congressman killed in the line of duty (until ?); the killings are followed by the Jonestown Massacre, a night of mass murder-suicide by 918 cult members incl. 270+ children, becoming the worst religious mayhem since John of Leiden's cult in 1535; Jones kills himself, and only 32 members escape, incl. their controversial atty. Mark Lane (1947-); 75% of church members are black, a majority of them women who bought his promise of a black paradise sans racial prejudice, segregation, and economic inequality; Jones is often portrayed as a fundamentalist Christian but actually preached atheism and communism, and was the darling of San Francisco, openly praised by Jane Fonda, Angela Davis, Huey Newton, Harvey Milk et al.; the publicity hurts sales of Kool-Aid, even though a cheaper unsweetened brand called Flavor Aid (first marketed in 1929) might have been used instead of or as well; the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) is founded to deprogram its members; too bad, in 1996 the Church of Scientology buys it in bankruptcy court - making its name an oxymoron?

In 1978 the deconstructivist Gehry House (Residence) in Santa Monica, Calif. by Toronto, Canada-born Am. architect Frank Owen Gehry (Goldberg) (1929-) is completed, launching his gaudy style. On Oct. 21, 1981 the $3M Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, Calif. opens, designed by Frank Gehry, complete with gaudy exterior grillwork. In 1996 his funny-looking Fred and Ginger (Dancing) House on the Rasin Embankment in Prague, Czech. (begun 1992) is completed. On Oct. 18, 1997 the futuristic $100M Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on the Nervion River in Abando, Bilbao, Spain, designed by Frank O. Gehry opens, creating the Bilbao Effect, the belief that a museum bldg. is as important as the collection it holds. On June 28, 2001 his 9-story 8.5M DM Gehry Tower in Hanover, Germany opens, featuring a prominent twist in its outer facade and a ferroconcrete core.

On Jan. 29, 1979 (Mon.) 16-y.-o. Brenda Ann Spencer (1962-) shoots and kills principal Burton Wagg and head custodian Mike Suchar at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, Calif. across the street from her house with her father's rifle, and wounds eight students and a police officer; when asked whom she wanted to shoot, she replies "I like red and blue jacket"; when asked why, she replies "I don't like Mondays - this livens up the day"; she gets 25 years to life in priz after claiming she was under the influence of alcohol and PCP; inspires the Bob Geldorf and the Boomtown Rats song I Don't Like Mondays.

On Sept. 18, 1979 Steven M. Lachs (1941-) is appointed Calif.'s first openly gay judge - here cums de judge dat lachs guys?

1980 is the first year when global warming effects become noticeable?; this year the yearly number of wildfires in Calif. reaches a peak, bottoming-out in ?

On May 9, 1980 (3:40 p.m.) the Norco Shootout sees five heavily-armed bank robbers rob Security Pacific Bank in Norco, Calif., then shoot it out with deputies, stealing a vehicle and fleeing to San Bernardino County, where they ambush pursuing deputies aad continue the shootout; two robbers and one deputy are killed, nine deputies are injured, and 30+ police cars are damaged, plus a police heli; two days later three of the four surving robbers are arrested near the ambush, and sentenced to life without parole - there's a place called Hidden Valley where what?

On Feb. 27, 1981 Baltimore, Md.-born Nancy Patricia Pelosi (nee D'Alesandro) (1940-), daughter of 3-time Dem. Baltimore mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. (1903-87) becomes chair of the Calif. Dem. Party (until Apr. 3, 1983), going on to become Dem. U.S. Calif. Rep. on June 2, 1987 (until ?), representing Calif's 12th congressional district consisting of 80% of the city-county of gay left-leaning San Francisco, which she has a lock on, working her way up to speaker #52 of the U.S. House of Reps. (first woman) on Jan. 4, 2007, and House minority leader on Jan. 3, 2011 (until ?), becoming known for her ever-kookier leftist public statements.

On Mar. 13, 1982 (Sat.) the police drama T.J. Hooker debuts on ABC-TV for 91 episodes (until May 4, 1985, switching to CBS-TV until May 28, 1986), starring Canadian "Capt. Kirk in Star Trek" actor William Alan Shatner (1931-) as Sgt. Thomas Jefferson Hooker, who sought to avenge his partner's death and ended up training LAPD academy recruits, incl. young rookie Vince Romano, played by Adrian Zmed (1954-); Richard Herd Jr. (1932-) plays Capt. Dennis Sheridan; starting in season 2 foxy Heather Deen Locklear (1961-) plays Officer Stacy Sheridan, and James Darren (James William Ercolani) (1936-) plays Officer Jim Corrigan.

On July 2, 1982 a bomb from the Unabomber explodes in the hands of Prof. Diogenes Angelakos (1920-97) in Berkeley, Calif.

On July 2, 1982 Lawrence Richard "Lawn Chair Larry" Walters (1949-93) takes off from his girlfriend's backyard in San Pedro, Calif. in his homemade aircraft Inspiration I, made out of a lawn chair and 45 helium weather balloons, rising to an alt. of 16K ft., then descending by shooting some of the balloons, and landing in Long Beach after bringing down some power lines, getting arrested and uttering the soundbyte: "A man can't just sit around"; he gets a $4K fine for operating an aircraft without communicating with the control tower, which he gets reduced to $1.5K, becoming a celeb for awhile then shooting himself in the head in 1993.

On Nov. 2, 1982 with unemployment at 7.4% and new jobs being created mainly in the low-paid service industry not manufacturing, the 1982 U.S. nat. elections are a D for Reagan and Reaganomics as the Repubs. lose 26 House seats.; Menands, N.Y.-born Repub. Calif. atty.-gen. #27 (since Jan. 8, 1979) Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (1928-) becomes the first Armenian-Am. to be elected gov. of Calif. (until ?), and next Jan. 3 is sworn-in as Calif. gov. #35 (until Jan. 7, 1991); black Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley was ahead in the polls before his narrow V, becoming known as the Bradley (Wilder) Effect, the tendency of U.S. voters to vote white inside the voting booth despite their profession of loyalty for a black candidate outside it.

On Feb. 17, 1983 Denise Denofrio (b. 1961) is found strangled to death in a car in Fairfield, Calif.; Alan Hall (1949-) is convicted of voluntary manslaughter in July; in 1997 a suspected friend of Denofrio calling herself Denise lures Hall into having sex and then severs his penis with a knife and escapes.

Getting into the pre-puberty Millennium Fever spirit at the Golden Arches? On July 18, 1984 (3:59 p.m. PDT) pissed-off unemployed welder James Oliver Huberty (1942-84) opens fire with a semiautomatic rifle, shotgun, and pistol at a McDonald's fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 and injuring 19 before being shot dead by police.

On Apr. 19, 1985 the last free-flying condor in Calif., a 19-lb. 7-y.-o. male is captured; he is released in 2002.

On June 2, 1985 after raping, torturing, and murdering 11-25 women in a remote cabin near Wilseyville, Calaveras County, Calif. 150 mi. E of San Francisco, Calif., Hong Kong-born ex-Marine Charles Chi-Tat Ng (1960-) is caught shoplifting a vise from a hardware store in San Francisco, Calif., after which his San Francisco-born ex-Marine partner Leonard Thomas Lake (1945-85) tries to pay for it and is arrested, taking cyanide pills in jail and dying on June 6; Ng flees to Calgary, Alberta, Canada and lives in a lean-to in Fish Creek Provincial Park until July 6, when he tries to shoplift a can of salmon from a grocery store in Calgary and is arrested after shooting a security guard; after a long legal battle to avoid extradition, he ends up in Calif. in 1991, and in Feb. 1999 is convicted of 11 murders after a $20M trial, most expensive in Calif. history (until ?), ending up on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

In Feb. 1986 a huge storm hits Calif., and a levee breaks near the Yuba County town of Linda, Calif., causing $500M in damage.

On May 30, 1986 a tour bus plunges into the West Walker River near Walker, Calif., killing 21 and injuring 19.

In May 1986 Unit Two of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant off the coast of San Luis Obispo, Calif. begins operation.

In 1996 the nonprofit Glen Canyon Inst. in Salt Lake City, Utah is founded by Richard J. Ingbrebretsen to "decommission" Glen Canyon Dam, building diversion tunnels to reduce it to run-of-the-river flows to undo the damage created by the "travesty" of the dam; meanwhile pop. increase in Calif. causes Lake Powell to systematically shrink anyway.

On Sept. 1, 1987 in Calif. Vietnam vet S. Brian Wilson has his legs sliced off by a munitions train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station during the Nuremberg Actions protest against weapons shipments to Central Am.

On Feb. 13, 1988 Ramon Menendez's Stand and Deliver (Warner Bros.) debuts, based on a true story, starring Edward James Olmos as Bolivian-born teacher Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez (1930-2010), who makes it cool for Hispanic kids to study calculus in East L.A. barrio Garfield H.S. until they get high marks on the AP exam, only to be treated with white supremacist suspicion and accused of cheating; does $13.9M box office on a $1.6M budget.

In Aug. 1988 in Calif. an FBI phony shrimp processing plant sting operation ends in the state capital of Sacramento with three legislative aides later convicted - Bubba's Shrimp?

On Nov. 4, 1988 John Carpenter's They Live (Alive Films) (Universal Pictures) debuts, based on the 1963 story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson, starring Wrestlemania star "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as L.A. drifter Nada, who finds some special sunglasses and discovers that the govt. and society are run by reptilian aliens in disguise; also stars Keith David as Frank Armigate, and Meg Foster as Holly Thompson; does $13M box office on a $3M budget; "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum."

On Nov. 11, 1988 police in Sacramento, Calif. find the first of seven bodies buried on the grounds of a boardinghouse; "Death House Landlady" Dorothea Helen Puente (1929-2011) is later charged in the deaths of nine people, is convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison; she did it to get their Social Security checks.

On Aug. 20, 1989 entertainment exec and his wife Jose and Mary "Kitty" Menendez are murdered by a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun in their Beverly Hills, Calif. mansion; their sons Erik Galen Menendez (1970-) and Joseph Lyle Menendez (1968-) are tried for the murders in a high-profile trial shown on Court TV, and are convicted in 1996 after the first trial jury is deadlocked by their defense of parental abuse.

On Oct. 14-28, 1989 in another Calif. Classic the Oakland Athletics (AL) defeat the San Francisco Giants (NL) 4-0 in the Eighty-Sixth (86th) (1989) World Series; first WS sweep since 1976; the 3rd time (1963, 1966) that the winner never trails an inning; the 3rd time (1969, 1979) that the reigning World Series and Super Bowl winners are from the same area; on Sept. 1 commissioner Bart Giamatti dies of a sudden heart attack 1 mo. before the series starts, and Fay Vincent presides as new commissioner as the players wear black armbands in memory of Giamatti. On Oct. 17 (5:04 p.m.) the 6.9 1989 Loma Prieta (Watsonville) (San Francisco) Earthquake, centered in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park 10 mi. NE of Santa Cruz hits the San Francisco (N Calif.) area minutes before the start of World Series Game 3, killing 63, injuring 3,757 and causing $5.6-$6B in damage; the WS is delayed for 10 days.

On Mar. 23, 1990 Garry Marshall's Pretty Woman (Touchstone Pictures) (Buena Vista Pictures), written by J.F. Lawton debuts, making Smyrna, Ga.-born Julia Fiona Roberts (1967-) (after Molly Ringwald turns it down) into a superstar in the role of Vivian Ward, a pretty Hollywood hooker with a heart of gold, who gets rich dream hunk Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) to give her the fairy tale and let him kiss her on the mouth, despite already naming her price (it's true what they say, opposites attract?); Hector Elizondo continues his habit of showing up in Garry Marshall movies, playing capable Beverly Hills Hotel mgr. Barney Thompson; Jason Alexander plays Gere's schmucky friend Philip Stuckey, and Laura San Giacomo plays Roberts' ho friend Kit De Luca; #4 movie of 1990 ($121M U.S. and $463.4M worldwide box office on a $14M budget).

On July 19, 1990 the Richard Nixon Pres. Library and Museum in San Clemente, Calif. is dedicated.

On Jan. 7, 1991 Lake Forest, Ill,-born San Diego mayor #29 (1971-83) and U.S. Sen. (R-Calif.) (since Jan. 3, 1983) Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson (1933-) becomes Repub. Calif. gov. #36 (until Jan. 4, 1999), going on to turn around the worst state economy since the Great Depression and help pass Calif. Proposition 140 enacting term limits, keeping him for running for a 3rd time, leaving a $16B budget surplus.

On Mar. 3, 1991 (shortly after midnight) after a 117 mph car chase, black motorist Rodney Glen King (1965-2017) is arrested by Los Angeles, Calif. police, who severely beat him when he's down while bystander George Holliday videotapes it all from a distance, shocking the U.S. with the appearance of Third World police brutality in the Land of the Free. On Apr. 2 black Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley calls for the resignation of white police chief (1978-92) Daryl (Darrel Francis) Gates (1926-2010) (known for telling the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that casual drug users are guilty of "treason" and "ought to be taken out and shot") 1 mo. after the Mar. 3 Rodney King incident, saying "I simply will not stand by as our city is being torn apart"; one hour earlier the ACLU announces it has 20K signatures calling for it; councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael Woo had already called for it; trouble is, Bradley doesn't have the power to fire him, and the Police Commission must do it; Gates replies that he will resign if the two blue ribbon citizen's panels in L.A. find him derelict in his duty, and calls the mayor's actions "kind of sneaky". On Apr. 29, 1992 the 1992 Los Angeles Riots begin after a jury acquits four police officers (three white, one Hispanic) accused of the Mar. 3, 1991 beating of suspect Rodney King (1965-2017), with mobs shouting "black justice" and "no justice, no peace"; at 6:46 p.m. white 18-wheel construction truck driver Reginald Oliver Denny (1953-) (carrying 27 tons of sand) is attacked by the "L.A. Bad Four", a gang of pissed-off black rioters, starting with Antoine Eugene "Twan" Miller (1972-2004), opening the door of his truck at Florence Ave. and Normandie, after which the others pull him out, then Henry Keith "Kiki" Watson (1965-) (who apologizes on the Phil Donahue show in 1993), holds his head down with his foot, then an unknown man throws a 5-lb. piece of medical equipment at him then hits him in the head 3x with a claw hammer, then Damian Monroe "Football" Williams (1973-) hits him in the head with a concrete slab, knocking him unconscious, then does a victory dance over his body and flips-off news helis, while Marika Tur and Bob Tur film the whole sequence from their heli, and later spend years suing everybody who play their video without paying them; finally Anthony Brown spits on him and leaves with Williams, and bystanders throw beer bottles at him and attempt to set his truck on fire, while Gary Williams (1958-) rifles Denny's pocket and steals his wallet, and Lance Parker (1966-) tries to shoot the gas tank of Denny's truck but misses; enter the "L.A. Good Four" (all black), Bobby Green (truck driver), Titus Murphy and Terri Barnett (boyfriend-girlfriend), and Lei Yuille (dietician), who come to Denny's aid, and Green drives Denny to the hospital in Denny's truck, where he is found to have 91 skull fractures and a dislocated left eye, and suffers a seizure and comes close to death, ending up with a permanent crater in his head; on Aug. 6 after it took a riot to get U.S. prosecutors to do their job on sacred cow cops, a federal jury indicts the four officers for violating Rodney King's civil rights, and this time two of them, Laurence Powell and Stacey Koon are kapow convicted next Apr. and sentenced to 30 mo., while Theodore Brisene and Timothy Wind breeze away; meanwhile non-cops Gary Williams and Football Williams get 3 and 10 years.

On Nov. 4, 1992 after a special election, San Francisco, Calif.-born San Francisco mayor ##8 (1978-88) Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (nee Dianne Emiel Goldman) (1933-) becomes Dem. U.S. Sen. from Calif. (until ?), becoming the first woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee (2007-9) and the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009-15); Barbara Boxer is elected on the same ballot.

On Jan. 3, 1993 Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Marin County supervisor Barbara Levy Boxer (1940-) becomes a Dem. U.S. Sen. from Calif. (until Jan. 3, 2017), receiving a record 6.96M votes in the 2004 election, which is surpassed by her colleague Dianne Feinstein in 2012.

On July 1, 1993 55-y.-o. failed entrepreneur Gian Luigi Ferri (b. 1937) fires TEC-9 and Norinco NP44 semi-automatic pistols in the 101 Calif. St. offices of San Francisco law firm Pettit and Martin (with whom he had been involved in a lawsuit), killing eight and wounding six before killing himself; none of the 30 law firm employees on his hit list are injured; the shooting sparks several legislative actions leading to the 1994 U.S. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act - should have played more arcade games?

On Jan. 17, 1994 (4:30 a.m.) the 6.7 Northridge Earthquake centered in the San Fernando Valley strikes Los Angeles, Calif., killing 57 incl. 16 residents of a 3-story apt. complex near Calif. State U. at Northridge, and injuring 8.7K, causing $13B-$44B damage.

On May 12, 1994 Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (A Band Apart) (Jersey Films) (Miramax Filmes) debuts, making writer-dir. Quentin Jerome Tarantino (1963-) and his humor-laced violent ensemble material a mainstream hit, and revives the career of John Travolta, who plays pulp fiction-reading L.A. gangster Vincent Vega; Samuel Leroy Jackson (1948-) is great as Vega's partner, vicious-but-philosophical Ezekiel-misquoting black ghetto hit man Jules Winnfield, who decides to go straight; Bruce Willis plays boxer-on-the-run Butch Coolidge, Maria de Medeiros his potbelly-hating babe Fabienne; Eric Stoltz plays coke dealer Lance, and Rosanna Arquette his nose-ringed babe Jody; Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer play restaurant robbers Pumpkin and Honey Bunny; Ving Rhames plays black gangleader Marsellus Wallace, and Uma Thurman his white wife Mia, who never talk directly to each other; Harvey Keitel plays fast-driving fixer Winston "the Wolf" Wolfe; the code that unlocks the briefcase is 666?; #9 movie of 1994 ($108M); "You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France? Royale with cheese" (Travolta); "You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction" (ad); Jackson's killing speech: "And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee"; not really what Ezekiel 25:17 says, he got it from "Bodyguard Kiba" (1973) and "Karate Kiba" (1976); the novel that constipated heroin addict Vincent Vega is reading is Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell (1965); Vega is killed with his own Mac-10 AKA Le Big Mac; does $213.9M box office on an $8.5M budget.

On May 17, 1995 35-y.-o. former soldier and unemployed plumber Shawn Timothy Nelson (b. 1960) (high on meth) steals a M60 Patton tank from a Nat. Guard armory in San Diego, Calif., and goes on a 23-min. joy ride, flattening 19 vehicles in residential areas, entering state Route 163, then becoming stuck on the concrete center divider, allowing police to storm, shoot, and kill him; made use of in the 1997 flick "Jurassic Park: The Lost World"?

What is a percolator, or, Affirmative action draws Calif. backlash? On Nov. 5, 1996 Calif. voters approve Proposition 209 AKA the Calif. Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), banning affirmative action (racial and gender preference) in college admissions, state employment, and public contracts; the U.S. Supreme Court upholds its constitutionality.

On Aug. 28, 1997 Calif.'s Proposition 209 takes effect, ending affirmative action, causing thousands to march across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in protest.

On Jan. 4, 1999 Bronx, N.Y.-born lt. gov. #44 (since Jan. 2, 1995) Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (1942-) becomes Dem. Calif. gov. #37 (until Nov. 17, 2003), becoming the first Dem. Calif. gov. in 16 years, going on to achieve a 62% approval rating in Feb. 2000 before tanking over the Calif. (Western U.S.) Electricity (Energy) Crisis of 2000-1 and the Dot-Com Bubble of 1997-2001.

On June 22, 1999 the Calif. state assembly passes Assembly Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by Chinese-Am. Dem. Calif. Rep. (1996-2000) Michael Makoto "Mike" Honda (1941-), demanding that Japan apologize for its WWII actions and pay compensation to victims.

On Oct. 1, 1999 Calif. becomes the first state to pass an Anti-Paparazzi Law protecting celebs from intrusive paparazzi; after a paparazzi runs him and his family off the road, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a tougher law on Jan. 1, 2006 - One look at Ahnuld and they know they're right?

On Jan. 16, 2000 in Sacramento, Calif., a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the State Capitol bldg., killing the driver - is his name Harvey Milk?

On Jan. 31, 2000 Alaska Airlines Flight 261 carrying 88 passengers and crew crashes mysteriously into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, Calif.

On June 14, 2000 after the spot market for energy begins operating in Apr. and prices rise significantly in May, the Calif. Electricity Crisis begins when 97K cusotmers in the San Francisco Bay area suffer a blackout during a heat wave, after which San Diego Gas & Electric alleges manipulation of the markets in Aug., followed by several hundred thousand customers blacked-out next Jan. 17-18, 1.5M next Mar. 19-20, and 167K next May 7-8 after Calif. Gov. Gray Davis declares a state of emergency next Jan. 17, and Pacific Gas & Energy Co. files for bankruptcy in Apr.; next Sept. energy prices normalize, after which Enron files for bankruptcy in Dec., and is blamed for manipulating energy prices; Calif. Gov. Gray Davis ends the state of emergency on Nov. 13, 2003.

On June 10, 2000 eight guards at Corcoran State Prison in Calif. are acquitted of civil rights violations for allegedly staging gladiator-style fights among inmates.

On Jan. 3, 2001 Framingham, Mass.-born Calif. state senator (1997-2000) Adam Bennett Schiff (1960-) becomes a Dem. U.S. rep. for Calif. (until ?), based in the Los Angeles area, going on to introduce House Resolution 106 on Oct. 11, 2007 recognizing the Armenian genocide, followed by a campaign finance reform amendment, and legislation to force the FAA to curb heli noise in Los Angeles County; in 2007 he joins the House Foreign Affairs Committee, working up to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; in 2014 Nancy Pelosi appoints him to the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which he turns into an investigation blocking committee?; in 2018 he goes on to become a thorn in Donald Trump's side with the fake news Russia-Trump investigation, causing Pres. Trump to call him "Sleazy Adam Schiff".

On Jan. 14, 2001 news reports surface that power generators in Calif. are suspected of shutting down power plants to sell higher-priced natural gas, causing power shortages and high prices; on Jan. 17 Calif. Gov. Davis declares a state of emergency and orders the Dept. of Water Resources to buy and sell electricity.

On Jan. 23, 2001 U.S. energy secy. Spencer Abraham extends two federal emergency orders forcing suppliers to continue selling electricity and natural gas to Calif., which holds an auction on Jan. 24 for long-term electricity contracts.

On Mar. 5, 2001 15-y.-o. Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams (1986-) kills two students and wounds 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, Calif. near San Diego; he is sentenced to 50 years to life.

On May 1, 2001 bodacious chic Chandra Ann Levy (b. 1977) mysteriously disappears; a romantic affair with Calif. Dem. Rep. Gary Adrian Condit (1948-) is uncovered, and his nervous actions end up ruining his career; meanwhile her skeletal remains are found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and on Apr. 22, 2009 El Salvadoran illegal immigrant Ingmar A. Guandique (1982-), who had been convicted of assaulting two other women in the park is charged with her murder, and convicted on Nov. 22, 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison; in June 2015 he is granted a new trail, and on July 28, 2016 prosecutors drop the case in exchange for deportation.

On Sept. 9, 2001 Walla Walla, Wash.-born Muslim convert Hamza Yusuf Hanson (1960-) (formerly Mark Hanson), 1996 founder of Zaytuna Inst. in Berkeley, Calif. utters the soundbyte: "This country (America) unfortunately has a great, a great tribulation coming to it, and much of it is already here, yet people are too illiterate to read the writing on the wall", which gets him investigated by the FBI after 9/11.

On Sept. 24, 2001 Calif. artists R.J. Waldron, Eric Noda, and Thomas Hanley paint a 35-ft. U.S.flag on a concrete wall near I-680 in Sunol, Calif. about 40 mi. SE of San Francisco; in 2010 Caltrans removes it after declaring it graffiti.

On Nov. 29, 2001 George Harrison (b. 1943) becomes the second Beatle to bite the dust and not make it to 64 when he dies of cancer in Los Angeles, Calif.; in July he had released a statement asking fans not to worry about reports that he was still battling it.

On Jan. 15, 2002 11-term U.S. Rep. (D-Calif.) (since June 2, 1987) Nancy Patricia Pelosi (nee D'Alesandro) (1940-) from San Francisco, Calif. becomes the first woman to lead a major party in Congress after being elected as the House minority whip (until Jan. 3, 2003); her father Thomas Ludwig John D'Alesandro Jr. (1903-87) was a Md. rep. for 10 years (1939-47), and 3-term mayor #39 of Baltimore (1947-59).

On Mar. 21, 2002 Calif. atty. Marjorie Knoller is found guilty of implied-malice second-degree murder in the Jan. 26, 2001 mauling death of college lacrosse coach Diane Alexis Whipple (1968-2001) in San Francisco, Calif. by her two big Presa Canario dogs, becoming an unprecedented verdict; she was present during the attack, while her atty. hubby Robert Noel wasn't; the dogs were owned by imprisoned Aryan Brotherhood leader Paul Schneider, adding implied malice to the prosecution?; on June 17 an appeals judge reduces the conviction to manslaughter.

On Oct. 30, 2002 midlevel Am. pop stars Jessica Simpson (1980-) (a self-proclaimed virgin) and Nick Lachey (1973-) (98 Degrees) are married, and become Hollywood superstars on MTV's Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica for the next three seasons (Aug. 19, 2003 - Mar. 30, 2005) (41 episodes), chronicling their lives in a new Calif. home, and showing dippy-blonde Simpson confusing Chicken of the Sea brand tuna with, er, chicken, and refusing Buffalo wings because "I don't eat buffalo"; they announce their separation on Nov. 23, 2005 right after the Dec.-Jan. issue of Teen People, in which they deny breakup rumors, and the Oct. 17 issue of US Weekly, which carries the headline "Split!", with the soundbyte "This is the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other."

On Dec. 25, 2002 authorities launch a massive search for La Loma, Calif. resident Laci Denise Peterson (nee Rocha) (b. 1975), an 8-mo.-pregnant woman who disappeared while allegedly walking her dog in N Calif. on Christmas Eve.

The bad side of the U.S. govt. on display? On Jan. 31, 2003 a federal jury in San Francisco, Calif. is duped by a crook in a black robe to convict noted marijuana advocate and authority Edward "Ed" Rosenthal (1944-) of federal marijuana charges even though Calif. law permits it for medical uses and the city of Oakland tried to shield him with immunity as its officer; on Feb. 4 the jury cries foul for not being told this, demanding a new trial as the puppet judge and prosecutors slap each other on the backs for squashing a hero like a bug for political reasons in the name of the law, instead of taking Calif. itself to court first so the fight is more fair; his conviction is overturned on appeal, and they try and convict him again to justify having already served his sentence - and America wants to spread its brand of democracy all over the world?

In Jan. 2003 the Sunshine Millions, a series of eight Thoroughbred horseraces is first held at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

In Jan. 2003 Calif. Gov. Ahnuld has surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

On Feb. 3, 2003 super-rich Bronx, N.Y.-born "Wall of Sound" pop music producer Phillip Harvey (Harvey Phillip) "Phil" Spector (1939-) is arrested for the shooting murder of B-movie actress Lana Jean Clarkson (b. 1962) in his hilltop castle-like mansion in Alhambra, Calif., uttering the soundbyte "I think I just shot her", claiming that it was an "accidental suicide", and she "kissed the gun", which the D.A. disagrees with, saying he has evidence he pulled guns on other women, despite other evidence that Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands; on May 23 he shows up in L.A. Superior Court sporting an oversized "Dolly Parton" hairdo of frosted and teased curls; on Nov. 20 he is charged with murder; on Sept. 26, 2007 a mistrial is declared after a 10-2 hung jury; on Oct. 20, 2008 he is retried, and convicted on Apr. 13, 2009 of 2nd degree murder, receiving a 19-years-to-life prison sentence on May 29, 2009; writer Mick Brown, who interviews Spector weeks before the killing later pub. a book detailing his long history of pulling loaded guns on people incl. John Lennon and The Ramones - but never pulling the trigger? On Feb. 21, 1975 former Beatle John Lennon (1940-80) released album #6 Rock 'n' Roll; producer Phil Spector pulled a loaded gun on Lennon during the song You Can't Catch Me at the Record Plant recording studio in Los Angeles, and the gun went off, causing Lennon to tell him "If you're going to shoot me, shoot me, but don't mess with me ears; I need them to listen with"; he didn't find that he was shooting real bullets until the next day, shaking him up; the album incl. Stand By Me (but not Phil Spector?).

On Apr. 13-14, 2003 the badly decomposed bodies of 8-mo. pregnant Laci Denise Peterson (nee Rocha) (b. 1975) and her fetus Conner are found in the Isabel Regional Shoreline of Richmond Point in San Francisco Bay, causing authorities to arrest her husband, fertilizer salesman Scott Lee Peterson (1972-) on Apr. 18 and charge him with capital murder; he hires famed defense atty. Mark John Geragos (1957-), known for representing pop star Michael Jackson; Rick Warren's "A Purpose-Driven Life" is on his car seat during his arrest at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif., given him by his hot blonde girlfriend Amber Dawn Frey (1975-), who had been working with authorities to draw him out, despite wanting to hook up with her being his main motive; his hair and goatee had been bleached blonde, and he was carrying $15K in cash along with an array of camping equipment; on Mar. 16, 2005 Peterson is sentenced to death row by Judge Alfred Delucchi in Redwood City, Calif for the slaying of his pregnant wife Laci after a turbulent court session in which Laci's father Dennis Rocha tells him "You're going to burn in Hell for this", and he is sentenced to death by lethal injection, beginning a bonanza for lawyers handling his appeals.

In June 2003 the first-ever private Moon launch by TransOrbital, Inc. of La Jolla, Calif. blasts off from Kazakhstan.

On July 27, 2003 Eltham, London-born America's best-loved comedian and icon Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (b. 1903) dies in Toluca Lake, Calif. at age 100, ending the 20th cent. for real?

On Aug. 6, 2003 Austrian-born Repub. "Conan the Barbarian", "The Terminator" actor Ahnuld (Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger) (1947-) makes an appearance on NBC-TV's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno to announce his bid to replace Calif. Gov. Gray Davis, which he does quite handily, bringing a new, young electorate out with him, backed by his Kennedy Dem. wife Maria Shriver.

On Sept. 13, 2003 "Sugar" Shane Mosley (1971-) wins a "close but unanimous" decision over "Golden Boy of Calif." Oscar De La Hoya (1973-) in Las Vegas to take the WBC and WBA 154-lb. boxing titles.

On Oct. 2, 2003 the Los Angeles Times pub. allegations that Calif. gov. candidate Arnold Gropenneger, er, Schwarzenegger had sexually harassed at least six women in his past by groping them on movie sets, studio offices, and gyms; Ahnuld gives a speech the same day to apologize, saying "Yes, I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful, but now I recognize that I have offended people. And those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, 'I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize, because this is not what I'm trying to do.' When I'm governor, I want to prove to the women that I will be a champion for the women"; on Oct. 4 the Times adds three more women, one a CNN intern and two from his 1988 "Twins" movie set; on Oct. 5 four new accounts are pub.

On Oct. 7, 2003 after personal financing by wealthy Bohemian-German-Lebanese Darrell Edward Issa (1953-) (pr. EYE-suh), Calif. voters recall Gov. Gray Davis, and elect Austrian-born "Terminator" Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (1947-) (AKA Ahnuld) as their new "governator" (Repub. Calif. gov. #38), who takes office Nov. 17 (until Jan. 3, 2011), uttering the soundbyte: "Say hasta la vista to Gray Davis."

On Oct. 26-28, 2003 wildfires fed by hot Santa Ana winds flare into gigantic walls of flame, devouring entire neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley in S Calif. outside Los Angeles, killing 13.

On Nov. 2, 2003 (Sun.) the sitcom Arrested Development debuts on Fox Network for 53 episodes (until Feb. 10, 2006), about the dysfunctional formerly wealthy Bluth family in Newport Beach, Calif., starring Jeffrey Michael Tambor (1944-) as patriarch George Bluth Sr., Jason Kent Bateman (1969-) as Michael, and Portia de Rossi (Amanda Lee Rogers) (1973-) as Lindsay Funke ("It's vodka... it goes bad once it's been opened"), with a handheld camera reality style format narrated by Ron Howard, winning six Emmys and one Golden Globe but lasting only three seasons (Feb. 10, 2006), after which it is revived by Netflix in 2013-.

On Nov. 20, 2003 "Man in the Mirror" singer Michael Jackson is booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif., accused of molesting a 13-y.-o. boy in 2003 - a zillion Michael Jackson gay pedophile jokes light up the Internet?

In Dec. 2003 San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds testifies before a grand jury, admitting to using the products of the Calif.-based co. BALCO, but didn't know they contained steroids; the company's client list incl. Olympian Marion Jones, and N.Y. Yankee Jason Gilbert Giambi, whose reps are tarnished along with his.

In 2003 South Central Los Angeles (Calif.) is renamed South Los Angeles.

On Jan. 8, 2004 Oakland, Calif.-born Kamala Devi Harris (1964-) (Tamil Indian father, black Jamaican father) becomes Dem. San Francisco, Calif. district atty. #27 (until Jan. 3, 2011), going on to become Dem. Calif. atty. gen. #32 on Jan. 3, 2011 (untl Jan. 3, 2017) and U.S. Sen. (D-Calif.) on Jan. 3, 2017, succeeding Barbara Boxer (until ?); in 2019 she announces her candidacy for U.S. pres. in 2020.

On Jan. 18, 2004 the soft porn drama The L Word debuts on Showtime for 70 episodes (until Mar. 8, 2009), about lesbians in West Hollywood, Calif., along with their straight, bi, and transgender friends.

On Feb. 4, 2004 White Plains, N.Y.-born Jewish-Am. Harvard student Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (1984-) launches the Web site Sucker, er, Facebook.com from his dorm room, then drops out to move to Palo Alto, Calif. and build a megacorp; too bad, he soon becomes a Bill Gates type monopolist who doesn't protect user privacy and terminates accounts at will for any reason?; in 2007 the Beacon advertising platform is launched, but is taken down after it shares user purchasing decisions without their permission - the next big thing will be Assbook.com?

On June 16, 2004 Pornucopia debuts on HBO for six episodes as a spinoff of "Real Sex", about the Calif. porno industry.

On July 17, 2004 the first Rock the Bells hip hop festival in San Bernardino, Calif. features Wu-Tang Clan (4 mo. before the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard), Redman (Reginald "Reggie" Noble) (1970-), Dilated Peoples, Paul "Sage" Francis (1976-), MC Supernatural, Chali 2na (Charles Stewart) and DJ Nu Mark of Jurassic 5, Eyedea & Abilities (E&A) et al.; a 2nd festival is held on Nov. 13 in Anaheim, Calif., featuring MC Supernatural, Jurassic 5, A Tribe Called Quest, Xzibit (Alvin Nathaniel Joiner) (1974-), Cypress Hill, Jaylib, Little Brother, Crown City Rockers et al.; in 2006 it goes on a nat. tour.

On Aug. 31, 2004 Calif. gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives a speech to the 2004 Repub. Nat. Convention, with the soundbytes: "But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, I said, 'What party is he?' My friend said, 'He's a Republican.' I said, 'Then I am a Republican.' And I have been a Republican ever since"; "If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers... If they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men"; "Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called True Lies. It's what the Democrats should have called their convention." On Sept. 15, 2004 U.S. Rep. (R-Calif.) (1989-) Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher (1947-) introduces an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing anyone who's been a U.S. citizen for 20 years to run for U.S. pres., esp. fellow Calif. Repub. Arnold Schwarzenegger; Senate Judiciary Committee chmn. Orrin Hatch of Utah proposes the same; on 60 Minutes on Oct. 31 (Halloween) Ahnuld says he would support such an amendment, with the soundbyte: "I mean, you know, anyone with my way of thinking, you always shoot for the top." On Sept. 16, 2004 Calif. Gov. Ahnuld announces that he's running for reelection in Nov. 2006, saying "I originally got into this... to finish the job. I'm in there for seven years" - the only state with the golden poppy as its flower? On Nov. 30, 2004 Ahnuld receives the George Bush Award for public service from former Repub. pres. George H.W. Bush, who suggested that he could get around the Constitutional barrier and become the White Obama, er, next president, with the soundbyte "Don't bet against Arnold Schwarzenegger." On Sept 22, 2005 at a convention of the Calif. Nurses Association, actor-director-producer Warren Beatty (1937-), who had been considering running against him says that Ahnuld governs "by show, by spin, by cosmetics and photos ops, fake events, fake issues and fake crowds and backdrops", causing Ahnuld's spokesman to reply: "We don't care that much about Warren Beatty, and based on his ticket sales from the past generation, I doubt anyone else does either."

On Sept. 22, 2004 Veronica Mars debuts on UPN for 64 episodes (until May 22, 2007), set in Neptune, Calif. (zip code 90909), starring Kristen Anne Bell (1980-) as a h.s. student and daughter of sheriff Keith Mars, who is dumped by beau Duncan Kane and tries to solve the murder of best friend Lilly Kane, whose software billionaire father Jake Kane is a suspect, turning into a PI.

On Sept. 28, 2004 the 6.0 Parkfield Earthquake rocks C Calif.

On Nov. 2, 2004 Calif. decides to channel $3B into embryonic stem-cell research via Proposition 71, which causes the creation of the Calif. Inst. for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM); the U.S. Congress is now 30% conservative Christian; Kerry leaves $14M of his campaign funds unspent, although he lost by only 10K votes in Iowa and if he had spent more?

On Nov. 2, 2004 the 40-y.-o. TV quiz show Jeopardy! holds its 4000th episode, featuring emcee Alex Trebek (1940-) and announcer Johnny Gilbert (1924-); since changing its rules allowing unlimited appearances to the winner in 2003, after making his first appearance on June 2, 30-y.-o. Edmonds, Wash.-born Mormon software engineer of Holladay, Utah (the state that's 65% Mormon) Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III (1974-) ("nerd") ("smarmy") ("peronality of a hall monitor") (resembles a white prick in a suit with the face of Mel Gibson pasted on?) (B.S. in computer science and English at BYU) rakes in $2M+ in earnings by this date, then ups his total to $2,197K, making him the biggest game show winner in TV history (later falling to #1 behind Brad Rutter), the hoopla boosting the show's ratings 22% to #1 among syndicated TV shows; on Nov. 3 (his 66th appearance) he wins a single game record $75K; on Nov. 30 he finally loses in his 75th appearance after winning $2,520,700 (10% of which he gives straight to the Mormon Church) and giving 2.7K correct responses when 48-y.-o. Ventura, Calif. real estate agent Nancy Zerg (1956-) beats him in Final Jeopardy on a question about income tax prep. service H&R Block: "This company has 70K employees, most of which only work 4 mo. of each year"; he guesses Federal Express (and later says that he does his own taxes, meaning the Mormon Church does them to make sure they get all of their 10%?), losing $5601 of his $14,400, leaving $8799, while Zerg bets $4401 of her $10K, giving $14,401; if he hadn't flubbed an easy Double Jeopardy question about Nutsy Bastogne, he wouldn't have lost $5.4K, and if he hadn't flubbed another easy one about cloche hats, he wouldn't have lost another $4.8K, and thus had a shutout game; she loses on her next appearance (Dec. 1) to Katie Fitzgerald; lucky for Ken, losing on a question about a major corp., with a wrong answer giving the name of another major corp., he later makes more moolah by doing ads for both, and gets free income tax prep service for life from H&R Block.

On Nov. 12, 2004 after damning testimony and tapes of conversations with his lover Amber Frey are heard by the jury, former fertilizer salesman Scott Lee Peterson (1972-) is convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in a crowd-pleasing verdict after a sensationalized 5-mo. trial; on Dec. 13 the jury recommends the death penalty; Judge Alfred A. Delucchi sentences him formally on Feb. 25, at which time Peterson joins 641 other inmates on Calif.'s death row, only 10 of whom have been executed since Calif. brought back capital punishment in 1978; San Quentin happens to overlook San Francisco Bay, where Laci's body was dumped?; Amber Frey's atty. is up-and-coming Gloria Allred, who represented Paula Jones against Pres. Bill Clinton.

In Nov. 2004 after becoming the first Ascended Master to admit a channeled UFO-related entity, Master Ashtar into his teachings, Joshua David Stone (1953-2005) founds I AM (Integrated Ascended Masters) U. in San Luis Obispo, Calif., which later moves to Austria; when he dies Gloria Excelsias takes over.

In 2004 the London Times pub. its first annual Times Higher Education World Universities Rankings; in 2016 the top five are Oxford U., Caltech, Stanford U., Cambridge U., and MIT.

In the winter of 2004-5 Death Valley, Calif. experiences its greatest rainfall on record (until ?), 6 in., over 3x normal, causing an explosion in Mar. 2005 of 50 kinds of wildflowers and developing the fragrance of a flower shop, along with jillions of bees.

On Jan. 7, 2005 super-intense rainstorms begin drenching the Pacific coast of Southern Calif., dumping a whole year's worth of rain (20+ in.) and causing mudslides and deaths as the old song lyrics "it never rains in Southern California" are played by radio stations; the Sierra Nevadas get 19 ft. of snow at elevations above 7K feet from Dec. 28-Jan. 9, the most since 1916; storms also cause flooding in Ariz., avalanches in Utah, and ice damage and flooding in the Ohio Valley; MF believers increase their volume of warnings of an approaching Armageddon?

On Jan. 18, 2005 the Michael Jackson Trial People of the State of Calif. v. Michael Joseph Jackson for molesting 13-y.-o. Gavin Arvizo begins as he is arraigned in Santa Maria, Calif., then goes outside and wows fans with an electrifying dance atop his black SUV; on Jan. 31 jury selection begins; on Feb. 23 a jury is selected; on Feb. 28 opening statements are made; the trial becomes the most publicized in history (until ?).

On Jan. 26, 2005 (6:03 a.m. PST) Juan Manuel Alvarez (1978-) leaves his gasoline-soaked SUV on some railroad tracks in Glendale, Calif., at the outskirts of Los Angeles, causing a commuter train to smash into it, derail, and crash into an oncoming train, killing 11 and injuring 177; in Aug. 2008 he is sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole - guess why I did it?

On Feb. 14, 2005 the U.S. govt. announces that a test of its nat. ballistic missile defense system, designed to defend against missiles launched from North Korea across the Pacific Ocean has failed for the 2nd time in as many months; the interceptor bases are in Alaska and Calif.; the same day South Korea announces high-level military talks with North Korea in an effort to coax it to return to 6-nation disarmament negotiations; at the same time Seoul officials say it's too early to declare North Korea a nuclear power as the alleged nukes haven't been confirmed.

It never rains in Southern California? On Feb. 17-21, 2005 storms in and around Los Angeles, Calif. drop 6.5 in. of rain, making the total since July 31.4 in. (5th highest on record), and killing four in mudslides; on Feb. 22 N Calif. is hit by severe thunderstorms and a pair of tornadoes.

America's justice for the stars system produces two verdicts in one day? On Mar. 16, 2005 71-y.-o. actor Robert Blake (Michael James Gubitosi) (1933-) is acquitted of the May 4, 2001 murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley (1956-2001) in a parked car outside a restaurant in Studio City, Calif. by a Los Angeles jury after a 4-mo. trial; he claims to have spent $10M in his defense and to be broke and in need of a job; on Nov. 18 he is found liable for his wife's death by a civil jury in Burbank, Calif. and ordered to pay her children $30M (O.J.'s victims got $33.5M).

On May 2, 2005 after random highway shootings in the Los Angeles and Southern Calif. area begin occurring within a 75-mi. area on Mar. 12, killing four and wounding four, police close down a section of the highway to search for bullet fragments after the shooters remain unidentified.

On May 17, 2005 Dem. Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (nee Antonio Ramon Villar Jr.) (1953-) defeats Dem. Mayor James Hahn by 59%-41%, and on July 1 is sworn in as Los Angeles mayor $1 (until July 1, 2013), becoming the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles since 1872, when it was a town of 5K people; the city is now 48% Hispanic, 31% white, 11% Asian, and 10% black; Mexican ambassador Carlos de Izaga attends the inauguration; in Nov. 2016 he announces his candidacy for Calif. gov. in 2018 - the reconquista is 48% complete?

On June 1, 2005 a landslide takes down 17 multi-million dollar homes in Laguna Beach, Calif., all built on a steep sandstone hill for them luxurious ocean views.

On June 3, 2005 Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown (Columbia Pictures) (TriStar Pictures) debuts, written by Stacy Peralta, about the Z-Boys (Zephyr Boys) skateboarders (former surfers) in "Dogtown" Venice Beach, Los Angeles, Calif. ("kennel by the sea") in the late 1970s, who turned skateboarding from a safe to an extreme sport and launched a nat. craze; stars John Robinson as Peralta, Emile Hirsch as Jay Adams, Victor Rasuk as Tony Alva, Michael Angarano as rich kid Sid, and Heath Ledger as mgr. Skip Anglund; does $13.4M box office on a $25M budget.

On June 7, 2005 the Repub.-controlled U.S. Senate ends a nearly 2-year filibuster, clearing the way for Calif. Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown (1949-), a black conservative from Ala. to be confirmed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C., the 2nd highest U.S. court.

On Sept. 14, 2005 in San Francisco, Calif. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton rules that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the words "under God",

On Oct. 7, 2005 Calif. Gov. Ahnuld signs a bill barring high school athletes from taking nutritional supplements synephrine, ephedra, and DHEA after being criticized for having his own multimillion-dollar contract with muscle mags. advertising supplements - although when he was Mr. Olympia he popped roids like candy?

On Oct. 24, 2005 a Los Angeles judge signs a Dec. 13 death warrant at San Quentin Prison for Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams III (b. 1953), who has been on death row since Apr. 20, 1981 for four 1979 shotgun murders, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his prison-written children's books; his lawyers appeal to Calif. Gov. Ahnuld for clemency, hoping to be the first to receive clemency since Reagan spared a mentally-ill killer in 1967; on Dec. 12 the Governator nixes it, and he is executed by lethal injection on Dec. 13 - appealing to the Terminator for clemency?

Sanmarco the Markswoman? On Jan. 30, 2006 (9 p.m.) former postal worker Jennifer Sanmarco (b. 1961) forces her way into her old workplace at the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Processing and Distribution Center, and kills five before killing herself, using a 9mm handgun and reloading at least once, becoming the highest kill count for a woman at a workplace shooting.

On Apr. 16, 2007 102-y.-o. Elsie McLean (1905-) hits a hole-in-one at Bidwell Municipal Golf Course in Chico, Calif., becoming the oldest person to do it (until ?).

On June 25, 2007 a wildfire near Lake Tahoe, Calif. forces hundreds of residents to flee as it destroys 200+ bldgs.

On Sept. 27, 2006 the Calif. Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is signed by Calif. Repub. Gov. (2003-11) Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (1947-), establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse emissions from all sources in the state, strengthening his Executive Order S-3-05 of June 1, 2005 establishing greenhouse emissions targets.

In 2007 over half the world's pop. lives in cities; almost all worldwide pop. growth in the next 30 years will be concentrated in cities, growing 1.8% annually (doubling every 38 years); immigrants make up 16% of the U.S. pop. (vs. a high of 21% in 1910 and a low of 5% in 1970), with 25% or more in Calif. (35%), N.Y. (27%), N.J. (26%), and Nev. (25%).

In 2007 Calif. (Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein), Wash. (Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray) and Maine (Susan M. Collins, Olympia J. Snowe) have two female U.S. senators each, and the U.S. Senate has 16 total; only 35 of 1,897 U.S. Senators since 1789 have been female, 12 of them appointed and seven of those succeeding deceased hubbies; the first was Rebecca Latimer Feltin in 1922; in 1930 Hattie Caraway was the first to win an election; no women in 1922-31, 1945-7, 1973-8.

On Jan. 5, 2007 Calif. gov. (since Nov. 17, 2003) Ahnuld is sworn-in for a 2nd term sporting a badly broken right leg from a skiing accident; in Nov. he defeated Dem. challenger Phil Angelides in a landslide; referring to his dismal year of 2005 when his approval rating slid to half, he says that centrist "does not mean weak... It means well-balanced and well-grounded", and talks about his new politics that "looks beyond the old labels, the old ways, the old arguments", seeking a new "creative center" of "post-partisanship"; the 1878 Schwarzenegger family Bible is used.

On Jan. 12, 2007 Jennifer Lea Strange (1978-) drinks 1.75 gal. of water without urinating in a "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest at KDND Radio of Sacramento, Calif., then dies of water intoxication, causing 10 careless employees to be fired - K-dumber-than-a-doughnut?

On Jan. 18, 2007 former beautician Martha Mata Vasquez (1967-) is sentenced to 15 years in Salinas, Calif. for injecting Mazola brand corn oil into women's buttocks for $1.4K a pop and calling it the "French polymer treatment", causing the Nov. 2005 death of Maria Olivia Castillo (46) of multiple organ failure due to fat blockage.

On Jan. 31, 2007 Mikhail Gorbachev pub. a Letter to the Wall Street Journal, saying "The goal is to develop a common concept for moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons", advocating dialogue within the framework of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; on Mar. 2 the Bush admin. tells him to stuff it by announcing the selection of Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab in Calif. to design the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) to be deployed in all U.S. nuclear warheads in the next few decades, pissing-off atmospheric scientists as well as Cold War figures Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger, after which Congress cuts off funding in 2008, and the Obama admin. orders all work to cease in 2009.

On Feb. 1, 2007 Dem. San Francisco, Calif. mayor #42 (since Jan. 8, 2004) (youngest in a cent.) Gavin Christopher Newsom (1967-) apologizes for getting caught in a sexual relationship with his appointments secy. Ruby Rippey-Tourk (1972-), wife of his former campaign mgr. Alex Tourk (39) 1.5 years earlier as he was divorcing his wife, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, the couple once being touted by the press as the "New Kennedys".

On Apr. 29, 2007 a gasoline tanker carrying 8.6K gal. crashes and burns on a freeway in Emeryville, Calif. feeding the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, causing a stretch of highway to melt and collapse.

In 2007 The Climate Registry (TCR) is founded in Calif. to continue the work of the Calif. Climate Action Registry (CCAR), created by the State of Calif. in 2001 to design and operate voluntary and compliance greenhouse gas reporting programs, signing up 30+ U.S. states and 17 Canadian provinces and territories by 2009.

On June 6, 2008 Glenview, Ill.-born Michael Thomas Gargiulo (1976-) is arrested in Santa Monica, Calif. after killing up to 10 women, incl. Ashton Kutcher's babe Ashley Ellerin on Feb. 21, 2001, becoming known as "the Hollywood Ripper" and "the Chiller Killer"; he is not convicted of murder until ?

On Sept. 23, 2008 redwood treespassing treesitters Billy Stoetzer and Nadia "Cedar" Berg finally come down after 11 mo. in 300-ft. 1.5K-y.-o. Spooner in Nanning Creek in Humboldt County, N Calif. after the new owners Humboldt Redwood Co. agree to spare the trees, ending their 20-year fight with mean Pacific Lumber Co.

On Mar. 27, 2009 8-y.-o. Sandra Cantu is kidnapped in Tracy, Calif. by Sun. school teacher Melissa Huckaby (1981-), who rapes and murders her with a rolling pin, then stuffs her body in a black Eddie Bauer suitcase and thows it into a pond; on June 24, 2010 she is sentenced to life in prison.

On Aug. 8, 2009 a riot by 1.3K of 5.9K inmates at overcrowded Chino Prison 40 mi. E of Los Angeles, Calif. sparked by racial tensions between blacks and Latinos injures almost 200 inmates; a federal 3-judge panel ordered Calif. to reduce prison pop. less than 2 weeks earlier.

On Sept. 22, 2009 three vans loaded with scores of Mexicans try to run the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego, Calif., causing U.S. customs agents to fire on the van and close down the station, wounding the driver and a passenger, after which two Mexican men are arrested on federal human trafficking charges.

On Mar. 9, 2010 after years of enjoying a rape-murder spree and flouting the legal system, then being convicted in Feb., 1978 "Dating Game" contestant Rodney James Alcala (1943-) is sentenced to death in Calif. on five counts of murder incl. four women and a 12-y.-o. girl; on Jan. 27, 2011 he is indicted for two more murders in N.Y. during the 1970s.

On Jan. 3, 2011 former gov. #34 (1975-83) Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown (1938-) becomes Dem. Calif. gov. #39 (until ?), going on to become the longest-serving Calif. gov. (until ?).

On July 8, 2011 Calif. begins requiring Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retails to collect sales tax on online purchases made by Calif. customers.

On Oct. 2, 2012 Calif. gov. Gerry Brown signs a law banning therapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight, effective Jan. 1.

In 2012 the city of Stockton, Calif. declares bankruptcy, becoming the most populous U.S. municipality to file for Chapter 9; in 2018 it begins an experiment with Universal Basic Income (UBI), giving 300K randomly-selected residents an income of $500/mo.

On Jan. 3, 2013 St. Louis, Mo.-born Maxine Waters (nee Maxine Moore Carr) (1938-) becomes Dem. U.S. Rep. from Calif. (until ?), representing the South Los Angeles area, becoming a leading critic of Repub. U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald J. Trump.

On Feb. 3, 2013 ex-LAPD cop Christopher Jordan "Chris" Dorner (b. 1979) begins a shooting rampage against police officers, causing one of the largest manhunts in LAPD history; on Feb. 12 he is killed while holed-up in a cabin in Big Bear, Calif. after it is set on fire by incendiaries; burned alive?

On Feb. 19, 2013 unemployed Muslim Ali Syed (1992-) goes on a shooting spree in Orange County, Calif., killing three and injuring two others on the freeway.

On July 3, 2013 the Calif. Senate by a partisan (Dem.) 21-9 vote by passes AB 1266, a transgender rights bill for students in public schools.

On Oct. 5, 2013 Calif. gov. Jerry Brown signs the Calif. Trust Act, prohibiting illegal aliens from being turned over to ICE authorities for possibile deportation unless they have been charged and/or convicted of a serious offense; on Oct. 7 he vetoes a bill that would make Calif. the first state to allow illegal aliens to serve on juries, saying that the responsibility should come only with citizenship; altogether he signs eight immigration reform bills incl. one permitting illegal aliens to get a law license.

On Jan. 1-Dec. 13, 2014 the 2014 Calif. Wildfires, caused by the 2012-14 North Am. Drought and Santa Ana winds burn 555K acres, cause $184M damage, kill two and injure 146.

On Jan. 2, 2014 after the new law takes effect on Jan. 1, the Calif. Supreme Court unanimously rules to permit Sergio Garcia to practice law enough though he's an illegal immigrant.

On Feb. 13, 2014 $2.2B Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojhave Desert of Calif. 40 mi. SW of Las Vegas, Nev. opens, designed to produce 392MW; too bad, in Nov. 2014 AP reports that it is only producing "about half of its expected annual output".

On Feb. 25, 2014 the U.S. Supreme (Roberts) Court rules 6-3 in Fernandez v. Calif. that although an objecting co-resident may stop police from searching a dwelling, if he is removed via a lawful arrest and another co-resident consents, police may do the search, giving them the option of you know what to get what they want.

On Mar. 9, 2014 (10:18 p.m. local time) a 6.8 earthquake hits 52 mi. W of Eureka, Calif. causing little damage.

On Mar. 26, 2014 federal agents arrest 28 defendants incl. Dem. lawmakers Calif. state sen. Leland Yin Yee (1948-), Charlotte, N.C. mayor Patrick Cannon, and N.Y. state assemblyman William Scarborough on bribery charges in connection with marijuana legislation and conspiracy to traffic in firearms from the Philippines; Yee was a well-known gun control advocate.

On May 23, 2014 (Fri.) (night) after filming a video vowing to kill "blond sorority sluts" for never giving him any, 22-y.-o. "virgin gunman" Elliot Rodger (b. 1991) stages a drive-by shooting spree at the UCSB campus in Isla Vista (near Santa Barbara), Calif., killing seven and injuring 13 before being killed in a shootout with police; he leaves a 141-page manifesto plus several YouTube videos.

On June 7, 2014 an infant born to grad student Razib Khan in Calif. becomes the first healthy person born in the U.S. with their entire genome deciphered in advance.

On June 19, 2014 after the surprise June 10 defeat of Eric Cantor, House Repubs. choose Calif. Repub. rep. (since 2007) Kevin Owen McCarthy (1965-) as new House majority leader, taking office on Aug. 1 (until ?).

On June 25, 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in Riley v. Calif. that warantless cell phone searches are unconstitutional; it also rules 6-3 in Am. Broadcasting Cos. v. Aereo Inc. that a video-streaming device allowing users to capture and view broadcast TV content on portable devices violates copyright law.

On July 2, 2014 pissed-off residents of Murietta, Calif. block buses carrying illegal immigrants, continuing until ?; orders from the Obama admin. to use force against the protesters are resisted by the U.S. Border Patrol?

In July 2014 venture capitalist Tim Draper unsuccessfully attempts to put the secessionist Six Californias incl. the states of Silicon Valley, West Calif. on the Nov. 2016 Calif. ballot despite claiming 1.3M signatures.

On Aug. 24, 2014 (3:20 a.m. local time) a 6.0 earthquake rocks San Francisco, Calif., waking up residents of wineland Napa Valley.

On Aug. 24, 2014 African-Am. Muslim Douglas McArthur McCain of San Diego, Calif. becomes the first American to be KIA fighting for ISIS.

On Aug. 25, 2014 Mexican pres. Enrique Pena Nieto visits Calif., complimenting Gov. Jerry Brown for legalizing drivers licenses for illegal aliens, and calling for immigration reform, uttering the soundbyte: "We want to be a factor of cohesion, not division, with full respect for the sovereignty of the United States. This, at the end, is about, and only about a matter of justice for those who contribute so much to the development of the American society."

On Sept. 22, 2014 Calif. gov. Jerry Brown signs a law that deletes the terms "husband" and "wife" from the state marriage law, and substitutes "spouse" in order to accommodate same-sex marriages.

On Oct. 24, 2014 "1-man crime spree" Marcelo Marquez (1980-) of Salt Lake City, Utah shoots three N Calif. sheriff's deputies, killing two, and injures a civilian before being captured in a massive manhunt.

On Oct. 31, 2014 Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket crashes in the Mojave Desert in Calif. during a test flight, killing pilot Donny Youngblood.

On Nov. 4, 2014 Calif. passes Proposition 2: the Rainy Day Budget Stabilization Fund Act, which fills-up fast, reaching $13.5B by July 1, 2019.

On Dec. 9, 2014 Calif. Dem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein releases the Senate Report on CIA Torture of Terrorism Suspects, revealing not only waterboarding but sexual humiliation, even of cleared suspects, with Pres. Obama uttering the soundbyte that the investigation "reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests"; the CIA denies the report's conclusion, saying that torture thwarted terror plots.

On Feb. 3, 2015 Los Angeles, Calif.-born TV broadcaster Robert "Bob" "Zoey" Tur (1960-) (inventor of the TV news helicopter) is hired by Inside Edition, becoming the first transgender TV reporter.

On Mar. 8, 2015 Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif. becomes the first accredited Islamic inst. of higher learning in the U.S., offering a bachelor of arts in Islamic law and theology degree.

On Apr. 1, 2015 Calif. gov. Jerry Brown orders a 25% cut in urban water use, becoming the first-ever mandatory statewide reductions, even though urban water use accounts for only 10% of state water usage, while 48% is reserved for environmental uses incl. saving the delta smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

On Apr. 20, 2015 U.S. federal authorities announce the arrest of six Muslim-Ams. in Minn. and Calif. on terrorism charges, accusing them of planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

On May 8, 2015 John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono visits Los Angeles, Calif. to present a collections of cups and saucers to the Museum of Modern Art, and utters the soundbyte that in the 1970s she had a lezzie "fling" with Hillary Clinton, and that her erection, er, election "would be a great advancement for LGBT and women's rights in America."

On July 1, 2015 Francisco Sanchez, an illegal alien with seven felony convictions and five deportations back to Mexico who was allowed to run free by the Obama admin. murders a 32-y.-o. Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, Calif. while walking at the waterfront for no apparent reason, causing an outcry about San Francisco's self-declared status as a "sanctuary city" that make it ignore an ICE detainer while he was in jail; on July 23 House Repubs.

On July 20, 2015 Japanese automaker Mitsubishi apologizes to U.S. POWs it used as forced labor during WWII; only 94-y.-o. James Murphy is able to attend the ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif.

On Sept. 8, 2015 (1st anniv. of displacement of Christians from Iraq and Syria by ISIS) U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jerry Fortenberry (R-Neb.) introduce a resolution declaring the persecution of Mideast Christians to be genocide.

On Sept. 12, 2015 a Ferrari and a Porsche bearing Qatari plates engage in a hi-speed street race in a residential neighborhood of Beverly Hills, Calif., which eneds when the Ferrari's engine begins smoking, after which they pull into their $10M luxury home then tell police that they claim diplomatic immunity.

On Jan. 1, 2016 the Calif. Fair Pay Act goes into effect, mandating wage parity for men and women doing "substantially similar" work, with the burden of proof on employers.

On Sept. 16, 2016 the 2nd GOP Candidate Debate between 11 candidates at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif. gives them all a chance to look good, esp. Carly Fiorina, who tasks Donald Trump for his remarks about her face, with her soundbyte "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said", causing him to blushingly reply: "I think she's got a beautiful face, and I think she's a beautiful woman."

On Sept. 23, 2015 U.S. State Dept. spokesman Mark Toner utters the soundbyte that the U.S. "would welcome" Saudi Arabia heading the U.N. Human Rights Council, causing an outcry, which doesn't stop the U.N. from doing it; meanwhile on Sept. 23 a super-rich Saudi Muslim is arrested in Beverly Hills, Calif. for forcing a woman to blow him.

On Oct. 6, 2015 Calif. Dem. Gov. Jerry Brown signs the Calif. Fair Pay Act, allowing women to sue claiming that they are being paid less than male employees for "substanially similar work" (not just equal work), and placing the burden of proof on the employer; it goes into effect on Jan. 1.

On Oct. 11, 2015 Calif. passes the Calif. Racial Mascots Act, becoming the first U.S. state to ban the use of the word "Redskin" for public school nicknames and mascots.

On Nov. 4, 2015 U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) utters the soundbyte about the mass migration of Muslims to Europe: "What we are witnessing is the destruction of Western civilization, not by an armed invasion, but by envelopment."

On Dec. 2, 2015 (10:58 a.m.) the 2015 San Bernardino Massacre sees married American jihadists Syed Rizwan Farook (born in U.S.) and Tashfeen Malik (born in Pakistan) shoot up the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif. during a Christmas party attended by 80 employees, killing 14 and injuring 21, then drive away and die in a shootout with police, becoming the worst shooting in Calif. since the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre, and the deadliest in the U.S. since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre; Pakistani-born Malik pledged alliance to ISIS and its caliph on her Facebook page at 11:00 a.m., one minute after the terrorist attack began; Muslim convert Enrique Martinez Jr. is later found to have purchased two rifles for them in 2011-12, and is charged on Dec. 18; ISIS claims responsibility for the massacre; the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security modifies its Nat. Threat Advistory System (NTAS) "an intermediate level... which describes general developments or trends regarding threats of terrorism" (U.S. Homeland Security Secy. Jeh Johnson); too bad, it doesn't label threats with terms like Islamic terrorism or ISIS.

On Dec. 15, 2015 the school district of Los Angeles, Calif. closes schools for 500K students after a Muslim terrorist email threat, which turns out to be a hoax, sent to many U.S. cities, spelling Allah with a lowercase a.

On Dec. 16, 2015 Calif. issues new proposed regulations for self-driving vehicles, requiring a licensed human driver to be on board.

On Nov. 4, 2015 (8:00 a.m.) Muslim freshman Faisal Mohammad (b 1997) goes on a stabbing spree at UC Merced in Calif. "with a smile on his face", stabbing four before police shoot and kill him.

On Jan. 1, 2016 the Calif. Fair Pay Act goes into effect, mandating wage parity for men and women doing "substantially similar" work, with the burden of proof on employers.

On Jan. 6, 2017 57-y.-o. convicted murderer Shiloh Heavenly Quine (1959-) in Calif. becomes the first U.S. inmate to receive state-funded sex reassignment surgery.

On Feb. 1, 2017 (eve.) a building at the U. of Calif. Berkeley (UCB) where gay conservative anti-Islam speaker Milo Yiannopoulos is set to speak is attacked by violent masked student protesters, causing the speech to be canceled and police to close the campus - the free speech movement started and ended in Berkeley?

On Feb. 12, 2016 (Abe Lincoln's birthday) Pres. Obama designates three new nat. monuments in Southern Calif. totaling 1.8M acres, incl. Mojave Trails Nat. Monument and Castle Mountains Nat. Monument in the Mojave Desert, and Sand to Snow Nat. Monument in the Sonoran Desert.

On Feb. 15-16, 2016 Pres. Obama holds a summit with 10 Asian nations in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

On Apr. 4, 2016 N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a celebration for the new $15/hour state min. wage, gaining praise from Hillary Clinton et al., even though she's only in favor of a $12/hour federal min. wage?; on Apr. 4 Calif. Jerry Brown signs a $15/hour min. wage law.

On May 8, 2016 60K rally at the Turkish consulate on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, Calif. to protest the WWI-era genocide of 1.5M Armenian Christians.

On June 2, 2016 Hillary Clinton gives a speech in San Diego, Calif. slamming rival Donald Trump, calling him "dangerously incoherent" and "unfit for office", accusing him of peddling "outright lies", with the soundbyte: "He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility"; Trump fires back, with the soundbyte: "It was pathetic. It was so sad to watch. She was up there, supposed to be a foreign policy speech, it was a political speech, had nothing to do with foreign policy"; meanwhile House Speaker Paul Ryan breaks and endorses Trump.

On Aug. 26, 2016 (Fri.) during a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers in Santa Clara, Calif., San Francisco 49ers biracial QB Colin Kaepernick (known for practicing in cop pig socks) refuses to stand for the U.S. nat. anthem, with the soundbyte: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder", stirring a firestorm of controversy, after which Jeremy Lane of the Seattle Seahawks sits during the anthem before a preseason game on Sept. 1, Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos kneels during the anthem during the season opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 8, Marcus Peters of the Kansas City Chiefs stands for the anthem before the season opener on Sept. 11 against the San Diego Chargers while raising his right fist, and four Dolphins players incl. RB Arian Foster kneel before the entire Seattle Seahwaks team stands while linking arms for the nat. anthem before their season opener against the Miami Dolphins.

On Oct. 1, 2016 the Obama admn. hands over control of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to the the Calif.-based ICANN globial consortium, pissing-off Repubs., who claim he needs approval of Congress; it's a scheme by the Brown, Getty, Newsom, and Pelosi families who rule Calif.?

On Feb. 12, 2017 after unusually high water levels cause an emergency spillway to be opened, authorities issue an evacuation order for 200K downstream of the crumbling 770-ft. Lake Oroville Dam in N Calif., tallest in the U.S.

In Feb. 2017 the exasperated loser Dems. begin making allegations of sinister connections between Pres. Trump and Vladimir Putin, calling for an investigation by the House select committee on intelligence, which chmn. U.S. Rep. (R-Calif.) (2015-) Devin Gerald Nunes (1973-) rejects, saying that it isn't necessary because "there's nothing there", and it would amount to a "witch hunt"; on Mar. 1 after stating under oath on Jan. 17 that he has never been in contact with the Russian govt. about the 2016, election U.S. atty.-gen. Jeff Sessions is accused by the Wall Street Journal of being investigated for illegal contact with the Russians, which he denies, but adds that he talked with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak about Ukraine and terrorism, causing Trump-hating U.S. Sen. (D-S.C.) Lindsey Graham to call for him to recuse himself from any investigations, and Trump-hating U.S. Rep. (D-Calif.) Nancy Pelosi to accuse him of lying under oath and call for his resignation, which is seconded by Trump-hating Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, causing Sessions to recuse himself on Mar. 2; on Mar. 3 Pres. Trump tweets that he has full confidence in Sessions, that Schumer and Pelosi had meetings with the same ambassador, and should be investigated instead; on Mar. 4 (early a.m.) Trump issues more tweets that "sick" Pres. Obama had his "phones tapped in Trump Tower" before the election; on Mar. 13 White House press secy. Sean Spicer explains that "The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities"; on Apr. 6 despite Speaker Paul Ryan expressing full confidence in him, Nunes temporarily steps down from the U.S. House investigation on Russia's meddling in the U.S. pres. election, calling ethics charges by the Office of Congressional Ethics claiming he made unauthorized disclosures of classified info. "entirely false and politically motivated"; in Dec. the House Committee on Ethics clears Nunes.

On Mar. 28, 2017 after slithering out of her rock, Hillary Clinton gives a speech to businesswomen in San Francisco, Calif. dissing Pres. Trump, with the soundbyte: "These are bad policies that will hurt people and take our country in the wrong direction. It's the kinds of things you think about when you take long walks in the woods... Resist, insist, persist, enlist"; she gives the speech dressed up like the Joker?

On Apr. 18, 2017 African-Am. Muslim Kori Ali Muhammad (1977-) kills three whites in a rampage in Fresno, Calif. while shouting "Allahu Akbar", claiming he wanted to kill as many whites as possible.

In June 2017 the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the U.S. Dept. of Justice bust a Hollywood Pedophilia Network, arresting 238 incl. entertainers, community leaders, white-collar professionals, and high-ranking clergy members incl. a monk.

On Oct. 5, 2017 Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signs the Calif. Values Act, making Calif. a sanctuary state, effective Jan. 1.

On Oct. 8-31, 2017 amid unusually high temps, the Oct. 2017 Northern Calif. Wildfires consist of 250 wildfires, 21 major, incl. the Atlas Fire in Napa County, and the Tubbs Fire (most destructive in Calif. history until ?). In Oct. wildfires in Sonoma County Wine Country in Calif. are set by illegal Mexican alien Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who enjoys Calif.'s status as a sanctuary state. On Dec. 4 the Dec. 2017 Southern Calif. Wildfires, whipped-up by Santa Ana winds hits Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, forcing 200K to evacuate and burning over 140K acres; on Dec. 5 the Thomas Fire in Ventura County begins, forcing 50K to evacuate and becoming the largest wildfire of the 2017 Calif. wildfire season, which becomes the most destructive on record, seeing 9,133 fires burn 1,381,405 acres, destroying 9,470 bldgs. and damaging 810, killing 43 incl. two firefighters; on Dec. 10 Calif. "Gov. Moonbeam" Jerry Brown appears on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes", lamenting Pres. Trump's denial of climate change, uttering the soundbytes: "I don't think President Trump has a fear of the Lord, the fear of the wrath of God, which leads one to more humility"; "The truth of the case is that there's too much carbon being emitted, that heat-trapping gasses are building up, the planet is warming and all hell is breaking loose. So I'd say to Mr. Trump, take a deeper look. Now is not the time to undo what every country in the world is committed to."

On Oct. 10, 2017 Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signs a law criminalizing willful failure to address transgender patients by their preferred pronouns by health care workers.

In Oct. 2017 wildfires in Sonoma County Wine Country in Calif. are set by illegal Mexican alien Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who enjoys Calif.'s status as a sanctuary state.

On Nov. 14, 2017 (8:00 a.m. local time) a shooter in a car opens fire at the Rancho Tehama Elementary School in N Calif., killing four and injuring a dozen.

On Nov. 30, 2017 illegal immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate is found not guilty of the murder of Kate Steinle in 2015 on a pier in San Francisco, Calif. by shooting her in the back, only of being a felon in possession of a firearm, not even manslaughter, causing an outcry and pissing-off Pres. Trump, who calls it a "disgraceful verdict".

On Dec. 22, 2017 the FBI announces the arrest of Muslim convert Modesto, Calif. tow truck driver (ex-Marine sharpshooter) Everitt Aaron Jameson (1991-) for plotting a Christmas terror attack on Pier 39 in San Francisco.

On Dec. 22, 2017 (5:30 p.m.) SpaceX conducts its 18th launch of 2017, launching a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenburg AFB in Santa Barbara County, Calif., causing a Twitter frenzy as people confuse it with a UFO.

In 2017 the state of New Calif. attempts to get approval of Congress to start over sans sanctuary cities and illegal immigrants, corruption, high taxes, etc.

In 2017 2.8M sq. ft. Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino, Calif. opens.

In 2018 the state of Calif. ranks no. 1 for the percentage of residents aged 25+ who have never finished 9th grade (9.7%), and 49th for high school grads (82.5%).

On Jan. 1, 2018 Calif. legalizes recreational marijuana, anticipating a $100M/mo. industry.

On Jan. 10, 2018 the Southern Calif. Mudslides in Montecito, Calif. kill 20+.

On Jan. 15, 2018 David Turpin (1960-) and Louise Turpin (1968-) are arrested after one of their daughters escapes their prison-like home in Perris, Calif. and rats on how they have been keeping her 12 siblings ages 2-29 prisoner and starving them; they are charged with torture.

On Feb. 5, 2018 anti-Trump U.S. Rep. (D-Calif.) (2013-) Eric Michael Swalwell Jr. (1980-) introduces the U.S. Journalist Protection Act, making it a federal crime for Pres. Trump, er, to intimidate journalists to protect them from the "toxic environment created by Trump.

On Mar. 1, 2018 the state of Calif. is ranked last among U.S. states in quality of life; Los Angeles County has 58K homeless people, up 46% in 2013-17.

On Mar. 5, 2018 the $60K Flippy AI-driven burger-flipping robot begins working at the CaliBurger fast food restaurant in Pasadena, Calif.; 50 more restaurants are planned worldwide by late 2019.

On Mar. 6, 2018 the U.S. Justice Dept. sues the state of Calif. for passing laws hindering enforcement of federal immigration law and endangering federal agents, with U.S. atty. gen. Jeff Sessions uttering the soundbyte: "The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair, and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you."

On Mar. 9, 2018 (10:30 a.m.) ex-U.S. Army infantryman Albert Wong (b. 1981) attacks the Pathway Home at the Veterans Home of Calif. (largest in the U.S.) in Yountville, Calif., taking and killing three hostages before committing suicide.

On Mar. 13, 2018 teacher Dennis Alexander accidentally discharges his firearm at the ceiling at Seaside H.S. in Seaside, Calif. during a public safety class, lightly injuring a 17-y.-o. student with a bullet fragment.

On Mar. 28, 2018 a federal judge in San Francisco holds the first-ever U.S. court hearing on the impact of climate change, with lawyers for San Francisco and Oakland along with five of the largest multinat. oil cos. (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell) participating in a climate change tutorial preparatory to a lawsuit claiming that rising sea levels et al. are caused by climate change traceable to the cos.

On Apr. 17, 2018 tenured U. of Calif. Fresno English prof. Randa Jarrar stinks herself up with a tweet that recently-deceased First Lady Barbara Bush "was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal", adding that she is "happy the witch is dead", taunting critics "I will never be fired".

On May 9, 2018 the Calif. Energy Commission approves the Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan that has the goal of zero net energy usage by 2030, effective Jan. 1, making Calif. the first U.S. state to require solar panels on new residental construction.

On June 5, 2018 the U.S. approves the refugee status application of Iraqi Muslim Omar Ameen (1973-), who then travels to Iraq and kills an Iraqi police officer in Rawah on behalf of ISIS on June 22, then returns and is arrested by the FBI in Sacramento, Calif. on Aug. 15.

On June 12, 2018 the Calif. secy. of state confirms that the Cal-3 initiative to divide Calif. into three states (Calif., Northern Calif., Southern Calif.), sponsored by Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper has received enough verified signatures to be placed on the Nov. ballot; 600K signatures were submitted; "California govenment has rotted. We need to empower our population to improve their government." (Draper)

On June 28, 2018 the Calif. Supreme Court upholds a gun control law that is impossible to implement, requiring semiautomatic guns sold in the state to have a unique micro-stamped marker on their firing pins.

On Aug. 3, 2018 after the news breaks that the office of wealthy ($45M) pro-China U.S. Sen. (D-Calif.) Dianne Feinstein employed a Chinese spy as driver for 20 years, getting Chinese human rights activists who appealed to her for help kidnapped and executed by the Red Chinese govt., Donald Trump tweets the soundbyte: "Dianne is the person leading our Nation on 'Collusion' with Russia (only done by Dems.) Will she now investigate herself?"; the PC press ignores the story to continue her/their war on Trump.

On Jan. 9, 2019 Pres. Trump announces that he has ordered FEMA to halt federal emergency funds to Calif. to fight wildfires and manage forests until its officials can "get their act together".

On Feb. 13, 2019 after new Dem. Calif. gov. #40 (since Jan. 7) Gavin Christopher Newsom (1967-) decides to scale-down Calif.'s costly 2008 $77B LA-to-SF high-speed rail project, Pres. Trump tweets the soundbyte that it is a "green disaster", adding "California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars. They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now", causing Newsom to reply: "We're not giving it back." On Sept. 11, 2020 as massive wildfires rage, Dem. Calif. gov. Gavin Newson utters the soundbyte: "The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California, observe it with your own eyes. It's not an intellectual debate. It's not even debatable"; the real problem is 120M dead and uncleared trees in Calif. forests caused by massive mismanagement under control of greenies? Watch video. Watch video.

On Feb. 23, 2019 U.S. Sen. (D-Calif.) (1992-) Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (nee Dianne Emiel Goldman) (1933-) is confronted in her office by a group of a dozen schoolchildren belonging to the Sunrise Movement who demand that she support the Green New Deal, pointing to "tons of money going to the military", causing her to reply: "There's no way to pay for it. I don't agree with what the resolution says. That's part of it.... That resolution will not pass the Senate, and you can take that back to whoever sent you here and tell them. I've been in the Senate for over a quarter of a century, and I know what can pass and I know what can't pass."

On Mar. 13, 2019 Calif. Dem. gov. Gavin Newsom signs an order placing a moratorium on executions, leaving 737 murderers on death row.

On June 9, 2019 the Dem.-controlled Calif. state legislature votes to put illegal immigrants on Medicaid, treating it as a stab at Pres. Trump and claiming that a budget surplus will easily absorb it - rather than give it back to the legal citizens?

In July 2019 80K+ earthquakes hit rockin' Calif.

On July 9, 2019 Dem. Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill allowing illegal aliens under the age of 25 to receive Medicaid benefits.

On July 16, 2019 the city council of Berkeley, Calif. becomes the first to ban natural gas in new bldgs., effective Jan. 20, authorizing a $273,341 yearly salary for a new enforcement dir.; meanwhile it announces changes to the city code to remove all gendered language, e.g., replacing manholes with maintenance holes, and all instances of he/she with they.

On July 30, 2019 Dem. Calif. gov. Gavin Newsom signs a law barring U.S. pres. candidates esp. Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot if they don't release their tax returns - should be birth certificate, retroactive to Obama?

On Oct. 10, 2019 Colo. experiences its first snowstorm of the season, with temps dropping 60F (80F to 20F) in one day, but soon warming back up, bringing gorgeous Indian summer; meanwhile in N Calif. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) initiates a power blackout in N Calif. to prevent wildfires after environmentalists make them liable in court even with flimsy evidence, which doesn't stop wildfires in Saddle Ridge, Calif. et al., as the blackouts are extended to S Calif.; by Oct. 11 the 2019 Los Angeles Wildfire grows to 5K acres, causing the evacuation of 100K; the blackouts are really a conspiracy to impeach Trump, and only Repub. neighborhoods had their power cut-off?

On Nov. 19, 2019 after news that the state's top oil regulators had vested interests in major oil cos., Calif. Dem. Gov. Gavin Newsom announces a statewide moratorium on new fracking permits.

On Dec. 20, 2019 the Calif. Dept. of Finance releases a report giving the pop. of calif. at 39.96M, with a net loss of 39.5K, becoming the first time that more people are leaving Calif. than moving in since the 2010 census.

On Mar. 19, 2020 after coronavirus cases reach 1K, Calif. Dem. gov. Gavin Newsom orders all 40M Calif. citizens to stay at home, stirring concerns about a police state.

On July 1, 2020 Dem. Calif. gov. Gavin Newsom issues an executive order ordering churches to discontinue singing and chanting at services, causing three ehurches to file a federal suit on July 15.

On Aug. 13-14, 2020 Dem.-run Calif. stages rolling power blackouts after their dismantling of fossil fuel power and substitution for unreliable intermittent solar and wind power creates a severe shortage, becoming a glimpse of the future U.S. if the Green New Deal is implemented.

On Sept. 30, 2020 Calif. Dem. gov. Gavin Newsom signs AB 3121 creating a 9-member Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States"; Calif. entered the Union in 1850 as a free state.

In 2040 a whopping 49.5% of the U.S. pop. lives in just eight states: Calif., Tex., Fla., N.Y., Penn., Ga., Ill., and N.C.; 69% live in 16 states.