Timeline California (C) 1923-1961
Return to home
1923 Jan 1, The Angelus Temple, a spiritual palace in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was dedicated by Canadian-born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), organizer of the Int’l. Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_McPherson)(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P9)
1923 Feb 22, 1st successful chinchilla farm established in US was in LA, Calif.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1923 May 3, The 1st non-stop flight across the US was completed. Army lieutenants Kelly and Macready arrived in San Diego from New York in 26 hours and 50 minutes.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 4/6/98)(NPub, 2002, p.10)
1923 Jun 27, The first in-flight refueling occurred over San Diego, Ca.
(NPub, 2002, p.10)
1923 Sep 8, Seven of the 15 ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 were wrecked on a rocky point on the Santa Barbara County coast. 23 sailors were killed.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.D2)
1923 Sep 17, In Berkeley a fire began in the Wildcat Canyon and in 2 hours engulfed 584 structures.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A20)
1923 Oct 25, The Teapot Dome scandal came to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, revealed the findings of the past 18 months of investigation. His case would result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies. The administration of President Warren G. Harding was rocked by the Elk Hills Scandal-also known as the Teapot Dome Scandal or Oil Reserves Scandal. In 1921 and 1922 Harding’s secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall secretly granted Mammoth Oil exclusive rights to California’s Teapot Dome oil reserves and portions of the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves to American Petroleum, in exchange for some $300,000. Supervision of the oil reserves had been transferred from the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921. Fall was imprisoned for accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills case and the Supreme court ruled Harding’s transfer illegal.
(HN, 10/25/98)(HNQ, 4/19/99)
1923 Jack Wilkinson Smith painted his impressionist work: "Crystal Cove State Park."
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C9)
1923 The O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River was completed. The first Hetch Hetchy water began flowing to the Bay Area in 1934.
(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1923 In Los Angeles the Vista Theater at 4473 Sunset Dr. was built as a film and vaudeville house. It had a fanciful Egyptian revival-style interior.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1923 The Dow Villa Hotel In Lone Pine, Ca., was built.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T3)
1923 The 450-foot-long, 45-foot-tall "Hollywood" sign was erected on Mount Lee as a promotion for the Hollywoodland subdivision in Beachwood Canyon, Ca. In 1949 the "land" was dropped and the sign was declared a historical monument in 1973 and restored in 1978. In 2011 Leo Braudy authored “The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon."
(SFC, 11/13/96, p.E5)(SSFC, 3/6/11, p.G3)
1923 California passed legislation allowing local governments to remove bodies from areas where new burials had been banned.
(SFC, 4/14/18, p.C1)
1923 California prohibited gun shops from displaying handguns or handgun ads in shop windows. In 2018 a federal judge ruled that the law violates freedom of speech.
(SFC, 9/13/18, p.D6)
1923 The Army proved a point when Lieutenants Kelly and Macready flew the first non-stop continental flight from New York to San Diego.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1923 Porter Blanchard (1886-1973), a Massachusetts silversmith, moved to Burbank, Ca. He soon opened a studio featuring silver and pewter work that became part of the California Arts and Crafts movement.
(SFC, 5/9/07, p.G7)
1923 Wells Fargo merged with Union Trust Company and stayed solvent through the depression.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1923 The Rios-Caledonia Adobe and 6 acres was sold to Charles Dorries. Plans were made to restore the building and open it up to the public. He built a gift shop in 1938.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1923 The Sierra, a wooden-hulled lumber carrier, sank near the Farallones.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1924 Mar 17, Four Douglas army aircraft left Los Angeles for an around the world flight.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1924 Mar 31, Leo Buscaglia, "Dr. Hug", psychologist (Love), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1924 May 17, In Santa Cruz, Ca., the Giant Dipper roller coaster opened to the public. It was built by local resident Arthur Looff. It cost $50,000 and took 47 days to construct. It was declared a Historic Landmark in 1987.
(CG, #205, 1991)(SFEC, 3/14/99, DB p.71)
1924 Jul 5, The SF Playground Commission opened the 328-acre family recreation center called Camp Mather in Yosemite. It had 35 old bunkhouses from its days as a sawmill operation.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Z1p.5)
1924 Sep 10, Architect Willis Polk (b.1867) died. He had designed the Filoli estate on the Peninsula and the glass-fronted Hallidie Building on Sutter St. The Filoli House, an elegant Georgian house west of Redwood City, was built by mining millionaire William Bourn.
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Polk)
1924 Sep 25, Charlotte Mignon (Lotta) Crabtree (b.1847), the red-headed vaudeville dancer known as the "California Girl," died.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotta_Crabtree)
1924 Nov, In Salinas the Lincoln Elementary School opened. For years it followed a tracking system with white children from prominent families in class A, others in Class B, and Latino children of farm workers and other minorities in class C.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A12)
1924 The Santa Barbara Harbor was built to provide parking space for the yacht of Max Fleischmann, the yeast magnate.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.42)
1924 In Sacramento the building at 926 J. St., later known as the Poverty Palace, was constructed. It acquired the name for providing low rents to under-financed non-profit and public interest groups. It was also nicknamed the "Ban Roll-On building for its resemblance to a stick of deodorant.
(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.CA1)
1924 A three-dimensional relief map of California, as long as 2 football fields, was unveiled. The $147,000 work was constructed under the supervision of J.T. Edwards and 25 sculptors, engineers and geographers at the old Max Sennett silent movie studio near Echo Park, LA. It was later installed in the Ferry Building of San Francisco. In 1960 it went into storage. As of 2010 it was in 230 crates in a warehouse at the Port of SF.
(SSFC, 10/3/10, p.C1)
1924 In Petaluma 32 million eggs were produced.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T6)
1924 In California 14 buffalo were brought to Catalina Island for the filming of the silent movie "The Vanishing American." In 2001 there were 350. In 2009 conservation officials began a birth control program and hoped to keep the herd down to 150-200 animals.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.E6)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A4)
1924 The last known native wolf in California was trapped and killed in Lassen County. In 2011 a wolf named OR7 entered northern California from Oregon. OR7 returned to Oregon but as of 2018 the wolf's progeny appeared to have settled in the state.
(SFC, 2/18/12, p.A9)(SFC, 5/9/18, p.D1)
1925 Feb 21, Sam Peckinpah, film director (Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs), was born in Fresno, CA.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1925 May 25, Jeanne Crain, actress (Man Without a Star), was born in Barstow, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1925 Jun 29, An earthquake destroyed much of downtown Santa Barbara, California, causing millions in property damage.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.40)(HN, 6/29/98)
1925 Aug 18, The Hetch Hetchy power plant at Moccasin Creek began operating. PG&E distributed the power and profits went to SF.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1925 Dec 12, Arthur Heinman opened the first motel, the "Motel Inn," in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1925 Dec 27, In Los Angeles Hilario Camino Moncado founded the Filipino Federation of America (FFA), one of the country’s first and largest Filipino organizations.
(http://tinyurl.com/oz42xnz)
1925 Jepson’s "Manual of the Flowering Plants of California" was 1st published.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.D4)
1925 The 94-unit Glen-Donald apartment building opened in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, Ca.
(SFC, 8/20/10, p.C4)
1925 The Los Angeles city charter was drawn up creating a weak mayor and a strong city council.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.29)
1925 In Hollywood Jack’s Steakhouse opened at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa street. It was renamed the Formosa Cafe in 1939 and became a hangout for gangsters.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1925 Sumitomo Bank was founded in California to service the Japanese immigrant population. By 1996 it was California’s 5th largest bank.
(WSJ, 12/30/96, p.A1)
1925 Emporium acquired the Fairfax property in Marin, Ca., for an employee retreat.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1925 The Copco 2 dam was constructed on the Klamath River in northern California just a quarter-mile downstream of the original dam. [see 1918]
(www.friendsoftheriver.org/Publications/RiversReborn/klamath.html)
1926 Jan, Walt and Roy Disney moved to their new studio at 2719 Hyperion in Los Angeles.
(www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/disnehis/disn1926.htm)
1926 May 18, Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, Calif.; she reappeared a month later in Mexico, claiming to have been kidnapped. She had really ruin off with a married man to Carmel.
(AP, 5/18/97)(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.5)
1926 Apr 7, In San Luis Obispo, Ca., lightning sparked a 5-day oil fire killing 2 people. Over 6 million barrels of oil were burned. Final damages were estimated at $15 million.
(SFC, 4/7/09, p.D8)
1926 Jun 1, Actress Marilyn Monroe (d.Aug 5, 1962), (born as Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker), was born in Los Angeles. "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."
(AP, 6/1/97)(AP, 8/5/99)(HN, 6/1/01)
1926 Jul 6, Clara Phillips, the LA hammer murderess, celebrated her birthday at San Quentin where she was serving time for the murder of Alberta Meadows.
(SFC, 7/6/01, WBb p.8)
1926 Jul 31, Highway 140, the "All-Year Highway, to Yosemite opened.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1926 Aug 7, Stan Freberg, satirist, ad executive, cartoon voice (Bertie), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1926 Aug 12, John Derek, actor, director (10, Annapolis Story), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1926 An educational textbook on California was titled “Seeing California." It featured Mr. Magic Carpet showing students the wonders of the Golden State.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.E1)
1926 In northern California W.J. Clark built the Vacaville Theater.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.A5)
1926 The paddle-wheeled Delta Queen was built in California using a steel hull constructed in Britain. She first ran between Sacramento and SF. During WW II she was turned into a floating barracks for soldiers and as a ferry in the SF Bay. After that she was towed through the Panama Canal and up to her new home port in Cincinnati, Ohio, from where she made excursions on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
(Econ, 7/19/08, p.43)
1926 The Antioch Bridge, a 21-foot wide span with a lift section for ships traveling up the San Joaquin River to Stockton, was constructed. It was the Bay Area’s first toll bridge.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A16)
1926 The La Valencia Hotel opened in the La Jolla section of San Diego.
(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.T6)
1926 The Benbow Inn opened in Benbow, Ca. The hotel was built by architect Albert Farr, famous for his Wolf House, the Jack London home in Glen Ellen.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T6)(www.benbowinn.com/history.htm)
1926 A collection of US roads from Chicago to Los Angeles were improved and formed what would be designated as US 66. It was later replaced by 3 interstates, I-55 in Illinois, I-44 in Missouri and Oklahoma, and I-40 to LA. Route 66 was decertified in 1985. In 2006 Arthur Krim authored “Route 66: Iconography of the American Highway."
(WSJ, 6/17/06, p.P8)
1926 Julia Morgan was commissioned by Margaret Stewart, a SF hotelier, to design a manor, guest house and carriage house along the Eel River in Garberville. Morgan had designed Hearst Castle and was the first woman admitted to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She was also the first woman licensed as an architect in California. Sara Boutelle authored "Julia Morgan Architect."
(WSJ, 2/10/99, p.CA4)
1926 Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa horticulturist, died at age 77.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.11)
1926 George Sterling, Carmel (Ca.) poet, swallowed cyanide and died at the Bohemian Club.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.D1)
1927 Jan 15, The Dumbarton Bridge opened in San Francisco carrying the first auto traffic across the bay.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1927 Feb 17, The death toll reached 24 with some 3,000 left homeless after a fierce storm hit the Pacific Coast.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)
1927 Mar 1, Edward R. Bohner began serving as prohibition administrator for Northern California under National Prohibition Commissioner J.M. Doran. Bohner resigned June 18, 1929.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1927 Mar 1, Bank of Italy became a National Bank. California’s laws prohibiting branch banking changed and A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking properties into the Bank of America of California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)(SC, 3/1/02)
1927 May 4, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was incorporated. [see May 11] Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson, had initiated discussions for the organization earlier in the year.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(AP, 5/4/97)
1927 May 10, US aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) picked up his plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis," in San Diego and flew it to St. Louis. The next day he continued to New York using railroad maps that he picked up in a drugstore for 50 cents each. The plane was powered by an air-cooled Whirlwind engine built by Ryan Aeronautical Company. Charles Fayette Taylor (1895-1996) worked on the engine design team. Taylor later authored "The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice."
(WUD, 1994, p.832)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 6/30/96, p.B6)(ON, 2/08, p.2)
1927 May 11, An official organizational banquet was held for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Biltmore Hotel. Of the 300 guests, 230 joined the Academy, paying $100 each. [see May 4] Douglas Fairbanks served as the first president.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(PCh, 1992, p.783)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993), California union leader of agricultural workers, was born.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)
1927 May 18, Impresario Sid Grauman opened his Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.E6)(SC, 5/18/02)
1927 May 27, The Carquinez Bridge opened over the Sacramento River between Crocket and Vallejo. The cantilever bridge was built by American Toll Bridge Co. A 2nd was added in 1958.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B3)
1927 May 27, The cargo steamer Indiana Harbor ran aground on the northern California Humboldt coast. Radio operator Joseph E. Croney remained at his post for 72 hours while the ship was pounded.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.E3)
1927 Jun 1, The Delta King steamboat made its maiden voyage from SF to Sacramento, Ca. Its twin, the Delta Queen, followed the next day. The 81-mile trip took nearly all night. Stan Garvey later authored "The King and Queen of the River." The last Sacramento River voyages were made in 1940. In 1969 Tom Horton (1940-2006), a columnist for the Sacramento Union, led a band of civic pirates to bring the languishing boat back from Stockton to Sacramento, where it was transformed to a waterfront hotel, theater and restaurant.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)
1927 Jul 6, Janet Leigh (d.2004, film star, was born as Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced, Ca. MGM named her Janet Leigh.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.A2)
1927 Jul 14, The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley opened. It was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood of Los Angeles.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1927 Oct 29, In Fresno, Ca., Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig led an exhibition baseball game as part of an 18-state tour to promote major league baseball.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.D3)
1927 Nov 24, Troops battled 1,200 inmates after Folsom prisoners revolted. On Thanksgiving Day there was a prison break at Folsom. One prisoner was shot in the ensuing uprising and five others were later hung.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)(HN, 11/24/98)
1927 Dec, The Yosemite annual Christmas pageant at the Ahwahnee Hotel was begun by a Stanford Univ. administrator and Ansel Adams. The pageant was set in England at Bracebridge Hall at the time of King George III and based on characters created by Washington Irving.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A19)
1927 Upton Sinclair published his novel "Oil," based on the development of oil in southern California. It became the basis for the 2007 film “There Will be Blood."
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.7)(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1927 William Wrigley, gum magnate, staged a swimming race between Catalina Island and the California coast, which measured over 20 miles. George Young (17) of Canada won.
(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.W4)
1927 The Pickwick Hotel, a Gothic Revival structure, opened in San Diego, Ca. It was later renovated and re-opened as the Sofia Hotel.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.G4)
1927 The Biltmore Hotel was built in Montecito.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.43)
1927 The Biltmore Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, Ca., was built.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T7)
1927 The Fresno and the Santa Rosa were 2 of 6 steel-hulled car ferries built for the SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 12/19/06, p.C4)
1927 The Pacific Borax Co. opened the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley as a luxury resort in Death Valley.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1927 A Romanesque bridge to the new UCLA Westwood campus was built across an arroyo.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1927 The Loomis Museum was established at Mt. Lassen. It was named after photographer B.F. Loomis, who took photos of the 1914 eruptions.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T9)
1927 The State Bar of California was founded as an independent and nonpartisan organization by the state Legislature.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.A23)(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A14)
1927 Catalina Pottery was founded on Santa Catalina Island. In 1937 it was sold to Gladding, McBean and Co.
(SFC, 12/30/98, Z1 p.2)
1927 The California Legislature allowed voters to form metropolitan water districts.
(SFC, 4/25/14, p.A10)
1927 The new California state park bill gained the unanimous approval of the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor C.C. Young (1927-1931).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Parks)
1927 The California Legislature authorized the state attorney general to act on behalf of Indians to sue the federal government for losses. It took 16 years to reach a settlement.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1927 Oakland formed the state’s first independent port commission.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W27)
1927 California’s laws prohibiting branch banking changed and A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking properties into the Bank of America of California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1927 Apr 14, In California lobbyist Harry Hill (b.1880) shot and killed Marybelle Wallace, who had spurned his romantic advances. Hill, a Sacramento lobbyist, then shot and killed himself. Wallace was an employee of Sen. Lyon.
(Sacramento Bee, 4/15/27, p.1,30)(http://tinyurl.com/by6o9t3)
1927 Roy Cloud, chief of the Redwood City schools, began a new career as Executive Secretary of the California Teachers Assoc. He held this position until 1947 and successfully brought forth 30 bills to benefit teachers and education.
(Ind, 9/30/00,5A)
1927-1931 Clement Calhoun Young served as governor.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.T6)
1928 Jan 25, The Zamorano Club was founded in Los Angeles, Ca., “to establish contact and encourage exchange of thought among its members, who shall be men interested in Fine Books." The club was named after Agustin Vicente Zamorano, the first printer in Alta California.
(www.zamoranoclubla.org/history/)(http://tinyurl.com/s3c77)
1928 Feb 7, Paul Rubio, convicted SF rum runner, was kidnapped from private detectives by friends between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.E3)
1928 Mar 12, In Santa Paula, Ventura County, Ca., the 3-year-old St. Francis dam collapsed just before midnight. By the next day some 450 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(PCh, 1992, p.791)
1928 Mar 13, In California hundreds of people died when the San Francisquito Valley was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst just before midnight on March 12.
(AP, 3/13/08)
1928 Apr 14, The first air service from SF to Los Angeles began. Mines Field opened in LA on a 640-acre portion of the 3,000-acre Bennett Rancho, which had become a popular landing strip for area aviators.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)(Hem, 9/04, p.34)
1928 Apr, In California Mexican workers formed "The Imperial Valley Workers Union" to try to challenge the wage abuses they had been experiences. In May the union sent out letters to all the growers respectfully asking for 15 cents a crate for picking cantaloupes or 75 cents an hour for the labor. In October of 1933 and June 1934 there were many strikes that resulted in violent reactions by the police and growers.
(http://aztlan.sdsu.edu/chicanohistory/chapter07/c07s01.html)
1928 May 19, The 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1928 Jun 5, Robert Lansing, actor (12 O'Clock High, Equalizer), was born in SD, Calif.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1928 Dec 5, California Sec. of State Frank C. Jordan issued a certificate of incorporation to the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District. The next step in the new bridge campaign would be to appoint 12 directors.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1928 Dec 6, Workers blasted through the last barrier of rock in the 16-mile tunnel in the foothill division of San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy water project.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1928 The Los Angeles City Hall at First and Spring streets was built. It was the city’s tallest building until the late 1950s. It was Renaissance tower atop a Greek temple supported by a classical base.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1928 The 30-foot cast-iron Point Montara Lighthouse, shipped in from Cape Cod, was rebuilt at Point Montara in San Mateo Ct.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T3)(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 6/14/08, p.B2)
1928 Mission San Miguel was returned to the Franciscan Padres.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1928 In Moraga the campus of St. Mary’s College opened.
(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A16)
c1928 The first Artichoke Queen was crowned in the Salinas Valley.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A23)
1928 California voters approved a $6 million state park bond act.
(www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=940)
1928 Agricultural workers in the Imperial Valley earned as much as 75 cents per hour for picking cantaloupe. The rate dropped to 15 cents 4 years later.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1928 Nearly 2,000 people died on California highways.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
1929 Jan 13, Frontiersman Wyatt Earp died in LA, Ca., after an illustrious life in the West. Cowboy stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix served as pallbearers. Born in Illinois in 1848, he served as a lawman in Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, as well as Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil were notorious for violent clashes with outlaws. Western historians have disagreed about the particulars of Wyatt Earp's life, but he is said to have been a freighter-teamster, railroad construction worker, policeman, prisoner, saloon keeper and horse farmer, and he was involved in several gunfights--for reasons that may or may not have been related to law enforcement. When Morgan was killed, Wyatt avenged his death by killing Frank Stilwell, an outlaw he had previously arrested. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp died and was buried in Colma, Ca. In 2003 Lee A. Silva authored Wyatt Earp, A Biography of the Legend, Volume 1, the Cowtown Years."
(HNPD, 1/12/99)(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1 p.10)(MesWP)(CHA, 1/2001)(AH, 6/03, p.60)
1929 May 16, Hollywood staged an experimental publicity stunt for the movie industry at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that grew to become the Academy Awards extravaganza. The first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won best production while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. The first ceremony gave out a 2nd best award that went to F.W. Murnau’s "Sunrise." The dog Rin Tin Tin received the most votes for best actor, but the academy decided it would be a more auspicious precedent to grant the award to a human.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/23/97, DB p.54)(AP, 5/16/97)(Econ, 2/4/12, p.86)
1929 May 29, Armgaard Karl Graves, notorious int’l. war spy, was arrested in Los Angeles on bunko charges.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.F9)
1929 Oct 18, The Pardee Dam in the Mokelumne canyon, California’s largest concrete dam, was officially dedicated.
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.F13)
1929 Oct 23, First transcontinental air service began from New York to Los Angeles.
(HN, 10/23/98)
1929 Oct 25, Former US Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in connection with the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve in California. This conviction was in addition to the one he received for accepting kickbacks in conjunction with the Wyoming Teapot Dome Scandal. Fall served under Pres. Warren Harding, but it is unclear if Harding was aware of any wrongdoing. [see Oct 25, 1923]
(AP, 10/25/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.7)(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.D9)
1929 Oct 28, Universal Pictures joined with Transcontinental Air Transport to offer moving pictures for air passengers bound for California.
(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1929 The Santa Barbara Courthouse was dedicated.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.42)
1929 Hangar 1, the first modern air terminal of LA, was completed at Mines Field in Spanish Colonial Revival style. In 2005 it was still part of LAX.
(Hem., 5/97, p.70)(Hem, 9/04, p.34)
1929 Pistachios were brought to California from Persia (Iran).
(SFCM, 9/30/01, p.26)
1929 A golden altar that had been brought from Barcelona, Spain, and intended for the Los Angeles Cathedral was assembled from 396 pieces and installed into the chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
(HT, 3/97, p.58)
1929 The Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles debuted as the cornerstone of the largest Jewish congregation west of Chicago. It was bankrolled in part by Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of MGM, Movie mogul Irving Thalberg, Carl Laemmle and the Warner brothers.
(SFC, 6/5/13, p.E7)
1929 William Randolph Hears commissioned Julia Morgan to design a ranch house for his San Antonio Valley property. The Milpitas Ranch House later became known as the Hacienda Guest Lodge."
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T5)
1929 An agreement entitled California to 4.4 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado River, most of it for agriculture. One acre-foot is 325,000 gallons.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A15)
1929 The California Highway Patrol was created.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1929 Harry Cobden (d.1999 at 95), while working as a mule packer and mountain guide, climbed Mount Conness in Yosemite with Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII. Cobden later co-designed the steel Quonset Hut for the Navy in Quonset, R.I.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.C2)
1929 A fire in Mill Valley destroyed 1,000 acres and 115 homes.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A1)
1930 Apr 28, Astronomers at California’s Lick Observatory recorded a solar eclipse.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F3)
1930 May 20, University of California dedicated $1,500 to research on the prevention and cure of athlete's foot.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1930 Jul 17, A natural gas explosion in the Mitchell ravine tunnel of the Hetch Hetchy water project in California killed 12 men. 35 other workers quit charging that carelessness and lack of equipment was responsible for the tragedy.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F6)
1930 Jul 28, Darryl Hickman, actor (Human Comedy, Tea & Sympathy), was born in Hollywood, Cal.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1930 Sep 10, A Santa Fe passenger train killed over 600 sheep near Stockton, Ca. T. Urrizola Escalon, the herder, was believed to have driven the sheep onto the track and committed suicide. He left a note that said “Farewell, you will never see me again."
(SFC, 9/9/05, p.F5)
1930 Oct 30, The California-based Pacific Gas and Electric announced that the company’s system was now officially interconnected with the recently purchased Great Western Power Co. and the San Joaquin Light and Power Co. The new $600 million consolidated company now covers 45 counties.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F3)
1930 Nov 13, In California the Fresno Bee reported that Al Capone, Chicago gangland leader, had banned the sale of grape juice concentrates in Chicago. The order was said to be a warning to California grape farmers that they need his approval to sell their products in certain markets.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F7)
1930 Nov 19, Bob Mathias, decathlon athlete (Olympics-gold-48), was born in Tulare, Calif.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1930 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1930 Amadeo P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, donated $500,000 to UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A15)
1930 The Yosemite Park Service began to build a small village in the valley for Yosemite Indians.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1930 James R. Rolph, "Sunny Jim," was elected governor of the state and served one 4-year term.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A14)(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.B8)
1930 Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, a 175-acre estate of former Sen. James Phelan, was officially bequeathed to California for the encouragement of the arts.
(SSFC, 2/20/05, Par p.4)
1930 19 mule dear were introduced to Catalina Island as a hunting resource. In 2001 there were 850. Their numbers had reached 2000 in the 1950s.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.E6)
1930 The last California Mutsun Indian, Dona Ascension Solorzano, died.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T4)
1930 James D. Phelan, former mayor of SF (1897-1901), died. In 1914 he was elected and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920 campaign used the slogan "Keep California white.’
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)
1930s Anne Loftis in 1998 published "Witnesses to the Struggle: Imaging the 1930s California Labor Movement."
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.D5)
1930s Adolph Parducci founded his winery in Ukiah, Ca. The family sold the business in 1972. In 2004 it was bought by the Mendocino Wine Co.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 9/8/06, p.F4)
1930s Upton Sinclair began his popular "End Poverty in California" campaign.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.D5)
1930s Eugene S. Elkus Jr. (d.1999 at 93) founded the Elkus Paper Co. with his father and younger brother. The company pioneer the use of pink paper for wrapping meat and blue paper for laundered shirts.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A19)
1931 Jan 6, James Rolph Jr., former mayor of SF, was inaugurated as the 27th governor of California.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan 9, A cave in at California’s Hetch Hetchy Coast Range tunnel trapped 20 men underground. They were all rescued the next day.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan 30, Gene Hackman, actor (Bonnie & Clyde, Under Fire, Superman), was born in Calif.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1931 Jul 1, Ice vending machines were introduced in LA.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1931 Aug 21, Nancy Hadley, actress (Love That Jill, Joey Bishop Show), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1931 Sep 19, David Starr Jordan (b.1851), former president of Stanford Univ. (1891-1913), died at Stanford. He had promoted the concept of improving human genetics, through removal from the breeding pool of those deemed unworthy to reproduce in his series of publications titled “The Blood of the Nation" (1902).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starr_Jordan)
1931 The Art-Deco-style jail in Lincoln Heights, LA, was built over the site of a jail constructed ten years earlier. It later acquired the name "Gray Bar Motel." It housed prisoners to the late 1950s and was again used during the 1965 Watts riots and again closed the same year.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.C14)
1931 The Commonwealth Club of California established its California Book Awards to foster and recognize literature in the Golden State,
(SFEC,11/2/97, BR p.13)
1931 Highway 1 connected Big Sur to the rest of California.
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.A17)
1931 The 1st successful case for desegregation in schools was Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District in San Diego.
(SFC, 4/12/04, p.E8)
1931 California made Calaveras Big Trees into a State Park.
(CVG, Vol 16, p.31)
1931 Randoplh Hearst, American newspaper magnate, purchased a collapsing former Trapist monestary in Spain, the Santa Maria de Ovila, for $97,000. Plans to rebuilt the 16th century chapter house at his mother’s Wyntoon estate went on hold with the Great Depression. Hearst later gifted the crated stones to San Francisco. In 1994 SF agreed to loan the stones to Cistercian monks at Vina, near Chico, Ca. In the spring of 2012 the scaffolding of rebuilt structure in Vina came down.
(SFC, 12/26/12, p.A1)
1931 F.W. Murnau (42), German film director, was killed in a car crash in California.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.6)
1932 Jul 30, The Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles. The US won 41 gold medals, Italy was 2nd with less than a third of that. Bill Miller of Stanford won a gold medal in the pole vault when he cleared 14'-1 ¾". Later in the year he set a world record at 14'-1 7/8". Babe Didriksen (21) of Texas won 2 track gold medals and a silver. Track events in this summer’s Olympics were timed with manual stopwatches.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.4)(AP, 7/30/97)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.C3)
1932 Aug 4, Luigi Beccali (1907-1990), Italian athlete, won Olympic gold in the 1500 meters. He gave a Fascist salute at the winners’ podium.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)(http://tinyurl.com/6al4up)
1932 Los Angeles voters removed three Superior Court judges accused of taking kickbacks.
(SFC, 5/28/18, p.A1)
1932 David Alfaro Sigueiros, Mexican artist, arrived in Los Angeles to teach at the LA Art School and spent seven months there. He experimented with new industrial tools and created large outdoor murals. His 80x18 foot mural, “La America Tropical," on City Hall on Olvera Street, commissioned by Christine Sterling, was painted over following completion. Soon thereafter his request for a visa renewal was denied. In 2006 LA and the Getty Foundation began a $7.7 million project to restore the work.
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.E7)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.103)
1932 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1932 The Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links opened its first nine holes, designed by Chandler Egan. The back nine were designed by Jack Neville in 1960.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T6)
1932 William F. Knowland, son of Joseph R. Knowland of the Oakland Tribune, became a state Congressman by appointment from Earl Warren.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.5)
1932 In the SF Bay Area pari-mutuel betting on horse racing was legalized and racing resumed at Tanforan.
(Ind, 8/17/02, 5A)
1932 San Diego was the suicide capital of the country.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.1)
1932-1998 In 1999 Paul Vangelisti and Evan Calbi put together the anthology "L.A. Exile: A Guide to Los Angeles Writing."
(SFEC, 12/12/99, BR p.3)
1933 Feb 26, Ground was broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Russell Cone was hired to oversee the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had already worked on the Philadelphia-Camden (Ben Franklin) Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
(HN, 2/26/98) (SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1933 Mar 10, In Long Beach a 6.3-6.4 earthquake killed 115 people.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 6/21/00, p.A1)
1933 Apr 15, Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (Samantha/Serena-Bewitched), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1933 May, Saudi Arabia gave Standard Oil of California exclusive rights to explore for oil.
(www.chevron.com)
1933 Oct 19, Dallas Egan, condemned slayer, was executed at San Quentin after California Gov. James Rolph agreed to allow him 8 ounces of good Kentucky bourbon whiskey.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, DB p.58)(www.freeotrshows.com/otr/c/Calling_All_Cars.html)
1933 Nov 29, The two men who had kidnapped and killed Brooke Hart, heir to a San Jose department store fortune, were taken by a mob from the county jail. They were lynched in a park and their bodies were set on fire. Gov. Rolph said that if anyone was arrested for the lynching, he would pardon them.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1933 In Santa Monica the Georgian Hotel was built on Ocean Ave.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.T6)
1933 Carroll Melbin (1900-1997) helped to organize the Northern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. Ernest Besig, NY civil liberties lawyer, also helped organize the union following the 1934 SF maritime strike. Besig later went to Humboldt Ct. to defend lumber strikers after 3 were killed and 8 wounded by company guards.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A17)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)
1933 Pres. Hoover declared Death Valley a national monument.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1933 Gov. James Rolphy signed a bill authorizing the creation of a regional park district for the East Bay. The East Bay Regional Park District was formally established in 1934 and in 1936 it logged its 1st acquisition from EBMUD -- 2,166 acres in what became Tilden Regional Park and the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.A14)
1933 California voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote by legislators for budgets. The requirement was extended to tax increases as part of Proposition 13 in 1978.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A1)
1933 California began a sales tax to pay for public schools. This followed the plummet of property taxes during the Great Depression.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1933 Northern California’s 4,350-acre Castle Crags state park was created thanks to land purchases by private citizens. The adjacent federal wilderness area, covering another 10,500 acres, was established in 1984.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.G8)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1933 California passed an anti-lynching law. Lynching was broadly interpreted to cover vigilante mob action to punish a prisoner. California law defined lynching as "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer."
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C4)
1933 The California state legislature approved the Central Valley Project which included the Shasta and Friant Dams. It became a federally built water system to sustain California agriculture. The Friant dam was completed in 1944.
(SFC, 12/29/99, Z1 p.1)
1933 Ernst and Julio Gallo founded the Gallo winery in Modesto.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1934 Jan 7, The Radio Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong began broadcasting in Pasadena, Ca. His program was called "The World Tomorrow" and his magazine was called "The Plain Truth."
(WSJ, 2/120/00, p.A1)
1934 May, Union workers in SF went on strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. The Int’l. Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, went on strike. Strike breakers were housed in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jun 2, Sunny Jim Rolph (b.1869), former mayor of SF (1912-1931) and Governor of California (1931-1934), died. He lived at his home at 288 San Jose Ave. in the Mission throughout his life.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.5)(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1934 Jul 5, During the West Coast maritime strike police in SF fired into a crowd of strikers at Stewart and Mission streets and killed 2 men and wounded 109. Police had tried to escort scabs to the docks. The General Strike was led by Harry Bridges. Civil liberties attorneys Ernest Besig (d.1998 at 94), and Chester Williams were called in to from new York. They founded a local American Civil Liberties Union and sued SF and Oakland for failure to protect striker’s First Amendment rights.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A23)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)
1934 Jul 9, In SF a parade of 15,000 was held on Market Street for the 2 men killed on Jul 5. The funeral was followed by a general strike. SF Mayor Angelo J. Rossi and Gov. Frank Merriman blamed the strike on Communists.
(SFEM, 1/18/98, p.6)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 13, The general strike ended after 4 days and went into arbitration. In the fall arbitrators gave the union a hiring hall, a 6-hour day and a small wage increase.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 29, The West Coast longshoremen’s strike came to an end on its 82nd day when the dock workers’ leaders accepted conditions proposed by the National Longshoremen’s board, pending arbitration. Men returned to work on July 31.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, DB p.42)(www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/STRIKES!/exh.html)
1934 Aug 11, The US government opened a maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and the first federal prisoners arrived. From the time it opened to 1937 there was no talking by prisoners allowed. Alcatraz, previously used only for American military criminals, received its first group of civilian prisoners. Federal convicts from McNeil Island Prison in Washington joined a small number of military prisoners, left over from the island‘s time as a U.S. Army prison. The facility had been used as a military prison since 1859, but was redesigned in the 1930s to be a high-security penitentiary for the "most dangerous" prisoners. Gangster Al Capone arrived at Alcatraz later that August.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(AP, 8/11/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(HNQ, 7/10/00)(MC, 8/11/02)
1934 Oct 12, Michael O'Shaughnessy, SF chief engineer, died, just 12 days before Hetch Hetchy water began flowing to the Bay Area. [see Oct 28]
(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1934 Oct 28, In Redwood City a crowd of 20,000 people gathered at the temporary Pulgas Water Temple to witness the first Sierra water begin to empty into Crystal Springs Lake. The Pulgas Water Temple near the Crystal Springs Reservoir was modeled after the Sunol Water Temple designed by Willis Polk. This marked the end of the 20-year SF water project led by engineer Michael O'Shaugnessy (d.10/18/34). [see Oct 12]
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A21)(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A24)(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)
1934 Nov 4, The new $400,000, 6,500-seat, Bay Meadows horse racing track opened in San Mateo under the direction of Bill Kyne (d.1957). Gov. Frank Merriam christened the one-mile track. Jockey George Burns rode 5 winners, three of them in a row. The track featured the new $250,000 totalizer machine to display bets and payoff.
(Ind, 5/13/00,5A)
1934 Dec 20, California’s new state liquor control law went into effect making it legal to sell hard liquor by the drink in hotels, restaurants and clubs.
(SSFC, 12/20/09, DB p.46)
1934 In California a cross was erected in the Mohave National Preserve as a memorial to the soldiers of WWI. In 2010 the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to approve the display on government land saying the US Constitution does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm.
(SFC, 4/28/10, p.A5)
1934 The Bonfante family opened the first Nob Hills Food store in Morgan Hill, north of Gilroy. It grew to a 27-store chain and then sold out to Raley’s in 1997.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.B4)
1934 Theodore Groth opened his Fireproof Garage in Livermore. It later became the Groth Brother Chevrolet dealership.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.D1)
1934 The governor of Arizona called out the state militia and navy (2 ferryboats) to halt California’s construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct. It took an act of Congress and a Supreme Court decision to get the project restarted.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A5)
1934 Upton Sinclair, muckraker and socialist, ran for governor of California and wrote "I, governor of California and how I ended poverty: A true story of the future." It spoke of his utopian scheme called EPIC (End Poverty in California). He was defeated by Frank Merriam (1865-1955). In 1992 Greg Mitchell authored “The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics."
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 1/12/05, p.E3)
1934 In Hollywood, Ca., Ina Ray Hutton formed her first all-female jazz orchestra, Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears.
(SFC, 6/25/11, p.E2)
1934 Will and George Climes founded Will-George pottery in Los Angeles, Ca. By 1948 the business had moved to San Gabriel and renamed to Claysmiths. It closed in 1956.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.G2)
1934 Lucky Lager was first commercially introduced. The brand was founded by General Brewing in California. Lucky Lager Brewing opened a second brewery in Azusa, California in 1949, and bought smaller breweries in Vancouver, Washington in 1950 and in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1960.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lager)
1935 Feb 12, The 785-foot USS Macon, the last US Navy dirigible (ZRS-5), crashed on its 55th flight off the coast of California, killing two people. After takeoff from Point Sur, California, a gust of wind tore off the ship's upper fin, deflating its gas cells and causing the ship to fall into the sea. Two of Macon's 83 crewmen died in the accident. The U.S. Navy lost the airships Shenandoah in 1925 and Akron in 1933. Some considered airships too dangerous for the program to continue at that point, and work on them in the United States halted temporarily.
(HNQ, 2/7/99)(SFC, 9/27/06, p.B1)
1935 May 29, The California Pacific Exposition opened in San Diego. Organizers of the San Diego Exposition thought that a horny robot and a vanguard of big-breasted nudist women might help cheer people up. Thus came "Zorine the Queen of the Nudists and Alpha the mechanical Man."
(http://tinyurl.com/73qsnob)(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.42)(http://tinyurl.com/2dcavp)
1935 The new Los Angeles Times building was completed. In 1910 a union-member bombing killed 21 nonunion pressman and linotype operators at the LA Times.
(WSJ, 9/16/08, p.A23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times_bombing)
1935 The Griffith Observatory opened in Los Angeles. It was donated to the city by Col. Griffith J. Griffith and designed by architects John C. Austin and F.M. Ashley. In 1976 it was designated a city historic-cultural monument. In 2002 it closed and re-opened in 2006 after a $93 million makeover.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.B6)
1935 The California Field Act set construction standards for school buildings and endorsed earthquake drills.
(WSJ, 6/21/00, p.A1)
1935 California began taxing personal income and imposed a use tax on certain purchases from out of state companies.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1935 California reduced the duck hunting bag limit to 10 birds per day. In 2002 the limit was 4. Limits had begun in 1901 with 50 birds per day.
(Ind, 2/23/02, 5A)
1935 In Pasadena, Ca., R. Stanton Avery (d.1997 at 90) began selling self-stick labels made from a machine he invented using a washing machine motor, sewing machine parts and a saw. By 1996 the Avery Dennison Corp. annual sales reached $3.2 billion.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A20)
1935 The Raley’s food and general merchandise stores began operating. The store became a Sacramento-based chain of 88 by 1997 when it bought out Gilroy’s Nob Hill Foods.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.B1)
1935-1939 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1936 Apr 10, A 200" mirror blank arrived in Pasadena for Mt. Palomar.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1936 Jun 2, Sally Kellerman, actress (M*A*S*H, Back to School), was born in Long Beach, Cal.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1936 Sep 11, President Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) by pressing a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator in Nevada. The Dam was completed ahead of schedule. It was the first and most important link in a chain of dams, canals and aqueducts built to harness the Colorado River. The colossal mass of concrete is wedged into Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, 32 miles SE of Las Vegas. Paul L. Wattis, headed the construction company that built Boulder Dam.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNQ, 4/3/02)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A22)
1936 Sep, In Salinas, Ca., fascists and agencies of law and order oversaw a 15-day period of “ruthless" dictatorship under the guise of a “red scare."
(SSFC, 9/18/11, p.42)
1936 The first US fitness club opened in California and pioneered such exercises as the jumping jack.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1936 In Santa Cruz the Santa Cruz Surfing Club was founded. The group later established a surfing museum.
(CG, #205, 1991)
1936 Marjory B. Farquhar (d.1999) became the first woman to climb the Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite. Her oral history is on file at UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1936 A long and violent agricultural strike by the lettuce shed workers occurred in Salinas, Ca.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D6)
1936 A delegation from Los Angeles went to Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia, to present a souvenir pamphlet, the fate of the delegation was unknown.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.7)
1937 Jan 19, Howard Hughes flew from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours and 22 minutes.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1937 Mar 23, Los Angeles Railway Co. started using PCC streetcars. PCC's are streetcars that were originally designed under the direction of the Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee, in an attempt by 25 U.S. and Canadian transit companies to develop a standardized streetcar whose many improvements would help to reverse the decline in transit use that had begun in the 1920's. The committee's efforts began in late 1929, and the first cars were put into service in New York in October 1936.
(SS, 3/23/02)(Internet)
1937 May 27, The newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge was designed by Joseph Strauss. Over 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day. The bridge towers stood a record 750 feet.
(AP, 5/27/97)(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 10/30/99, p.C3)(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.11)
1937 Jul 3, The new Del Mar Race Track, built by Bing Crosby and friends opened 20 miles north of San Diego. High Strike, a Crosby gelding, won the inaugural race.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A17)
1937 Aug 18, Robert Redford, actor (Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), was born in Calif.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1937 Dec 8, In San Francisco 5 men were sentenced to death at San Quentin for the Sep 19 Folsom Prison break that cost Warden Clarence Larkin his life.
(www.odmp.org/officer/7907-warden-clarence-larkin)(SSFC, 12/9/12, p.46)
1937 The California -based Irvine Foundation was founded by agriculturalist James Irvine. By 2015 it was granting $69 million annually to youth arts and development programs in California from cultivated assets of $1.8 billion.
(https://www.irvine.org/about) (SFC, 2/10/15, p.E1)
1937 In California the Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill opened. It was the nation’s 1st true sanitary landfill, where garbage was compacted and buried each day. The waste later polluted groundwater. In 1987 145-acre dump was closed. In 1989 it was named a Superfund toxic site by the EPA.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A3)
1937 The Caldecott Tunnel opened with 2 bores under the Oakland-Berkeley Hills.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A21)
1937 In California Highway 70 opened along the Feather River Canyon.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.T9)
1937 In California the Devil’s Slide stretch of Highway 1 opened. A bypass tunnel opened in 2013.
(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)(SFC, 3/14/13, p.D2)
1937 The 1st Crosby golf tournament was played at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in San Diego County. This phase of the tournament lasted to 1942.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, DB p.37)
1937 Gibbs Field opened in San Diego, Ca. On May 20, 1950, it was formally re-dedicated as Montgomery Field in honor of John Montgomery, the man who made the first controlled flight in a fixed wing craft (1883).
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1937 The state Legislature named the native redwood as the State Tree of California. In 1951 the coastal Sequoia sempervirens and the Sierra Sequoia gigantea were said to both qualify as the state tree.
(SFC, 10/26/01, WB p.7)
1937 California’s San Quentin Prison opened its gas chamber for executions and hanging ceased at Folsom Prison.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1937 The first McDonald’s opened in Pasadena, Ca. [see 1955]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1937 Jack and Teresa Harris founded their original Harris Ranch near Coalinga in the Central Valley of California. In 1987 they added the Inn with 88 rooms, which later expanded to 153 rooms. By 2006 the ranch had become a corporate operation covering 18,000 acres.
(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.G10)
1937 Rollin P. Eckis (d.1999 at 94), geologist, discovered the Kern County oil field near Bakersfield, Ca.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)
1938 Mar 2, Landslides and floods cause over 200 deaths in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1938 Mar 7, California’s San Quentin prison received a new lethal gas chamber to supplant its gallows.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.42)
1938 Apr 7, [Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr, (Gov-D-Cal, Mayor of Oakland), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1938 Aug 15, Maxine Waters, congresswoman from California, second African-American woman to be elected to congress, was born.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1938 Sep 16, Cal Gov. Frank Merriam rode a ceremonial test Key Route train across the Bay Bridge.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.S25)
1938 Nov, The "Ham and Eggs" plan to give every older Californian a pension was defeated in the general election by a narrow margin.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.5)
1938 Dec 2, Albert Kessel (29) and Robert Lee Cannon (30) became the first two people to die in California’s new gas chamber at San Quentin. Kessel and Cannon (30) were convicted of the 1937 murder of Folsom Prison Warden Clarence Larkin. Four other inmates were also executed in connection with this murder, three within two weeks.
(www.corr.ca.gov/CommunicationsOffice/CapitalPunishment/key_events.asp)(SSFC, 12/1/13, DB p.46)
1938 The Aero Theater in Santa Monica, Ca., was built by aviation impresario Donald Douglas. It was renovated and reopened in 2005.
(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.D8)
1938 The Mission Reds ball team left Seal Stadium in SF to become the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1938 The Del Mar Race Track held a $25,000 winner-take-all race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti, a South American import. Seabiscuit won by a nose.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A17)
1938 The village of Palm Springs was incorporated.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.34)
1938 The city council of Pacific Grove enacted a law protecting the Monarch butterflies that annually visit the city.
(SFEC,12/21/97, p.T6)
1938 Ernest Batchelder founded a 2nd tile works, the Kinneloa Kiln, that used native California clay.
(SFC, 9/9/98, Z1 p.3)
1938 Culbert Olson, state senator from Los Angeles, was elected governor.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A8)
1938 Georges de Latour, owner of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., hired French-trained enologist Andre Tchelistcheff to oversee the maturation of his Private Reserve.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1938 William Hewlett, as a student at Stanford, built a prototype for an audio oscillator. It measured sound and was the first product of the Hewlett Packard Co. and was used in the Disney film "Fantasia."
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.C3)
1938-1944 Eugene O’Neill, playwright, lived at the Tao House in Danville with his 3rd wife Carlotta Monterey. Carlotta was Miss California in 1907.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.1)
1939 Jan 7, Tom Mooney (1882-1942), California imprisoned labor leader, was pardoned by newly elected Democratic Governor Culbert Olson (1876-1962). Mooney had been convicted and imprisoned for over 22 years for the SF Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916.
{Labor, SF, USA, California}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney)(www.atheists.org/Atheism/roots/olson/)
1939 Oct 19, Benita Valente, soprano (Pamina-Die Zauberflote), was born in Delano Calif.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1939 Nov 16, Al Capone was freed from Alcatraz.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1939 The Errol Flynn film "Adventures of Robin Hood" was filmed in Bidwell Park, Chico, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.T5)
1939 Frank Fat (d.1997 at 92) bought his steakhouse restaurant at 806 L St. in Sacramento. The former skid-row speakeasy became a favored meeting place for state politicians.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.T7)
1939 The attorney general of California ruled that dog racing was illegal.
(GTP, 1973, p.112)
1939 Los Angeles banned pinball machines after they became considered devices for gambling. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of California in 1974. Pinball was banned beginning in the early 1940s until 1976 in NYC.
(SFC, 6/20/14, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball)
1939 Foster Farms was begun on an 80-acre ranch near Modesto by Verda and Max Foster. Its poultry business grew to become a $1 billion operation.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A31)
1939 The California state Division of Fish and Game, concerned about dead fish near Redding, launched a study and found a creek downstream from Iron Mountain getting 2,876 pounds of copper a day. The state told mine operators to reduce metals and acid drainage.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A15)
1939 Apricot pickers in Contra Costa county earned 25 per hour.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1939-1943 Earl Warren served as the attorney general of California.
(SFEC, 12/19/99, Z1 p.5)
1939-1996 John Register, California realist painter. His work included: "Waiting Room" (1982), "Desert Restaurant" (1986), and "Mojave Bus Station" (1978).
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.D1)
1939-1971 California maintained a Senate fact-finding subcommittee on Un-American Activities. Files on some 20,000 Californians were declared still closed to the public in 1998.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.A20)
1940 Mar 26, In California 9 homeless people, including two women, were killed after the elevated floor of a warehouse collapsed in Santa Rosa. Eight of the3 dead were Pomo Indians known in the area as fruit pickers and odd jib laborers.
(SSFC, 3/22/15, DB p.42)
1940 Jul 23, Don Imus, later radio personality, was born in Riverside, Ca.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, Par p.22)
1940 Oct 17, California Gov. Culbert Olson commuted the prison sentence of Warren K. Billings, who spent 23 years in prison for his alleged role in the July 22, 1916, Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, DB p.42)
1940 Dec 30, In California the Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, officially opened as the first freeway in the Western US.
(AP, 12/30/97)(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A18)
1940 The photography book "California and the West" was written by Charis Wilson with photos by Edward Weston. It was the first really successful book of photographic reproductions.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.7)
1940 John Steinbeck journeyed aboard the Western Flyer, a chartered 76-foot sardine boat, to the Sea of Cortez. He traveled with his wife and Edward "Doc" Ricketts, a marine biologist, who wrote "Between Pacific Tides," a classic field guide to the Pacific Coast intertidal zone. Steinbeck’s "Log from the Sea of Cortez" was published in (1951).
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T8)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.6)(SFC, 2/7/13, p.D5)
1940 The Prado Dam opened 50 miles southeast of LA. Heavy rain in 2005 caused seepage.
(SSFC, 1/16/05, p.A7)
1940 Ronald Reagan married actress Jane Wyman (26).
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A14)
1940 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1940 Madeleine Haas Russell (d.1999 at 84) founded the Columbia Foundation, dedicated to environmental, cultural and social causes.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A19)
1940 Gov. Earl Warren of California signed a $2 million appropriation for Moffitt Hospital, a teaching facility in San Francisco. It was completed 16 years later at a cost of $24 million. [Note: Warren was attorney general at this time and was elected governor in 1942].
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1940 Roger Traynor was appointed to the state Supreme Court.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1940 The Los Angeles city council blocked games of professional women’s football. The LA team went to Mexico and played before a filled stadium.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.D13)
1940 Georges de Latour, owner of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., died. BV Burgundy was renamed by his wife and released as Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, California’s first private reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1940 Walnut Creek had 1,578 residents.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1940s In Los Angeles adolescent Mexican-Americans known as los pachucos established the zoot suit dress style. The War Production Board outlawed the zoot suit. The "Sleepy Lagoon Murder" of several Americans of Mexican descent led to the Zoot Suit Riots where American sailors stripped and beat zoot suiters as white LA police stood by. Luis Valdez later authored the play "Zoot Suit."
(WSJ, 7/111/00, p.A24)
1940s The Henry Bergh troop carrier ran aground near the Farallones.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1940-1949 During the 1940s the Associated Sportsmen of California repeatedly warned of damage to the salmon population near Redding and urged the government to release water from Shasta Lake to dilute the poisons from Iron Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A15)
1941 Feb 26, Cowboys' Amateur Association of America was organized in California.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Apr 20, Ryan O'Neal, actor (Peyton Place, Paper Moon, was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1941 May 6, Bob Hope (b. May 29, 1903) began broadcasting his first USO radio show from March Field at Riverside, CA.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.D5)(HN, 5/6/98)
1941 May 12, Anthony Newman, harpsichordist, organist (Bhajeb), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1941 Oct 2, Gilbert Gable, mayor of Port Orford, Ore., announced with some pals that they were fed up of being neglected by legislators in Salem and Sacramento and began promoting a 51st state named Jefferson with Yreka as the capital.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A26)(AH, 2/05, p.20)
1941 Nov 27, Jefferson seceded from Oregon and California. Jefferson was the winning name for a new state made of California’s northern Siskiyou, Del Norte and Trinity counties along with Oregon’s southern Curray County. California’s Gov. Culbert L. Olson was soon informed that until roads were repaired, Jefferson would be forced to rebel every Thursday. In 2008 calls for a Jefferson state gained steam and included an additional 5 counties in southern Oregon and 2 more in northern California.
(AH, 2/05, p.21)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A11)
1941 Dec 4, In Yreka, Ca., the new state of Jefferson elected John C. Childs (71) as its 1st governor.
(AH, 2/05, p.22)
1941 Dec 8, A US tanker was shelled by a Japanese submarine off Cape Mendocino.
(Ind, 1/27/00, 5A)(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1941 Dec 18 - 1941 Dec 24, Japanese submarines attacked eight US merchant ships off the West Coast sinking two and damaging two others. Seven of the attacks were inside California coastal waters.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)(SFC, 12/7/13, p.C4)
1941 Dec 23, The 440-foot tanker Montebello was sunk off the California coast near Cambria by Japanese submarine I-21. The crew of 38 survived. In 1996 it was found that the 4.1 million gallon cargo of crude oil appeared intact.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A19)(SFC, 8/27/10, p.A12)
1941 The film "Sea Wolf" premiered in Sonoma, Ca. It starred Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, Alice Talton, Edward G. Robinson, and John Garfield.
(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.7)
1941 The California Institution for Men opened in Chino, San Bernadino County.
(SFC, 1/14/18, p.A6)
1941 The Berelson Co. under William E. Berelson (d.1997 at 90) initiated the commercial freezing of strawberries in Cal.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A26)
1941 Tower Records was founded in Sacramento, Ca., by Russ Solomon in his father’s Tower Cut-Rate Drugs store. In 1987 the company went bankrupt and closed after 46 years of operation.
(SFC, 8/3/13, p.E1)
1941 The first diversions of water from Mono Lake began. Los Angeles began diverting water from 4 of the 5 streams that feed Mono Lake.
(NH, 9/96, p.62)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.39)
1941-1942 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1941-1943 In the US the government classified some 600,000 residents of Italian descent as enemy aliens. In Pittsburg, California, some 2,000 of 7,000 residents were forced to move.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C13)
1942 Jan, A Japanese submarine rammed a US merchant ship 30 miles off the Golden Gate.
(Ind, 1/27/00, 5A)
1942 Feb 2, A Los Angeles Times column urged security measures against Japanese-Americans, arguing that a Japanese-American "almost inevitably... grows up to be a Japanese, not an American."
(AP, 2/2/99)
1942 Feb 17, Sidney Newsom (b.1877), California architect, died. He and his brother Noble created homes that recalled Spanish haciendas, English cottages, French chateaus and American colonial homesteads.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F1)(https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/1794/)
1942 Feb 23, A Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery at Ellwood, near Santa Barbara, Calif., the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1942 Mar 23, During World War II, the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to detention centers.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1942 Mar 24, Western Defense Commander Lt. Gen. John L. De Witt proclaimed a rigid curfew restricting movement of all enemy aliens and American Japanese in West Coast military zones effective March 27.
(SSFC, 3/19/17, DB p.50)
1942 May 3, Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was issued by Lt. Gen’l. John DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF Presidio. It called for the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles effective May 9. Some 110,000-112,000 Japanese-Americans were settled in 10 relocation camps, the first of which was in Manzanar in Owens Valley, Ca. In the Bay Area most Japanese-Americans were sent to the Tanforan racetrack where they were put up in stables and later relocated to Topaz, Utah. Soon after, the War Relocation Authority hired Dorothea Lange, a photographer already well-known for her striking Depression-era photos of migrant workers, to document the internment process. Lange's poignant photos reflected her disagreement with government policy and brought her into conflict with her employers.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)(HNPD, 4/24/99)
1942 Aug 20, The California department of the American Legion urged that all Japanese or persons of Japanese ancestry be denied citizenship, and that all those now in the US be placed in concentration camps and deported after the war.
(SSFC, 3/20/17, DB p.54)
1942 Apr 27, The 1st convoys of Japanese detainees arrived at the Tanforan detention center. The assembly center remained in operation for 169 days after which detainees were transferred to relocation camps. Most of the Tanforan detainees were transferred to Abraham, Utah.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1942 cAug 1, Jose Diaz, a young Mexican national, was killed in southern Ca. His death was associated with a brawl between the Downey Boys and the 38th Street gang. 24 young men from the 38th Street neighborhood were indicted in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and a dozen men served 21 months in prison before their convictions were overturned. The vent formed the basis for a play by Luis Valdez and the film "Zoot Suit."
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.C5)
1942 Sep 1, A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.
(AP, 9/1/97)
1942 Sep, Japanese detainees from the California assembly center at Tanforan race track began their transfer to Abraham, Utah, 140 miles south of SLC.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1942 Nov 18, An AT-7 Beechcraft military training plane crashed in the Mendel Glacier in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. The 4-member training flight left Mather Field in Sacramento, Ca., and was never heard from again. On Sep 24, 1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings Canyon. On Oct 16, 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as Leo M. Mustonen (22) of Brainerd, Minn. The others were John M. Mortenson (25) of Moscow, Idaho, William R. Gamber (23) of Fayette, Ohio, and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A 2nd body was found under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn.
(SFC, 10/20/05, p.A14)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.B2)(SFC, 11/12/05, p.A1)(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A4)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B2)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.B2)
1942 Warren Goodrich (d.2002 at 88), SF Chronicle artist, created the "Little Man" icon for use in reviews. The original 4 little men sat snoozing, staring, smiling and clapping. An empty chair was later added.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A32)
1942 The Silent Movie Showcase was opened in Los Angeles by John Hampton and Dorothy Hampton. It closed in 1979 and was re-opened by Laurence Austin in 1991. It closed again on Jan 17, 1997 when Austin was shot dead and the cashier seriously wounded. A 19-year-old gunman was later caught and identified James Van Sickle, the projectionist and Austin's live-in lover, as the instigator and insurance beneficiary for $1 million.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.C11)(SFC, 11/5/99, p.C5)
1942 Earl Warren was elected governor. A 1997 biography was written by Ed Cray: "Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren."
(SFEC, 6/8/97, BR p.1)
1942 Ulysses S. Webb, California's former Attorney Gen'l. (1902-1939), argued on behalf of the Native Sons of the Golden West that Americans of Japanese descent were not entitled to birthright citizenship because the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were created "by and for white people." The suit failed and the Supreme Court denied to hear an appeal in 1943.
(SFC, 1/2/19, p.A6)
1942 Thousands of Mexican arrive in the Bay Area to work on agricultural and railroad jobs under the Bracero Program.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1942 California purchased the site of gold discovery and much of the town of Coloma from Pearley Monroe, whose grandmother had crossed the plains as a slave by wagon.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T3)
1942 Fred Korematsu (1919-2005) challenged the exclusion orders following his arrest for refusal to go to an internment camp. In 1944 the US Supreme Court upheld the conviction. His conviction was later overturned.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.B7)
1942 Max Friedman opened The Marin Town and Country Club on property purchased from the Emporium in 1940.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1942 Construction began on the new Friant Dam near Fresno, Ca. Completion of the dam in 1944 ended the salmon run on the San Joaquin River. Legislation in 2008 hoped to restore the river’s salmon run.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B1)
1942 The first Hewlett Packard factory was built in Silicon Valley.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.C3)
1942-1945 The Manzanar Internment Camp in Inyo County was one of ten that held some 120,000 Japanese-Americans during this period. The Tule Lake Segregation Camp was another. In 1999 Marnie Mueller, born in the Tule Lake camp, published the novel "The Climate of the Country," set at Tule Lake in this time. In 2000 Lawson Fusao Inada edited "Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese-American Internment Experience." In 2000 Kimi Kodani Hill edited "Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment."
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.5)(SFEC, 10/1/00, BR p.5)
1943 Jun 4, Race riots took place in LA.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1943 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1943 Maxine Reams (d.1997 at 79) became the first female staff photographer for the LA Times.
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.A23)
1943 In California Cesare Mondavi purchased the Charles Krug winery in Napa Valley and began making wine with his sons Robert and Peter. Robert Mondavi (1913-2008) persuaded his parents to buy Charles Krug Winery. Robert became the salesman and his brother Peter the winemaker.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A7)
1943 The US Kooskia Internment Camp for people of Japanese ancestry opened in northern Idaho. It operated until the end of WWII and held more than 250 detainees. Similar camps included Manzanar in California, Heart Mountain in Wyoming and Minidoka in Idaho.
(SFC, 7/27/13, p.A7)
1944 Feb 24, Barry Bostwick, actor (Rocky Horror Show, Megaforce), was born in San Mateo, Ca.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1944 May 14, George Lucas, writer and director, was born in Modesto, Ca. He is best remembered for his Star Wars trilogy.
(HN, 5/14/99)(MC, 5/14/02)
1944 May 30, In southern California four US Navy fliers were killed when a fighter plane collided with a bomber during training exercises over Palomar Mountain in San Diego.
(SFC, 5/28/18, p.C3)
1944 May-Jun, At the US Military Interrogation Center at Byron Hot Springs Hotel in Stockton, Ca., German seaman Otto Stengel, suffering under acute appendicitis, revealed the names of 6 fellow seaman (ages 22-26) who participated in the murder of Vernard Drechsler, a fellow seaman turned spy.
(HC, 1/29/98)
1944 Jun 11, James "Ox" D A Van Hoften, astronaut (STS 41C, STS 51I), was born in Fresno, Calif.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1944 Jul 17, An explosion at Port Chicago, now the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Ca., killed 320 seamen when a pair of ammunition ships exploded. 10,000 tons of ammunition exploded. 202 of the victims were black enlisted men. The Navy court-martialed 50 black sailors for refusing to go back to work after the catastrophe. They were released from prison in 1946 with dishonorable discharges and reductions in rank. The story was later described by Robert Allen in his 1989 "The Port Chicago Mutiny." In 1999 Pres. Clinton issued a pardon to Freddie Meeks, one of the last living convicted African American sailors.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.3)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A15)(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/6/05, Par p.6)
1944 Sep 1, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1944 Aug 9, 258 black American sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions ship following the Jul 17 explosion of another ship that killed 320 men, two-thirds of them black. The sailors were court-martialed, fined and imprisoned for their refusal.
(AP, 8/9/04)
1944 Dec 8, American Olivia De Havilland won a California court of Appeal victory against Warner Bros. She had sued the studio using a California law, which limited the right of an employer to enforce a contract against an employee for more than seven years.
(www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968723)
1944 Dec 17, The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1944 Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917-2007), California poet, authored “Poetic Reflections of the Tule Lake Internment Camp." She was interned from 1942-1946.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B5)
1944 Linda Stirling (d.1997) was signed by Republic Pictures to make serial pictures that included "The Tiger Woman" and "Zorro’s Black Whip." She appeared in some 2 dozen Westerns and feature films that included "The Cherokee Flash," "The Sheriff of Cimarron," "Topeka Terror," "The Mysterious Mr. Valentine," "The Invisible Informer," "The San Antonio Kid" and Vigilantes of Dodge City." After her film career she taught English literature at Glendale College for 27 years.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A15)
1944 The 319-foot Friant Dam was completed in Fresno County. It flooded the town of Millerton and backed up 520,000 acre-feet of the San Joaquin River. The old Millerton Courthouse (1866-1874), was dismantled and moved to Mariner Point overlooking the lake.
(SSFC, 11/28/04, p.F8)
1944 California Indians were awarded $17 million that was promised in treaties nearly a century earlier. $12 million was deducted for goods and services already given.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1944 The Newport Balboa Press was purchased by Ben Reddick and another reporter. Reddick assumed full ownership in 1947 and expanded the business into what became the Newport Harbor News Press.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A20)
1944 Norman Chandler, the son of Harry Chandler, officially took over as publisher of the LA Times.
(WSJ, 6/14/01, p.A18)
1944 Dr. Curtis Springer founded Zzyxx Mineral Springs and Health Resort in Soda Springs in the Mohave Desert. He recruited workers from Skid Row in Los Angeles and built a 60-room hotel with a cross-shaped pool on his Boulevard of Dreams. He broadcast religious and health messages until 1974, when tax authorities closed him down for tax evasion.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.T6)
1944 A 186-acre ranch at Pacific Palisades was donated to the state by the family of Will Rogers (d.1935). It became the Will Rogers State Historic Park. Later a large portion of maintenance funds were used for a horse-boarding operation geared to the rich.
(WSJ, 9/6/01, p.A1)
1944 The first US viral diagnostic laboratory was established in Berkeley.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A2)
1944 California state officials blamed the pollution from Iron Mountain, near Redding, for killing a third of the salmon run before they could spawn.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1944 Vintner Samuele Sebastiani died.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.CA1)
1944-1946 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1945 Jan 2, The California Supreme Court ruled that demands by the Boilermakers' union of Marinship for blacks to join auxiliaries without full union privileges was "discriminatory and unequal." The case of James vs. Marinship was led by Joseph James, a welder and leader of the San Francisco Committee Against Segregation and Discrimination.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.B4)
1945 Feb 9, [Maria] Mia Farrow, actress (Rosemary's Baby, Purple Rose of Cairo, was born in LA.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1945 Feb 11, The 1st gas turbine propeller-driven airplane was flight tested, at Downey, Ca.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1945 May 28, In California the engine of Helldiver aircraft from an aircraft carrier failed and the pilot ditched the plane in a San Diego reservoir. The pilot and gunner swam to shore. In 2009 fisherman spotted the plane and set in process plans to retrieve the plane.
(SFC, 5/28/10, p.C3)
1945 Jul 15, Gov. Earl Warren signed a bill that made Columbia, the gold rush town in Tuolumne County, a state historic park. Warren made Columbia the state’s capital for one day.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5,11)(CVG, Vol 16, p.33)
1945 Nov 21, The last residents of the US Japanese-American internment left their camps.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)
1945 In California the Zamorano Club published “The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club." The criterion for inclusion was that a selection above all should be distinguished, and that rarity and importance would be secondary. The Club printed 500 copies and gave a copy to each member at its June 6, 1945 meeting. On June 8, Dawson’s Book Shop bought 300 of the remaining copies. In all, the Club had spent $1,699.93 to present this book to the world.
(www.zamoranoclubla.org/zam80/)
1945 Cabot Yerxa opened "Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in California's Coachella Valley. He operated it with his wife, Portia, until his death in 1965. Upon his death Portia returned to her native Texas and the structure was abandoned. Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized. Eyraud and his family purchased the complex, restoring it and later donating it to the City of Desert Hot Springs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabot%27s_Pueblo_Museum)
1945 Brainerd Jones (1869), Petaluma architect, died.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.F4)
1945 Ella Jorgensen, Tomales photographer, died.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.C6)
1945-1966 Frederick Terman served as the provost of Stanford Univ.
(SFEC,11/2/97, BR p.6)
1945-1970 Some 47,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste, from US government research programs, was dumped near the northern California Farallon Islands.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1946 Jan 5, Diane Keaton, actress (Annie Hall, Little Drummer Girl), was born in LA.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1946 Mar 20, The Tule Lake Segregation Camp in northern California was closed. It had housed Japanese internees who refused to swear a loyalty oath to the US or who caused disruptions at other camps.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.B2)
1946 Jul 4, Michael Milken, partner (Intl Capital Access Group), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Nov 10, Baldassare Forestiere, creator of the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, Ca., died in Fresno.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D11)(www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html)
1946 Nov, Richard Nixon (33) was elected the Republican Congressman from the 12th District.
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A16)
1946 Dec 3, The Oakland General Strike shut down the city for 2 days when 2 large department stores resisted a unionized workforce.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Parade p.6)
1946 Dec 25, W.C. Fields, comic actor, died in Pasadena, Calif., at age 66.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.56)(AP, 12/25/97)
1946 Carey McWilliams authored “Southern California: An Island on the Land." It contained a chapter about the Los Angeles water scandal from the turn of the century, which in 1971 helped inspire Robert Town to write the screenplay for “Chinatown" (1974).
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.E2)
1946 Mine Okubo authored "Citizen 13660," an illustrated account of her experiences at Japanese internment camps in California and Utah.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A24)
1946 The Claremont Men’s College was founded in southern California by Donald C. McKenna (d.1997 at 90) and others for returning veterans with an emphasis on business and public affairs. The college began admitting women in 1981. George C.S. Benson (d.1999 at 91) was the first president of the school. The name was changed to Claremont McKenna College in 1981.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B8)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1946 Helen Cahagan Douglas beat Frederick Madison Roberts for representation of the 14th Congressional District.
(SFEC, 1/16/00, p.C6)
1946 A US district court case in Orange County, Ca., Mendez vs. Westminster, ruled that race-based housing restrictions were illegal. State law had allowed segregation against Mexican Americans. Restrictions after WW I had confined blacks in LA to the south and east sides creating near-ghettos in areas such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. The Mendez case was upheld on April 14, 1947, and was used to support the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.29)(SFC, 5/9/07, p.A15)
1946 The first African American switchboard operator was hired by Pacific Telephone.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A18)
1946 David Barham (1913-1991) founded Hot Dog on a Stick at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, Ca.
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barham)
1946-1949 The arroyo at the Westwood UCLA campus was filled in and essentially hid the 1927 Romanesque bridge that crossed it.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1946-1952 Richard Nixon served in the US Congress as Congressman and Senator from California. In 1999 Irwin F. Gellman published "The Contender: Richard Nixon, The Congress Years, 1946-1952."
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A16)
1946-1992 Charles Hillinger worked for the Los Angeles Times. He was assigned as a roving reporter in the early 50s and by 1969 expanded to a world beat. His 1998 "Hillinger’s California: All 58 Counties" was one of 2 books compiled from his 6,000 plus columns.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D1,8)
1947 Jan 15, A grisly, still-unsolved murder case came to light in Los Angeles as the mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, known as the "Black Dahlia" for the dark outfits she wore, were found dumped in a vacant lot. Her body was severed at the waist, drained of blood and fully posed in a vacant lot. The Black Dahlia murder case remained unsolved even though 500 hundred men confessed to the murder. In 1977 John Gregory Dunne authored "True Confessions," a novel based on the case. In 1987 James Ellroy authored "The Black Dahlia." In 2003 Steve Hodel authored "Black Dahlia Avenger," in which he held that the killer was Dr. George Hodel, his own father.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C16)(AP, 1/15/01)(NW, 4/21/03, p.59)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D1)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.B7)
1947 Apr, Frank Sinatra in Palm Springs slugged columnist Lee Mortimer, who had written stories linking the singer to the Mafia.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C5)
1947 May 25, Karen Valentine, actress (Love American Style, Room 222), was born in Santa Rosa, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1947 Jun 10, California Gov. Earl Warren signed a measure that gave each county the authority to regulate its own air pollution. This was America’s first statewide air protection law.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A10)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
1947 Jun 19, The first plane (F-80) to exceed 600 mph (1004 kph) was flown by Albert Boyd in Muroc, California.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1947 Jun 20, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (b.1906) was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of Siegel’s pet project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, Nev. Siegel was known as one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day". Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters. He was also a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish mob but, like his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, he also held significant influence within the American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.
(AP, 6/20/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel)
1947 Jul 4, "Wino Willie" Forkner (d.1997) led his South Central LA Boozefighters motorcyclists to Hollister for a weekend of beer-drenched fun. They were all veterans of WW II. He was said to have been the model for Marlon Brando in the film "The Wild One." 3,000 motorcyclists spilled over into Hollister from a nearby racetrack. [see Jul 7]
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A1)
1947 Jul 7, A made-up photo in Life magazine featured a biker in Hollister, Ca. In 1997 bikers returned to Hollister for a 50-year anniversary and began an annual tradition. [see Jul 4]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A18)
1947 Aug 23, An audience at the Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her first public concert as a singer.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1947 Aug 25, Marion Carl, Navy test pilot, set a world speed record of 651 mph at Muroc Field (later Edwards AFB), Ca. He was shot to death in Oregon by a house robber in 1998 at age 82.
(SFC, 6/30/98, p.A3)
1947 Nov 19, A 200" mirror arrived at Mt. Palomar observatory.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1947 A summer music festival was begun in Ojai.
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1947 California’s racial laws were abolished. Gov. Earl Warren signed legislation that ended “separate-but-equal" school segregation.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.E5)
1947 June D. Schnacke (d.2000 at 80) was appointed as the state’s first woman district attorney by the Santa Cruz County Board.
(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A24)
1947 Sacramento took over local electric services.
(SFC, 2/12/01, p.A17)
1947 The secretive 2,849-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory was established in southern California to test liquid propellants for rocket engines. In 1959 a nuclear power plant on the site experienced the first partial nuclear meltdown in the US. Boeing acquired most of the site in 1996 with its acquisition of Rocketdyne. The site included the Burro Flats Painted Cave, which in 1976 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Chumash Indians considered the cave to be sacred.
(SFC, 11/7/12, p.C3)
1947 California founded a state forest system with sustained yield as a goal. The Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection assumed responsibility for a cutover area near Fort Bragg that became the Jackson Demonstration Forest.
(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A27)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.E3)
1947 Prisoners at the Folsom Prison began producing license plates.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A24)
1947 Bert J. Brock of Ohio bought a pottery manufacturing plant in Lawndale, LA County, and incorporated it as B.J. Brock and Co. The firm, which produced high quality tableware and ovenware care Brock Ware, closed doors around 1955.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G5)
1947 Herbert Magidson (d.1977) and his wife Shirley Magidson (1925-2008), industrial designers from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology, moved to Los Angeles and set up shop as Metric products Inc. They made wire axles for Mattel toys and later underwires for bras. From this they expanded to manufacturing molded cups for bras and swimsuits. Both were active in social affairs and supported numerous social causes.
(WSJ, 7/19/08, p.A5)
1947-1971 In southern California Montrose Chemical Co. manufactured DDT during this period and released about 2,000 tons of the pesticide into sewers that flowed to the ocean. In 2007 fish caught off Los Angeles County's coast still contained high levels of DDT, banned since 1972, decades after a manufacturer dumped tons of the pesticide into sewers, creating a toxic plume on the ocean bottom.
(AP, 1/28/07)
1948 Jan 28, A plane chartered by US Immigration Services left Oakland, Ca., carrying 32 people, including 28 Mexicans. Many were part of the bracero program and had finished their government-sponsored work contracts. 20 miles west of Coalinga an engine exploded, a wing broke off and more than 100 witnesses watched bodies and luggage thrown from the fireball. There were no survivors.
(http://tinyurl.com/ky6debf)0
1948 May 11, Edward Ricketts (Doc Ricketts, 51), marine biologist and friend of John Steinbeck, died in Monterey, Ca., after his car stalled on railroad tracks and was struck by a Del Monte Express. He authored "Between Pacific Tides."
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A21)
1948 Jun 3, The 200-inch reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated. The nearly 5.1 meter Hale telescope was operated by Caltech.
(AP, 6/3/97)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C14)
1948 Jun 9, Nathaniel Rosen, cellist (Tchaikovsky-gold-1978), was born in Altadena, Ca.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1948 Oct 1, The California Supreme Court in Perez v. Sharp voided a state statue banning interracial marriages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perez_v._Sharp)
1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman’s Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well as best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A Double Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer’s Daughter." The 20th event was held at the Shrine auditorium in LA.
(AP, 3/20/98)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D1)
1948 In Hollywood a building on Vine opened as the home of the Don Lee Mutual Broadcasting Co. In 2000 it was purchased by the Academy of Motion Pictures for $20 million and was renamed the Pickford Center. It then became the home of the Academy archives.
(SFC, 3/26/03, p.D8)
1948 Marilyn Monroe was proclaimed Artichoke Queen in Salinas when she visited for a diamond promotion.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A23)
1948 Burt Baskin (1913-1967) and Irvine Robbins (1917-2008) combined their ice cream parlors in Glendale and Pomona, Ca., to form the Baskins-Robbins ice cream chain.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Baskin)
1948 Porfirio Delgado (d.1999 at age 85) and his brother Candelario founded Candelas Guitars in East Los Angeles.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A20)
1948 Richard (d.1998 at 89) and Maurice McDonald (d.1971) started the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants in San Bernadino, California. Ray Kroc purchased the chain in 1955.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A20)
1948 Henry (d.1976) and Esther (1920-2006) Snyder opened In-N-Out Burgers in Baldwin Park, LA County. They numbered 152 stores in 2001 as their 1st SF outlet opened. By 2006 the chain numbered 202 restaurants. In 2009 Stacy Perman authored “In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-The Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.D1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.B1)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/15/09, p.A13)
1949 Mar 25, UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul proposed a faculty loyalty oath. The Univ. of Calif. Board of Regents voted in April 1950 to require all employees to sign an loyalty oath.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949 Apr 15, The Berkeley radio station KPFA-FM began broadcasting over on a 550-watt surplus government transmitter. Lewis Hill made the first broadcast over the first listener-supported radio station in the US.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A21)
1949 Jul 4, Time Magazine issued a special on Los Angeles.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1949 Sep 27, HUAC held hearings on alleged communist infiltration of the Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949 Oct 7, In southern California aspiring actress Jean Spangler went missing. Her purse, with a torn handle and a cryptic note, was found two days later in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, but Spangler herself was never seen again.
(Entertainment Weekly, 1/22/21)
1949 Oct 21, Hal Wright (d.2000 at 96) put out the 1st issue of the Sierra Booster. It was published fortnightly at Loyalton. In the 1960s the paper was credited with initiating "Grandparent’s Day," set on the 2nd Sunday of September.
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.C2)
1949 Nov 8, Bonnie Raitt, country singer (Green Light, The Glow), was born in Burbank, Ca.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1949 Nov 24, Alexander C. Cushing (1914-2006) opened the Squaw Valley Development Company with his wife Justine Bayard Cushing (d.2003 at 85). The new Lake Tahoe area ski resort opened with a double chairlift and 2 rope tows.
(SFC, 8/21/06, p.B1)(www.squaw.com/winter/history_overview.html)
1949 Tom Waits, musician and actor, was born in Whittier. In 2001 Jay S. Jacobs authored "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits." Ruth Carol authored the biography "Tom Waits."
(SSFC, 4/15/01, BR p.7)
1949 Ross Macdonald (d.1983) authored his detective novel "The Moving Target." His character Lew Archer solved crimes in what everyone understood was Santa Barbara.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.1,6)
1949 Toshio Mori, a 1st generation Californian, authored his 1st novel: "Yokohama California." In 2001 His collection of stories, interviews and collected letters on life in California was reprinted as "Unfinished Message."
(SSFC, 2/4/01, BR p.8)
1949 The bookmobile "Parny" (named for the Greek god Parnassus) made its debut as part of the Los Angeles Public Library System.
(LAT, 9/29/97, p.B2)
1949 Fantasy Records was founded by Max and Sol Weiss and Saul Zaentz in Oakland, CA.
(SFEM, 3/23/97, p.28)
1949 The coastal Esplanade neighborhood of Pacifica, south of SF, was built. It immediately reported problems with erosion.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A17)
1949 Norman B. Livermore donated 40 acres to help start the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park that later stretched across over 5,000 acres of Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A12)
1949 In California the Los Padres dam began impounding water on the Carmel River.
(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.F7)
1949 The Pacific Electric Railway asked to convert 11 of its 17 street car routes in LA to buses.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1949 Mervin Morris opened the first Mervyns department store in San Lorenzo, Ca.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)
1949 Vernon C. Genn (1922-2006), founder of West Coast Engine and Equipment Co., pioneered the development of diesal engines to provide reliable cooling for refrigerated railroad cars.
(SFC, 5/3/06, p.B7)(www.history-magazine.com/refrig.html)
1949-1954 In Sacramento an annex was added to the Capitol and Capitol Park was reconfigured.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A10)
1949-1967 Clark Kerr covered this period of Univ. of California in a 2002 memoir titled "The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California 1949-1967, Vol. 1: Academic Triumphs." Kerr served as chancellor at Berkeley from 1952-1958, and as president of the UC system from 1958-1967.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.M6)
1950 Feb 6, Natalie Cole, vocalist (Pink Cadillac, Miss You Like Crazy, Mona Lisa), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1950 Feb 10, Mark Spitz, Modesto Calif, swimmer (Oly-9 gold/silver/bronze-68,72), was born.
(www.thisdaythatyear.com/feb/people10.htm)
1950 Mar 9, Space Patrol debuted as a local, 15-minute show that aired live five days a week in Los Angeles and ran to 1955. Norman Jolley (d.2002), evil Agent X, acted in the series and wrote scripts. Ed Kemmer (1921-2004) played Commander Buzz Corry. Joanne Jordan played the evil Queen Mirtha. It featured the voice of Dick Tufeld for its weekly introductions. In 2005 Jean-Noel Bassior authored “Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the name of Early Television."
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A27)(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)(SFC, 9/25/09, p.D10)(SFC, 1/30/12, p.C4)
1950 Apr, UC began to require a special loyalty oath from all employees. It was voted out Nov 17, 1951.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1950 Jun 30, The Napa Valley Vintner’s Association dedicated their "Welcome to Napa Valley" sign.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.5)
1950 Sep 26, The state legislature passed a bill requiring state employees to sign a loyalty oath.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1950 Franklin Walker authored "A Literary History of Southern California.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, BR p.4)
1950 The Mattachine Society, the first openly gay organization in the US, was founded in Los Angeles. Henry Hay (d.2002 at 90) was one of the original founders and won the 1999 vote to serve as grand marshal for the SF Pride Parade. In 1990 Stuart Timmons authored the biography "The Trouble with Harry Hay."
(SFEC, 6/13/99, DB p.35)(SFC, 10/25/02, p.A21)
1950 Colin Hampton (1911-1996) and Margaret Rowell founded the California Cello Club. He was a member of the 36-year-old Griller Quartet, renowned in England for playing noon concerts at the National Gallery while bombs were falling on London.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C4)
1950 In California the 240-foot earthen Anderson Dam was built to store water between Morgan Hill and San Jose. In 2008 it was learned that a 6.6 magnitude earthquake could cause it to collapse.
(SFC, 2/25/20, p.A8)
1950 California began keeping records on the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A1)
1950 Richard Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas for the US Senate. The race was documented in the 1998 book: "Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady" by Greg Mitchell.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.3)
1950 A.P. Hamann (Dutch Hamann) became the city manager of San Jose (population 95,000) and began an aggressive policy of annexing adjacent land.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1950 There were some 200 dairy farms in Marin County.
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.D1)
1950 Major floods hit northern California. In Modesto the Tuolumne River crested at 69 feet, 9 feet over flood level.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A1)
1950s In Santa Cruz Jack O’Neill began producing wet suits for surfers.
(CG, #205, 1991)
1950-1960 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1951 Apr 7, The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that the special loyalty oath of the Univ. of California is invalid. 18 professors were ordered reinstated.
(SFC, 4/6/01, Wba p.4)
1951 May 26, The UC Board of Regents voted to reinstate 18 professors who had refused to sign the anti-Communist loyalty affirmation.
(SFC, 5/25/01, WBb p.2)
1951 Jun 7, The fact-finding Burns committee led by California state Sen. Hugh M. Burns released a 291-page report that claimed UC had aided and abetted the int’l. communist conspiracy. UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul denied the charges.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1951 Jul 21, Some 9,000 telephone operators in Northern California went on strike including 5,000 at PT&T in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/20/01, WBb p.7)
1951 Aug 14, Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (b.1863) died in Beverly Hills, Calif. In 2000 David Nasaw authored "The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst." W.A. Swanberg was the author of the biography "Citizen Hearst." In 2002 Louis Pizzitola authored "Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion and Propaganda in the Movies." In 2009 Kenneth Wyle authored “The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/14/98)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W8)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.1)(SFC, 3/27/02, p.D5)(SSFC, 1/11/09, Books p.1)
1951 Nov 10, Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.
(AP, 11/10/97)
1951 Nov 15, Gov. Earl Warren declared himself a candidate for US president in 1952.
(SFC, 11/9/01, p.G3)
1951 Nov 17, The UC Board of Regents voted to drop the special loyalty oath required of all employees since April 1950.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1951 Dec 19, The State Toll Bridge Authority sold a new $21 million issue of revenue bonds and ensured that commuters would continue paying tolls on the Bay Bridge for 10 more years.
(SFC, 12/14/01, WB p.G8)
1951 William R. Bright (d.2003 at 81) founded Campus Crusade to spread Christianity to students at UCLA. By 2003 the organization had a staff of 26,000 with revenues of $374 million.
(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A19)
1951 California’s high court ruled in Stoumen vs. Reilly on behalf of San Francisco’s Black Cat café and against the Board of Equalizaiton declaring that gays were entitled to gather in public.
(SFC, 11/15/14, p.C2)
1951 The California state Legislature authorized what became the State Water Project and appropriated funds for detailed studies.
(CSWP, brochure)
1951 California lawmakers passed Public Utilities Code Section 583, which says the public can’t see documents obtained from regulated utilities unless the commission approves.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A21)
1951 The ship Independence, used in 1946 atomic bomb tests, was sunk near the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1951 Three US Coast Guardsmen were killed when their boat capsized after they left the St. George Reef Lighthouse near Crescent City, Ca.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A27)
1951-1966 PG&E released chromium into the environment of Hinkley in San Bernadino Ct. over this period. Residents suffered from numerous illnesses and were not informed until 1987. [see Brockovich 1993]
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A17)
1952 Jan, A harsh blizzard stranded the City of San Francisco train at Yuba Gap with 221 people aboard. Art Hoppe of the SF Chronicle filed an exclusive report.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.B10)
1952 Mar 4, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1952 Mar, California state Sen. Hugh M. Burns arranged for every California college to appoint a "contact man" to help his committee screen faculty.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1952 Apr 12, A telephone strike was settled in Michigan but continued in Northern California for a 5th day.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1952 Apr 17, The California Supreme Court ruled that Sei Fujii, a non-citizen issei, could purchase and own property in his own name. Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson, aided by Justices Edmonds, Carter, and Traynor, wrote the majority opinion. Justice Schauer, along with Justices Shend and Spence, wrote the dissenting opinion.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views4h81.htm)
1952 May 15, California’s Central Valley Regional Water Pollution Control Board issued resolution No. 127 barring entry of perchlorate and 8 other chemicals into local groundwater and the American River. Medical researchers soon published that perchlorate blocks the uptake of essential iodide into the thyroid. Aerojet Corp., a rocket fuel manufacturer, objected and continued untreated discharges.
(WSJ, 12/16/02, p.A9)
1952 May 18, Listener supported KPFA radio increased its radiating signal to 52,000 watts.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.G8)
1952 May 24, The AFL Sailor’s Union ordered a 3-day walkout to tie up the Pacific Coast shipping to help in wage demands.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.G8)
1952 Jul 21, A 7.7 earthquake destroyed the town of Tehachapi near Bakersfield.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.B10)
1952 Aug 3, Jay North, actor (Dennis the Menace, Maya), was born in North Hollywood, Calif.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1952 Aug 5, In LA, Ca., 14 Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the US government. 6 of the defendants were from SF, one was from Oakland.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.E4)
1952 Oct 18, The California state Supreme Court outlawed the UC special loyalty oath, but upheld the Levering Act, which imposed a loyalty pledge on all state, county and city employees.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.E2)
1952 Nov 19, The California Wine Institute reported shipments of 11 million gallons for September, a 22.71% increase over Sep, 1951.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.E2)
1952 Antone Martin (d.1961), sculptor, established Desert Christ Park sculpture garden in Yucca Valley, San Bernadino County, to display his concrete religious statues.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.D7)
1952 The film "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly was filmed in Columbia, Tuolumne County.
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)
1952 The first Mondavi visitor’s wine tasting room at Krug Winery in Napa Valley was converted from an old storage shed.
(SFEM, 10/25/98, p.44)
1952 In Monterey, Ca., the US Naval Postgraduate School, formerly in Annapolis, Md., moved onto the site of the former Hotel Del Monte.
(SSFC, 5/18/08, p.A15)
1952 The California constitution was scrubbed of anti-Chinese discrimination.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.28)
1952 A state hunting license cost $3.00. In 1996 it was $47.50.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.C9)
1952 In California Ernest O. Lawrence (1901-1958) founded what would later be known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.A18)
1952 The hospital ship Benevolence was dynamited by the military off Ocean Beach.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1952 A 7.7 earthquake destroyed the Kern County town of Tehachapi and killed 14 people.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
1953 Mar 19, The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time; "The Greatest Show on Earth" was named best picture of 1952. Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth won for best actor and actress.
(AP, 3/19/99)(MC, 3/19/02)
1953 May 18, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a North American F-86 Canadair over Rogers Dry Lake, Calif.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1953 May 25, Rich Alves, singer (Pirates of the Mississippi-Fred Jake), was born in Pleasanton, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 29, Danny Elfman, composer (Simpson Show Theme), was born in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1953 Jul 8, Neill Sheridan (31), a baseball player for the Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons, hit a home run against the SF Seals at Sacramento’s Edmond’s Field. The ball reportedly flew a record 613.8 feet.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.B1)
1953 Jul 14, The freighter Jacob Luckenbach from SF rammed the Matson freighter Hawaiian Pilot near Point Montara, 17 miles from the Golden Gate. The Luckenbach sank while the Hawaiian Pilot limped to SF. Oil leaked from the Luckenback later killed numerous birds. In 2002 a $3.5 million plan for cleanup was begun. A $19 million cleanup ended in Sep.
(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A15)(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A22)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A13)
1953 Sep 30, Pres. Eisenhower named California Gov. Earl Warren (62) Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Lt. Gov. Goodwin J. Knight succeeded Warren.
(MC, 9/30/01)(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E8)
1953 Oct 23, The State Supreme Court ruled against the SF Housing Authority in its attempt to continue segregating blacks, Chinese Americans and whites and its public housing projects.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
1953 Oct 29, A British airliner with 11 passengers and 8 crew crashed into Kings Mountain, 10 miles west of Redwood City, Ca., and all aboard were killed.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E10)
1953 Bud Browne (1912-2008), completed his first surf film, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies," in Santa Monica, Ca. He was later considered the father of surf films.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1953 The state Brown Act required that meetings of city councils, county supervisors, schools districts and other local agencies be open to the public.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1953 A California state law called for a loyalty declaration for organizations seeking property tax exemption. In 1955 a Superior Court in Alameda, Ca., upheld the right of a church to refuse to sign the loyalty declaration.
(SFC, 8/19/05, p.F5)
1953 The California Legislature rewrote a 1919 wage law to require overtime pay for women and minors who work extra days or hours.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.D3)
1953 WD-40 was created by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. The company sold the product to coat missiles and prevent rust. Consumers later discovered its use as a lubricant. In 1969 John Barry (1925-2000) became head of the company and soon renamed the firm after the product.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.8)(SFC, 7/22/09, p.D5)
1953 The Khapra beetle, one of the world's most tenacious and destructive stored-produce pests, first invaded California. It originated in South Asia. The California infestation was not eradicated until 1966, at a cost of $15 million.
(http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/beetles/khapra_beetle.htm)
1953 Mabel Monahan, wealthy Burbank widow, was murdered. Barbara Graham, John Santo and Emmett Perkins were convicted later for her murder. They were executed at San Quentin in 1955.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F9)(SFC, 6/3/05, p.F2)
1953-1958 Harold J. "Butch" Powers (1900-1996) was lieutenant governor. He had served as a US senator from 1934-1953.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1953-1965 Assemblyman Ed Gaffney was the last card-carrying union member to hold office in Sacramento. Before OSHA he guided most every law on industrial safety to the governor’s desk.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, EM p.19)
1953-1969 Keith Elkins Klinger (d.1998 at 87) headed the LA County fire department. He worked with Bell labs to help develop the 911 system as a member of Pres. Nixon’s Fire Commission. Under his tenure fire trucks increased from 80 to 113.
(SFC, 3/8/98, p.C5)
1953-1973 Sascha Brastoff (1918-1993) designed ceramics, plastics and decorative accessories and enamels on copper in West Los Angeles during this period. His firm was called Sascha Brastoff of California, Inc.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
1954 Jan 5, Walter Edward Scott (b.1872), Death Valley con man, died. He was supported for much of his life by millionaire Albert Johnson (d.1948).
(ON, 3/04, p.8)( http://mojavedesert.net/walter-scott/)
1954 Jan 26, Ground breaking began on Disneyland.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1954 May 2, Walt Disney and associates announced plans to build a $9 million Disneyland on a 160-acre tract, once part of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana, in Orange County.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.F5)
1954 May 14, The US military unveiled a Nike guided missile at the SF Presidio. Plans were to ring 13 critical areas in the US with such missiles.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1954 Sep 11, The Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC; Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner.
(AP, 9/11/97)
1954 Oct 31, Harry Lunderberg’s AFL Sailors refused to report to work to unload freighters at a number of West Coast ports.
(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1954 Dec 5, A 25-day strike by 70 locomotive engineers on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad’s 276-mile run from Tiburon to Eureka ended.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1954 In San Diego, Ca., a 43-foot cross was erected on Mount Soledad. In 2011 the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it violated the First Amendment. Proponents said it was built to honor military veterans. In 2013 a federal judge ordered the cross to be removed.
(SFC, 12/13/13, p.A20)
1954 Bartender Larry J. Cano (1924-2014) took over an old Polynesian restaurant in southern California’s San Fernando Valley and created a sit-down Mexican restaurant named El Torrito. By 1978 he was operating 22 locations and sold the chain to W.R. Grace, but continued for a decade as president.
(SFC, 12/18/14, p.D3)
1954 In southern California Sabato "Simon" Rodia, Italian immigrant and cement finisher, completed his Watts Towers project, begun in 1921, and deeded the property to a neighbor. Ownership eventually passed to the state. The property was closed in 1994 due to Northridge earthquake and reopened in 2001.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A24)
1954 Harold Powers was elected lieut. Governor of California.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1954 Sherwood Johnson (d.1998 at 73) opened the first pizza parlor in Sacramento. It grew into the int’l. chain known as Shakey’s.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1954 In northern California a catastrophic flood this winter caused the levees to fail at Bull Island on the Napa River where grain and potatoes had been raised.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A13)
1954 California’s Highway 101 freeway opened at Mission San Miguel.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1955 Jan 18, Kevin Costner, actor (Dances With Wolves), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1955 Mar 4, The State of California banned publication of any books or articles by inmates of San Quentin’s Death Row.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 Mar 6, A US Atomic Energy Spokesman said a cloud from the atomic blast at Nevada’s Yucca Flat passed over the Central California coastline.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 Apr 28, Stephanie Bryan (14) failed to return home from school at Willard Jr. High in Berkeley, Ca. She was allegedly kidnapped by Burton Abbott, a married accounting student at Cal. Abbott was convicted and executed at San Quentin in 1957 just minutes before Gov. Knight called for a stay. In 1995 Keith Walker authored “A Trail of Corn," covering the case. [see Jul 20]
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.A2)
1955 Jul 8, Gov. Goodwin Knight signed legislation creating a 6-county SF Bay Smog Control District.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F6)
1955 Jul 9, Gov. Goodwin Knight vetoed an omnibus park and recreation bill. This prompted Santa Cruz Lumber Co. to begin intensive logging operations in the Butano forest, the last stand of virgin giant redwoods in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1955 Jul 17, Walt Disney’s $17-million Disneyland opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif. The site had been a 160-acre orange ranch just off the Santa Ana Freeway. Entry tickets for kids was 50 cents and $1 for adults.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)(AP, 7/17/08)(SFC, 7/17/15, p.C3)
1955 Jul 20, The body of Stephanie Bryan was found in Trinity County, Ca., where Burton Abbott owned a fishing cabin. Burton W. "Bud" Abbott, an ex-GI, was later convicted and executed for her murder. The story is covered in the 1997 book: "Shallow Grave in Trinity County" by Harry Farrell. [see Apr 28]
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.D5)(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)
1955 Sep 5, The 1st SigAlert, a traffic alert system, was broadcast in Los Angeles. The system was invented by Loyd C. Sigmon (d.2004).
(SSFC, 6/6/04, B5)
1955 Sep 30, Actor James Dean, best known for his role as a restless teen in Rebel Without a Cause, died in a high-speed two-car collision at the corner of Highways 46 and 41 in Cholame, near Paso Robles, Ca. In 1950, he had made his acting debut in a Pepsi commercial, for which he was paid $30. Dean gained fame after a lead role on Broadway in 1952 and appearances on television and in movies. His first major film role was in East of Eden in 1954. Just days after filming Giant the next year, Dean was driving his silver Porsche, called "Little Bastard," to a race with his mechanic when he collided head-on with another car. He was 24 years old.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.E1)(AP, 9/30/97)(HNPD, 9/30/98)(HN, 9/30/98)
1955 Oct 13, A US Air Force B-47B crashed while taking off from March Air Base in California. Capt. Edward A. O'Brien Jr. (Pilot), Capt. David J. Clare (co-pilot), Major Thomas F. Mulligan (navigator), and Capt. Joseph M. Graeber (chaplain) were all killed.
(www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dbadate.asp?thedate=551013&Submit2=Go)
1955 Oct 18, University of California discovered the anti-proton.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1955 Dec 22-1955 Dec 26, A "storm of the century" caused a devastating flood in northern California and left 76 people dead. Damages were estimated at $125 million.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A14)(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A21)(SFC, 12/23/05, p.F2)
1955 Dec 24, A levee break on the Shanghai Bend of the Feather River south of Yuba City, Ca., killed 38 people.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C1)(SFC, 11/17/99, p.E7)
1955 The Santa Cruz Chinatown fell victim to a flood and was later redeveloped into a shopping complex. In 2003 the book "Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee" depicted the community founded in the 1860s.
(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.M4)
1955 Marion Hewlett Pike (d.1998 at 84), portrait artist, had her first one-artist show at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. She was also named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. Later portraits included that of Ronald Reagan and Coco Chanel.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A19)
1955 California Gov. Goodwin J. Knight vetoed a bill to purchase the 12,000 acres of the Butano forest in southern San Mateo County. 1,200 acres were declared a State Park in 1961.
(Ind, 9/22/01, 5A)
1955 The California Public Utilities Commission increased confidentiality with its rule, General Order 66, which reasserted that the public can’t have access to accident reports.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A21)
1955 The Los Angeles police moved into a new downtown headquarters building at 100 N. Los Angeles St. In 1966 it was named the Parker Center after Chief William Parker died of a heart attack. In 2009 LA police moved into a new $437 million building at 100 Spring Street.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.D6)
1955 The old city hall in Petaluma, Ca., was torn down about this time.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A11)
1955 The Garden Grove Community Church under the Reverend Robert H. Schuller and his wife, Arvella, began operating at a drive-in theater. It grew with its TV program, “Hour of Power," to become the Crystal Cathedral in 1980.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.B4)(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.C5)
1955 In California Ben Ridder (d.1983) became publisher of the Pasadena Independent & Star News.
(SFC, 6/17/02, p.B5)
1955 William Schockley, co-inventor of the transistor, arrived in Silicon Valley in 1955 with funding from Beckman Instruments.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A12)
1955 Cistercian-Trappist monks purchased the old Stanford Vina Ranch on the Feather River north of Marysville, Ca. They later acquired stones from the 12th century Santa Maria de Ovila monastery, originally purchased by William Randolph Hearst, and planned a reconstruction at the ranch.
(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A1,6)
1955 A large number of dead fingerling salmon and several hundred thousand king salmon were killed in a few hours. Many swallows were reported dead by the river in northern California near Iron Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1956 Nov 1, Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the transistor. The trio invented the transistor in 1948 at the Bell Laboratories. William Schockley, co-developer of the transistor, founded Schockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto this year. Two of his hires, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, later went on to start Intel Corp. Tim Jackson in 1998 published "Inside Intel."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.4)(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)(HNQ, 12/23/99)
1956 Gov. Goodwin J. Knight named Catherine C. Hearst (d.1998 at 81) to the University of California Board of Regents.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A16)
1956 The state’s Short-Doyle Act established local mental health services. it was formulated by a committee of the California Medical Association led by Dr. Alfred Auerback (d.1997 at 81).
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1956 Chuck Williams opened the first Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma.
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.21)
1956 Lockheed Corp. began moving engineers to Sunnyvale, Ca., lured by offers of land and talent from Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.D3)
1956 There were major floods in the state.
(SFC, 9/4/97, p.C4)
1956-1972 Large industrial corporations legally poured some 35 million gallons of industrial waste into the Stringfellow Acid Pits near Glen Avon. The dumping was halted when it was noticed that pollutants were leaking into the ground water. In 1978 a large rainfall forced the release of more than a million gallons of polluted water into the Pyrite Canyon, which drained into a creek bed that flowed through the community of Glen Avon. In 1982 Stringfellow was declared a Superfund site.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1957 Feb 22, A skull was found by a crew digging a trench for an air conditioning system in downtown LA. The site was later planned to be used for a new Roman Catholic cathedral. An anthropologist identified the skull onsite as characteristic of native Americans prior to the Spanish arrival. Native Indian groups later contended the site a possible ancient burial ground and held up the construction plans. In 1997 the skull was reported lost. The Natural History Museum of LA soon reported that it had the skull.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)(LAT, 9/29/97, p.B1)
1957 Mar 2, Boxer Carlos Ortiz won a technical knockout against Lou Filippo (1925-2009). Filippo was originally awarded a victory in the 1st bout against Ortiz after being hit after the bell, but a Times reporter questioned a member of the California State Athletic Commission about that ruling, and the no-contest decision was invoked. Filippo lost the next fight to Ortiz about a month later, and retired at 23-9-3 with 8 knockouts and one no-contest. Both were later named to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Filippo went on to play a role in all five of the “Rocky" movies.
(www.badlefthook.com/2009/11/5/1117708/lou-filippo-1925-2009)(SFC, 11/6/09, p.C5)
1957 May 30, In California Santa’s Village, a Christmas theme park, opened in Scotts Valley. It filed for bankruptcy in 1977 and finally closed in 1979.
(SFC, 5/31/08, p.B2)(www.santasvillage.net/santas.village.scotts.valley.html)
1957 Jul 12, Santa Susana in Los Angeles County began receiving the nation’s first commercial electricity from a small, civilian-owned, nuclear reactor. It was shut down in 1964 and scientists later reported that the plant might be responsible hundreds of cancer cases. PG&E had teamed with General Electric to establish the Vallecitos atomic energy plant, the world’s 1st privately owned and operated nuclear facility.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1957 The 29th Academy Awards were held at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Ingrid Bergman won for her role in Anastasia.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.D1)
1957 Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges (d.1998) began as a TV series. It ran to 1961. It was mostly filmed at the Marineland of the Pacific in LA.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A4)
1957 Gordon Schaber (d.1997 at 69) at age 27 became the dean of the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. He expanded the school from one building to a 22-acre campus over his 34 years as dean.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)
1957 San Francisco Attorney Bill Evers (1927-2017) Jim McClatchey, publisher of the Sacramento Bee, formed the Tahoe Improvement and Conservation Association. It later became the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 7/7/17, p.D7)
1957 Pacifica, south of SF, was incorporated.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A17)
1957 Nikita Khrushchev, USSR chief of state, visited California and Lester Lloyd (1908-1996), printer and type founder, created a special Southern Pacific dining car menu in Russian.
(SFC, 10/19/96, A22)
1957 A state law was passed that banned bullfighting. It allowed for bloodless bullfighting in connection with religious celebrations or festivals.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.A10)
1957 California state prison guards formed the California Correctional Officers Association, mainly as a social organization. The group became politically active in the 1970s and in 1982 formally organized as a labor union.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A7)
1957 The Italian Swiss Colony winery at Asti, Ca., was deemed a state historical landmark.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.E6)
1957 Remco Hydraulics was established in Willits by chief backer Bob Harrah (d.1993 at 77). In 1963 the company began chrome plating closed down in 1995. A toxic legacy was left behind with toxic chemicals in the local groundwater and numerous residents with unusual illnesses.
(SFC, 3/31/00, p.A1,8,9)
1957 Iron Mountain mine owners blamed the federal government for fish kills. They held that the Shasta federal dam caused the buildup of pollutants and that previously flows from Spring Creek were rendered harmless by dilution in the Sacramento River.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1957 In California’s Napa County the farming town of Monticello, founded in 1866, was drowned as the Putah River was dammed to create lake Berryessa.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.C1)
1958 Feb 7, The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team became the LA Dodgers, Inc.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, Par p.14)
1958 Apr 29, Michelle Pfeiffer, actress, was born in Midway City, Calif.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Aug 17, Belinda Carlisle, (GoGos lead singer, Heaven on Earth), was born in Hollywood.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Sep 29, Clark Kerr (47) was inaugurated as UC’s 12th president after serving 6 years as chancellor.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1958 Nov 4, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown was elected as democratic governor of California.
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C1)
1958 Nov 4, Alan Cranston was elected California state controller, the 1st Democrat to hold the post since 1890.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A5)
1958 Nov 4, Glenn Anderson won the election for lieut. gov. of California.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1958 Nov 12, Warren Harding (d.2002 at 77), Wayne Merry and George Whitmore scaled the "nose" of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite Valley. They had spent 47 days of climbing over 16 months to reach the top of the 2,900 foot cliff. In 1970 Harding and Dean Caldwell spent 27 days climbing another route up El Capitan. Harding later authored "Downward Bound."
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A24)(SSFC, 11/9/08, p.B6)
1958 Dec 24, Alex and Phyllis Madonna opened the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo opened with 12 rooms.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.T3)(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.C1)
1958 Jimmy Lyons directed the first Monterey Jazz Festival and featured Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Turk Murphy, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dizzie Gillespie. Radio host Jimmy Lyons and Chronicle jazz critic Ralph Gleason came up with the idea. In 1997 William Minor and Bill Wishner wrote: "Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years."
(SFC, 6/30/96, B9)(SFEM, 9/15/96, p.6)(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.7)
1958 The San Quentin Drama Workshop began at the California prison after a performance of Waiting for Godot the previous year.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Quentin_State_Prison)
1958 A 2nd eastern Carquinez Bridge opened over the Sacramento River between Crocket and Vallejo, Ca. The 1st cantilever bridge was built by American Toll Bridge Co. in 1927.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B3)
1958 The Achievement Rewards for College Students (ARCS) was co-founded by Barbara Chisholm Cole (d.1998 at 82) to assist students with scholarships in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. The Foundation was formed by a group of women in Los Angeles following the Soviet launch of Sputnik.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/ybzduc7)
1958 Charles E. Dederich (d.1997 at 83), dentist, founded Synanon in northern California. It was a communitarian scheme to rehabilitate drug addicts based on the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program. It used an encounter session called "The Game" to work out problems with group pressure and venting.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A21)(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.32)
1958 Nuclear submarines began to home-port in San Diego.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A20)
1958 William F. Knowland gave up a shoo-in re-election campaign for senator in a disastrous bid for the governorship of California.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.5)
1958 California banned backyard incinerators.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A6)
1958 A plaque was placed near Morro Rock in San Luis Obispo, Ca., that recounts its history.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T3)
1958 In California the Iron Mountain mine owner built a small treatment plant to capture copper and halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1958 The Basic Vegetable Products processing plant in King City, Ca., opened.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A19)
1958 Joe Coulombe established Pronto Markets, a string of convenient stores, in Los Angeles, Ca. He expanded the chain in 1967 to include gourmet foods and changed the name to Trader Joe’s. In 1979 he sold the company to Theo and Karl Albrecht of Germany.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.C2)
1958 In southern California mobster Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death by Cheryl Crane as her mother, Lana Turner, watched in horror. Stompanato and actress Lana Turner had been lovers.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1959 Jul 26, There was a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. A report in 2006 said it may have caused hundreds of cases of cancer in the community, and that chemicals threatened to contaminate ground and water.
(AP, 10/6/06)(www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/santa/san_p1.html)
1959 Aug 17, A 7.1 quake struck at Yellowstone National Park.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1959 Oct 23, "Weird Al" Yankovic, parody singer (Eat It, UHF, Naked Gun), was born in California.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1959 Nov 28, Under a directive by Archbishop John J. Mitty, Catholics were urged to pray for rain as Northern California went through its 70th dry day. Beginning today the special prayer “oratio ad petendum pluviam" would be included in all Masses until the drought ends.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, DB p.50)
1959 Dec 21, Florence Griffith Joyner, runner (Olympic-3 gold-1988), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1959 Lawrence Lipton authored "The Holy Barbarians," a guidebook to the beat scene in Venice, California.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A21)
1959 The Mendocino Art Center was founded by Bill Zaccha.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.T5)
1959 An Act of Congress deemed the Petaluma slough a river.
(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.C1)
1959 Pat Brown became governor and served to 1966. During his tenure he commuted 23 death sentences and allowed 36 convicts to die.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A15)
1959 The state Supreme Court ruled that Los Angeles must pay taxes on its land, hydro-electric plants and dam that it owns in Mono and Inyo counties.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.B6)
1959 California created the Fair Employment Practices Act to prohibit racial discrimination in the workplace.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1959 The California Legislature passed the Burns-Porter Act, which authorized $1.75 billion in bonds to build initial projects. The State Water Project included construction of the Oroville Dam and the California Aqueduct to carry water from north to south. Voters approved in 1960.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(CSWP, brochure)
1959 A state law identified the state highways forming El Camino Real, which included Highway 1, Highway 101 and Highway 82.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A19)
1959 Gov. Brown appointed Helen Ewing Nelson (1914-2005) as the state’s 1st consumer counsel.
(SFC, 4/6/05, p.B7)
1959 The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that Iron Mountain mine owners seal mine tunnels or collect mine drainage in a reservoir to halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1959 The city of Half Moon Bay, Ca. incorporated.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A12)
1959 Hobie Alter and his Hobie Surfboard company in Orange County, Ca., began to mass produce surfboards made of polyurethane foam.
(SFC, 4/1/14, p.A6)
1959 William Emerson Ayer (d.1998 at 76) founded Applied Technology Inc. of Palo Alto, Ca. He established success with a device that warned combat pilots when they were under enemy radar surveillance.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
1959 The Coyote Valley Dam was constructed and created Lake Mendocino in California’s Mendocino County.
(SFC, 1/21/06, p.B1)
1960 Feb 9, The Hollywood, Ca., Walk of Fame began with an installation of its first pink terrazzo star for, actress Joanne Woodward, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. The first eight stars were dedicated in September 1958 and placed in the sidewalk on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame)
1960 Feb 18, The Eighth Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Nixon. A drought of snow ended 2 days before the start of the games.
(AP, 2/18/98)(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1960 Feb 19, California. Gov. Edmund G. Brown gave a 60-day stay of execution for San Quentin inmate Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit." The governor hoped to quiet public sentiment in Latin America for Pres. Eisenhower’s impending visit.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)(SSFC, 2/14/10, DB p.42)
1960 Feb 19, UC Regents retracted the following question from an English 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." FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had organized a covert public relations campaign and put pressure on Gov. Brown to retract the question.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1960 Feb 27, The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1960 Feb 28, The Eighth Winter Olympic Games formally closed in Squaw Valley, Calif.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1960 Mar 21, California state officials dumped radioactive waste from civilian installations into the ocean about 50 miles off of San Francisco at a site that the Navy and other Atomic Energy contractors have been using since 1946. The waste was mixed with concrete, sealed in 55-gallon steel drums and dumped in about 7,500 feet of water.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
1960 May 2, Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit," was executed at San Quentin Prison in California. He became a best-selling author while on death row. SFC crime reporter Bernice Davis (d.2002 at 97) later authored “Desperate and the Damned," an account of the Chessman case.
(AP, 5/2/08)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A25)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)
1960 Jul 13, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at his party's convention in Los Angeles.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1960 Oct 1, California Coast Guardsmen boarded the Coho II at the entrance of SF Bay. The engine was running and the fishing boat was on automatic pilot, but skipper Ted Bean (45) was missing. Days earlier E.A. Davison, skipper of the albacore boat Steelhead, had radioed in panic from the Monterey fishing grounds saying “The Coho Second me just shot me."
(SSFC, 9/26/10, DB p.50)
1960 Oct 29, Chartered C46 carrying Cal State's football team crashed and 16 people were killed.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1960 Nov 12, Discoverer XVII was launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1960 Ruses Solomon founded Tower Records in Sacramento, Ca., by selling records out of his father’s drugstore. In 2006 the 89-store company was sold for $150 million, with creditors owed $200 million.
(SFC, 10/7/06, p.C3)
1960 In Novato the Nave Lanes bowling alley opened. It was demolished in 1999 in favor of retail outlets.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.D1)
1960 The US federal government decided to extend California’s Central Valley Project to the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley, despite the knowledge that the soils are laden with salts and selenium. The government promised to build a drain to carry contaminated drainage to the SF Bay, but construction was halted when Bay Area communities protested.
(SFC, 5/25/16, p.D1)
1960 California voters under Gov. Pat Brown narrowly approved the $1.75 billion State Water Project. It involved 22 upstream dams and reservoirs and a pumping plant to send water into an aqueduct largely for urban use in the south.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A7)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.28)
1960 California ordered smog control devices on cars. It was the first such law in the country.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1960 SF State College became one of several under a new California state Master Plan for Higher Education.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)(Econ, 8/11/12, p.24)
1960 The California-based Save the Redwoods League dedicated Avenue of the Giants Parkway in Humboldt Redwoods State Park after 40-year-long acquisition process.
(www.savetheredwoods.org/league/pdf/90th_timeline.pdf)
1960 Otis Chandler (32), great-grandson of Gen. Otis Chandler, became the 4th publisher of the LA Times. In 2001 Dennis McDougal authored "Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the LA Times."
(SSFC, 6/24/01, DB p.66)
1960 California rock climber Tom Frost (1936-2018) and two other leading climbers completed the 2nd successful climb of El Capitan's south buttress in Yosemite National Park in a little more than seven days without using fixed ropes.
(SFC, 9/14/18, p.D2)
1960 Wells Fargo was acquired by the American Trust Company, which shifted the bank’s focus to retail banking. Wells at the time had 12 offices in California, while American Trust had 102. The Wells Fargo name was kept.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1960 The population of Los Angeles was about 2.5 million with a capacity for about 10 million residents. By 2010 the population swelled to 4 million, but zoning and legislation had reduced capacity to 4.3 million.
(Econ, 3/4/17, p.23)
1960 Martin Ramirez (b.1885 in Mexico), outsider artist, died in a state mental hospital. He was picked up in LA in 1930 and locked up for the rest of his life. He began to draw around 1948 with any material he could get and was discovered in 1954 by a prof. of psychology at Cal State in Sacramento. His pencil-and-crayon drawings became some of the highest-priced works in the field.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A18)
1960s UC Berkeley received a $1 million donation from the Isadore Zellerbach family for whom Zellerbach Hall was named.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A15)
1960s Large portions of the Arcata Redwood Corp. lands were detached to form sections of Redwood National Park. The land was initially assembled by Michigan timber baron Arthur Hill. His son, Harry Hill, built the French Renaissance townhouse that is now the Italian consulate.
(SFC, 9/9/97, p.A19)
c1960-1980s Norton Simon, the owner of Hunt Foods, Canada Dry and McCall's Publishing, assembled a collection of old master’s paintings, as well as more modern works, and housed them in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.D7)
1960-1982 Leo R. McBrian (d.1998 at 78) published the Ripon Record. He sold the paper and ended his family’s 70-year ownership.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1960-1990s Peter Schrag, retired editor of the Sacramento Bee, published in 1998 the book "Paradise Lost: California’s Experience and America’s Future." In it he brought together the disparate political and social events of the last four decades in the state.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.3)
1961 Jun 12, A state Senate fact-finding sub-committee of Un-American Activities issued a report that charged UC Pres. Kerr "had opened the campus gates to communists."
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Jul 2, Jimmy McNichol, actor (Fitzpatricks, California Fever), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1961 Jul 28, Mickey Cohen, Los Angeles gangster, arrived at Alcatraz. Three weeks earlier he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for income tax evasion.
(SSFC, 7/24/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jul 25, Katherine Kelly Lang, actress (Brooke-Bold & Beautiful), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1961 Sep 2, Ramona Price (7) of Santa Barbara, Ca., vanished as she walked to her new home. Police later believed that she was likely a victim of notorious child serial killer Mack Ray Edwards, who hanged himself on death row at San Quentin in 1972. In 2011 Four teams of specially-trained sniffer dogs identified what cops are calling an ‘area of interest’ near an overpass at U.S. 101 in Goleta.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3ppmkvx)
1961 Sep 28, Richard Nixon jumped into the race for governor of California and said he would not run for president in 1964.
(SSFC, 9/25/11, DB p.42)
1961 Nov, India’s PM Jawaharlal Nehru visited with Walt Disney in Disneyland.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)
1961 Dec 31, The Beach Boys: Carl, Dennis and Brian Wilson with cousin Mike Love and friend Alan Jardine, made their first public performance on New Year’s Eve at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.D8)
1961 Judge Arthur Marshall (d.1999) authored "California Probate Procedure."
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B9)
1961 John Hunter Thomas (d.1999 at 71) presented his Stanford doctoral dissertation "Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains."
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C5)
1961 The new LAX Airport was dedicated by Pres. Lyndon Johnson. The facility included a modern central structure called the "Theme Building" with an elevated circular restaurant.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1961 The Alpine Meadows ski resort opened in the Lake Tahoe area of California.
(SFC, 7/7/17, p.D7)
1961 The new Interstate 5 bypassed Dunsmuir.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T6)
1961 In Pleasanton the Contra Costa Center shopping mall was built.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A16)
1961 Dr. L. Martin Griffin, Stan Picher and Aileen Pierson created Audubon Canyon Ranch, a nonprofit to operate wildlife refuges on Bolinas Lagoon and Tomales Bay. In 1998 Griffin published "Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast: The Battles for Audubon Canyon Ranch, Point Reyes, & California’s Russian River.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.4)
1961 Rodney Strong (d.2006), dancer-turned winemaker, purchased a 160-acre vineyard in Healdsburg, Ca. He started Sonoma Vineyards and later renamed it Rodney Strong Vineyards.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
1961 Pres. Kennedy appointed Cecil F. Poole (d. 1997) to serve as the US attorney for the Northern district of California.
(SFC,11/14/97, p.D7)
1961 Pleasant Hill, Ca., sandwiched between Concord and Walnut Creek, was incorporated as a city.
(SFC, 4/6/13, p.C2)
1961 The US Bureau of Reclamation completed Trinity Dam creating Trinity Lake in northern California. The lake flooded the towns of Trinity Center, Stringtown and Minersville.
(SFC, 9/12/11, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Lake)
1961 The Point Reyes National Seashore Foundation was created.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A27)
1961 Dr. Edgar Wayburn became president of the Sierra Club.
(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)
1961 George Jackson (19) was sentenced 1 year to life for stealing $70.20 from a gas station in LA.
(SSFCM, 8/19/01, p.7)
1961 PG&E announced plans for an atomic reactor at Bodega Bay, the picturesque promontory near the southern end of Sonoma County, Ca. The Public Utilities Commission okayed the permit, subject to approval from the Atomic Energy Commission. PG&E started digging a 70-foot shaft for the reactor and put up signs announcing "The Atomic Park." In 1963 the PUC, after significant local opposition, turned down their request. PG&E ended up selling all its headlands holdings to the California Dept. of Parks and Recreation for a token $1.
(www.monitor.net/monitor/12-3-95/bodegapge.html)
1961 In California a Kansas City company opened a manufacturing plant in Merced to fabricate cooling towers for industrial use. In 1969 the plant began treating the wood it used with chromium 6, arsenic and copper to combat insects and bacteria. In 1975 Baltimore Aircoil Co., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., bought the plant. In 1985 Merck sold its subsidiary and the plant to Amsted Industries. In 1986 a consultant found evidence of chromium and arsenic contamination at the site. In 1989 state regulators noted high levels of chromium 6 and arsenic in the water of a drainage pond and reported that storm water flowed from the pond into a canal running by homes in the Beachwood area of Merced. Chromium use continued until May 1991. In February 2007 the regional water board mailed notices to residents saying the plant had caused significant chromium and arsenic pollution. As of 2008 some 20 people were dead or dying of cancer in the Beachwood area. A $38 million cleanup effort was in progress. Merck and Amsted faced a lawsuit.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A14)
1961-1965 Larry Margolis (1923-1997) served as top aide to Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh.
(SFC, 1/8/96, p.A17)
1961-1968 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1961-1973 Samuel W. Yorty (1909-1998) served three terms as mayor of Los Angeles.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A5)
Go to California D (1962 -1983): https://timelines.ws/states/CAL1962_1983.HTML
Go to www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = California
Return to home
1923 Jan 1, The Angelus Temple, a spiritual palace in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was dedicated by Canadian-born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), organizer of the Int’l. Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_McPherson)(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P9)
1923 Feb 22, 1st successful chinchilla farm established in US was in LA, Calif.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1923 May 3, The 1st non-stop flight across the US was completed. Army lieutenants Kelly and Macready arrived in San Diego from New York in 26 hours and 50 minutes.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 4/6/98)(NPub, 2002, p.10)
1923 Jun 27, The first in-flight refueling occurred over San Diego, Ca.
(NPub, 2002, p.10)
1923 Sep 8, Seven of the 15 ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 were wrecked on a rocky point on the Santa Barbara County coast. 23 sailors were killed.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.D2)
1923 Sep 17, In Berkeley a fire began in the Wildcat Canyon and in 2 hours engulfed 584 structures.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A20)
1923 Oct 25, The Teapot Dome scandal came to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, revealed the findings of the past 18 months of investigation. His case would result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies. The administration of President Warren G. Harding was rocked by the Elk Hills Scandal-also known as the Teapot Dome Scandal or Oil Reserves Scandal. In 1921 and 1922 Harding’s secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall secretly granted Mammoth Oil exclusive rights to California’s Teapot Dome oil reserves and portions of the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves to American Petroleum, in exchange for some $300,000. Supervision of the oil reserves had been transferred from the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921. Fall was imprisoned for accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills case and the Supreme court ruled Harding’s transfer illegal.
(HN, 10/25/98)(HNQ, 4/19/99)
1923 Jack Wilkinson Smith painted his impressionist work: "Crystal Cove State Park."
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C9)
1923 The O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River was completed. The first Hetch Hetchy water began flowing to the Bay Area in 1934.
(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1923 In Los Angeles the Vista Theater at 4473 Sunset Dr. was built as a film and vaudeville house. It had a fanciful Egyptian revival-style interior.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1923 The Dow Villa Hotel In Lone Pine, Ca., was built.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T3)
1923 The 450-foot-long, 45-foot-tall "Hollywood" sign was erected on Mount Lee as a promotion for the Hollywoodland subdivision in Beachwood Canyon, Ca. In 1949 the "land" was dropped and the sign was declared a historical monument in 1973 and restored in 1978. In 2011 Leo Braudy authored “The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon."
(SFC, 11/13/96, p.E5)(SSFC, 3/6/11, p.G3)
1923 California passed legislation allowing local governments to remove bodies from areas where new burials had been banned.
(SFC, 4/14/18, p.C1)
1923 California prohibited gun shops from displaying handguns or handgun ads in shop windows. In 2018 a federal judge ruled that the law violates freedom of speech.
(SFC, 9/13/18, p.D6)
1923 The Army proved a point when Lieutenants Kelly and Macready flew the first non-stop continental flight from New York to San Diego.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1923 Porter Blanchard (1886-1973), a Massachusetts silversmith, moved to Burbank, Ca. He soon opened a studio featuring silver and pewter work that became part of the California Arts and Crafts movement.
(SFC, 5/9/07, p.G7)
1923 Wells Fargo merged with Union Trust Company and stayed solvent through the depression.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1923 The Rios-Caledonia Adobe and 6 acres was sold to Charles Dorries. Plans were made to restore the building and open it up to the public. He built a gift shop in 1938.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1923 The Sierra, a wooden-hulled lumber carrier, sank near the Farallones.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1924 Mar 17, Four Douglas army aircraft left Los Angeles for an around the world flight.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1924 Mar 31, Leo Buscaglia, "Dr. Hug", psychologist (Love), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1924 May 17, In Santa Cruz, Ca., the Giant Dipper roller coaster opened to the public. It was built by local resident Arthur Looff. It cost $50,000 and took 47 days to construct. It was declared a Historic Landmark in 1987.
(CG, #205, 1991)(SFEC, 3/14/99, DB p.71)
1924 Jul 5, The SF Playground Commission opened the 328-acre family recreation center called Camp Mather in Yosemite. It had 35 old bunkhouses from its days as a sawmill operation.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Z1p.5)
1924 Sep 10, Architect Willis Polk (b.1867) died. He had designed the Filoli estate on the Peninsula and the glass-fronted Hallidie Building on Sutter St. The Filoli House, an elegant Georgian house west of Redwood City, was built by mining millionaire William Bourn.
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Polk)
1924 Sep 25, Charlotte Mignon (Lotta) Crabtree (b.1847), the red-headed vaudeville dancer known as the "California Girl," died.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotta_Crabtree)
1924 Nov, In Salinas the Lincoln Elementary School opened. For years it followed a tracking system with white children from prominent families in class A, others in Class B, and Latino children of farm workers and other minorities in class C.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A12)
1924 The Santa Barbara Harbor was built to provide parking space for the yacht of Max Fleischmann, the yeast magnate.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.42)
1924 In Sacramento the building at 926 J. St., later known as the Poverty Palace, was constructed. It acquired the name for providing low rents to under-financed non-profit and public interest groups. It was also nicknamed the "Ban Roll-On building for its resemblance to a stick of deodorant.
(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.CA1)
1924 A three-dimensional relief map of California, as long as 2 football fields, was unveiled. The $147,000 work was constructed under the supervision of J.T. Edwards and 25 sculptors, engineers and geographers at the old Max Sennett silent movie studio near Echo Park, LA. It was later installed in the Ferry Building of San Francisco. In 1960 it went into storage. As of 2010 it was in 230 crates in a warehouse at the Port of SF.
(SSFC, 10/3/10, p.C1)
1924 In Petaluma 32 million eggs were produced.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T6)
1924 In California 14 buffalo were brought to Catalina Island for the filming of the silent movie "The Vanishing American." In 2001 there were 350. In 2009 conservation officials began a birth control program and hoped to keep the herd down to 150-200 animals.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.E6)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A4)
1924 The last known native wolf in California was trapped and killed in Lassen County. In 2011 a wolf named OR7 entered northern California from Oregon. OR7 returned to Oregon but as of 2018 the wolf's progeny appeared to have settled in the state.
(SFC, 2/18/12, p.A9)(SFC, 5/9/18, p.D1)
1925 Feb 21, Sam Peckinpah, film director (Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs), was born in Fresno, CA.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1925 May 25, Jeanne Crain, actress (Man Without a Star), was born in Barstow, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1925 Jun 29, An earthquake destroyed much of downtown Santa Barbara, California, causing millions in property damage.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.40)(HN, 6/29/98)
1925 Aug 18, The Hetch Hetchy power plant at Moccasin Creek began operating. PG&E distributed the power and profits went to SF.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1925 Dec 12, Arthur Heinman opened the first motel, the "Motel Inn," in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1925 Dec 27, In Los Angeles Hilario Camino Moncado founded the Filipino Federation of America (FFA), one of the country’s first and largest Filipino organizations.
(http://tinyurl.com/oz42xnz)
1925 Jepson’s "Manual of the Flowering Plants of California" was 1st published.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.D4)
1925 The 94-unit Glen-Donald apartment building opened in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, Ca.
(SFC, 8/20/10, p.C4)
1925 The Los Angeles city charter was drawn up creating a weak mayor and a strong city council.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.29)
1925 In Hollywood Jack’s Steakhouse opened at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa street. It was renamed the Formosa Cafe in 1939 and became a hangout for gangsters.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1925 Sumitomo Bank was founded in California to service the Japanese immigrant population. By 1996 it was California’s 5th largest bank.
(WSJ, 12/30/96, p.A1)
1925 Emporium acquired the Fairfax property in Marin, Ca., for an employee retreat.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1925 The Copco 2 dam was constructed on the Klamath River in northern California just a quarter-mile downstream of the original dam. [see 1918]
(www.friendsoftheriver.org/Publications/RiversReborn/klamath.html)
1926 Jan, Walt and Roy Disney moved to their new studio at 2719 Hyperion in Los Angeles.
(www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/disnehis/disn1926.htm)
1926 May 18, Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, Calif.; she reappeared a month later in Mexico, claiming to have been kidnapped. She had really ruin off with a married man to Carmel.
(AP, 5/18/97)(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.5)
1926 Apr 7, In San Luis Obispo, Ca., lightning sparked a 5-day oil fire killing 2 people. Over 6 million barrels of oil were burned. Final damages were estimated at $15 million.
(SFC, 4/7/09, p.D8)
1926 Jun 1, Actress Marilyn Monroe (d.Aug 5, 1962), (born as Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker), was born in Los Angeles. "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."
(AP, 6/1/97)(AP, 8/5/99)(HN, 6/1/01)
1926 Jul 6, Clara Phillips, the LA hammer murderess, celebrated her birthday at San Quentin where she was serving time for the murder of Alberta Meadows.
(SFC, 7/6/01, WBb p.8)
1926 Jul 31, Highway 140, the "All-Year Highway, to Yosemite opened.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1926 Aug 7, Stan Freberg, satirist, ad executive, cartoon voice (Bertie), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1926 Aug 12, John Derek, actor, director (10, Annapolis Story), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1926 An educational textbook on California was titled “Seeing California." It featured Mr. Magic Carpet showing students the wonders of the Golden State.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.E1)
1926 In northern California W.J. Clark built the Vacaville Theater.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.A5)
1926 The paddle-wheeled Delta Queen was built in California using a steel hull constructed in Britain. She first ran between Sacramento and SF. During WW II she was turned into a floating barracks for soldiers and as a ferry in the SF Bay. After that she was towed through the Panama Canal and up to her new home port in Cincinnati, Ohio, from where she made excursions on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
(Econ, 7/19/08, p.43)
1926 The Antioch Bridge, a 21-foot wide span with a lift section for ships traveling up the San Joaquin River to Stockton, was constructed. It was the Bay Area’s first toll bridge.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A16)
1926 The La Valencia Hotel opened in the La Jolla section of San Diego.
(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.T6)
1926 The Benbow Inn opened in Benbow, Ca. The hotel was built by architect Albert Farr, famous for his Wolf House, the Jack London home in Glen Ellen.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T6)(www.benbowinn.com/history.htm)
1926 A collection of US roads from Chicago to Los Angeles were improved and formed what would be designated as US 66. It was later replaced by 3 interstates, I-55 in Illinois, I-44 in Missouri and Oklahoma, and I-40 to LA. Route 66 was decertified in 1985. In 2006 Arthur Krim authored “Route 66: Iconography of the American Highway."
(WSJ, 6/17/06, p.P8)
1926 Julia Morgan was commissioned by Margaret Stewart, a SF hotelier, to design a manor, guest house and carriage house along the Eel River in Garberville. Morgan had designed Hearst Castle and was the first woman admitted to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She was also the first woman licensed as an architect in California. Sara Boutelle authored "Julia Morgan Architect."
(WSJ, 2/10/99, p.CA4)
1926 Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa horticulturist, died at age 77.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.11)
1926 George Sterling, Carmel (Ca.) poet, swallowed cyanide and died at the Bohemian Club.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.D1)
1927 Jan 15, The Dumbarton Bridge opened in San Francisco carrying the first auto traffic across the bay.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1927 Feb 17, The death toll reached 24 with some 3,000 left homeless after a fierce storm hit the Pacific Coast.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)
1927 Mar 1, Edward R. Bohner began serving as prohibition administrator for Northern California under National Prohibition Commissioner J.M. Doran. Bohner resigned June 18, 1929.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
1927 Mar 1, Bank of Italy became a National Bank. California’s laws prohibiting branch banking changed and A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking properties into the Bank of America of California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)(SC, 3/1/02)
1927 May 4, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was incorporated. [see May 11] Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson, had initiated discussions for the organization earlier in the year.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(AP, 5/4/97)
1927 May 10, US aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) picked up his plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis," in San Diego and flew it to St. Louis. The next day he continued to New York using railroad maps that he picked up in a drugstore for 50 cents each. The plane was powered by an air-cooled Whirlwind engine built by Ryan Aeronautical Company. Charles Fayette Taylor (1895-1996) worked on the engine design team. Taylor later authored "The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice."
(WUD, 1994, p.832)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 6/30/96, p.B6)(ON, 2/08, p.2)
1927 May 11, An official organizational banquet was held for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Biltmore Hotel. Of the 300 guests, 230 joined the Academy, paying $100 each. [see May 4] Douglas Fairbanks served as the first president.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(PCh, 1992, p.783)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993), California union leader of agricultural workers, was born.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)
1927 May 18, Impresario Sid Grauman opened his Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.E6)(SC, 5/18/02)
1927 May 27, The Carquinez Bridge opened over the Sacramento River between Crocket and Vallejo. The cantilever bridge was built by American Toll Bridge Co. A 2nd was added in 1958.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B3)
1927 May 27, The cargo steamer Indiana Harbor ran aground on the northern California Humboldt coast. Radio operator Joseph E. Croney remained at his post for 72 hours while the ship was pounded.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.E3)
1927 Jun 1, The Delta King steamboat made its maiden voyage from SF to Sacramento, Ca. Its twin, the Delta Queen, followed the next day. The 81-mile trip took nearly all night. Stan Garvey later authored "The King and Queen of the River." The last Sacramento River voyages were made in 1940. In 1969 Tom Horton (1940-2006), a columnist for the Sacramento Union, led a band of civic pirates to bring the languishing boat back from Stockton to Sacramento, where it was transformed to a waterfront hotel, theater and restaurant.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)
1927 Jul 6, Janet Leigh (d.2004, film star, was born as Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced, Ca. MGM named her Janet Leigh.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.A2)
1927 Jul 14, The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley opened. It was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood of Los Angeles.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1927 Oct 29, In Fresno, Ca., Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig led an exhibition baseball game as part of an 18-state tour to promote major league baseball.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.D3)
1927 Nov 24, Troops battled 1,200 inmates after Folsom prisoners revolted. On Thanksgiving Day there was a prison break at Folsom. One prisoner was shot in the ensuing uprising and five others were later hung.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)(HN, 11/24/98)
1927 Dec, The Yosemite annual Christmas pageant at the Ahwahnee Hotel was begun by a Stanford Univ. administrator and Ansel Adams. The pageant was set in England at Bracebridge Hall at the time of King George III and based on characters created by Washington Irving.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A19)
1927 Upton Sinclair published his novel "Oil," based on the development of oil in southern California. It became the basis for the 2007 film “There Will be Blood."
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.7)(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1927 William Wrigley, gum magnate, staged a swimming race between Catalina Island and the California coast, which measured over 20 miles. George Young (17) of Canada won.
(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.W4)
1927 The Pickwick Hotel, a Gothic Revival structure, opened in San Diego, Ca. It was later renovated and re-opened as the Sofia Hotel.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.G4)
1927 The Biltmore Hotel was built in Montecito.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.43)
1927 The Biltmore Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, Ca., was built.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T7)
1927 The Fresno and the Santa Rosa were 2 of 6 steel-hulled car ferries built for the SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 12/19/06, p.C4)
1927 The Pacific Borax Co. opened the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley as a luxury resort in Death Valley.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1927 A Romanesque bridge to the new UCLA Westwood campus was built across an arroyo.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1927 The Loomis Museum was established at Mt. Lassen. It was named after photographer B.F. Loomis, who took photos of the 1914 eruptions.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T9)
1927 The State Bar of California was founded as an independent and nonpartisan organization by the state Legislature.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.A23)(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A14)
1927 Catalina Pottery was founded on Santa Catalina Island. In 1937 it was sold to Gladding, McBean and Co.
(SFC, 12/30/98, Z1 p.2)
1927 The California Legislature allowed voters to form metropolitan water districts.
(SFC, 4/25/14, p.A10)
1927 The new California state park bill gained the unanimous approval of the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor C.C. Young (1927-1931).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Parks)
1927 The California Legislature authorized the state attorney general to act on behalf of Indians to sue the federal government for losses. It took 16 years to reach a settlement.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1927 Oakland formed the state’s first independent port commission.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W27)
1927 California’s laws prohibiting branch banking changed and A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking properties into the Bank of America of California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1927 Apr 14, In California lobbyist Harry Hill (b.1880) shot and killed Marybelle Wallace, who had spurned his romantic advances. Hill, a Sacramento lobbyist, then shot and killed himself. Wallace was an employee of Sen. Lyon.
(Sacramento Bee, 4/15/27, p.1,30)(http://tinyurl.com/by6o9t3)
1927 Roy Cloud, chief of the Redwood City schools, began a new career as Executive Secretary of the California Teachers Assoc. He held this position until 1947 and successfully brought forth 30 bills to benefit teachers and education.
(Ind, 9/30/00,5A)
1927-1931 Clement Calhoun Young served as governor.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.T6)
1928 Jan 25, The Zamorano Club was founded in Los Angeles, Ca., “to establish contact and encourage exchange of thought among its members, who shall be men interested in Fine Books." The club was named after Agustin Vicente Zamorano, the first printer in Alta California.
(www.zamoranoclubla.org/history/)(http://tinyurl.com/s3c77)
1928 Feb 7, Paul Rubio, convicted SF rum runner, was kidnapped from private detectives by friends between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.E3)
1928 Mar 12, In Santa Paula, Ventura County, Ca., the 3-year-old St. Francis dam collapsed just before midnight. By the next day some 450 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(PCh, 1992, p.791)
1928 Mar 13, In California hundreds of people died when the San Francisquito Valley was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst just before midnight on March 12.
(AP, 3/13/08)
1928 Apr 14, The first air service from SF to Los Angeles began. Mines Field opened in LA on a 640-acre portion of the 3,000-acre Bennett Rancho, which had become a popular landing strip for area aviators.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)(Hem, 9/04, p.34)
1928 Apr, In California Mexican workers formed "The Imperial Valley Workers Union" to try to challenge the wage abuses they had been experiences. In May the union sent out letters to all the growers respectfully asking for 15 cents a crate for picking cantaloupes or 75 cents an hour for the labor. In October of 1933 and June 1934 there were many strikes that resulted in violent reactions by the police and growers.
(http://aztlan.sdsu.edu/chicanohistory/chapter07/c07s01.html)
1928 May 19, The 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1928 Jun 5, Robert Lansing, actor (12 O'Clock High, Equalizer), was born in SD, Calif.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1928 Dec 5, California Sec. of State Frank C. Jordan issued a certificate of incorporation to the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District. The next step in the new bridge campaign would be to appoint 12 directors.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1928 Dec 6, Workers blasted through the last barrier of rock in the 16-mile tunnel in the foothill division of San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy water project.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E13)
1928 The Los Angeles City Hall at First and Spring streets was built. It was the city’s tallest building until the late 1950s. It was Renaissance tower atop a Greek temple supported by a classical base.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1928 The 30-foot cast-iron Point Montara Lighthouse, shipped in from Cape Cod, was rebuilt at Point Montara in San Mateo Ct.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T3)(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 6/14/08, p.B2)
1928 Mission San Miguel was returned to the Franciscan Padres.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1928 In Moraga the campus of St. Mary’s College opened.
(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A16)
c1928 The first Artichoke Queen was crowned in the Salinas Valley.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A23)
1928 California voters approved a $6 million state park bond act.
(www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=940)
1928 Agricultural workers in the Imperial Valley earned as much as 75 cents per hour for picking cantaloupe. The rate dropped to 15 cents 4 years later.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1928 Nearly 2,000 people died on California highways.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
1929 Jan 13, Frontiersman Wyatt Earp died in LA, Ca., after an illustrious life in the West. Cowboy stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix served as pallbearers. Born in Illinois in 1848, he served as a lawman in Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, as well as Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil were notorious for violent clashes with outlaws. Western historians have disagreed about the particulars of Wyatt Earp's life, but he is said to have been a freighter-teamster, railroad construction worker, policeman, prisoner, saloon keeper and horse farmer, and he was involved in several gunfights--for reasons that may or may not have been related to law enforcement. When Morgan was killed, Wyatt avenged his death by killing Frank Stilwell, an outlaw he had previously arrested. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp died and was buried in Colma, Ca. In 2003 Lee A. Silva authored Wyatt Earp, A Biography of the Legend, Volume 1, the Cowtown Years."
(HNPD, 1/12/99)(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1 p.10)(MesWP)(CHA, 1/2001)(AH, 6/03, p.60)
1929 May 16, Hollywood staged an experimental publicity stunt for the movie industry at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that grew to become the Academy Awards extravaganza. The first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won best production while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. The first ceremony gave out a 2nd best award that went to F.W. Murnau’s "Sunrise." The dog Rin Tin Tin received the most votes for best actor, but the academy decided it would be a more auspicious precedent to grant the award to a human.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/23/97, DB p.54)(AP, 5/16/97)(Econ, 2/4/12, p.86)
1929 May 29, Armgaard Karl Graves, notorious int’l. war spy, was arrested in Los Angeles on bunko charges.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.F9)
1929 Oct 18, The Pardee Dam in the Mokelumne canyon, California’s largest concrete dam, was officially dedicated.
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.F13)
1929 Oct 23, First transcontinental air service began from New York to Los Angeles.
(HN, 10/23/98)
1929 Oct 25, Former US Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in connection with the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve in California. This conviction was in addition to the one he received for accepting kickbacks in conjunction with the Wyoming Teapot Dome Scandal. Fall served under Pres. Warren Harding, but it is unclear if Harding was aware of any wrongdoing. [see Oct 25, 1923]
(AP, 10/25/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.7)(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.D9)
1929 Oct 28, Universal Pictures joined with Transcontinental Air Transport to offer moving pictures for air passengers bound for California.
(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1929 The Santa Barbara Courthouse was dedicated.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.42)
1929 Hangar 1, the first modern air terminal of LA, was completed at Mines Field in Spanish Colonial Revival style. In 2005 it was still part of LAX.
(Hem., 5/97, p.70)(Hem, 9/04, p.34)
1929 Pistachios were brought to California from Persia (Iran).
(SFCM, 9/30/01, p.26)
1929 A golden altar that had been brought from Barcelona, Spain, and intended for the Los Angeles Cathedral was assembled from 396 pieces and installed into the chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
(HT, 3/97, p.58)
1929 The Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles debuted as the cornerstone of the largest Jewish congregation west of Chicago. It was bankrolled in part by Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of MGM, Movie mogul Irving Thalberg, Carl Laemmle and the Warner brothers.
(SFC, 6/5/13, p.E7)
1929 William Randolph Hears commissioned Julia Morgan to design a ranch house for his San Antonio Valley property. The Milpitas Ranch House later became known as the Hacienda Guest Lodge."
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T5)
1929 An agreement entitled California to 4.4 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado River, most of it for agriculture. One acre-foot is 325,000 gallons.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A15)
1929 The California Highway Patrol was created.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1929 Harry Cobden (d.1999 at 95), while working as a mule packer and mountain guide, climbed Mount Conness in Yosemite with Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII. Cobden later co-designed the steel Quonset Hut for the Navy in Quonset, R.I.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.C2)
1929 A fire in Mill Valley destroyed 1,000 acres and 115 homes.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A1)
1930 Apr 28, Astronomers at California’s Lick Observatory recorded a solar eclipse.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F3)
1930 May 20, University of California dedicated $1,500 to research on the prevention and cure of athlete's foot.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1930 Jul 17, A natural gas explosion in the Mitchell ravine tunnel of the Hetch Hetchy water project in California killed 12 men. 35 other workers quit charging that carelessness and lack of equipment was responsible for the tragedy.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F6)
1930 Jul 28, Darryl Hickman, actor (Human Comedy, Tea & Sympathy), was born in Hollywood, Cal.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1930 Sep 10, A Santa Fe passenger train killed over 600 sheep near Stockton, Ca. T. Urrizola Escalon, the herder, was believed to have driven the sheep onto the track and committed suicide. He left a note that said “Farewell, you will never see me again."
(SFC, 9/9/05, p.F5)
1930 Oct 30, The California-based Pacific Gas and Electric announced that the company’s system was now officially interconnected with the recently purchased Great Western Power Co. and the San Joaquin Light and Power Co. The new $600 million consolidated company now covers 45 counties.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F3)
1930 Nov 13, In California the Fresno Bee reported that Al Capone, Chicago gangland leader, had banned the sale of grape juice concentrates in Chicago. The order was said to be a warning to California grape farmers that they need his approval to sell their products in certain markets.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F7)
1930 Nov 19, Bob Mathias, decathlon athlete (Olympics-gold-48), was born in Tulare, Calif.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1930 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1930 Amadeo P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, donated $500,000 to UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A15)
1930 The Yosemite Park Service began to build a small village in the valley for Yosemite Indians.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1930 James R. Rolph, "Sunny Jim," was elected governor of the state and served one 4-year term.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A14)(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.B8)
1930 Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, a 175-acre estate of former Sen. James Phelan, was officially bequeathed to California for the encouragement of the arts.
(SSFC, 2/20/05, Par p.4)
1930 19 mule dear were introduced to Catalina Island as a hunting resource. In 2001 there were 850. Their numbers had reached 2000 in the 1950s.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.E6)
1930 The last California Mutsun Indian, Dona Ascension Solorzano, died.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T4)
1930 James D. Phelan, former mayor of SF (1897-1901), died. In 1914 he was elected and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920 campaign used the slogan "Keep California white.’
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)
1930s Anne Loftis in 1998 published "Witnesses to the Struggle: Imaging the 1930s California Labor Movement."
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.D5)
1930s Adolph Parducci founded his winery in Ukiah, Ca. The family sold the business in 1972. In 2004 it was bought by the Mendocino Wine Co.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 9/8/06, p.F4)
1930s Upton Sinclair began his popular "End Poverty in California" campaign.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.D5)
1930s Eugene S. Elkus Jr. (d.1999 at 93) founded the Elkus Paper Co. with his father and younger brother. The company pioneer the use of pink paper for wrapping meat and blue paper for laundered shirts.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A19)
1931 Jan 6, James Rolph Jr., former mayor of SF, was inaugurated as the 27th governor of California.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan 9, A cave in at California’s Hetch Hetchy Coast Range tunnel trapped 20 men underground. They were all rescued the next day.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1931 Jan 30, Gene Hackman, actor (Bonnie & Clyde, Under Fire, Superman), was born in Calif.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1931 Jul 1, Ice vending machines were introduced in LA.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1931 Aug 21, Nancy Hadley, actress (Love That Jill, Joey Bishop Show), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1931 Sep 19, David Starr Jordan (b.1851), former president of Stanford Univ. (1891-1913), died at Stanford. He had promoted the concept of improving human genetics, through removal from the breeding pool of those deemed unworthy to reproduce in his series of publications titled “The Blood of the Nation" (1902).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starr_Jordan)
1931 The Art-Deco-style jail in Lincoln Heights, LA, was built over the site of a jail constructed ten years earlier. It later acquired the name "Gray Bar Motel." It housed prisoners to the late 1950s and was again used during the 1965 Watts riots and again closed the same year.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.C14)
1931 The Commonwealth Club of California established its California Book Awards to foster and recognize literature in the Golden State,
(SFEC,11/2/97, BR p.13)
1931 Highway 1 connected Big Sur to the rest of California.
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.A17)
1931 The 1st successful case for desegregation in schools was Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District in San Diego.
(SFC, 4/12/04, p.E8)
1931 California made Calaveras Big Trees into a State Park.
(CVG, Vol 16, p.31)
1931 Randoplh Hearst, American newspaper magnate, purchased a collapsing former Trapist monestary in Spain, the Santa Maria de Ovila, for $97,000. Plans to rebuilt the 16th century chapter house at his mother’s Wyntoon estate went on hold with the Great Depression. Hearst later gifted the crated stones to San Francisco. In 1994 SF agreed to loan the stones to Cistercian monks at Vina, near Chico, Ca. In the spring of 2012 the scaffolding of rebuilt structure in Vina came down.
(SFC, 12/26/12, p.A1)
1931 F.W. Murnau (42), German film director, was killed in a car crash in California.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.6)
1932 Jul 30, The Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles. The US won 41 gold medals, Italy was 2nd with less than a third of that. Bill Miller of Stanford won a gold medal in the pole vault when he cleared 14'-1 ¾". Later in the year he set a world record at 14'-1 7/8". Babe Didriksen (21) of Texas won 2 track gold medals and a silver. Track events in this summer’s Olympics were timed with manual stopwatches.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.4)(AP, 7/30/97)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.C3)
1932 Aug 4, Luigi Beccali (1907-1990), Italian athlete, won Olympic gold in the 1500 meters. He gave a Fascist salute at the winners’ podium.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)(http://tinyurl.com/6al4up)
1932 Los Angeles voters removed three Superior Court judges accused of taking kickbacks.
(SFC, 5/28/18, p.A1)
1932 David Alfaro Sigueiros, Mexican artist, arrived in Los Angeles to teach at the LA Art School and spent seven months there. He experimented with new industrial tools and created large outdoor murals. His 80x18 foot mural, “La America Tropical," on City Hall on Olvera Street, commissioned by Christine Sterling, was painted over following completion. Soon thereafter his request for a visa renewal was denied. In 2006 LA and the Getty Foundation began a $7.7 million project to restore the work.
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.E7)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.103)
1932 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1932 The Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links opened its first nine holes, designed by Chandler Egan. The back nine were designed by Jack Neville in 1960.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T6)
1932 William F. Knowland, son of Joseph R. Knowland of the Oakland Tribune, became a state Congressman by appointment from Earl Warren.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.5)
1932 In the SF Bay Area pari-mutuel betting on horse racing was legalized and racing resumed at Tanforan.
(Ind, 8/17/02, 5A)
1932 San Diego was the suicide capital of the country.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.1)
1932-1998 In 1999 Paul Vangelisti and Evan Calbi put together the anthology "L.A. Exile: A Guide to Los Angeles Writing."
(SFEC, 12/12/99, BR p.3)
1933 Feb 26, Ground was broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Russell Cone was hired to oversee the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. He had already worked on the Philadelphia-Camden (Ben Franklin) Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
(HN, 2/26/98) (SFC,12/20/97, p.A21)
1933 Mar 10, In Long Beach a 6.3-6.4 earthquake killed 115 people.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 6/21/00, p.A1)
1933 Apr 15, Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (Samantha/Serena-Bewitched), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1933 May, Saudi Arabia gave Standard Oil of California exclusive rights to explore for oil.
(www.chevron.com)
1933 Oct 19, Dallas Egan, condemned slayer, was executed at San Quentin after California Gov. James Rolph agreed to allow him 8 ounces of good Kentucky bourbon whiskey.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, DB p.58)(www.freeotrshows.com/otr/c/Calling_All_Cars.html)
1933 Nov 29, The two men who had kidnapped and killed Brooke Hart, heir to a San Jose department store fortune, were taken by a mob from the county jail. They were lynched in a park and their bodies were set on fire. Gov. Rolph said that if anyone was arrested for the lynching, he would pardon them.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1933 In Santa Monica the Georgian Hotel was built on Ocean Ave.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.T6)
1933 Carroll Melbin (1900-1997) helped to organize the Northern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. Ernest Besig, NY civil liberties lawyer, also helped organize the union following the 1934 SF maritime strike. Besig later went to Humboldt Ct. to defend lumber strikers after 3 were killed and 8 wounded by company guards.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A17)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)
1933 Pres. Hoover declared Death Valley a national monument.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1933 Gov. James Rolphy signed a bill authorizing the creation of a regional park district for the East Bay. The East Bay Regional Park District was formally established in 1934 and in 1936 it logged its 1st acquisition from EBMUD -- 2,166 acres in what became Tilden Regional Park and the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.A14)
1933 California voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote by legislators for budgets. The requirement was extended to tax increases as part of Proposition 13 in 1978.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A1)
1933 California began a sales tax to pay for public schools. This followed the plummet of property taxes during the Great Depression.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1933 Northern California’s 4,350-acre Castle Crags state park was created thanks to land purchases by private citizens. The adjacent federal wilderness area, covering another 10,500 acres, was established in 1984.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.G8)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1933 California passed an anti-lynching law. Lynching was broadly interpreted to cover vigilante mob action to punish a prisoner. California law defined lynching as "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer."
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C4)
1933 The California state legislature approved the Central Valley Project which included the Shasta and Friant Dams. It became a federally built water system to sustain California agriculture. The Friant dam was completed in 1944.
(SFC, 12/29/99, Z1 p.1)
1933 Ernst and Julio Gallo founded the Gallo winery in Modesto.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1934 Jan 7, The Radio Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong began broadcasting in Pasadena, Ca. His program was called "The World Tomorrow" and his magazine was called "The Plain Truth."
(WSJ, 2/120/00, p.A1)
1934 May, Union workers in SF went on strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. The Int’l. Longshoremen and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, went on strike. Strike breakers were housed in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jun 2, Sunny Jim Rolph (b.1869), former mayor of SF (1912-1931) and Governor of California (1931-1934), died. He lived at his home at 288 San Jose Ave. in the Mission throughout his life.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.5)(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1934 Jul 5, During the West Coast maritime strike police in SF fired into a crowd of strikers at Stewart and Mission streets and killed 2 men and wounded 109. Police had tried to escort scabs to the docks. The General Strike was led by Harry Bridges. Civil liberties attorneys Ernest Besig (d.1998 at 94), and Chester Williams were called in to from new York. They founded a local American Civil Liberties Union and sued SF and Oakland for failure to protect striker’s First Amendment rights.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A23)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)
1934 Jul 9, In SF a parade of 15,000 was held on Market Street for the 2 men killed on Jul 5. The funeral was followed by a general strike. SF Mayor Angelo J. Rossi and Gov. Frank Merriman blamed the strike on Communists.
(SFEM, 1/18/98, p.6)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 13, The general strike ended after 4 days and went into arbitration. In the fall arbitrators gave the union a hiring hall, a 6-hour day and a small wage increase.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1934 Jul 29, The West Coast longshoremen’s strike came to an end on its 82nd day when the dock workers’ leaders accepted conditions proposed by the National Longshoremen’s board, pending arbitration. Men returned to work on July 31.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, DB p.42)(www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/STRIKES!/exh.html)
1934 Aug 11, The US government opened a maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and the first federal prisoners arrived. From the time it opened to 1937 there was no talking by prisoners allowed. Alcatraz, previously used only for American military criminals, received its first group of civilian prisoners. Federal convicts from McNeil Island Prison in Washington joined a small number of military prisoners, left over from the island‘s time as a U.S. Army prison. The facility had been used as a military prison since 1859, but was redesigned in the 1930s to be a high-security penitentiary for the "most dangerous" prisoners. Gangster Al Capone arrived at Alcatraz later that August.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(AP, 8/11/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(HNQ, 7/10/00)(MC, 8/11/02)
1934 Oct 12, Michael O'Shaughnessy, SF chief engineer, died, just 12 days before Hetch Hetchy water began flowing to the Bay Area. [see Oct 28]
(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1934 Oct 28, In Redwood City a crowd of 20,000 people gathered at the temporary Pulgas Water Temple to witness the first Sierra water begin to empty into Crystal Springs Lake. The Pulgas Water Temple near the Crystal Springs Reservoir was modeled after the Sunol Water Temple designed by Willis Polk. This marked the end of the 20-year SF water project led by engineer Michael O'Shaugnessy (d.10/18/34). [see Oct 12]
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.A21)(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A24)(Ind, 3/11/00, p.5A)
1934 Nov 4, The new $400,000, 6,500-seat, Bay Meadows horse racing track opened in San Mateo under the direction of Bill Kyne (d.1957). Gov. Frank Merriam christened the one-mile track. Jockey George Burns rode 5 winners, three of them in a row. The track featured the new $250,000 totalizer machine to display bets and payoff.
(Ind, 5/13/00,5A)
1934 Dec 20, California’s new state liquor control law went into effect making it legal to sell hard liquor by the drink in hotels, restaurants and clubs.
(SSFC, 12/20/09, DB p.46)
1934 In California a cross was erected in the Mohave National Preserve as a memorial to the soldiers of WWI. In 2010 the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to approve the display on government land saying the US Constitution does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm.
(SFC, 4/28/10, p.A5)
1934 The Bonfante family opened the first Nob Hills Food store in Morgan Hill, north of Gilroy. It grew to a 27-store chain and then sold out to Raley’s in 1997.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.B4)
1934 Theodore Groth opened his Fireproof Garage in Livermore. It later became the Groth Brother Chevrolet dealership.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.D1)
1934 The governor of Arizona called out the state militia and navy (2 ferryboats) to halt California’s construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct. It took an act of Congress and a Supreme Court decision to get the project restarted.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A5)
1934 Upton Sinclair, muckraker and socialist, ran for governor of California and wrote "I, governor of California and how I ended poverty: A true story of the future." It spoke of his utopian scheme called EPIC (End Poverty in California). He was defeated by Frank Merriam (1865-1955). In 1992 Greg Mitchell authored “The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics."
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 1/12/05, p.E3)
1934 In Hollywood, Ca., Ina Ray Hutton formed her first all-female jazz orchestra, Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears.
(SFC, 6/25/11, p.E2)
1934 Will and George Climes founded Will-George pottery in Los Angeles, Ca. By 1948 the business had moved to San Gabriel and renamed to Claysmiths. It closed in 1956.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.G2)
1934 Lucky Lager was first commercially introduced. The brand was founded by General Brewing in California. Lucky Lager Brewing opened a second brewery in Azusa, California in 1949, and bought smaller breweries in Vancouver, Washington in 1950 and in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1960.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lager)
1935 Feb 12, The 785-foot USS Macon, the last US Navy dirigible (ZRS-5), crashed on its 55th flight off the coast of California, killing two people. After takeoff from Point Sur, California, a gust of wind tore off the ship's upper fin, deflating its gas cells and causing the ship to fall into the sea. Two of Macon's 83 crewmen died in the accident. The U.S. Navy lost the airships Shenandoah in 1925 and Akron in 1933. Some considered airships too dangerous for the program to continue at that point, and work on them in the United States halted temporarily.
(HNQ, 2/7/99)(SFC, 9/27/06, p.B1)
1935 May 29, The California Pacific Exposition opened in San Diego. Organizers of the San Diego Exposition thought that a horny robot and a vanguard of big-breasted nudist women might help cheer people up. Thus came "Zorine the Queen of the Nudists and Alpha the mechanical Man."
(http://tinyurl.com/73qsnob)(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.42)(http://tinyurl.com/2dcavp)
1935 The new Los Angeles Times building was completed. In 1910 a union-member bombing killed 21 nonunion pressman and linotype operators at the LA Times.
(WSJ, 9/16/08, p.A23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times_bombing)
1935 The Griffith Observatory opened in Los Angeles. It was donated to the city by Col. Griffith J. Griffith and designed by architects John C. Austin and F.M. Ashley. In 1976 it was designated a city historic-cultural monument. In 2002 it closed and re-opened in 2006 after a $93 million makeover.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.B6)
1935 The California Field Act set construction standards for school buildings and endorsed earthquake drills.
(WSJ, 6/21/00, p.A1)
1935 California began taxing personal income and imposed a use tax on certain purchases from out of state companies.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.D5)
1935 California reduced the duck hunting bag limit to 10 birds per day. In 2002 the limit was 4. Limits had begun in 1901 with 50 birds per day.
(Ind, 2/23/02, 5A)
1935 In Pasadena, Ca., R. Stanton Avery (d.1997 at 90) began selling self-stick labels made from a machine he invented using a washing machine motor, sewing machine parts and a saw. By 1996 the Avery Dennison Corp. annual sales reached $3.2 billion.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A20)
1935 The Raley’s food and general merchandise stores began operating. The store became a Sacramento-based chain of 88 by 1997 when it bought out Gilroy’s Nob Hill Foods.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.B1)
1935-1939 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1936 Apr 10, A 200" mirror blank arrived in Pasadena for Mt. Palomar.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1936 Jun 2, Sally Kellerman, actress (M*A*S*H, Back to School), was born in Long Beach, Cal.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1936 Sep 11, President Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) by pressing a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator in Nevada. The Dam was completed ahead of schedule. It was the first and most important link in a chain of dams, canals and aqueducts built to harness the Colorado River. The colossal mass of concrete is wedged into Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, 32 miles SE of Las Vegas. Paul L. Wattis, headed the construction company that built Boulder Dam.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNQ, 4/3/02)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A22)
1936 Sep, In Salinas, Ca., fascists and agencies of law and order oversaw a 15-day period of “ruthless" dictatorship under the guise of a “red scare."
(SSFC, 9/18/11, p.42)
1936 The first US fitness club opened in California and pioneered such exercises as the jumping jack.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1936 In Santa Cruz the Santa Cruz Surfing Club was founded. The group later established a surfing museum.
(CG, #205, 1991)
1936 Marjory B. Farquhar (d.1999) became the first woman to climb the Higher Cathedral Spire in Yosemite. Her oral history is on file at UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1936 A long and violent agricultural strike by the lettuce shed workers occurred in Salinas, Ca.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D6)
1936 A delegation from Los Angeles went to Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia, to present a souvenir pamphlet, the fate of the delegation was unknown.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.7)
1937 Jan 19, Howard Hughes flew from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours and 22 minutes.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1937 Mar 23, Los Angeles Railway Co. started using PCC streetcars. PCC's are streetcars that were originally designed under the direction of the Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee, in an attempt by 25 U.S. and Canadian transit companies to develop a standardized streetcar whose many improvements would help to reverse the decline in transit use that had begun in the 1920's. The committee's efforts began in late 1929, and the first cars were put into service in New York in October 1936.
(SS, 3/23/02)(Internet)
1937 May 27, The newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge was designed by Joseph Strauss. Over 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day. The bridge towers stood a record 750 feet.
(AP, 5/27/97)(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 10/30/99, p.C3)(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.11)
1937 Jul 3, The new Del Mar Race Track, built by Bing Crosby and friends opened 20 miles north of San Diego. High Strike, a Crosby gelding, won the inaugural race.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A17)
1937 Aug 18, Robert Redford, actor (Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), was born in Calif.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1937 Dec 8, In San Francisco 5 men were sentenced to death at San Quentin for the Sep 19 Folsom Prison break that cost Warden Clarence Larkin his life.
(www.odmp.org/officer/7907-warden-clarence-larkin)(SSFC, 12/9/12, p.46)
1937 The California -based Irvine Foundation was founded by agriculturalist James Irvine. By 2015 it was granting $69 million annually to youth arts and development programs in California from cultivated assets of $1.8 billion.
(https://www.irvine.org/about) (SFC, 2/10/15, p.E1)
1937 In California the Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill opened. It was the nation’s 1st true sanitary landfill, where garbage was compacted and buried each day. The waste later polluted groundwater. In 1987 145-acre dump was closed. In 1989 it was named a Superfund toxic site by the EPA.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A3)
1937 The Caldecott Tunnel opened with 2 bores under the Oakland-Berkeley Hills.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A21)
1937 In California Highway 70 opened along the Feather River Canyon.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.T9)
1937 In California the Devil’s Slide stretch of Highway 1 opened. A bypass tunnel opened in 2013.
(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)(SFC, 3/14/13, p.D2)
1937 The 1st Crosby golf tournament was played at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in San Diego County. This phase of the tournament lasted to 1942.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, DB p.37)
1937 Gibbs Field opened in San Diego, Ca. On May 20, 1950, it was formally re-dedicated as Montgomery Field in honor of John Montgomery, the man who made the first controlled flight in a fixed wing craft (1883).
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1937 The state Legislature named the native redwood as the State Tree of California. In 1951 the coastal Sequoia sempervirens and the Sierra Sequoia gigantea were said to both qualify as the state tree.
(SFC, 10/26/01, WB p.7)
1937 California’s San Quentin Prison opened its gas chamber for executions and hanging ceased at Folsom Prison.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1937 The first McDonald’s opened in Pasadena, Ca. [see 1955]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1937 Jack and Teresa Harris founded their original Harris Ranch near Coalinga in the Central Valley of California. In 1987 they added the Inn with 88 rooms, which later expanded to 153 rooms. By 2006 the ranch had become a corporate operation covering 18,000 acres.
(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.G10)
1937 Rollin P. Eckis (d.1999 at 94), geologist, discovered the Kern County oil field near Bakersfield, Ca.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)
1938 Mar 2, Landslides and floods cause over 200 deaths in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1938 Mar 7, California’s San Quentin prison received a new lethal gas chamber to supplant its gallows.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.42)
1938 Apr 7, [Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr, (Gov-D-Cal, Mayor of Oakland), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1938 Aug 15, Maxine Waters, congresswoman from California, second African-American woman to be elected to congress, was born.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1938 Sep 16, Cal Gov. Frank Merriam rode a ceremonial test Key Route train across the Bay Bridge.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.S25)
1938 Nov, The "Ham and Eggs" plan to give every older Californian a pension was defeated in the general election by a narrow margin.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.5)
1938 Dec 2, Albert Kessel (29) and Robert Lee Cannon (30) became the first two people to die in California’s new gas chamber at San Quentin. Kessel and Cannon (30) were convicted of the 1937 murder of Folsom Prison Warden Clarence Larkin. Four other inmates were also executed in connection with this murder, three within two weeks.
(www.corr.ca.gov/CommunicationsOffice/CapitalPunishment/key_events.asp)(SSFC, 12/1/13, DB p.46)
1938 The Aero Theater in Santa Monica, Ca., was built by aviation impresario Donald Douglas. It was renovated and reopened in 2005.
(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.D8)
1938 The Mission Reds ball team left Seal Stadium in SF to become the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1938 The Del Mar Race Track held a $25,000 winner-take-all race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti, a South American import. Seabiscuit won by a nose.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A17)
1938 The village of Palm Springs was incorporated.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.34)
1938 The city council of Pacific Grove enacted a law protecting the Monarch butterflies that annually visit the city.
(SFEC,12/21/97, p.T6)
1938 Ernest Batchelder founded a 2nd tile works, the Kinneloa Kiln, that used native California clay.
(SFC, 9/9/98, Z1 p.3)
1938 Culbert Olson, state senator from Los Angeles, was elected governor.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A8)
1938 Georges de Latour, owner of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., hired French-trained enologist Andre Tchelistcheff to oversee the maturation of his Private Reserve.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1938 William Hewlett, as a student at Stanford, built a prototype for an audio oscillator. It measured sound and was the first product of the Hewlett Packard Co. and was used in the Disney film "Fantasia."
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.C3)
1938-1944 Eugene O’Neill, playwright, lived at the Tao House in Danville with his 3rd wife Carlotta Monterey. Carlotta was Miss California in 1907.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.1)
1939 Jan 7, Tom Mooney (1882-1942), California imprisoned labor leader, was pardoned by newly elected Democratic Governor Culbert Olson (1876-1962). Mooney had been convicted and imprisoned for over 22 years for the SF Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916.
{Labor, SF, USA, California}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney)(www.atheists.org/Atheism/roots/olson/)
1939 Oct 19, Benita Valente, soprano (Pamina-Die Zauberflote), was born in Delano Calif.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1939 Nov 16, Al Capone was freed from Alcatraz.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1939 The Errol Flynn film "Adventures of Robin Hood" was filmed in Bidwell Park, Chico, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.T5)
1939 Frank Fat (d.1997 at 92) bought his steakhouse restaurant at 806 L St. in Sacramento. The former skid-row speakeasy became a favored meeting place for state politicians.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.T7)
1939 The attorney general of California ruled that dog racing was illegal.
(GTP, 1973, p.112)
1939 Los Angeles banned pinball machines after they became considered devices for gambling. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of California in 1974. Pinball was banned beginning in the early 1940s until 1976 in NYC.
(SFC, 6/20/14, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball)
1939 Foster Farms was begun on an 80-acre ranch near Modesto by Verda and Max Foster. Its poultry business grew to become a $1 billion operation.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A31)
1939 The California state Division of Fish and Game, concerned about dead fish near Redding, launched a study and found a creek downstream from Iron Mountain getting 2,876 pounds of copper a day. The state told mine operators to reduce metals and acid drainage.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A15)
1939 Apricot pickers in Contra Costa county earned 25 per hour.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)
1939-1943 Earl Warren served as the attorney general of California.
(SFEC, 12/19/99, Z1 p.5)
1939-1996 John Register, California realist painter. His work included: "Waiting Room" (1982), "Desert Restaurant" (1986), and "Mojave Bus Station" (1978).
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.D1)
1939-1971 California maintained a Senate fact-finding subcommittee on Un-American Activities. Files on some 20,000 Californians were declared still closed to the public in 1998.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.A20)
1940 Mar 26, In California 9 homeless people, including two women, were killed after the elevated floor of a warehouse collapsed in Santa Rosa. Eight of the3 dead were Pomo Indians known in the area as fruit pickers and odd jib laborers.
(SSFC, 3/22/15, DB p.42)
1940 Jul 23, Don Imus, later radio personality, was born in Riverside, Ca.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, Par p.22)
1940 Oct 17, California Gov. Culbert Olson commuted the prison sentence of Warren K. Billings, who spent 23 years in prison for his alleged role in the July 22, 1916, Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, DB p.42)
1940 Dec 30, In California the Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, officially opened as the first freeway in the Western US.
(AP, 12/30/97)(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A18)
1940 The photography book "California and the West" was written by Charis Wilson with photos by Edward Weston. It was the first really successful book of photographic reproductions.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.7)
1940 John Steinbeck journeyed aboard the Western Flyer, a chartered 76-foot sardine boat, to the Sea of Cortez. He traveled with his wife and Edward "Doc" Ricketts, a marine biologist, who wrote "Between Pacific Tides," a classic field guide to the Pacific Coast intertidal zone. Steinbeck’s "Log from the Sea of Cortez" was published in (1951).
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T8)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.6)(SFC, 2/7/13, p.D5)
1940 The Prado Dam opened 50 miles southeast of LA. Heavy rain in 2005 caused seepage.
(SSFC, 1/16/05, p.A7)
1940 Ronald Reagan married actress Jane Wyman (26).
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A14)
1940 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1940 Madeleine Haas Russell (d.1999 at 84) founded the Columbia Foundation, dedicated to environmental, cultural and social causes.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A19)
1940 Gov. Earl Warren of California signed a $2 million appropriation for Moffitt Hospital, a teaching facility in San Francisco. It was completed 16 years later at a cost of $24 million. [Note: Warren was attorney general at this time and was elected governor in 1942].
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1940 Roger Traynor was appointed to the state Supreme Court.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1940 The Los Angeles city council blocked games of professional women’s football. The LA team went to Mexico and played before a filled stadium.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.D13)
1940 Georges de Latour, owner of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., died. BV Burgundy was renamed by his wife and released as Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, California’s first private reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1940 Walnut Creek had 1,578 residents.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1940s In Los Angeles adolescent Mexican-Americans known as los pachucos established the zoot suit dress style. The War Production Board outlawed the zoot suit. The "Sleepy Lagoon Murder" of several Americans of Mexican descent led to the Zoot Suit Riots where American sailors stripped and beat zoot suiters as white LA police stood by. Luis Valdez later authored the play "Zoot Suit."
(WSJ, 7/111/00, p.A24)
1940s The Henry Bergh troop carrier ran aground near the Farallones.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1940-1949 During the 1940s the Associated Sportsmen of California repeatedly warned of damage to the salmon population near Redding and urged the government to release water from Shasta Lake to dilute the poisons from Iron Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 8/29/10, p.A15)
1941 Feb 26, Cowboys' Amateur Association of America was organized in California.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Apr 20, Ryan O'Neal, actor (Peyton Place, Paper Moon, was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1941 May 6, Bob Hope (b. May 29, 1903) began broadcasting his first USO radio show from March Field at Riverside, CA.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.D5)(HN, 5/6/98)
1941 May 12, Anthony Newman, harpsichordist, organist (Bhajeb), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1941 Oct 2, Gilbert Gable, mayor of Port Orford, Ore., announced with some pals that they were fed up of being neglected by legislators in Salem and Sacramento and began promoting a 51st state named Jefferson with Yreka as the capital.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A26)(AH, 2/05, p.20)
1941 Nov 27, Jefferson seceded from Oregon and California. Jefferson was the winning name for a new state made of California’s northern Siskiyou, Del Norte and Trinity counties along with Oregon’s southern Curray County. California’s Gov. Culbert L. Olson was soon informed that until roads were repaired, Jefferson would be forced to rebel every Thursday. In 2008 calls for a Jefferson state gained steam and included an additional 5 counties in southern Oregon and 2 more in northern California.
(AH, 2/05, p.21)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A11)
1941 Dec 4, In Yreka, Ca., the new state of Jefferson elected John C. Childs (71) as its 1st governor.
(AH, 2/05, p.22)
1941 Dec 8, A US tanker was shelled by a Japanese submarine off Cape Mendocino.
(Ind, 1/27/00, 5A)(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1941 Dec 18 - 1941 Dec 24, Japanese submarines attacked eight US merchant ships off the West Coast sinking two and damaging two others. Seven of the attacks were inside California coastal waters.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)(SFC, 12/7/13, p.C4)
1941 Dec 23, The 440-foot tanker Montebello was sunk off the California coast near Cambria by Japanese submarine I-21. The crew of 38 survived. In 1996 it was found that the 4.1 million gallon cargo of crude oil appeared intact.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A19)(SFC, 8/27/10, p.A12)
1941 The film "Sea Wolf" premiered in Sonoma, Ca. It starred Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, Alice Talton, Edward G. Robinson, and John Garfield.
(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.7)
1941 The California Institution for Men opened in Chino, San Bernadino County.
(SFC, 1/14/18, p.A6)
1941 The Berelson Co. under William E. Berelson (d.1997 at 90) initiated the commercial freezing of strawberries in Cal.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A26)
1941 Tower Records was founded in Sacramento, Ca., by Russ Solomon in his father’s Tower Cut-Rate Drugs store. In 1987 the company went bankrupt and closed after 46 years of operation.
(SFC, 8/3/13, p.E1)
1941 The first diversions of water from Mono Lake began. Los Angeles began diverting water from 4 of the 5 streams that feed Mono Lake.
(NH, 9/96, p.62)(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.39)
1941-1942 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1941-1943 In the US the government classified some 600,000 residents of Italian descent as enemy aliens. In Pittsburg, California, some 2,000 of 7,000 residents were forced to move.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C13)
1942 Jan, A Japanese submarine rammed a US merchant ship 30 miles off the Golden Gate.
(Ind, 1/27/00, 5A)
1942 Feb 2, A Los Angeles Times column urged security measures against Japanese-Americans, arguing that a Japanese-American "almost inevitably... grows up to be a Japanese, not an American."
(AP, 2/2/99)
1942 Feb 17, Sidney Newsom (b.1877), California architect, died. He and his brother Noble created homes that recalled Spanish haciendas, English cottages, French chateaus and American colonial homesteads.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F1)(https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/1794/)
1942 Feb 23, A Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery at Ellwood, near Santa Barbara, Calif., the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1942 Mar 23, During World War II, the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to detention centers.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1942 Mar 24, Western Defense Commander Lt. Gen. John L. De Witt proclaimed a rigid curfew restricting movement of all enemy aliens and American Japanese in West Coast military zones effective March 27.
(SSFC, 3/19/17, DB p.50)
1942 May 3, Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was issued by Lt. Gen’l. John DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF Presidio. It called for the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles effective May 9. Some 110,000-112,000 Japanese-Americans were settled in 10 relocation camps, the first of which was in Manzanar in Owens Valley, Ca. In the Bay Area most Japanese-Americans were sent to the Tanforan racetrack where they were put up in stables and later relocated to Topaz, Utah. Soon after, the War Relocation Authority hired Dorothea Lange, a photographer already well-known for her striking Depression-era photos of migrant workers, to document the internment process. Lange's poignant photos reflected her disagreement with government policy and brought her into conflict with her employers.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)(HNPD, 4/24/99)
1942 Aug 20, The California department of the American Legion urged that all Japanese or persons of Japanese ancestry be denied citizenship, and that all those now in the US be placed in concentration camps and deported after the war.
(SSFC, 3/20/17, DB p.54)
1942 Apr 27, The 1st convoys of Japanese detainees arrived at the Tanforan detention center. The assembly center remained in operation for 169 days after which detainees were transferred to relocation camps. Most of the Tanforan detainees were transferred to Abraham, Utah.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1942 cAug 1, Jose Diaz, a young Mexican national, was killed in southern Ca. His death was associated with a brawl between the Downey Boys and the 38th Street gang. 24 young men from the 38th Street neighborhood were indicted in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and a dozen men served 21 months in prison before their convictions were overturned. The vent formed the basis for a play by Luis Valdez and the film "Zoot Suit."
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.C5)
1942 Sep 1, A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.
(AP, 9/1/97)
1942 Sep, Japanese detainees from the California assembly center at Tanforan race track began their transfer to Abraham, Utah, 140 miles south of SLC.
(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
1942 Nov 18, An AT-7 Beechcraft military training plane crashed in the Mendel Glacier in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. The 4-member training flight left Mather Field in Sacramento, Ca., and was never heard from again. On Sep 24, 1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings Canyon. On Oct 16, 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as Leo M. Mustonen (22) of Brainerd, Minn. The others were John M. Mortenson (25) of Moscow, Idaho, William R. Gamber (23) of Fayette, Ohio, and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A 2nd body was found under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn.
(SFC, 10/20/05, p.A14)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.B2)(SFC, 11/12/05, p.A1)(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A4)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B2)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.B2)
1942 Warren Goodrich (d.2002 at 88), SF Chronicle artist, created the "Little Man" icon for use in reviews. The original 4 little men sat snoozing, staring, smiling and clapping. An empty chair was later added.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A32)
1942 The Silent Movie Showcase was opened in Los Angeles by John Hampton and Dorothy Hampton. It closed in 1979 and was re-opened by Laurence Austin in 1991. It closed again on Jan 17, 1997 when Austin was shot dead and the cashier seriously wounded. A 19-year-old gunman was later caught and identified James Van Sickle, the projectionist and Austin's live-in lover, as the instigator and insurance beneficiary for $1 million.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.C11)(SFC, 11/5/99, p.C5)
1942 Earl Warren was elected governor. A 1997 biography was written by Ed Cray: "Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren."
(SFEC, 6/8/97, BR p.1)
1942 Ulysses S. Webb, California's former Attorney Gen'l. (1902-1939), argued on behalf of the Native Sons of the Golden West that Americans of Japanese descent were not entitled to birthright citizenship because the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were created "by and for white people." The suit failed and the Supreme Court denied to hear an appeal in 1943.
(SFC, 1/2/19, p.A6)
1942 Thousands of Mexican arrive in the Bay Area to work on agricultural and railroad jobs under the Bracero Program.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1942 California purchased the site of gold discovery and much of the town of Coloma from Pearley Monroe, whose grandmother had crossed the plains as a slave by wagon.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T3)
1942 Fred Korematsu (1919-2005) challenged the exclusion orders following his arrest for refusal to go to an internment camp. In 1944 the US Supreme Court upheld the conviction. His conviction was later overturned.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.B7)
1942 Max Friedman opened The Marin Town and Country Club on property purchased from the Emporium in 1940.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1942 Construction began on the new Friant Dam near Fresno, Ca. Completion of the dam in 1944 ended the salmon run on the San Joaquin River. Legislation in 2008 hoped to restore the river’s salmon run.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B1)
1942 The first Hewlett Packard factory was built in Silicon Valley.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.C3)
1942-1945 The Manzanar Internment Camp in Inyo County was one of ten that held some 120,000 Japanese-Americans during this period. The Tule Lake Segregation Camp was another. In 1999 Marnie Mueller, born in the Tule Lake camp, published the novel "The Climate of the Country," set at Tule Lake in this time. In 2000 Lawson Fusao Inada edited "Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese-American Internment Experience." In 2000 Kimi Kodani Hill edited "Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment."
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.5)(SFEC, 10/1/00, BR p.5)
1943 Jun 4, Race riots took place in LA.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1943 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1943 Maxine Reams (d.1997 at 79) became the first female staff photographer for the LA Times.
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.A23)
1943 In California Cesare Mondavi purchased the Charles Krug winery in Napa Valley and began making wine with his sons Robert and Peter. Robert Mondavi (1913-2008) persuaded his parents to buy Charles Krug Winery. Robert became the salesman and his brother Peter the winemaker.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A7)
1943 The US Kooskia Internment Camp for people of Japanese ancestry opened in northern Idaho. It operated until the end of WWII and held more than 250 detainees. Similar camps included Manzanar in California, Heart Mountain in Wyoming and Minidoka in Idaho.
(SFC, 7/27/13, p.A7)
1944 Feb 24, Barry Bostwick, actor (Rocky Horror Show, Megaforce), was born in San Mateo, Ca.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1944 May 14, George Lucas, writer and director, was born in Modesto, Ca. He is best remembered for his Star Wars trilogy.
(HN, 5/14/99)(MC, 5/14/02)
1944 May 30, In southern California four US Navy fliers were killed when a fighter plane collided with a bomber during training exercises over Palomar Mountain in San Diego.
(SFC, 5/28/18, p.C3)
1944 May-Jun, At the US Military Interrogation Center at Byron Hot Springs Hotel in Stockton, Ca., German seaman Otto Stengel, suffering under acute appendicitis, revealed the names of 6 fellow seaman (ages 22-26) who participated in the murder of Vernard Drechsler, a fellow seaman turned spy.
(HC, 1/29/98)
1944 Jun 11, James "Ox" D A Van Hoften, astronaut (STS 41C, STS 51I), was born in Fresno, Calif.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1944 Jul 17, An explosion at Port Chicago, now the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Ca., killed 320 seamen when a pair of ammunition ships exploded. 10,000 tons of ammunition exploded. 202 of the victims were black enlisted men. The Navy court-martialed 50 black sailors for refusing to go back to work after the catastrophe. They were released from prison in 1946 with dishonorable discharges and reductions in rank. The story was later described by Robert Allen in his 1989 "The Port Chicago Mutiny." In 1999 Pres. Clinton issued a pardon to Freddie Meeks, one of the last living convicted African American sailors.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.3)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A15)(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/6/05, Par p.6)
1944 Sep 1, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1944 Aug 9, 258 black American sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions ship following the Jul 17 explosion of another ship that killed 320 men, two-thirds of them black. The sailors were court-martialed, fined and imprisoned for their refusal.
(AP, 8/9/04)
1944 Dec 8, American Olivia De Havilland won a California court of Appeal victory against Warner Bros. She had sued the studio using a California law, which limited the right of an employer to enforce a contract against an employee for more than seven years.
(www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968723)
1944 Dec 17, The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1944 Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917-2007), California poet, authored “Poetic Reflections of the Tule Lake Internment Camp." She was interned from 1942-1946.
(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B5)
1944 Linda Stirling (d.1997) was signed by Republic Pictures to make serial pictures that included "The Tiger Woman" and "Zorro’s Black Whip." She appeared in some 2 dozen Westerns and feature films that included "The Cherokee Flash," "The Sheriff of Cimarron," "Topeka Terror," "The Mysterious Mr. Valentine," "The Invisible Informer," "The San Antonio Kid" and Vigilantes of Dodge City." After her film career she taught English literature at Glendale College for 27 years.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A15)
1944 The 319-foot Friant Dam was completed in Fresno County. It flooded the town of Millerton and backed up 520,000 acre-feet of the San Joaquin River. The old Millerton Courthouse (1866-1874), was dismantled and moved to Mariner Point overlooking the lake.
(SSFC, 11/28/04, p.F8)
1944 California Indians were awarded $17 million that was promised in treaties nearly a century earlier. $12 million was deducted for goods and services already given.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1944 The Newport Balboa Press was purchased by Ben Reddick and another reporter. Reddick assumed full ownership in 1947 and expanded the business into what became the Newport Harbor News Press.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A20)
1944 Norman Chandler, the son of Harry Chandler, officially took over as publisher of the LA Times.
(WSJ, 6/14/01, p.A18)
1944 Dr. Curtis Springer founded Zzyxx Mineral Springs and Health Resort in Soda Springs in the Mohave Desert. He recruited workers from Skid Row in Los Angeles and built a 60-room hotel with a cross-shaped pool on his Boulevard of Dreams. He broadcast religious and health messages until 1974, when tax authorities closed him down for tax evasion.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.T6)
1944 A 186-acre ranch at Pacific Palisades was donated to the state by the family of Will Rogers (d.1935). It became the Will Rogers State Historic Park. Later a large portion of maintenance funds were used for a horse-boarding operation geared to the rich.
(WSJ, 9/6/01, p.A1)
1944 The first US viral diagnostic laboratory was established in Berkeley.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A2)
1944 California state officials blamed the pollution from Iron Mountain, near Redding, for killing a third of the salmon run before they could spawn.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1944 Vintner Samuele Sebastiani died.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.CA1)
1944-1946 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1945 Jan 2, The California Supreme Court ruled that demands by the Boilermakers' union of Marinship for blacks to join auxiliaries without full union privileges was "discriminatory and unequal." The case of James vs. Marinship was led by Joseph James, a welder and leader of the San Francisco Committee Against Segregation and Discrimination.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.B4)
1945 Feb 9, [Maria] Mia Farrow, actress (Rosemary's Baby, Purple Rose of Cairo, was born in LA.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1945 Feb 11, The 1st gas turbine propeller-driven airplane was flight tested, at Downey, Ca.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1945 May 28, In California the engine of Helldiver aircraft from an aircraft carrier failed and the pilot ditched the plane in a San Diego reservoir. The pilot and gunner swam to shore. In 2009 fisherman spotted the plane and set in process plans to retrieve the plane.
(SFC, 5/28/10, p.C3)
1945 Jul 15, Gov. Earl Warren signed a bill that made Columbia, the gold rush town in Tuolumne County, a state historic park. Warren made Columbia the state’s capital for one day.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5,11)(CVG, Vol 16, p.33)
1945 Nov 21, The last residents of the US Japanese-American internment left their camps.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)
1945 In California the Zamorano Club published “The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club." The criterion for inclusion was that a selection above all should be distinguished, and that rarity and importance would be secondary. The Club printed 500 copies and gave a copy to each member at its June 6, 1945 meeting. On June 8, Dawson’s Book Shop bought 300 of the remaining copies. In all, the Club had spent $1,699.93 to present this book to the world.
(www.zamoranoclubla.org/zam80/)
1945 Cabot Yerxa opened "Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in California's Coachella Valley. He operated it with his wife, Portia, until his death in 1965. Upon his death Portia returned to her native Texas and the structure was abandoned. Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized. Eyraud and his family purchased the complex, restoring it and later donating it to the City of Desert Hot Springs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabot%27s_Pueblo_Museum)
1945 Brainerd Jones (1869), Petaluma architect, died.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.F4)
1945 Ella Jorgensen, Tomales photographer, died.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.C6)
1945-1966 Frederick Terman served as the provost of Stanford Univ.
(SFEC,11/2/97, BR p.6)
1945-1970 Some 47,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste, from US government research programs, was dumped near the northern California Farallon Islands.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1946 Jan 5, Diane Keaton, actress (Annie Hall, Little Drummer Girl), was born in LA.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1946 Mar 20, The Tule Lake Segregation Camp in northern California was closed. It had housed Japanese internees who refused to swear a loyalty oath to the US or who caused disruptions at other camps.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.B2)
1946 Jul 4, Michael Milken, partner (Intl Capital Access Group), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Nov 10, Baldassare Forestiere, creator of the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, Ca., died in Fresno.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D11)(www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html)
1946 Nov, Richard Nixon (33) was elected the Republican Congressman from the 12th District.
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A16)
1946 Dec 3, The Oakland General Strike shut down the city for 2 days when 2 large department stores resisted a unionized workforce.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Parade p.6)
1946 Dec 25, W.C. Fields, comic actor, died in Pasadena, Calif., at age 66.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.56)(AP, 12/25/97)
1946 Carey McWilliams authored “Southern California: An Island on the Land." It contained a chapter about the Los Angeles water scandal from the turn of the century, which in 1971 helped inspire Robert Town to write the screenplay for “Chinatown" (1974).
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.E2)
1946 Mine Okubo authored "Citizen 13660," an illustrated account of her experiences at Japanese internment camps in California and Utah.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A24)
1946 The Claremont Men’s College was founded in southern California by Donald C. McKenna (d.1997 at 90) and others for returning veterans with an emphasis on business and public affairs. The college began admitting women in 1981. George C.S. Benson (d.1999 at 91) was the first president of the school. The name was changed to Claremont McKenna College in 1981.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B8)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1946 Helen Cahagan Douglas beat Frederick Madison Roberts for representation of the 14th Congressional District.
(SFEC, 1/16/00, p.C6)
1946 A US district court case in Orange County, Ca., Mendez vs. Westminster, ruled that race-based housing restrictions were illegal. State law had allowed segregation against Mexican Americans. Restrictions after WW I had confined blacks in LA to the south and east sides creating near-ghettos in areas such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. The Mendez case was upheld on April 14, 1947, and was used to support the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.29)(SFC, 5/9/07, p.A15)
1946 The first African American switchboard operator was hired by Pacific Telephone.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A18)
1946 David Barham (1913-1991) founded Hot Dog on a Stick at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, Ca.
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barham)
1946-1949 The arroyo at the Westwood UCLA campus was filled in and essentially hid the 1927 Romanesque bridge that crossed it.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1946-1952 Richard Nixon served in the US Congress as Congressman and Senator from California. In 1999 Irwin F. Gellman published "The Contender: Richard Nixon, The Congress Years, 1946-1952."
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A16)
1946-1992 Charles Hillinger worked for the Los Angeles Times. He was assigned as a roving reporter in the early 50s and by 1969 expanded to a world beat. His 1998 "Hillinger’s California: All 58 Counties" was one of 2 books compiled from his 6,000 plus columns.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D1,8)
1947 Jan 15, A grisly, still-unsolved murder case came to light in Los Angeles as the mutilated remains of 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, known as the "Black Dahlia" for the dark outfits she wore, were found dumped in a vacant lot. Her body was severed at the waist, drained of blood and fully posed in a vacant lot. The Black Dahlia murder case remained unsolved even though 500 hundred men confessed to the murder. In 1977 John Gregory Dunne authored "True Confessions," a novel based on the case. In 1987 James Ellroy authored "The Black Dahlia." In 2003 Steve Hodel authored "Black Dahlia Avenger," in which he held that the killer was Dr. George Hodel, his own father.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C16)(AP, 1/15/01)(NW, 4/21/03, p.59)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D1)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.B7)
1947 Apr, Frank Sinatra in Palm Springs slugged columnist Lee Mortimer, who had written stories linking the singer to the Mafia.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C5)
1947 May 25, Karen Valentine, actress (Love American Style, Room 222), was born in Santa Rosa, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1947 Jun 10, California Gov. Earl Warren signed a measure that gave each county the authority to regulate its own air pollution. This was America’s first statewide air protection law.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A10)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
1947 Jun 19, The first plane (F-80) to exceed 600 mph (1004 kph) was flown by Albert Boyd in Muroc, California.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1947 Jun 20, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (b.1906) was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of Siegel’s pet project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, Nev. Siegel was known as one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day". Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters. He was also a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish mob but, like his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, he also held significant influence within the American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.
(AP, 6/20/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel)
1947 Jul 4, "Wino Willie" Forkner (d.1997) led his South Central LA Boozefighters motorcyclists to Hollister for a weekend of beer-drenched fun. They were all veterans of WW II. He was said to have been the model for Marlon Brando in the film "The Wild One." 3,000 motorcyclists spilled over into Hollister from a nearby racetrack. [see Jul 7]
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A1)
1947 Jul 7, A made-up photo in Life magazine featured a biker in Hollister, Ca. In 1997 bikers returned to Hollister for a 50-year anniversary and began an annual tradition. [see Jul 4]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A18)
1947 Aug 23, An audience at the Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her first public concert as a singer.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1947 Aug 25, Marion Carl, Navy test pilot, set a world speed record of 651 mph at Muroc Field (later Edwards AFB), Ca. He was shot to death in Oregon by a house robber in 1998 at age 82.
(SFC, 6/30/98, p.A3)
1947 Nov 19, A 200" mirror arrived at Mt. Palomar observatory.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1947 A summer music festival was begun in Ojai.
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1947 California’s racial laws were abolished. Gov. Earl Warren signed legislation that ended “separate-but-equal" school segregation.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.E5)
1947 June D. Schnacke (d.2000 at 80) was appointed as the state’s first woman district attorney by the Santa Cruz County Board.
(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A24)
1947 Sacramento took over local electric services.
(SFC, 2/12/01, p.A17)
1947 The secretive 2,849-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory was established in southern California to test liquid propellants for rocket engines. In 1959 a nuclear power plant on the site experienced the first partial nuclear meltdown in the US. Boeing acquired most of the site in 1996 with its acquisition of Rocketdyne. The site included the Burro Flats Painted Cave, which in 1976 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Chumash Indians considered the cave to be sacred.
(SFC, 11/7/12, p.C3)
1947 California founded a state forest system with sustained yield as a goal. The Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection assumed responsibility for a cutover area near Fort Bragg that became the Jackson Demonstration Forest.
(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A27)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.E3)
1947 Prisoners at the Folsom Prison began producing license plates.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A24)
1947 Bert J. Brock of Ohio bought a pottery manufacturing plant in Lawndale, LA County, and incorporated it as B.J. Brock and Co. The firm, which produced high quality tableware and ovenware care Brock Ware, closed doors around 1955.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G5)
1947 Herbert Magidson (d.1977) and his wife Shirley Magidson (1925-2008), industrial designers from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology, moved to Los Angeles and set up shop as Metric products Inc. They made wire axles for Mattel toys and later underwires for bras. From this they expanded to manufacturing molded cups for bras and swimsuits. Both were active in social affairs and supported numerous social causes.
(WSJ, 7/19/08, p.A5)
1947-1971 In southern California Montrose Chemical Co. manufactured DDT during this period and released about 2,000 tons of the pesticide into sewers that flowed to the ocean. In 2007 fish caught off Los Angeles County's coast still contained high levels of DDT, banned since 1972, decades after a manufacturer dumped tons of the pesticide into sewers, creating a toxic plume on the ocean bottom.
(AP, 1/28/07)
1948 Jan 28, A plane chartered by US Immigration Services left Oakland, Ca., carrying 32 people, including 28 Mexicans. Many were part of the bracero program and had finished their government-sponsored work contracts. 20 miles west of Coalinga an engine exploded, a wing broke off and more than 100 witnesses watched bodies and luggage thrown from the fireball. There were no survivors.
(http://tinyurl.com/ky6debf)0
1948 May 11, Edward Ricketts (Doc Ricketts, 51), marine biologist and friend of John Steinbeck, died in Monterey, Ca., after his car stalled on railroad tracks and was struck by a Del Monte Express. He authored "Between Pacific Tides."
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A21)
1948 Jun 3, The 200-inch reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated. The nearly 5.1 meter Hale telescope was operated by Caltech.
(AP, 6/3/97)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C14)
1948 Jun 9, Nathaniel Rosen, cellist (Tchaikovsky-gold-1978), was born in Altadena, Ca.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1948 Oct 1, The California Supreme Court in Perez v. Sharp voided a state statue banning interracial marriages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perez_v._Sharp)
1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman’s Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well as best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A Double Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer’s Daughter." The 20th event was held at the Shrine auditorium in LA.
(AP, 3/20/98)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D1)
1948 In Hollywood a building on Vine opened as the home of the Don Lee Mutual Broadcasting Co. In 2000 it was purchased by the Academy of Motion Pictures for $20 million and was renamed the Pickford Center. It then became the home of the Academy archives.
(SFC, 3/26/03, p.D8)
1948 Marilyn Monroe was proclaimed Artichoke Queen in Salinas when she visited for a diamond promotion.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A23)
1948 Burt Baskin (1913-1967) and Irvine Robbins (1917-2008) combined their ice cream parlors in Glendale and Pomona, Ca., to form the Baskins-Robbins ice cream chain.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Baskin)
1948 Porfirio Delgado (d.1999 at age 85) and his brother Candelario founded Candelas Guitars in East Los Angeles.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A20)
1948 Richard (d.1998 at 89) and Maurice McDonald (d.1971) started the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants in San Bernadino, California. Ray Kroc purchased the chain in 1955.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A20)
1948 Henry (d.1976) and Esther (1920-2006) Snyder opened In-N-Out Burgers in Baldwin Park, LA County. They numbered 152 stores in 2001 as their 1st SF outlet opened. By 2006 the chain numbered 202 restaurants. In 2009 Stacy Perman authored “In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-The Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.D1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.B1)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/15/09, p.A13)
1949 Mar 25, UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul proposed a faculty loyalty oath. The Univ. of Calif. Board of Regents voted in April 1950 to require all employees to sign an loyalty oath.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949 Apr 15, The Berkeley radio station KPFA-FM began broadcasting over on a 550-watt surplus government transmitter. Lewis Hill made the first broadcast over the first listener-supported radio station in the US.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A21)
1949 Jul 4, Time Magazine issued a special on Los Angeles.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1949 Sep 27, HUAC held hearings on alleged communist infiltration of the Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949 Oct 7, In southern California aspiring actress Jean Spangler went missing. Her purse, with a torn handle and a cryptic note, was found two days later in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, but Spangler herself was never seen again.
(Entertainment Weekly, 1/22/21)
1949 Oct 21, Hal Wright (d.2000 at 96) put out the 1st issue of the Sierra Booster. It was published fortnightly at Loyalton. In the 1960s the paper was credited with initiating "Grandparent’s Day," set on the 2nd Sunday of September.
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.C2)
1949 Nov 8, Bonnie Raitt, country singer (Green Light, The Glow), was born in Burbank, Ca.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1949 Nov 24, Alexander C. Cushing (1914-2006) opened the Squaw Valley Development Company with his wife Justine Bayard Cushing (d.2003 at 85). The new Lake Tahoe area ski resort opened with a double chairlift and 2 rope tows.
(SFC, 8/21/06, p.B1)(www.squaw.com/winter/history_overview.html)
1949 Tom Waits, musician and actor, was born in Whittier. In 2001 Jay S. Jacobs authored "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits." Ruth Carol authored the biography "Tom Waits."
(SSFC, 4/15/01, BR p.7)
1949 Ross Macdonald (d.1983) authored his detective novel "The Moving Target." His character Lew Archer solved crimes in what everyone understood was Santa Barbara.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.1,6)
1949 Toshio Mori, a 1st generation Californian, authored his 1st novel: "Yokohama California." In 2001 His collection of stories, interviews and collected letters on life in California was reprinted as "Unfinished Message."
(SSFC, 2/4/01, BR p.8)
1949 The bookmobile "Parny" (named for the Greek god Parnassus) made its debut as part of the Los Angeles Public Library System.
(LAT, 9/29/97, p.B2)
1949 Fantasy Records was founded by Max and Sol Weiss and Saul Zaentz in Oakland, CA.
(SFEM, 3/23/97, p.28)
1949 The coastal Esplanade neighborhood of Pacifica, south of SF, was built. It immediately reported problems with erosion.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A17)
1949 Norman B. Livermore donated 40 acres to help start the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park that later stretched across over 5,000 acres of Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A12)
1949 In California the Los Padres dam began impounding water on the Carmel River.
(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.F7)
1949 The Pacific Electric Railway asked to convert 11 of its 17 street car routes in LA to buses.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1949 Mervin Morris opened the first Mervyns department store in San Lorenzo, Ca.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)
1949 Vernon C. Genn (1922-2006), founder of West Coast Engine and Equipment Co., pioneered the development of diesal engines to provide reliable cooling for refrigerated railroad cars.
(SFC, 5/3/06, p.B7)(www.history-magazine.com/refrig.html)
1949-1954 In Sacramento an annex was added to the Capitol and Capitol Park was reconfigured.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A10)
1949-1967 Clark Kerr covered this period of Univ. of California in a 2002 memoir titled "The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California 1949-1967, Vol. 1: Academic Triumphs." Kerr served as chancellor at Berkeley from 1952-1958, and as president of the UC system from 1958-1967.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.M6)
1950 Feb 6, Natalie Cole, vocalist (Pink Cadillac, Miss You Like Crazy, Mona Lisa), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1950 Feb 10, Mark Spitz, Modesto Calif, swimmer (Oly-9 gold/silver/bronze-68,72), was born.
(www.thisdaythatyear.com/feb/people10.htm)
1950 Mar 9, Space Patrol debuted as a local, 15-minute show that aired live five days a week in Los Angeles and ran to 1955. Norman Jolley (d.2002), evil Agent X, acted in the series and wrote scripts. Ed Kemmer (1921-2004) played Commander Buzz Corry. Joanne Jordan played the evil Queen Mirtha. It featured the voice of Dick Tufeld for its weekly introductions. In 2005 Jean-Noel Bassior authored “Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the name of Early Television."
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A27)(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)(SFC, 9/25/09, p.D10)(SFC, 1/30/12, p.C4)
1950 Apr, UC began to require a special loyalty oath from all employees. It was voted out Nov 17, 1951.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1950 Jun 30, The Napa Valley Vintner’s Association dedicated their "Welcome to Napa Valley" sign.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.5)
1950 Sep 26, The state legislature passed a bill requiring state employees to sign a loyalty oath.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1950 Franklin Walker authored "A Literary History of Southern California.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, BR p.4)
1950 The Mattachine Society, the first openly gay organization in the US, was founded in Los Angeles. Henry Hay (d.2002 at 90) was one of the original founders and won the 1999 vote to serve as grand marshal for the SF Pride Parade. In 1990 Stuart Timmons authored the biography "The Trouble with Harry Hay."
(SFEC, 6/13/99, DB p.35)(SFC, 10/25/02, p.A21)
1950 Colin Hampton (1911-1996) and Margaret Rowell founded the California Cello Club. He was a member of the 36-year-old Griller Quartet, renowned in England for playing noon concerts at the National Gallery while bombs were falling on London.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C4)
1950 In California the 240-foot earthen Anderson Dam was built to store water between Morgan Hill and San Jose. In 2008 it was learned that a 6.6 magnitude earthquake could cause it to collapse.
(SFC, 2/25/20, p.A8)
1950 California began keeping records on the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A1)
1950 Richard Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas for the US Senate. The race was documented in the 1998 book: "Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady" by Greg Mitchell.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.3)
1950 A.P. Hamann (Dutch Hamann) became the city manager of San Jose (population 95,000) and began an aggressive policy of annexing adjacent land.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1950 There were some 200 dairy farms in Marin County.
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.D1)
1950 Major floods hit northern California. In Modesto the Tuolumne River crested at 69 feet, 9 feet over flood level.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A1)
1950s In Santa Cruz Jack O’Neill began producing wet suits for surfers.
(CG, #205, 1991)
1950-1960 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1951 Apr 7, The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that the special loyalty oath of the Univ. of California is invalid. 18 professors were ordered reinstated.
(SFC, 4/6/01, Wba p.4)
1951 May 26, The UC Board of Regents voted to reinstate 18 professors who had refused to sign the anti-Communist loyalty affirmation.
(SFC, 5/25/01, WBb p.2)
1951 Jun 7, The fact-finding Burns committee led by California state Sen. Hugh M. Burns released a 291-page report that claimed UC had aided and abetted the int’l. communist conspiracy. UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul denied the charges.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1951 Jul 21, Some 9,000 telephone operators in Northern California went on strike including 5,000 at PT&T in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/20/01, WBb p.7)
1951 Aug 14, Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (b.1863) died in Beverly Hills, Calif. In 2000 David Nasaw authored "The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst." W.A. Swanberg was the author of the biography "Citizen Hearst." In 2002 Louis Pizzitola authored "Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion and Propaganda in the Movies." In 2009 Kenneth Wyle authored “The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/14/98)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W8)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.1)(SFC, 3/27/02, p.D5)(SSFC, 1/11/09, Books p.1)
1951 Nov 10, Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.
(AP, 11/10/97)
1951 Nov 15, Gov. Earl Warren declared himself a candidate for US president in 1952.
(SFC, 11/9/01, p.G3)
1951 Nov 17, The UC Board of Regents voted to drop the special loyalty oath required of all employees since April 1950.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1951 Dec 19, The State Toll Bridge Authority sold a new $21 million issue of revenue bonds and ensured that commuters would continue paying tolls on the Bay Bridge for 10 more years.
(SFC, 12/14/01, WB p.G8)
1951 William R. Bright (d.2003 at 81) founded Campus Crusade to spread Christianity to students at UCLA. By 2003 the organization had a staff of 26,000 with revenues of $374 million.
(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A19)
1951 California’s high court ruled in Stoumen vs. Reilly on behalf of San Francisco’s Black Cat café and against the Board of Equalizaiton declaring that gays were entitled to gather in public.
(SFC, 11/15/14, p.C2)
1951 The California state Legislature authorized what became the State Water Project and appropriated funds for detailed studies.
(CSWP, brochure)
1951 California lawmakers passed Public Utilities Code Section 583, which says the public can’t see documents obtained from regulated utilities unless the commission approves.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A21)
1951 The ship Independence, used in 1946 atomic bomb tests, was sunk near the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1951 Three US Coast Guardsmen were killed when their boat capsized after they left the St. George Reef Lighthouse near Crescent City, Ca.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A27)
1951-1966 PG&E released chromium into the environment of Hinkley in San Bernadino Ct. over this period. Residents suffered from numerous illnesses and were not informed until 1987. [see Brockovich 1993]
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A17)
1952 Jan, A harsh blizzard stranded the City of San Francisco train at Yuba Gap with 221 people aboard. Art Hoppe of the SF Chronicle filed an exclusive report.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.B10)
1952 Mar 4, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1952 Mar, California state Sen. Hugh M. Burns arranged for every California college to appoint a "contact man" to help his committee screen faculty.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1952 Apr 12, A telephone strike was settled in Michigan but continued in Northern California for a 5th day.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1952 Apr 17, The California Supreme Court ruled that Sei Fujii, a non-citizen issei, could purchase and own property in his own name. Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson, aided by Justices Edmonds, Carter, and Traynor, wrote the majority opinion. Justice Schauer, along with Justices Shend and Spence, wrote the dissenting opinion.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views4h81.htm)
1952 May 15, California’s Central Valley Regional Water Pollution Control Board issued resolution No. 127 barring entry of perchlorate and 8 other chemicals into local groundwater and the American River. Medical researchers soon published that perchlorate blocks the uptake of essential iodide into the thyroid. Aerojet Corp., a rocket fuel manufacturer, objected and continued untreated discharges.
(WSJ, 12/16/02, p.A9)
1952 May 18, Listener supported KPFA radio increased its radiating signal to 52,000 watts.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.G8)
1952 May 24, The AFL Sailor’s Union ordered a 3-day walkout to tie up the Pacific Coast shipping to help in wage demands.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.G8)
1952 Jul 21, A 7.7 earthquake destroyed the town of Tehachapi near Bakersfield.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.B10)
1952 Aug 3, Jay North, actor (Dennis the Menace, Maya), was born in North Hollywood, Calif.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1952 Aug 5, In LA, Ca., 14 Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the US government. 6 of the defendants were from SF, one was from Oakland.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.E4)
1952 Oct 18, The California state Supreme Court outlawed the UC special loyalty oath, but upheld the Levering Act, which imposed a loyalty pledge on all state, county and city employees.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.E2)
1952 Nov 19, The California Wine Institute reported shipments of 11 million gallons for September, a 22.71% increase over Sep, 1951.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.E2)
1952 Antone Martin (d.1961), sculptor, established Desert Christ Park sculpture garden in Yucca Valley, San Bernadino County, to display his concrete religious statues.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.D7)
1952 The film "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly was filmed in Columbia, Tuolumne County.
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)
1952 The first Mondavi visitor’s wine tasting room at Krug Winery in Napa Valley was converted from an old storage shed.
(SFEM, 10/25/98, p.44)
1952 In Monterey, Ca., the US Naval Postgraduate School, formerly in Annapolis, Md., moved onto the site of the former Hotel Del Monte.
(SSFC, 5/18/08, p.A15)
1952 The California constitution was scrubbed of anti-Chinese discrimination.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.28)
1952 A state hunting license cost $3.00. In 1996 it was $47.50.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.C9)
1952 In California Ernest O. Lawrence (1901-1958) founded what would later be known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.A18)
1952 The hospital ship Benevolence was dynamited by the military off Ocean Beach.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1952 A 7.7 earthquake destroyed the Kern County town of Tehachapi and killed 14 people.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
1953 Mar 19, The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time; "The Greatest Show on Earth" was named best picture of 1952. Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth won for best actor and actress.
(AP, 3/19/99)(MC, 3/19/02)
1953 May 18, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a North American F-86 Canadair over Rogers Dry Lake, Calif.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1953 May 25, Rich Alves, singer (Pirates of the Mississippi-Fred Jake), was born in Pleasanton, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 May 29, Danny Elfman, composer (Simpson Show Theme), was born in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1953 Jul 8, Neill Sheridan (31), a baseball player for the Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons, hit a home run against the SF Seals at Sacramento’s Edmond’s Field. The ball reportedly flew a record 613.8 feet.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.B1)
1953 Jul 14, The freighter Jacob Luckenbach from SF rammed the Matson freighter Hawaiian Pilot near Point Montara, 17 miles from the Golden Gate. The Luckenbach sank while the Hawaiian Pilot limped to SF. Oil leaked from the Luckenback later killed numerous birds. In 2002 a $3.5 million plan for cleanup was begun. A $19 million cleanup ended in Sep.
(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A15)(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A22)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A13)
1953 Sep 30, Pres. Eisenhower named California Gov. Earl Warren (62) Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Lt. Gov. Goodwin J. Knight succeeded Warren.
(MC, 9/30/01)(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E8)
1953 Oct 23, The State Supreme Court ruled against the SF Housing Authority in its attempt to continue segregating blacks, Chinese Americans and whites and its public housing projects.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
1953 Oct 29, A British airliner with 11 passengers and 8 crew crashed into Kings Mountain, 10 miles west of Redwood City, Ca., and all aboard were killed.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E10)
1953 Bud Browne (1912-2008), completed his first surf film, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies," in Santa Monica, Ca. He was later considered the father of surf films.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1953 The state Brown Act required that meetings of city councils, county supervisors, schools districts and other local agencies be open to the public.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1953 A California state law called for a loyalty declaration for organizations seeking property tax exemption. In 1955 a Superior Court in Alameda, Ca., upheld the right of a church to refuse to sign the loyalty declaration.
(SFC, 8/19/05, p.F5)
1953 The California Legislature rewrote a 1919 wage law to require overtime pay for women and minors who work extra days or hours.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.D3)
1953 WD-40 was created by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. The company sold the product to coat missiles and prevent rust. Consumers later discovered its use as a lubricant. In 1969 John Barry (1925-2000) became head of the company and soon renamed the firm after the product.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.8)(SFC, 7/22/09, p.D5)
1953 The Khapra beetle, one of the world's most tenacious and destructive stored-produce pests, first invaded California. It originated in South Asia. The California infestation was not eradicated until 1966, at a cost of $15 million.
(http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/beetles/khapra_beetle.htm)
1953 Mabel Monahan, wealthy Burbank widow, was murdered. Barbara Graham, John Santo and Emmett Perkins were convicted later for her murder. They were executed at San Quentin in 1955.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F9)(SFC, 6/3/05, p.F2)
1953-1958 Harold J. "Butch" Powers (1900-1996) was lieutenant governor. He had served as a US senator from 1934-1953.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1953-1965 Assemblyman Ed Gaffney was the last card-carrying union member to hold office in Sacramento. Before OSHA he guided most every law on industrial safety to the governor’s desk.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, EM p.19)
1953-1969 Keith Elkins Klinger (d.1998 at 87) headed the LA County fire department. He worked with Bell labs to help develop the 911 system as a member of Pres. Nixon’s Fire Commission. Under his tenure fire trucks increased from 80 to 113.
(SFC, 3/8/98, p.C5)
1953-1973 Sascha Brastoff (1918-1993) designed ceramics, plastics and decorative accessories and enamels on copper in West Los Angeles during this period. His firm was called Sascha Brastoff of California, Inc.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
1954 Jan 5, Walter Edward Scott (b.1872), Death Valley con man, died. He was supported for much of his life by millionaire Albert Johnson (d.1948).
(ON, 3/04, p.8)( http://mojavedesert.net/walter-scott/)
1954 Jan 26, Ground breaking began on Disneyland.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1954 May 2, Walt Disney and associates announced plans to build a $9 million Disneyland on a 160-acre tract, once part of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana, in Orange County.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.F5)
1954 May 14, The US military unveiled a Nike guided missile at the SF Presidio. Plans were to ring 13 critical areas in the US with such missiles.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1954 Sep 11, The Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC; Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner.
(AP, 9/11/97)
1954 Oct 31, Harry Lunderberg’s AFL Sailors refused to report to work to unload freighters at a number of West Coast ports.
(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1954 Dec 5, A 25-day strike by 70 locomotive engineers on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad’s 276-mile run from Tiburon to Eureka ended.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1954 In San Diego, Ca., a 43-foot cross was erected on Mount Soledad. In 2011 the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it violated the First Amendment. Proponents said it was built to honor military veterans. In 2013 a federal judge ordered the cross to be removed.
(SFC, 12/13/13, p.A20)
1954 Bartender Larry J. Cano (1924-2014) took over an old Polynesian restaurant in southern California’s San Fernando Valley and created a sit-down Mexican restaurant named El Torrito. By 1978 he was operating 22 locations and sold the chain to W.R. Grace, but continued for a decade as president.
(SFC, 12/18/14, p.D3)
1954 In southern California Sabato "Simon" Rodia, Italian immigrant and cement finisher, completed his Watts Towers project, begun in 1921, and deeded the property to a neighbor. Ownership eventually passed to the state. The property was closed in 1994 due to Northridge earthquake and reopened in 2001.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A24)
1954 Harold Powers was elected lieut. Governor of California.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1954 Sherwood Johnson (d.1998 at 73) opened the first pizza parlor in Sacramento. It grew into the int’l. chain known as Shakey’s.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1954 In northern California a catastrophic flood this winter caused the levees to fail at Bull Island on the Napa River where grain and potatoes had been raised.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A13)
1954 California’s Highway 101 freeway opened at Mission San Miguel.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1955 Jan 18, Kevin Costner, actor (Dances With Wolves), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1955 Mar 4, The State of California banned publication of any books or articles by inmates of San Quentin’s Death Row.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 Mar 6, A US Atomic Energy Spokesman said a cloud from the atomic blast at Nevada’s Yucca Flat passed over the Central California coastline.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 Apr 28, Stephanie Bryan (14) failed to return home from school at Willard Jr. High in Berkeley, Ca. She was allegedly kidnapped by Burton Abbott, a married accounting student at Cal. Abbott was convicted and executed at San Quentin in 1957 just minutes before Gov. Knight called for a stay. In 1995 Keith Walker authored “A Trail of Corn," covering the case. [see Jul 20]
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.A2)
1955 Jul 8, Gov. Goodwin Knight signed legislation creating a 6-county SF Bay Smog Control District.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F6)
1955 Jul 9, Gov. Goodwin Knight vetoed an omnibus park and recreation bill. This prompted Santa Cruz Lumber Co. to begin intensive logging operations in the Butano forest, the last stand of virgin giant redwoods in the Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1955 Jul 17, Walt Disney’s $17-million Disneyland opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif. The site had been a 160-acre orange ranch just off the Santa Ana Freeway. Entry tickets for kids was 50 cents and $1 for adults.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)(AP, 7/17/08)(SFC, 7/17/15, p.C3)
1955 Jul 20, The body of Stephanie Bryan was found in Trinity County, Ca., where Burton Abbott owned a fishing cabin. Burton W. "Bud" Abbott, an ex-GI, was later convicted and executed for her murder. The story is covered in the 1997 book: "Shallow Grave in Trinity County" by Harry Farrell. [see Apr 28]
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.D5)(SFEC,12/28/97, p.D5)
1955 Sep 5, The 1st SigAlert, a traffic alert system, was broadcast in Los Angeles. The system was invented by Loyd C. Sigmon (d.2004).
(SSFC, 6/6/04, B5)
1955 Sep 30, Actor James Dean, best known for his role as a restless teen in Rebel Without a Cause, died in a high-speed two-car collision at the corner of Highways 46 and 41 in Cholame, near Paso Robles, Ca. In 1950, he had made his acting debut in a Pepsi commercial, for which he was paid $30. Dean gained fame after a lead role on Broadway in 1952 and appearances on television and in movies. His first major film role was in East of Eden in 1954. Just days after filming Giant the next year, Dean was driving his silver Porsche, called "Little Bastard," to a race with his mechanic when he collided head-on with another car. He was 24 years old.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.E1)(AP, 9/30/97)(HNPD, 9/30/98)(HN, 9/30/98)
1955 Oct 13, A US Air Force B-47B crashed while taking off from March Air Base in California. Capt. Edward A. O'Brien Jr. (Pilot), Capt. David J. Clare (co-pilot), Major Thomas F. Mulligan (navigator), and Capt. Joseph M. Graeber (chaplain) were all killed.
(www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dbadate.asp?thedate=551013&Submit2=Go)
1955 Oct 18, University of California discovered the anti-proton.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1955 Dec 22-1955 Dec 26, A "storm of the century" caused a devastating flood in northern California and left 76 people dead. Damages were estimated at $125 million.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A14)(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A21)(SFC, 12/23/05, p.F2)
1955 Dec 24, A levee break on the Shanghai Bend of the Feather River south of Yuba City, Ca., killed 38 people.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C1)(SFC, 11/17/99, p.E7)
1955 The Santa Cruz Chinatown fell victim to a flood and was later redeveloped into a shopping complex. In 2003 the book "Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee" depicted the community founded in the 1860s.
(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.M4)
1955 Marion Hewlett Pike (d.1998 at 84), portrait artist, had her first one-artist show at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. She was also named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. Later portraits included that of Ronald Reagan and Coco Chanel.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A19)
1955 California Gov. Goodwin J. Knight vetoed a bill to purchase the 12,000 acres of the Butano forest in southern San Mateo County. 1,200 acres were declared a State Park in 1961.
(Ind, 9/22/01, 5A)
1955 The California Public Utilities Commission increased confidentiality with its rule, General Order 66, which reasserted that the public can’t have access to accident reports.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A21)
1955 The Los Angeles police moved into a new downtown headquarters building at 100 N. Los Angeles St. In 1966 it was named the Parker Center after Chief William Parker died of a heart attack. In 2009 LA police moved into a new $437 million building at 100 Spring Street.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.D6)
1955 The old city hall in Petaluma, Ca., was torn down about this time.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A11)
1955 The Garden Grove Community Church under the Reverend Robert H. Schuller and his wife, Arvella, began operating at a drive-in theater. It grew with its TV program, “Hour of Power," to become the Crystal Cathedral in 1980.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.B4)(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.C5)
1955 In California Ben Ridder (d.1983) became publisher of the Pasadena Independent & Star News.
(SFC, 6/17/02, p.B5)
1955 William Schockley, co-inventor of the transistor, arrived in Silicon Valley in 1955 with funding from Beckman Instruments.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A12)
1955 Cistercian-Trappist monks purchased the old Stanford Vina Ranch on the Feather River north of Marysville, Ca. They later acquired stones from the 12th century Santa Maria de Ovila monastery, originally purchased by William Randolph Hearst, and planned a reconstruction at the ranch.
(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A1,6)
1955 A large number of dead fingerling salmon and several hundred thousand king salmon were killed in a few hours. Many swallows were reported dead by the river in northern California near Iron Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1956 Nov 1, Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the transistor. The trio invented the transistor in 1948 at the Bell Laboratories. William Schockley, co-developer of the transistor, founded Schockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto this year. Two of his hires, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, later went on to start Intel Corp. Tim Jackson in 1998 published "Inside Intel."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.4)(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)(HNQ, 12/23/99)
1956 Gov. Goodwin J. Knight named Catherine C. Hearst (d.1998 at 81) to the University of California Board of Regents.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A16)
1956 The state’s Short-Doyle Act established local mental health services. it was formulated by a committee of the California Medical Association led by Dr. Alfred Auerback (d.1997 at 81).
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)
1956 Chuck Williams opened the first Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma.
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.21)
1956 Lockheed Corp. began moving engineers to Sunnyvale, Ca., lured by offers of land and talent from Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.D3)
1956 There were major floods in the state.
(SFC, 9/4/97, p.C4)
1956-1972 Large industrial corporations legally poured some 35 million gallons of industrial waste into the Stringfellow Acid Pits near Glen Avon. The dumping was halted when it was noticed that pollutants were leaking into the ground water. In 1978 a large rainfall forced the release of more than a million gallons of polluted water into the Pyrite Canyon, which drained into a creek bed that flowed through the community of Glen Avon. In 1982 Stringfellow was declared a Superfund site.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1957 Feb 22, A skull was found by a crew digging a trench for an air conditioning system in downtown LA. The site was later planned to be used for a new Roman Catholic cathedral. An anthropologist identified the skull onsite as characteristic of native Americans prior to the Spanish arrival. Native Indian groups later contended the site a possible ancient burial ground and held up the construction plans. In 1997 the skull was reported lost. The Natural History Museum of LA soon reported that it had the skull.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)(LAT, 9/29/97, p.B1)
1957 Mar 2, Boxer Carlos Ortiz won a technical knockout against Lou Filippo (1925-2009). Filippo was originally awarded a victory in the 1st bout against Ortiz after being hit after the bell, but a Times reporter questioned a member of the California State Athletic Commission about that ruling, and the no-contest decision was invoked. Filippo lost the next fight to Ortiz about a month later, and retired at 23-9-3 with 8 knockouts and one no-contest. Both were later named to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Filippo went on to play a role in all five of the “Rocky" movies.
(www.badlefthook.com/2009/11/5/1117708/lou-filippo-1925-2009)(SFC, 11/6/09, p.C5)
1957 May 30, In California Santa’s Village, a Christmas theme park, opened in Scotts Valley. It filed for bankruptcy in 1977 and finally closed in 1979.
(SFC, 5/31/08, p.B2)(www.santasvillage.net/santas.village.scotts.valley.html)
1957 Jul 12, Santa Susana in Los Angeles County began receiving the nation’s first commercial electricity from a small, civilian-owned, nuclear reactor. It was shut down in 1964 and scientists later reported that the plant might be responsible hundreds of cancer cases. PG&E had teamed with General Electric to establish the Vallecitos atomic energy plant, the world’s 1st privately owned and operated nuclear facility.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1957 The 29th Academy Awards were held at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Ingrid Bergman won for her role in Anastasia.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.D1)
1957 Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges (d.1998) began as a TV series. It ran to 1961. It was mostly filmed at the Marineland of the Pacific in LA.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A4)
1957 Gordon Schaber (d.1997 at 69) at age 27 became the dean of the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. He expanded the school from one building to a 22-acre campus over his 34 years as dean.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)
1957 San Francisco Attorney Bill Evers (1927-2017) Jim McClatchey, publisher of the Sacramento Bee, formed the Tahoe Improvement and Conservation Association. It later became the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 7/7/17, p.D7)
1957 Pacifica, south of SF, was incorporated.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A17)
1957 Nikita Khrushchev, USSR chief of state, visited California and Lester Lloyd (1908-1996), printer and type founder, created a special Southern Pacific dining car menu in Russian.
(SFC, 10/19/96, A22)
1957 A state law was passed that banned bullfighting. It allowed for bloodless bullfighting in connection with religious celebrations or festivals.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.A10)
1957 California state prison guards formed the California Correctional Officers Association, mainly as a social organization. The group became politically active in the 1970s and in 1982 formally organized as a labor union.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A7)
1957 The Italian Swiss Colony winery at Asti, Ca., was deemed a state historical landmark.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.E6)
1957 Remco Hydraulics was established in Willits by chief backer Bob Harrah (d.1993 at 77). In 1963 the company began chrome plating closed down in 1995. A toxic legacy was left behind with toxic chemicals in the local groundwater and numerous residents with unusual illnesses.
(SFC, 3/31/00, p.A1,8,9)
1957 Iron Mountain mine owners blamed the federal government for fish kills. They held that the Shasta federal dam caused the buildup of pollutants and that previously flows from Spring Creek were rendered harmless by dilution in the Sacramento River.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1957 In California’s Napa County the farming town of Monticello, founded in 1866, was drowned as the Putah River was dammed to create lake Berryessa.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.C1)
1958 Feb 7, The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team became the LA Dodgers, Inc.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, Par p.14)
1958 Apr 29, Michelle Pfeiffer, actress, was born in Midway City, Calif.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Aug 17, Belinda Carlisle, (GoGos lead singer, Heaven on Earth), was born in Hollywood.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Sep 29, Clark Kerr (47) was inaugurated as UC’s 12th president after serving 6 years as chancellor.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1958 Nov 4, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown was elected as democratic governor of California.
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C1)
1958 Nov 4, Alan Cranston was elected California state controller, the 1st Democrat to hold the post since 1890.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A5)
1958 Nov 4, Glenn Anderson won the election for lieut. gov. of California.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)
1958 Nov 12, Warren Harding (d.2002 at 77), Wayne Merry and George Whitmore scaled the "nose" of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite Valley. They had spent 47 days of climbing over 16 months to reach the top of the 2,900 foot cliff. In 1970 Harding and Dean Caldwell spent 27 days climbing another route up El Capitan. Harding later authored "Downward Bound."
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A24)(SSFC, 11/9/08, p.B6)
1958 Dec 24, Alex and Phyllis Madonna opened the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo opened with 12 rooms.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.T3)(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.C1)
1958 Jimmy Lyons directed the first Monterey Jazz Festival and featured Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Turk Murphy, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Dizzie Gillespie. Radio host Jimmy Lyons and Chronicle jazz critic Ralph Gleason came up with the idea. In 1997 William Minor and Bill Wishner wrote: "Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years."
(SFC, 6/30/96, B9)(SFEM, 9/15/96, p.6)(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.7)
1958 The San Quentin Drama Workshop began at the California prison after a performance of Waiting for Godot the previous year.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Quentin_State_Prison)
1958 A 2nd eastern Carquinez Bridge opened over the Sacramento River between Crocket and Vallejo, Ca. The 1st cantilever bridge was built by American Toll Bridge Co. in 1927.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A18)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B3)
1958 The Achievement Rewards for College Students (ARCS) was co-founded by Barbara Chisholm Cole (d.1998 at 82) to assist students with scholarships in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. The Foundation was formed by a group of women in Los Angeles following the Soviet launch of Sputnik.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/ybzduc7)
1958 Charles E. Dederich (d.1997 at 83), dentist, founded Synanon in northern California. It was a communitarian scheme to rehabilitate drug addicts based on the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program. It used an encounter session called "The Game" to work out problems with group pressure and venting.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A21)(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.32)
1958 Nuclear submarines began to home-port in San Diego.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A20)
1958 William F. Knowland gave up a shoo-in re-election campaign for senator in a disastrous bid for the governorship of California.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR p.5)
1958 California banned backyard incinerators.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A6)
1958 A plaque was placed near Morro Rock in San Luis Obispo, Ca., that recounts its history.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T3)
1958 In California the Iron Mountain mine owner built a small treatment plant to capture copper and halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1958 The Basic Vegetable Products processing plant in King City, Ca., opened.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A19)
1958 Joe Coulombe established Pronto Markets, a string of convenient stores, in Los Angeles, Ca. He expanded the chain in 1967 to include gourmet foods and changed the name to Trader Joe’s. In 1979 he sold the company to Theo and Karl Albrecht of Germany.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.C2)
1958 In southern California mobster Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death by Cheryl Crane as her mother, Lana Turner, watched in horror. Stompanato and actress Lana Turner had been lovers.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(USAT, 10/8/97, p.4D)
1959 Jul 26, There was a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. A report in 2006 said it may have caused hundreds of cases of cancer in the community, and that chemicals threatened to contaminate ground and water.
(AP, 10/6/06)(www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/santa/san_p1.html)
1959 Aug 17, A 7.1 quake struck at Yellowstone National Park.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1959 Oct 23, "Weird Al" Yankovic, parody singer (Eat It, UHF, Naked Gun), was born in California.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1959 Nov 28, Under a directive by Archbishop John J. Mitty, Catholics were urged to pray for rain as Northern California went through its 70th dry day. Beginning today the special prayer “oratio ad petendum pluviam" would be included in all Masses until the drought ends.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, DB p.50)
1959 Dec 21, Florence Griffith Joyner, runner (Olympic-3 gold-1988), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1959 Lawrence Lipton authored "The Holy Barbarians," a guidebook to the beat scene in Venice, California.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A21)
1959 The Mendocino Art Center was founded by Bill Zaccha.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A21)(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.T5)
1959 An Act of Congress deemed the Petaluma slough a river.
(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.C1)
1959 Pat Brown became governor and served to 1966. During his tenure he commuted 23 death sentences and allowed 36 convicts to die.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A15)
1959 The state Supreme Court ruled that Los Angeles must pay taxes on its land, hydro-electric plants and dam that it owns in Mono and Inyo counties.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.B6)
1959 California created the Fair Employment Practices Act to prohibit racial discrimination in the workplace.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1959 The California Legislature passed the Burns-Porter Act, which authorized $1.75 billion in bonds to build initial projects. The State Water Project included construction of the Oroville Dam and the California Aqueduct to carry water from north to south. Voters approved in 1960.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(CSWP, brochure)
1959 A state law identified the state highways forming El Camino Real, which included Highway 1, Highway 101 and Highway 82.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A19)
1959 Gov. Brown appointed Helen Ewing Nelson (1914-2005) as the state’s 1st consumer counsel.
(SFC, 4/6/05, p.B7)
1959 The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that Iron Mountain mine owners seal mine tunnels or collect mine drainage in a reservoir to halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1959 The city of Half Moon Bay, Ca. incorporated.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A12)
1959 Hobie Alter and his Hobie Surfboard company in Orange County, Ca., began to mass produce surfboards made of polyurethane foam.
(SFC, 4/1/14, p.A6)
1959 William Emerson Ayer (d.1998 at 76) founded Applied Technology Inc. of Palo Alto, Ca. He established success with a device that warned combat pilots when they were under enemy radar surveillance.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
1959 The Coyote Valley Dam was constructed and created Lake Mendocino in California’s Mendocino County.
(SFC, 1/21/06, p.B1)
1960 Feb 9, The Hollywood, Ca., Walk of Fame began with an installation of its first pink terrazzo star for, actress Joanne Woodward, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. The first eight stars were dedicated in September 1958 and placed in the sidewalk on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame)
1960 Feb 18, The Eighth Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Nixon. A drought of snow ended 2 days before the start of the games.
(AP, 2/18/98)(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1960 Feb 19, California. Gov. Edmund G. Brown gave a 60-day stay of execution for San Quentin inmate Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit." The governor hoped to quiet public sentiment in Latin America for Pres. Eisenhower’s impending visit.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)(SSFC, 2/14/10, DB p.42)
1960 Feb 19, UC Regents retracted the following question from an English 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." FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had organized a covert public relations campaign and put pressure on Gov. Brown to retract the question.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1960 Feb 27, The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1960 Feb 28, The Eighth Winter Olympic Games formally closed in Squaw Valley, Calif.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1960 Mar 21, California state officials dumped radioactive waste from civilian installations into the ocean about 50 miles off of San Francisco at a site that the Navy and other Atomic Energy contractors have been using since 1946. The waste was mixed with concrete, sealed in 55-gallon steel drums and dumped in about 7,500 feet of water.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
1960 May 2, Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author, the Red Light Bandit," was executed at San Quentin Prison in California. He became a best-selling author while on death row. SFC crime reporter Bernice Davis (d.2002 at 97) later authored “Desperate and the Damned," an account of the Chessman case.
(AP, 5/2/08)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A25)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)
1960 Jul 13, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at his party's convention in Los Angeles.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1960 Oct 1, California Coast Guardsmen boarded the Coho II at the entrance of SF Bay. The engine was running and the fishing boat was on automatic pilot, but skipper Ted Bean (45) was missing. Days earlier E.A. Davison, skipper of the albacore boat Steelhead, had radioed in panic from the Monterey fishing grounds saying “The Coho Second me just shot me."
(SSFC, 9/26/10, DB p.50)
1960 Oct 29, Chartered C46 carrying Cal State's football team crashed and 16 people were killed.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1960 Nov 12, Discoverer XVII was launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1960 Ruses Solomon founded Tower Records in Sacramento, Ca., by selling records out of his father’s drugstore. In 2006 the 89-store company was sold for $150 million, with creditors owed $200 million.
(SFC, 10/7/06, p.C3)
1960 In Novato the Nave Lanes bowling alley opened. It was demolished in 1999 in favor of retail outlets.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.D1)
1960 The US federal government decided to extend California’s Central Valley Project to the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley, despite the knowledge that the soils are laden with salts and selenium. The government promised to build a drain to carry contaminated drainage to the SF Bay, but construction was halted when Bay Area communities protested.
(SFC, 5/25/16, p.D1)
1960 California voters under Gov. Pat Brown narrowly approved the $1.75 billion State Water Project. It involved 22 upstream dams and reservoirs and a pumping plant to send water into an aqueduct largely for urban use in the south.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A7)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.28)
1960 California ordered smog control devices on cars. It was the first such law in the country.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1960 SF State College became one of several under a new California state Master Plan for Higher Education.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)(Econ, 8/11/12, p.24)
1960 The California-based Save the Redwoods League dedicated Avenue of the Giants Parkway in Humboldt Redwoods State Park after 40-year-long acquisition process.
(www.savetheredwoods.org/league/pdf/90th_timeline.pdf)
1960 Otis Chandler (32), great-grandson of Gen. Otis Chandler, became the 4th publisher of the LA Times. In 2001 Dennis McDougal authored "Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the LA Times."
(SSFC, 6/24/01, DB p.66)
1960 California rock climber Tom Frost (1936-2018) and two other leading climbers completed the 2nd successful climb of El Capitan's south buttress in Yosemite National Park in a little more than seven days without using fixed ropes.
(SFC, 9/14/18, p.D2)
1960 Wells Fargo was acquired by the American Trust Company, which shifted the bank’s focus to retail banking. Wells at the time had 12 offices in California, while American Trust had 102. The Wells Fargo name was kept.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1960 The population of Los Angeles was about 2.5 million with a capacity for about 10 million residents. By 2010 the population swelled to 4 million, but zoning and legislation had reduced capacity to 4.3 million.
(Econ, 3/4/17, p.23)
1960 Martin Ramirez (b.1885 in Mexico), outsider artist, died in a state mental hospital. He was picked up in LA in 1930 and locked up for the rest of his life. He began to draw around 1948 with any material he could get and was discovered in 1954 by a prof. of psychology at Cal State in Sacramento. His pencil-and-crayon drawings became some of the highest-priced works in the field.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A18)
1960s UC Berkeley received a $1 million donation from the Isadore Zellerbach family for whom Zellerbach Hall was named.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A15)
1960s Large portions of the Arcata Redwood Corp. lands were detached to form sections of Redwood National Park. The land was initially assembled by Michigan timber baron Arthur Hill. His son, Harry Hill, built the French Renaissance townhouse that is now the Italian consulate.
(SFC, 9/9/97, p.A19)
c1960-1980s Norton Simon, the owner of Hunt Foods, Canada Dry and McCall's Publishing, assembled a collection of old master’s paintings, as well as more modern works, and housed them in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.D7)
1960-1982 Leo R. McBrian (d.1998 at 78) published the Ripon Record. He sold the paper and ended his family’s 70-year ownership.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.C7)
1960-1990s Peter Schrag, retired editor of the Sacramento Bee, published in 1998 the book "Paradise Lost: California’s Experience and America’s Future." In it he brought together the disparate political and social events of the last four decades in the state.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.3)
1961 Jun 12, A state Senate fact-finding sub-committee of Un-American Activities issued a report that charged UC Pres. Kerr "had opened the campus gates to communists."
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Jul 2, Jimmy McNichol, actor (Fitzpatricks, California Fever), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1961 Jul 28, Mickey Cohen, Los Angeles gangster, arrived at Alcatraz. Three weeks earlier he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for income tax evasion.
(SSFC, 7/24/11, DB p.42)
1961 Jul 25, Katherine Kelly Lang, actress (Brooke-Bold & Beautiful), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1961 Sep 2, Ramona Price (7) of Santa Barbara, Ca., vanished as she walked to her new home. Police later believed that she was likely a victim of notorious child serial killer Mack Ray Edwards, who hanged himself on death row at San Quentin in 1972. In 2011 Four teams of specially-trained sniffer dogs identified what cops are calling an ‘area of interest’ near an overpass at U.S. 101 in Goleta.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3ppmkvx)
1961 Sep 28, Richard Nixon jumped into the race for governor of California and said he would not run for president in 1964.
(SSFC, 9/25/11, DB p.42)
1961 Nov, India’s PM Jawaharlal Nehru visited with Walt Disney in Disneyland.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)
1961 Dec 31, The Beach Boys: Carl, Dennis and Brian Wilson with cousin Mike Love and friend Alan Jardine, made their first public performance on New Year’s Eve at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.D8)
1961 Judge Arthur Marshall (d.1999) authored "California Probate Procedure."
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B9)
1961 John Hunter Thomas (d.1999 at 71) presented his Stanford doctoral dissertation "Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains."
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C5)
1961 The new LAX Airport was dedicated by Pres. Lyndon Johnson. The facility included a modern central structure called the "Theme Building" with an elevated circular restaurant.
(CG, #206, 1991)
1961 The Alpine Meadows ski resort opened in the Lake Tahoe area of California.
(SFC, 7/7/17, p.D7)
1961 The new Interstate 5 bypassed Dunsmuir.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T6)
1961 In Pleasanton the Contra Costa Center shopping mall was built.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A16)
1961 Dr. L. Martin Griffin, Stan Picher and Aileen Pierson created Audubon Canyon Ranch, a nonprofit to operate wildlife refuges on Bolinas Lagoon and Tomales Bay. In 1998 Griffin published "Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast: The Battles for Audubon Canyon Ranch, Point Reyes, & California’s Russian River.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.4)
1961 Rodney Strong (d.2006), dancer-turned winemaker, purchased a 160-acre vineyard in Healdsburg, Ca. He started Sonoma Vineyards and later renamed it Rodney Strong Vineyards.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
1961 Pres. Kennedy appointed Cecil F. Poole (d. 1997) to serve as the US attorney for the Northern district of California.
(SFC,11/14/97, p.D7)
1961 Pleasant Hill, Ca., sandwiched between Concord and Walnut Creek, was incorporated as a city.
(SFC, 4/6/13, p.C2)
1961 The US Bureau of Reclamation completed Trinity Dam creating Trinity Lake in northern California. The lake flooded the towns of Trinity Center, Stringtown and Minersville.
(SFC, 9/12/11, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Lake)
1961 The Point Reyes National Seashore Foundation was created.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A27)
1961 Dr. Edgar Wayburn became president of the Sierra Club.
(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)
1961 George Jackson (19) was sentenced 1 year to life for stealing $70.20 from a gas station in LA.
(SSFCM, 8/19/01, p.7)
1961 PG&E announced plans for an atomic reactor at Bodega Bay, the picturesque promontory near the southern end of Sonoma County, Ca. The Public Utilities Commission okayed the permit, subject to approval from the Atomic Energy Commission. PG&E started digging a 70-foot shaft for the reactor and put up signs announcing "The Atomic Park." In 1963 the PUC, after significant local opposition, turned down their request. PG&E ended up selling all its headlands holdings to the California Dept. of Parks and Recreation for a token $1.
(www.monitor.net/monitor/12-3-95/bodegapge.html)
1961 In California a Kansas City company opened a manufacturing plant in Merced to fabricate cooling towers for industrial use. In 1969 the plant began treating the wood it used with chromium 6, arsenic and copper to combat insects and bacteria. In 1975 Baltimore Aircoil Co., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., bought the plant. In 1985 Merck sold its subsidiary and the plant to Amsted Industries. In 1986 a consultant found evidence of chromium and arsenic contamination at the site. In 1989 state regulators noted high levels of chromium 6 and arsenic in the water of a drainage pond and reported that storm water flowed from the pond into a canal running by homes in the Beachwood area of Merced. Chromium use continued until May 1991. In February 2007 the regional water board mailed notices to residents saying the plant had caused significant chromium and arsenic pollution. As of 2008 some 20 people were dead or dying of cancer in the Beachwood area. A $38 million cleanup effort was in progress. Merck and Amsted faced a lawsuit.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A14)
1961-1965 Larry Margolis (1923-1997) served as top aide to Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh.
(SFC, 1/8/96, p.A17)
1961-1968 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1961-1973 Samuel W. Yorty (1909-1998) served three terms as mayor of Los Angeles.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A5)
Go to California D (1962 -1983): https://timelines.ws/states/CAL1962_1983.HTML
Go to www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = California
