Los Angeles History

Los Angeles County - Timeline - History

http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01a.htm

HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
Pre-History to 1799 A.D.

1.7 Billion Years Ago

Rock formations found on what is now the eastern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains begin to form beneath an ancient sea. The coastline is found quite a bit east of its present location in what is now Utah and Idaho.

65 Million Years Ago

Toward the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, the Los Angeles Basin and area mountains lie beneath swampy sea-marshes and lagoons, receiving sediment from large rivers flowing out of the low-lying ancestral Nevadan mountains. Dinosaurs are extinct. The San Gabriel Mountains begin to form.

24 to 5 Million Years Ago

At the beginning of this era, what will become the Los Angeles area lies beneath a deep, subtropical sea and, before the San Andreas Fault begins its push, is located about 100-150 miles southeast of where it is today. The land later begins to emerge, with the local shoreline running along the San Gabriel, Santa Monica and Santa Ana Mountains and the Covina Hills. These ancient hills, ripe with volcanic activity, rise to no more than an elevation of 1,000 feet. Dry land around the submerged Los Angeles Basin becomes subtropical, receiving about 30-40 inches of rainfall a year. It is covered with scrub forest and inhabited by ancient horses, rhinoceros and camels.

5 to 1.8 Million Years Ago

Los Angeles area hills are forced upwards in height to become mountain ranges. The sea level drops.

Where Did the Name Los Angeles Come From?
The name Los Angeles is Spanish for The Angels. There is much more to this name, however. On Wednesday, August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest accompanying the first European land expedition through California, led by Captain Fernando Rivera Y Moncado, described in his journal a "beautiful river from the northwest" located at "34 degrees 10 minutes." They named the river Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de la Porciúncula. In the Franciscan calendar, August 2 was the day of the celebration of the feast of the Perdono at the tiny Assisi chapel of St. Francis of Assisi. Early in St. Francis’ life, the Benedictines had given him this tiny chapel for his use near Assisi. The chapel, ruined and in need of repair, was located on what the Italians called a porziuncola or "very small parcel of land." Painted on the wall behind the altar was a fresco of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels. Now contained within a Basilica, the chapel was named Saint Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion. The newly discovered "beautiful river" was named in honor of this celebration and this chapel. In 1781, a new settlement was established along that river. The settlement came to be known as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula or The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion although its official name was simply El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles.

1.8 Million to 10,000 Years Ago

Large mountain ranges now are present and the Los Angeles Basin, formed from accumulating sediment deposits, slowly rises from the sea. The shoreline recedes to about where it exists today. The climate is cooler and moister than present, similar to that of present-day Monterey Peninsula, with glacier activity along the peaks of the San Gabriel and Santa Ana Mountains and Redwoods growing in the Santa Monica Mountains. The basin becomes a large grassy, brush-covered and marshy plain, roamed by Saber-Tooth Tigers (or Saber-Tooth Cats), Giant Ground Sloth, Dire Wolves, Western Horses, Ancient Bison, Short-Faced Bears (Artodus Simus), Columbian Mammoths, American Mastodons and many other now-extinct species. A number of these animals find themselves unwittingly trapped in the tar fields of what will be known as the La Brea Tar Pits.

8,000 B.C.

The Saber-Tooth Tiger (or Saber-Tooth Cat) becomes extinct in Southern California. The Los Angeles Basin is covered in grassy plains with scattered strands of junipers and cypress trees, streams, marshes, small lakes and ponds. The Chumash begin settling in coastal villages in the Los Angeles area.

7,000 B.C.

A young women who would later become known as La Brea Woman, dies in the Park La Brea area of Los Angeles, perhaps killed by a blow to the head. Her remains are unearthed about 9,000 years later in 1914. The period is also the possible era of Los Angeles Man, who is then believed to make his residence in West Los Angeles. Much later, in 1936 A.D., the mineralized cranium of his skull is discovered in the Ballona Creek area by workers excavating a storm drain.

5,000 B.C.

The Chumash engage in sophisticated basketry and make use of asphaltum (tar) for water-proofing. There is increased reliance on hunting and the more sophisticated technological developments such as the throwing stick, knives, drills, and fish hooks. Burials include more artifacts.

2,000 B.C.

Large coastal villages appear. The Chumash engage in warfare and trade and form alliances. There is increased division of labor and craftsmanship. Funerary practices are more elaborate. They still practiced little to no agriculture as they continue to enjoy an environment rich in natural resources.

200-500 A.D.

The first Tongva Indians arrive in Southern California from the Mojave area, displacing earlier residents related to the Chumash.

The Chumash engage in sports competitions and the development of musical instruments. Trade in the region is widespread, including the use of shell beads for money.

1500

About 25 Tongva villages exist in what will become Los Angeles County. The population is about 300 to 500 people.

800 A.D.

1542

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo lands on Catalina Island, the first European contact with the future Los Angeles. Seeing at a distance the Indian campfires at Santa Monica Bay, he names it Bay of Smoke.

1769

Father Crespi, a member of a Spanish land expedition led by Captain Fernando Rivera Y Moncado, first makes record of Los Angeles (August 2). Local Indians, from the nearby village of Yang-Na (located near what is now the Civic Center) greet the party. A series of earthquakes are experienced by the expedition while in the Los Angeles area.

1771

Fathers Pedro Cambon and Angel Somera establish the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel (Saint Gabriel the Archangel) in modern-day Montebello (September 8).

1775

Padres are forced to move the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel to its present location in modern-day San Gabriel due to flooding at the original site.

Mission San Gabriel, San Gabriel. Photo by Klyde Wilson

1777

Governor Felipe de Neve issues instructions for the establishment of a new pueblo (town) with the proposed name El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles Sobre el Rio de la Porciuncula (August 26). It becomes known as El Pueblo (The Town). The first Indians are baptized at the Mission San Gabriel seven years after the establishment of the mission.

1781

Governor Felipe de Neve visits the future site of the new pueblo to clear the land and mark it off. Forty-four men, women, and children begin life at the new pueblo, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River)(September 4). Only two of the original adult settlers are white Spaniards. The other settlers are of Indian, Mestizo, African, and Mulatto descent. Twenty-two are children.

1782

Father Junipero Serra arrives in El Pueblo to condemn the moral condition of its residents.

1784

The first three land grants in the Los Angeles area are given to three soldiers, Juan José Dominguez, Manuel Nieto, and José Maria Verdugo. These are Los Angeles’ first ranchos.

1788
José Vanegas, one of the original settlers and an Indian, is appointed Alcalde (mayor) of El Pueblo.
1795
Construction begins on what would later become known as the Gage Mansion in Bell Gardens and the oldest surviving home in Los Angeles County. The home later becomes part of the Rancho San Antonio land grant given to Don Antonio Maria Lugo in 1810. (Special thanks to Shane P. Kimbler of Bell Gardens for this information)
1797
The Mission San Fernando Rey de España (Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain) is founded by Father Lasuén (September 8).
HEADLINE HISTORY Los Angeles County
1800 to 1847
1804
The first orange grove in California is planted at the Mission San Gabriel. California is divided into Alta California and Baja California.
1805
The first American to visit Los Angeles is Captain Jose Shaler, captain of the Lelia Byrd, returning to New England from the Hawaiian Islands.
1810
Padres from the San Fernando Mission dam the waters of the Los Angeles River north of El Pueblo, provoking a confrontation in court. The court rules in favor of El Pueblo. An Indian revolt erupts at the Mission San Gabriel.
1811
Severe flooding occurs.
1812
The Ayuntamiento (city council) is established.
1814
The Plaza Church cornerstone is laid.
1815
Torrential rains flood out El Pueblo, forcing it to relocate to higher ground. The Los Angeles River changes its outlet to the sea from San Pedro to the Ballona wetlands. A Russian trader, Boris Tarakanaf, is the first foreigner jailed in El Pueblo. José Antonio Rocha, born in Portugal, becomes the first foreigner to settle in El Pueblo.
1817
The first school is established, headed by Maximo Pina, a retired soldier. It fails after two years.
1818
American Joseph Chapman is shipwrecked at San Pedro and arrested as a pirate. After a brief jail term, he chooses to stay in El Pueblo and becomes an active member of the community. He becomes the first American and English-speaking person to settle in Los Angeles. After repeated floods, El Pueblo moves to a higher location. The Avila Adobe is built.
1822
A year after Mexico frees itself from Spanish rule, El Pueblo learns of the revolution and swears allegiance to the new independent nation. The Plaza Catholic Church is completed.
1825
The Los Angeles River changes its outlet back from the Ballona wetlands to San Pedro.
1826
A party of American trappers led by Jebediah S. Smith arrives in El Pueblo from the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. They are the first Americans to arrive in California overland. They are ordered to leave by the authorities, but Smith later returns. The first priest permanently assigned to Los Angeles arrives.
1827
John Temple opens El Pueblo’s first general store.
1828
John Groningen, a new resident in El Pueblo, purchases the local Yang-Na Indian village and expels its residents. The site later becomes the Los Angeles Civic Center.
1831
Governor José Maria Echeandia issues a proclamation to secularize all California missions. A month later, the new governor, Manuel Victoria, annuls the proclamation that leads to the arrest and banishment of several prominent citizens of El Pueblo. A brief, local war erupts, forcing Governor Victoria out of California and re-establishing the original plan to secularize the missions. California is divided into northern and southern provinces. Pio Pico becomes governor of the southern province and establishes his government in Los Angeles.
1832
Heaving flooding occurs.
1833
The Mexican Congress passes the Secularization Act that places the Mission San Gabriel and the Mission San Fernando under civil management.
1834
The dismantling of the missions begins. Mission padres order the slaughter of over 100,000 cattle at the Mission San Gabriel in response to the impending takeover.
1835
Los Angeles is given the status of a "city" by the Mexican Congress replacing Monterey as capital of California. Richard Henry Dana’s voyage aboard the Pilgrim brings him to the Los Angeles area. His descriptions of California in his book Two Years Before the Mast sparks interest in California. The second largest ethnic group in the city is French.
1836
A local civil war breaks out between northern and southern California. Indian forced labor is initiated. The Mexican government takes the first official census of Los Angeles. The population is fixed at 2,228. This includes 603 men, 421 women, 651 children and 553 "domesticated Indians." Among Los Angeles residents are 29 Americans, 4 Britons, 3 Portuguese, 2 Africans, and a Canadian, Irishman, Italian, German, Scot, Norwegian, and Curacao. The first vigilante committee forms in Los Angeles to seize a man and woman from the authorities accused of murdering the woman's husband. The pair are executed by the "committee."
1839
Governor Alvarado exiles all foreigners who would not become Mexican citizens. The first multi-story home is built on the Plaza.
1841
One of the first California-bound wagon trains, the Workman-Rowland party, arrives in Los Angeles from New Mexico. William Wolfskill plants the first commercial orange grove in California. Oranges had otherwise been grown in the area since 1804.
1842
Francisco Lopez makes California’s first gold discovery in Placerita Canyon in the Santa Clarita Valley.
1845
The local California civil war ends with the battle of Cahuenga Pass. The casualties are one horse and one mule. Pio Pico is made governor of all of California and Los Angeles is finally recognized as the provincial capital. Rancho Encino is established.
1846
The United States declares war on Mexico. U.S. Navy Commodore Robert F. Stockton lands his forces at San Pedro (August 6). Major John C. Fremont raises the American flag over Los Angeles without resistance (August 13). Having endured petty bullying by the small garrison of American Marines left behind in Los Angeles, local residents revolt and force the garrison to surrender. The American troops are allowed to withdraw without harassment to San Pedro. U.S. reinforcements later arrive in San Pedro but fail to recapture Los Angeles.
1847
U.S. forces win the Battle of the San Gabriel River and proceed to recapture Los Angeles (January 10). The Californios capitulate to the Americans after negotiating the Treaty of the Cahuenga Ranch near Los Angeles (January 13). Fort Moors is dedicated by the U.S. Army in Los Angeles as part of the city’s first celebration of American Independence Day.

HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1848 to 1865

1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed and the Mexican-American War ends. California is ceded over to the United States (February 2). Governor Mason appoints Stephen C. Foster to be Alcalde (Mayor) of Los Angeles.
1849
John Temple becomes the first American elected to the town council. U.S. Army Lt. E.O.C. Ord conducts the first American survey of Los Angeles. A city water department is established.
1850
Los Angeles is established as one of California’s original counties (February 18). The county government is established following the first county election in April. Los Angeles is incorporated as an American city (April 4). Alpheus P. Hodges becomes Los Angeles’ first American elected mayor. Los Angeles gets its first Post Office. Los Angeles’ first Protestant church services (Methodist) are held by the Rev. J. W. Brier. The first African-American to settle in Los Angeles is, Peter Biggs, a barber and escaped slave. The first U.S. Census is taken in Los Angeles County. Two Chinese men are listed in the census. Los Angeles’ first hotel, The Bella Union, is built. Los Angeles County is the nation's number one wine-producing county.
1851
The first Anglo American born in California, John Gregg Nichols, is born in Los Angeles. The newspaper La Estrella (The Star) makes its first appearance. It is printed in English and Spanish and continues to be published until the early 1860’s. El Monte becomes the first fully American settlement established in Los Angeles County. The first Los Angeles City police force is organized. Cupeño Indians revolt under Chief Antonio Garra resulting in the death of five white sheepherders. Chief Garra is captured and executed by a firing squad. Phineas Banning establishes the first stage line in Southern California. Bridget Mason (Biddy Mason) arrives in San Bernardino as a slave in a Mormon household. Apparently the householder was not aware or did not care that California was a "Free" state. Mason goes on to win her freedom and become a successful Los Angeles businesswomen, landowner and philanthropist.
1852
The first Los Angeles public school system is established. Former slave Peter Biggs opens the first barbershop in Los Angeles. The first county supervisors are elected to office. The Land Act of 1852 is used to wrest control of the original land grants from the rancheros. Entrepreneurs Phineas Banning and D.W. Alexander establish a stage line between Los Angeles and San Pedro.
1853
San Bernardino County is established from part of Los Angeles County. The County of Los Angeles builds its first public building...a jail.
1854
Los Angeles’ first superintendent of schools is appointed. Rabbi A.W. Edelman holds the first Jewish services in Los Angeles. Crime in Los Angeles rises to one murder per day.
1855
The first permanent public school in Los Angeles, Schoolhouse No. 1, is built at the northwest corner of Second and Spring Streets. An earthquake causes extensive damage in almost every house in Los Angeles. The "Los Angeles Rangers" organizes for the expressed purpose of fighting "Mexican bandits". Mayor Stephen G. Foster of Los Angeles, a physician, resigns his office to join a lynch mob. After the lynching, Foster resumes his office.
1856
A Los Angeles deputy constable kills a man named Ruiz in a scuffle over a guitar. The Los Angeles Spanish-speaking community, feeling as it has endured one too many abuses by the Anglo community, marches on city jail to demand justice. Former slave Biddy Mason obtains her freedom in court and moves herself and her daughters to Los Angeles. She goes on to become a successful Los Angeles businesswomen, landowner and philanthropist.
1857
Los Angeles feels the Great Fort Tejon Earthquake, which, at 7.9 on the Richter Scale, is the largest earthquake ever recorded in U.S. history. Only two deaths are connected to the earthquake. Los Angeles Sheriff James Barton and three of his deputies are killed in an attempt to capture a fugitive Mexican guerilla in San Juan Capistrano. The fugitive is later captured and hanged. Wells Fargo & Company opens an office in Los Angeles. Stagecoach baron Phineas Banning founds Wilmington. The Los Angeles Water Works is formed and a water wheel begins operating at the Zanja Madre dam.
1858
"General" Henry Crab of Los Angeles organizes an attempt to "liberate" the Mexican state of Sonora from Mexico. He is captured by Mexican authorities and executed. The last four Protestant ministers in Los Angeles, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and an Episcopalian, finding a lack of interest in their church services, close their respective churches and leave the city. Los Angeles is linked with San Francisco and St. Louis by stagecoach. Abel Sterns and Phineas Banning begin development of the harbor at Wilmington. Four members of the Sisters of Charity open the first hospital in Los Angeles on Buena Vista Street. The Sisters arrived in California a few years earlier at the request of the Bishop of Los Angeles and Monterey.
1859
The first library in Los Angeles, a small reading room, opens. Protestant ministers return to Los Angeles. President James Buchanan restores the neglected mission properties (Mission San Gabriel and Mission San Fernando) to the Catholic Church.
1860
Los Angeles is linked to San Francisco by telegraph. Traditional Mexican bull and bear fights are outlawed in Los Angeles. Baseball becomes the popular sport. Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln is soundly defeated in Los Angeles County, but carries California as a whole. Los Angeles County Sheriff Tomas Sanchez enlists in the Confederate Army.
1861
Los Angeles becomes quickly divided between Union and Confederate sympathies at the start of the Civil War. San Pedro harbor receives its first freight schooner, opening it as a cargo harbor. Holiday season rains bring terrible flooding to the area. Much of the San Fernando Valley is flooded.
1862
Heavy rains continue to flood the area. Later, however, the first of several great droughts begins. The droughts persist over the next two years resulting in the loss of 70% of Los Angeles County livestock and the end of the old ranching industry. In order to protect Union interests in Southern California, Fort Drum is established to house a garrison of U.S. Army troops.
1863
Los Angeles establishes a board of health. An explosion rips through the steamer Ada Hancock in Wilmington Harbor, killing 26 of the 53 passengers aboard. Los Angeles ceases its celebration of July 4^th for the first of two years due to wide spread sympathies with the Confederacy among its citizens. Judge Hastings of Los Angeles travels to the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, to pledge to Confederate President Jefferson Davis an army of Californians. The offer never materializes. The City of Los Angeles establishes a public animal pound.
1864
An epidemic of smallpox decimates the Indian populations in Southern California. By 1870, almost all Indians in the area had died. Dr. J.S. Griffin, the Los Angeles city health officer during the smallpox outbreak, is offered city land at greatly reduced prices instead of money. This land would later become known as East Los Angeles and even later as Lincoln Heights. The first permanent Protestant church in Los Angeles is built.
1865
Saint Vincent’s College is founded. It would later become Loyola University. Los Angeles County’s first "dry" community, Comptonville, is established. It is named after founder G.E. Compton.

HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1866 to 1886

1866
Kern County is established from a portion of northern Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles town square, later to be renamed in 1918 after General John J. Pershing, is established.
1867
Developer Prudent Beaudry buys land that he would later develop into Bunker Hill. A great rainstorm cuts Los Angeles off from the outside world for a month. A large lake is formed by the rains along Ballona Creek.
1868
Former California Governor John C. Downey establishes the first bank in Los Angeles Los Angeles is linked to Wilmington by railroad. Phineas Banning completes Los Angeles County’s first rail line, a twenty-mile track running between Los Angeles and San Pedro. Los Angeles’ first artesian well is sunk near Wilmington. Los Angeles’ first street lights appear.
1869
The Los Angeles Board of Education is established. A Wells Fargo stagecoach is robbed just outside Los Angeles. Two hundred boxes of oranges are shipped by sea from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The first Los Angeles city fire company is established. The first bicycle in Los Angeles appears on the streets. Pio Pico, the last governor of Mexican California, begins building Pico House in downtown Los Angeles.
1870
Los Angeles houses are numbered for the first time in order to create a city directory. The last recorded lynching in Los Angeles takes place when a suspect is hanged for the murder of Jacob Bell. Both Pico House and the Merced Theatre open for business. For a time, Pico House is the finest hotel in Southern California. The Los Angeles County Medical Society is established. For the first time, whites outnumber Hispanics and Indians. The first permanent bridge is built across the Los Angeles River.
1871
The death of an Anglo man attempting a citizen’s arrest on a Chinese merchant provokes an angry white mob to attack the Chinese quarter. Seventeen Chinese men and two Chinese boys are killed by bullet, beating, or lynching. The Sheriff, with little backing and only after several desperate attempts, finally quells the attacks. For these crimes, 150 men are later indicted, but only six are convicted. All six are released on technicalities. The Los Angeles Volunteer Fire Department is formed. The Farmers and Merchants Bank is opened. The first bookstore in Los Angeles by Brodrick & Reilly opens next to the Post Office on Spring Street. Los Angeles’ first ice cream parlor opens. The Federal Government begins making improvements on the Wilmington Harbor.
1872
An earthquake hits Los Angeles, but little serious damage occurs. Congress passes a railroad bill that stipulates that a rail line south from San Francisco must pass through Los Angeles. Charles Nordhoff’s book, California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence, appears, drawing thousands of newcomers to Southern California. The first public library is opened. Ventura County is established from a portion of Los Angeles County. A City of Los Angeles ordinance directs the City Marshal to register and license dogs. Former slave Bridget Mason (Biddy Mason), now a successful businesswoman and landowner, along with son-in-law Charles Owens, founds and finances the first African American church in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles branch of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church.
1873
The first Jewish synagogue is built. The first high school in Los Angeles is built at Temple and Broadway. The first trolley line in Los Angeles begins operations. 100,000 eucalyptus trees arrive from Australia. Frederick Eaton, who would later become mayor of Los Angeles, purchases the old home of Cyrus Burdick at the northeast corner of Second and Spring streets. There he builds the Burdick Block, one of the first modern business blocks in Los Angeles.
1874
After committing a long series of highly publicized robberies in the Los Angeles area, the Mexican bandit Tiburcio Vasquez is captured and becomes a folk hero while in the city jail. He is later convicted and hanged in San Jose in 1875. His was the last public hanging in California. The first street car in Los Angeles begins operating. Prostitution is outlawed in Los Angeles.
1875
Two years after the great bank panic began in the east, depositors in the Temple & Workman Bank begin panic withdrawals. Francis Temple and John Downey of Farmers & Merchants Bank agree to close their respective banks for 30 days to ward off a local banking disaster. This event eventually leads to the ruin of both Temple and Downey. The first labor union (typographers) in Los Angeles is organized. Wine is Los Angeles County’s principal product.
1876
The Cathedral of St. Vibiana is opened. The Southern Pacific completes its rail link between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Pico oil well no. 4 in the Pico Canyon Oil Field begins producing 25 barrels per day becoming California’s first commercially successful oil well.
1877
The city marshal’s office is abolished. J.F. Gerkins is appointed as Chief of Police. The first kindergarten in Los Angeles opens. Hundreds of thousands of sheep die in a great drought. Calle de Los Negros, commonly known as "Nigger Alley", is renamed Los Angeles Street. Oranges from Los Angeles are shipped for the first time to the east. William Mulholland arrives in Los Angeles. Southern California’s first woman physician, Dr. Elizabeth A. Follansbee, begins practicing medicine in Los Angeles.
1878
The Los Angeles Bar Association is established.
1879
The Los Angeles Athletic Club is opened.
1880
A rail line is extended to San Pedro that becomes the beginning of the modern port. The University of Southern California is founded. Los Angeles receives its first paved road on Main Street. The first oil pipeline in Los Angeles is laid. Helen Hunt Jackson visits Los Angeles. She later publishes the famous novel Ramona in 1884 about the life in the early California missions.
1881
The Los Angeles Times begins publication as the Los Angeles Daily Times. Los Angeles is linked to the east coast by the completion of the Southern Pacific transcontinental rail line. The harbor jetty is completed at San Pedro. Harry Chandler arrives in Los Angeles from New Hampshire. He would later become publisher of the Los Angeles Times. UCLA’s forerunner, the State Normal School, is established. The first record of snowfall occurs in Los Angeles.
1882
The Los Angeles Telephone Company receives permission to erect telephone poles in the city, thus bringing telephone service to Los Angeles. Service begins with seven subscribers and three operators. Harrison Gray Otis begins writing for the Los Angeles Daily Times. Later in 1886, Otis becomes owner-publisher of the newspaper (later to be known as the Los Angeles Times) and becomes one of the most influential members of the community (see Letters from the People: The Los Angeles Times Letters Column, 1881-1889). The Brush Electric Lighting Company installs the first electric streetlights in Los Angeles. Chinese immigration is barred.
1883
Nearly one hundred people are killed in a catastrophic train wreck that occurs in the Tehachapi Mountains. J.W. Robinson opens a dry goods store in downtown Los Angeles.
1884
Charles F. Lummis arrives in Los Angeles after hiking 3,507 miles from the east coast. Articles about his trip were submitted to eastern publications stimulating further interest in Southern California. Oranges from Southern California win over those from Florida at the New Orleans International Exposition. The novel Ramona, a stylized story of Indian life during the mission era, is published. The Times Mirror Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is incorporated. Heavy flooding causes the Los Angeles River to alter its course east to Vernon and then south to San Pedro. A channel for the river is built through downtown Los Angeles.
1885
The Santa Fe Railroad completes a second transcontinental rail line into Los Angeles, breaking the Southern Pacific Railroad’s monopoly. The University of Southern California opens its medical school. The department hires its first full-time paid firefighters. Los Angeles’ original water system, the Zanja, established with the first settlement, is abolished. The last Zanjero (keeper of the Zanja) ends his service in 1904.
1886
A terrible flood washes away every bridge and many other structures in the city and causes a great loss in lives. Los Angeles receives land for a park that would later be renamed in 1942 in honor of General Douglas MacArthur. Pasadena and Santa Monica are the first cities incorporated in Los Angeles County after the City of Los Angeles. William Mulholland, once a ditch tender for the Los Angeles Water Company, becomes its chief executive. A railroad rate war opens between Southern Pacific and Santa Fe. Harrison Gray Otis buys out the one-half interest of Colonel H.H. Boyce in the Times Mirror Company (publisher of the Los Angeles Times) and gains control of the company (see Letters from the People: The Los Angeles Times Letters Column, 1881-1889). The price of a ticket between Kansas City and Los Angeles drops to one dollar, sparking a major influx of visitors and newcomers to Los Angeles.

HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1887 to 1909
1887
Orange County is formed from a portion of Los Angeles County. The city of Pomona is incorporated. A great speculative land boom occurs, driving up the price of city land 500 percent. Whittier is settled by a group of Quakers. Burbank and Glendale are incorporated. The first public high school in Los Angeles opens. Pomona College is founded in Claremont. Prohibitionist Harvey Wilcox founds Hollywood.
1888
Heavy floods occur. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is established at a meeting of the city’s principal boosters. Los Angeles Times publisher, Harrison Gray Otis, makes the motion. The first African-American community in Los Angeles is founded at First and Los Angeles Streets. Occidental College is founded in Eagle Rock.
1889
Heavy floods occur. The first college football game in Los Angeles is played between USC and Saint Vincent’s College (Loyola). After 20 years of political maneuvering, voters in the southern portion of Los Angeles County decide to break away and form a new county: Orange County.
1890
Heavy floods occur. The first Tournament of Roses Parade is held in Pasadena. Edwin T. Earl invents the refrigerated railcar in which to ship oranges to the east coast. The park becomes known as Griffith Park. The official flag of the City of Los Angeles is designed.
1891
Heavy floods occur. Amos G. Throop founds the Throop Polytechnic Institute of Pasadena, which would later become the California Institute of Technology. Visiting Pasadena, President Benjamin Harrison becomes the first U.S. President to visit the Los Angeles area. Whittier College is founded.
1892
Edward Doheny makes the first oil discovery within the City of Los Angeles. Abbot Kinney buys swampy coastal land upon which he planned to build a "Temple of Culture." The location would later be named Venice. The Banning brothers begin developing Avalon on Santa Catalina Island as a summer resort. The Angeles National Forest is established, the first national forest in California.
1893
Four Los Angeles banks close due to nationwide economic problems. Sunkist is adopted as the brand name of all California oranges. Mt. Lowe Railway opens. The Bradbury Building opens.
1894
During the nationwide railroad strike, labor rioting breaks out in Los Angeles. U.S. Army troops are deployed to Los Angeles to restore order.
1895
A heavily traveled Los Angeles thoroughfare is given the name Wilshire Boulevard. William Denton discovers the first saber-tooth tiger fossil at La Brea Tar Pits. Later, in 1901, Union Oil geologist William Orcutt uncovers more fossils.
1896
Congress appropriates $3.9 million to build an artificial harbor at San Pedro. Griffith J. Griffith donates donates 3,015 acres to the City of Los Angeles that will ultimately become Griffith Park, the largest urban park in the nation.
1897
The first known automobile to appear on Los Angeles streets arrives, built by S.D. Sturgis in a downtown Los Angeles shop for J. Philip Erie. Erie drives the vehicle with W.W. Workman along for the first ride as L.A.’s first auto passenger. The Mission San Fernando is restored. The City of Long Beach is disincorporated by residents dissatisfied with taxes and prohibition. It is reincorporated within the year.
1898
Los Angeles forms the fifth symphony orchestra in the nation.
1899
The Los Angeles Stock Exchange is established. San Pedro is selected over Santa Monica and Redondo Beach to become the new deep water port for Los Angeles.
1900
The Automobile Club of Southern California is established. Rapid communications between Los Angeles and Catalina Island are established via carrier pigeon.
1901
Henry Huntington forms the Pacific Electric Railway Company that would link Los Angeles by a network of rail cars. The first Japanese settlers arrive in Los Angeles. They begin the fishing and fish-canning industry in Los Angeles. President William McKinley becomes the first U.S. President to visit the city of Los Angeles. Angels flight is built. The famous cable cars continue to run until 1969.
1902
Jan 1 The first Tournament of Roses football game is played between Michigan and Stanford. Michigan wins 49-0.
1903
William Randolph Hearst establishes the Los Angeles Examiner (later to become the LA Herald-Examiner).
1904
William Mulholland announces that Los Angeles has outgrown its local sources of water. The Los Angeles Board of Water Commissioners begins looking into Owens Valley as the new source of much needed water. Fred Eaton, formerly mayor of Los Angeles, had already begun buying up properties in the Owens Valley and champions the idea. Thus begins a long battle between Los Angeles and Owens Valley residents known as the Owens Valley Water Wars. The Mount Wilson Observatory is founded. The number of automobiles in Los Angeles reaches 1,600. Clarence Thompson becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Southern California (USC).
1905
The Owens Valley water project is publicly announced. Los Angeles voters approve a bond to build an aqueduct from the Owens Valley.
1906
Using access to water as a bargaining tool, the City of Los Angeles manages to annex a shoestring strip of land extending south to San Pedro. The first motion picture studio in Los Angeles is established Immaculate Heart College opens. Los Angeles gets its first movie theater. Fossil excavations begin at the La Brea Tar Pits. San Francisco is originally set as the launching point for the first Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii, but, due to the destruction by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the race launches from Point Fermin in Los Angeles to Hawaii. Except for a nostalgic 1939 launch from San Francisco, the race has started in Southern California since.
1907
The great Sunkist advertising campaign begins. Francis Boggs finishes his motion picture The Count of Monte Cristo in Los Angeles. Boggs is later instructed by his Chicago-based employer to set up a permanent film operation in Los Angeles. George Feeth, an Anglo-Hawaiian, introduces surfing to California at Redondo Beach.
1908
Filmmaker Francis Boggs completes In the Sultan’s Power, the first motion picture completely made in Los Angeles. Taxicabs appear in Los Angeles for the first time.
1909
Wilmington and San Pedro are annexed by the City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the first large city in the nation to adopt zoning ordinances that distinguish between residential and commercial properties. Los Angeles Mayor Arthur Harper is successfully recalled for corruption and vice protection. Southern California Edison is founded.
HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1910 to 1929
1910
The first international Air Meet ever is held at Dominguez Field for ten days. The first powered flight in the west occurs at this event. A bomb explosion, resulting in the death of 21 people, destroys the printing plant of the Los Angeles Times. Harrison Otis of the Los Angeles Times unites with Los Angeles business interests to fight the activities of trade unions. Hollywood is annexed by the City of Los Angeles in order to receive water from the city’s new water supply. The 11,050-foot breakwater at Los Angeles Harbor is completed.
1911
Union leaders James and Joseph McNamara are convicted of the Los Angeles Times bombing. Clarence Darrow, their defense attorney, is indicted for bribing the jury but is later acquitted. African Americans are barred from beaches in Manhattan Beach. C.P. Rodgers makes the first transcontinental airplane flight from New York to Pasadena. He makes numerous stops along the way and spends 82 hours and 4 minutes in the air.
1912
The African-American-owned Golden West Hotel is erected on Central Avenue. The first gas station in Los Angeles opens. The Museum of History, Science and Art opens. The Los Angeles County Library is established.
1913
The Los Angeles Aqueduct begins delivering water from the Owens Valley. It was the largest municipal water system in the nation and transformed the San Fernando Valley. The California legislature passes the Alien Land Bill that limits leases and purchases of agricultural land to Japanese persons. Cecil B. DeMille telegrams his New York partners for authority to rent a barn in Hollywood to film the motion picture The Squaw Man. The Southwest Museum opens. Over Los Angeles, Georgia Broadwick becomes the first women to parachute from an airplane.
1914
Heavy flooding causes $10 million in damage, including tremendous damage to the Los Angeles Harbor. With the success of the film The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith, Los Angeles becomes the center of the motion picture industry. Ford Motor Company opens the first auto assembly plant in Southern California in Los Angeles at Seventh and Santa Fe Streets to assemble Model T Fords. The S.S. Missourian becomes the first vessel to dock at Los Angeles Harbor after passing through the Panama Canal.
1915
Prompted by severe flooding from the year before, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District is formed. The San Fernando Valley is annexed by the City of Los Angeles. Direct steamer service is established between Los Angeles and Japan.
1916
Upton Sinclair settles in Pasadena. Construction of the Hollywood Bowl begins on a former Indian campsite. Donald Douglas founds his own aviation company. A large number of African-Americans from the south migrate to Los Angeles. The first overhead power lines in Los Angeles are strung by the Bureau of Power and Light. Captain G. Allan Hancock donates Hancock Park, which includes La Brea Tar Pits, to the county.
1917
The Tournament of Roses switches back to football games from chariot games. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright begins building the "Hollyhock House" for heiress Aline Barnsdall, the first of five houses in the Los Angeles area. For the first time, the population of Los Angeles exceeds that of San Francisco. Forest Lawn Cemetery is established in Glendale.
1918
A 100-inch telescope is installed in the Mount Wilson Observatory. The Second Street Tunnel beneath Bunker Hill opens.
1919
Shell Oil begins oil exploration in Long Beach on Signal Hill. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra is founded. The University of California, Southern Branch (UCLA), is formed from the State Normal School. William Wrigley Jr. and several other investors purchase Catalina Island from the Banning family. The island is then developed and promoted for tourism.
1920
Comedian Fatty Arbuckle is alleged to have sexually assaulted and murdered Virginia Rappe at a party. Although Arbuckle is tried and acquitted, outcries against Hollywood morality moves the movie industry to attempt to change its product and image. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District takes its water search to the Colorado River. A large migration of Mexicans to Los Angeles begins. Southern California passes up Northern California in population.
1921
Simon Rodia, an unemployed Italian immigrant welder, begins work on what would become known as the Watts Towers. It is a tribute to his adopted homeland. The Union Oil Company discovers oil on the Alphonzo Bell Ranch in Santa Fe Springs. Amelia Earhart Putnam's flying career begins in Los Angeles when, at age 24, she takes flying lessons from Neta Snook and buys her first airplane.
1922
A.W. Ross establishes Wilshire Boulevard as a "shopping" district. The Port of Los Angeles is selected as the base of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet. The Rose Bowl is completed. The Hollywood Bowl opens with its first performance and hosts its first Easter sunrise service. Radio broadcasting comes to Los Angeles with stations KHJ, KFI and KNX. "Reb" Spikes recorded the Kid Ory band in a Central Avenue studio, the first audio recording of a black New Orleans jazz band.
1923
Angelus Temple is established. One of the largest churches in the nation, it serves as the home of Aimee Semple McPherson, a faith healer and preacher. McPherson becomes one of the most talked about Los Angeles personalities in the 1920s. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is completed. The Hollywoodland sign is erected.
1924
The first dynamite blast occurs on the Los Angeles Aqueduct as Owens Valley residents attempt to block further diversion of the Owens River to Los Angeles. A small army of Owens Valley residents seizes the Los Angeles Aqueduct near Lone Pine and shuts off the water flow to Los Angeles. Los Angeles City’s population reaches one million. Of these, 43,000 are real estate agents. An opera company is established in Los Angeles. The first airplane to ever fly around the world is built in Santa Monica. It is a Douglas World Cruiser named New Orleans.
1925
The main Public Library Building is completed in downtown Los Angeles. Due to overcrowding at the Vermont Avenue campus of the University of California in Los Angeles, voters in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Venice (then an independent city) approve $1 million in bonds for the purchase of a Westwood site for a new campus. Work begins on a new subway and the Subway Terminal Building on Hill Street. The new Shrine Auditorium opens (replacing the former structure that had been destroyed by fire). Patriotic Hall and Olympic Auditorium are completed. Airmail service begins in Los Angeles. Miss Aline Barnsdall presents her property on Olive Hill as an art center and park. The Sears-Roebuck Building on East Ninth Street opens.
1926
Aimee McPherson disappears while swimming near Ocean Park, only to reappear a week later in a Mexican border town. The Spanish language newspaper La Opinion is first published. The new Los Angeles Central Library opens.
1927
Los Angeles deploys a trainload of World War I veterans to the Owens Valley to patrol the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The first Los Angeles Open golf tournament is held. Warner Brothers ends the silent era of movies with their "talkie" The Jazz Singer. The first movie premier opens at Grauman’s (now Mann’s) Chinese Theater. It was the first time klieg lights were used for a promotion. A throng of 200,000 greets aviator Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis, upon visiting Los Angeles.
1928
Los Angeles is found to have the highest suicide rate in the nation. The San Francisquito Dam bursts, tragically taking 400 lives in the resulting flood. The new Los Angeles city hall is opened. A daily air link between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens for passengers. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is established by charter cities Beverly Hills, Burbank, Compton, Fullerton, Glendale, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Marino, Santa Monica, Torrance, Anaheim and Santa Ana. The Hotel Sommerville (renamed Dunbar Hotel in 1929), a popular center for African Americans, is opened on Central Avenue by Dr. John Sommerville (who, with wife Vada Watson, were the first African Americans to graduate from the USC School of Dentistry). The hotel hosts the first national convention of the NAACP in the west. Christine Sterling begins the restoration of Olvera Street. The Henry E. Huntington Library opens to the public. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon is made. The Los Angeles City Council selects 640 acres of a former wheat, barley, and lima bean field as the location for the new City of Los Angeles Airport. The property is first named Mines Field for real estate agent William W. Mines who arranges the deal. The airport is composed of dirt strips with no buildings.
1929
Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the new Pacific Stock Exchange. Wall Street and crashes one week later. The first motion picture Academy Awards are presented. UCLA moves to the Westwood location. The dirigible Graf Zeppelin lands at Mines Field after flying in from Japan. The Hotel Sommerville, a popular center for African Americans opened only the year before, is sold to Lucius Lomax Sr. The hotel is renamed Dunbar Hotel to honor poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.
HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1930 to 1945
1930
Snow blankets Los Angeles. The Greek Theater opens in Griffith Park. Olvera Street opens to the public after a successful rebuilding and renovation campaign led by Mrs. Christine Sterling. The street is named after Augustin Olvera, Los Angeles’ first county judge. Mines Field (the future LAX) is dedicated and opened as the official airport for Los Angeles. Los Angeles voters agree to spend $12 million in bonds to buy out most of the town properties in Big Pine and Bishop in the Owens Valley, thus ending the Owens Valley water wars. More than 11,000 Mexican immigrants, recruited to work in the U.S., are deported to Mexico from Los Angeles. Laura Ingalls lands in Glendale to become the first woman to fly solo across the United States.
1931
The Los Angeles city flag is adopted by ordinance. Mass deportations of 12,600 Mexicans begin.
1932
The Tenth Olympic Games opens in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was enlarged to seat 105,000 spectators. Construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct begins. Amelia Earhart Putnam takes off from Los Angeles to make the first solo nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States by a woman. Her flight ends in Newark, New Jersey.
1933
The Los Angeles Sentinel, an African-American newspaper, is first published. The Long Beach Earthquake leaves 120 people dead and $41 million in damage. The Mineral Wells Canyon fire claims the lives of 36 men fighting the fire. Los Angeles County General Hospital opens. The Spring Street Newsboys' Gym opened and later become known as the Main Street Gym. This facility became the premier training ground for Los Angeles boxers until the owner's death in the 1970s.
1934
Flooding causes 40 deaths in La Cañada. The Los Angeles Police Department begins using radio equipment. Floodwaters in the La Crescenta Valley and Montrose Territory drown 45 people. The Santa Anita Park Race Track opens. Writer and social activist Upton Sinclair begins his unsuccessful run for the governor’s seat. The tactics used by his opposition marks this campaign as California’s first "dirty" political campaign. The Farmers Market opens. Construction on Parker Dam begins. The first drive-in theater opens.
1935
Griffith Observatory is completed under a bequest left by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith in 1919. By invitation of the Mexican government, Amelia Earhart Putnam takes off from Los Angeles to become the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City. The Douglas Aircraft Company rolls out the first DC-3 aircraft.
1936
Los Angeles sends 130 city police officers to the California-Nevada state line in an attempt to stem the flow of unemployed Los Angeles-bound hitchhikers. Electricity from Boulder Dam reaches Los Angeles.
1937
The home of Clifford Clinton, a crusading reformer and Los Angeles cafeteria owner, is bombed in an attempt to halt his inquiries into corruption in City Hall and police department. The City of Los Angeles purchases Mines Field to be a municipal airfield. At the height of a statewide rabies epidemic, Los Angeles County establishes a Pound Department, created in direct response to 1,700 rabies cases reported in the county during the year.
1938
Severe flooding claims 78 lives and causes almost $25 million in damage. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins channeling the Los Angeles River with concrete. Private investigator Harry Raymond, working with Clifford Clinton in his investigation of City Hall and the police, survives a bomb explosion in his car. It was believed that he would testify against Los Angeles City Mayor Frank Shaw. Two Los Angeles police officers are convicted of the bombing. Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw is removed from office by a special recall election after being linked to vice rackets within the city. California law authorizes non-stop roadways, opening the way for the coming of Los Angeles freeways.
1939
Union Station opens. Upton Sinclair runs for governor on the EPIC (End Poverty in California) platform. The media turns against him, leading to his defeat. Nathanael West publishes his novel Day of the Locust, a pessimistic look at Los Angeles. Raymond Chandler publishes the first of his detective novels set in Los Angeles, The Big Sleep.
1940
A six-mile stretch of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway) is opened, becoming the first freeway in the western United States. Mexican-Americans become the largest ethnic minority group in Los Angeles. Los Angeles becomes the largest commercial fishing port in the nation. The Sepulveda Flood Basin and Dam is completed.
1941
The Los Angeles River overflows and causes floods. The Colorado River Aqueduct is completed and would become the single largest source of water for the Los Angeles area. A Los Angeles City ordinance officially establishes the name for Mines Field as Los Angeles Airport. Hansen Dam is completed.
1942
The Los Angeles River overflows and causes floods. President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 requiring the movement of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps. There they remained until January 20, 1945. In the early morning hours of February 25th, U.S. Army anti-aircraft guns fire nearly 1,500 rounds into the skies over Los Angeles at "enemy aircraft." Evidence of the appearance of any such aircraft is never found. Japanese-American employees of the Los Angeles Police Department are removed from their jobs and sent to the internment camps. A Mexican-American youth, Jose Diaz, is found murdered in a deep swimming hole named Sleepy Lagoon. The police declare war on Mexican-American gangs by arresting hundreds of Mexican-American youths. Seventeen of the youths are convicted of the murder on scant evidence. The Appellate Court later reverses the convictions and the original trial judge and prosecutor are severely reprimanded. A federal program brings Mexican agricultural laborers - braceros - into Los Angeles to make up for labor shortages.
1943
The Los Angeles River overflows and causes floods. Several days of one-sided rioting erupts as hundreds of military men descend upon East Los Angeles to assault Mexican-Americans dressed in "Zoot suits". Police respond by arresting the Mexican-American victims. The rioting ends when military commanders confine their personnel to base. The Los Angeles City government, in an unapologetic mood, proceeds to outlaw the wearing of "zoot suits." Los Angeles experiences its first smog attack (Jul 26).
1944
The Los Angeles River overflows and causes floods. Harry Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, dies. His son Norman assumes control of the publishing empire. The San Bernardino Freeway (10) opens.
1945
An eight-month strike by a major film workers union polarizes the Hollywood community. Preacher Aimee Semple McPherson dies from a sleeping pill overdose.
HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1946 to 1962
1946
The Los Angeles Air Pollution Control Board is established to fight the worsening smog. Commercial airlines move their operations from Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank to Los Angeles Airport. Located in Downey, Los Angeles County opens its first publicly-funded animal shelter.
1947
The Cleveland Rams professional football team begins playing in Los Angeles. About 1,500 war veterans camp out in MacArthur Park to protest the housing shortage in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles State and County Arboretum opens. The "Hollywood Ten," seven writers, two directors, and one producer, are charged with contempt of Congress for their refusal to state whether they are Communists. The Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District is established. The Hollywood Freeway (101) opens. One of the most infamous crimes in Los Angeles history occurs, the "Black Dahlia" murder. Mobster "Bugsy" Siegel is gunned down. Plans are revealed for the world's first "four-level grade separation" near downtown Los Angeles, connecting the 101 (Hollywood) and 110 (Harbor and Pasadena) freeways. Los Angeles County begins using telephone area code 213.
1948
The Los Angeles City government fires 17 city workers when they refuse to sign loyalty pledges.
1949
The Pacific Electric Railway Company asks the Public Utilities Commission for permission to replace its famous "Red Cars" with buses on 11 of its 17 lines. Ed Roybal becomes the first Mexican American to be elected to the Los Angeles City Council since 1881. The Los Angeles Airport is officially renamed Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
1950
Louis H. Boyer begins the largest private land development in the nation with a plan for the 17,000-home community of Lakewood. Los Angeles area Congressman (and future President) Richard Nixon wins a U.S. Senate seat in a campaign against Congresswoman Helen Gahagin Douglas.
1951
Backyard incinerators are banned in an attempt to reduce smog. Seven Mexican-American youths are arrested and beaten by Los Angeles police officers in an incident that becomes known as "Bloody Christmas." Eight officers are later indicted and 36 others are disciplined. The Metropolitan Transit Authority is established. The Los Angeles Rams win their first NFL championship in Los Angeles.
1952
A major earthquake jolts Los Angeles. At least five people are killed. Professor Arie J. Haagen-Smit of the California Institute of Technology first explains conclusively the origins of smog. The Los Angeles City Housing Authority comes under investigation by the California State Un-American Activities Committee. Local congressman Richard Nixon is elected Vice President. U.S. Air Force Plant 52 is established in Palmdale.
1953
The El Pueblo de los Angeles State Monument is dedicated. The Pacific Electric Railway cedes control of its bus and red car lines to Metropolitan Coach Lines. The "Four Level" interchange near downtown Los Angeles is completed. The Sepulveda Boulevard underpass running beneath the LAX runways is opened. It is the first tunnel of its kind.
1954
Los Angeles is hit by its worst ever smog attack, causing air traffic to be diverted from LAX to Burbank and preventing ships from entering the harbor. The J. Paul Getty Museum opens. Simon Rodia completes the Watts Towers.
1955
African-Americans begin serving in the Los Angeles police and fire departments. The Walt Disney Company opens Disneyland in Anaheim.
1956
Los Angeles City lifts its ordinance limiting building heights to 150 feet. California State University at Northridge is established.
1957
The Brooklyn Dodgers move to Los Angeles. Northern Los Angeles County begins using telephone area code 805. The Whittier Narrows Dam is completed.
1958
78,672 people pack the Los Angeles Coliseum to see the new Los Angeles Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers win 6-5 (April 18). The remnants of the former Pacific Electric Railway (including the Red Cars) are placed under the control of the newly created Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. KTLA Channel 5 introduces the first TV news helicopter in the nation in Los Angeles. It is known as the "Telecopter."
1959
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits Los Angeles. Local real estate agents attempt to sell him a home. The Los Angeles Dodgers win their first World Series pennant. The first jet service from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) begins (between Los Angeles and New York). The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena opens.
1960
The Democratic National Convention is held in Los Angeles. John F. Kennedy is nominated as the Democratic candidate for President The Lakers professional basketball team moves from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
1961
The Great Bel Air-Brentwood Fire destroys 484 homes in the worst brush fire in Los Angeles history. The Theme Building is built at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The L.A. City Council later designates it in 1992 as a cultural and historical monument. The last of the old Red Car trolley lines, the Los Angeles to Long Beach line, ceases operations.
1962
The Los Angeles Examiner joins the Herald to become the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Dodger Stadium is opened in Chavez Ravine.
HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1963 to 1979
1963
The first African-Americans are elected to the Los Angeles City Council. The Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series. Leslie N. Shaw is appointed Postmaster General of Los Angeles and becomes the first African-American appointed as such to a major American city. Aerospace ranks for the first time in Los Angeles as the leading industry. The Baldwin Hills Dam disaster occurs. The Vincent Thomas Bridge opens, connecting San Pedro with Terminal Island.
1964
The Music Center for the Performing Arts opens. The Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) is established. Buses become the only mode of rapid transit adopted. The Bracero Program, an effort begun in 1942 to bring in laborers from Mexico, ends.
1965
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens. An incident at a traffic stop involving a white LAPD officer and an African-American man ignites into a riot in the predominantly African-American community of Watts that lasts for six days. 34 people are killed (31 by police gunfire), 1,032 are injured, 3,952 are arrested, and 6,000 buildings are damaged or destroyed. Property damage estimates come to $40 million. The Los Angeles Dodgers win yet another World Series.
1966
Rioting again erupts in the troubled Watts District. The Los Angeles Zoo opens. Busch Gardens opens.
1967
The Forum is opened. The Los Angeles Kings professional hockey team is formed. The passenger liner Queen Mary docks at its new home in Long Beach. The Mark Taper Forum opens. The City of Los Angeles Department of Airports signs an agreement with the City of Ontario (California) to officially make Ontario International Airport a part of Los Angeles' regional airport system.
1968
Senator Robert Kennedy, the Democratic candidate for president, is assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom as he celebrates his victory in the California Democratic primary. Angels Flight Railway ceases operations.
1969
Floods and mudslides cause 91 deaths and $400 million in damage. The Los Angeles Times wins a Pulitzer gold medal for its investigation of city corruption Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty wins re-election against opponent Tom Bradley in a racially charged campaign. The Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center is established. Actress Sharon Tate and six others are found brutally murdered. Charles Manson and six of his followers are tried for the murders a year later. Manson and three female followers are convicted and receive death sentences. Their sentences are never carried out in the wake of California’s later retreat from capital punishment.
1970
TWA begins flying the first wide-bodied jet service (Boeing 747s) out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) between L.A. and New York. The anti-Vietnam War Chicano Moratorium march in East Los Angeles erupts into a riot after police attempt to disperse the crowd. Three are left dead, 60 are injured, and $1 million in property damage occurs. A police tear gas projectile fired into a nearby bar during the confrontation kills television newsman Ruben Salazar. A strike by Los Angeles City schoolteachers paralyzes the school system for four and a half weeks. Superior Court Judge Albert Gietelson sets September 1971 as the deadline for Los Angeles City schools to become fully desegregated. Judge Gietelson later faces an assassination attempt and is then defeated for re-election. His court edit continued to stand.
1971
The Sylmar Earthquake hits causing 65 deaths and $500 million in damage. Yet another Great Bel Air Fire consumes 84 luxury homes. The auto plant in the City of Industry closes. The Palmdale Air Terminal is dedicated and opens air service into Palmdale.
1972
The Los Angeles County/Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center opens. An archeological Indian village site is discovered on the Long Beach State University campus. The Los Angeles Lakers win their first championship.
1973
Despite yet another racially charged campaign, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom Bradley defeats incumbent Sam Yorty to become the first American non-Anglo to become mayor of the City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles experiences the Simi Valley Earthquake. Loyola and Marymount Universities merge to form Loyola-Marymount University.
1974
Attempting to capture the kidnappers of heiress Patty Hearst, police surround and storm a Los Angeles house occupied by Symbionese Liberation Army members. After a televised, furious gunfight, the house catches fire and burns to the ground. Five bodies are found in the ashes. The Los Angeles Ballet is established. The Los Angeles City Council eliminates "sexist" titles from city jobs. The J. Paul Getty Museum moves to Malibu.
1975
The LAPD agrees to destroy secret files that were kept on 5,500 citizens. Emperor Hirohito of Japan visits Los Angeles. Tujunga experiences a major fire. The Southern California Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is formed. The Pacific Design Center (the Blue Whale) opens. The George C. Page Museum opens next to the La Brea Tar Pits. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly), a serious agricultural pest, is first discovered in California in Los Angeles. The fly was believed to have arrived via illegally imported contaminated fruit.
1976
Los Angeles begins experimenting with freeway carpool lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10). An oil tanker explodes in Los Angeles Harbor killing five people and injuring 50. Under the direction of artist Judith Baca, hundreds of teenage artists begin painting what would become the 2,435-foot-long mural "Great Wall of Los Angeles," a depiction of the history of Los Angeles painted along the concrete channel walls of the Tujunga Wash in North Hollywood. The project continues through seven more summers to 1983.
1977
The Oakland Raiders (future Los Angeles Raiders) win the Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tommy Lasorda becomes manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1978
Los Angeles area fires claim 40,000 acres and destroy 270 homes. Congress creates the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. Pasadena hosts its first Doo-Dah Parade.
1979
Los Angeles experiences severe flooding and mudslides. The auto plant in Pico Rivera is closed.
HEADLINE HISTORY
Los Angeles County
1980 to 2000
1980
The Los Angeles River overflows its levees in Long Beach, sparking concern that the flood control system is inadequate to handle a "100-year" flood.
1981
Los Angeles celebrates its 200th anniversary. The first case of AIDS appears in Los Angeles County. Due to a persistent Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly) infestation that started in Los Angeles, California, along with Los Angeles County, finds itself facing quarantine restrictions by other states that threatens to cause considerable damage to the agricultural industry. Authorities launch an aerial spraying assault on infected areas across the state.
1982
L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley is defeated by George Deukmejian in their bid to become Governor of California. The Oakland Raiders professional football team moves to Los Angeles. Sherman Block is elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County. Mayor Bradley and WWII aviation hero General James H. Doolittle conduct groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Tom Bradley International Terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
1983
The D.A.R.E. program is brought to L.A. Unified schools. The Temporary Contemporary Art Museum opens in downtown Los Angeles.
1984
The L.A Raiders defeat the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Tampa, Florida at Super Bowl XVIII. The XXIII Olympiad summer games are held in Los Angeles. The Aerospace Museum in Exposition Park opens. John DeLorean is acquitted in a Los Angeles federal trial. His defense portrayed him as entrapped by federal agents in a drug-selling conspiracy to save his failing auto company. Richard W. Miller, a long-time Los Angeles FBI agent, is arrested on charges of passing government secrets to the Soviets. The San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys begin using the new telephone area code 818. The new $123 million Tom Bradley International Terminal is officially opened.
1985
Roger M. Mahony is appointed to be Archbishop of Los Angeles. The environmental group Heal the Bay is formed in Santa Monica in response to increased pollution of shoreline water. The Los Angeles Music Center Opera is founded.
1986
"Hands Across America" forms a human chain of over 5 million people stretching 4,150 miles (with some gaps in sparsely populated areas) from Long Beach to New York City. An Aeromexico DC-9 jetliner on approach to LAX collides in mid-air with a small Piper aircraft over Cerritos. 82 people are killed in the crash including 15 on the ground. Two separate fires force the closure of the Los Angeles Central Library.· The first Los Angeles Marathon is held. Mayor Tom Bradley is defeated yet again by George Deukmejian in his bid for the California governorship.
1987
Pope John Paul II visits Los Angeles. The Whittier Narrows Earthquake jolts the Los Angeles area. The "Justice for Janitors" labor campaign begins. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly) again reappears in larger numbers, resulting in a quarantine of the Los Angeles area and renewed aerial spraying of malathion.
1988
A stray bullet fired by feuding gang members kills a Long Beach woman in Westwood. The incident brings gang violence to the city’s forefront. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposes stricter limits on Los Angeles County. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly) yet again reappears in larger numbers, again resulting in a quarantine of the Los Angeles area and renewed aerial spraying.
1989
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner is closed leaving Los Angeles with only one major daily newspaper. --- Federal agents seize 20 tons of cocaine and $10 million in cash in an unguarded warehouse. It is the largest seizure of drugs in the U.S. to date. --- Federal law enforcement official declare Los Angeles as the nation’s leading narcotics distribution center. --- LA Unified School District teachers strike for two weeks. --- The 73-story First Interstate Tower is completed in downtown Los Angeles. It becomes the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. --- Eighteen LA Sheriff investigators are suspended on allegations of stealing seized narcotics money. --- Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker," receives the death sentence for 13 counts of murder. --- Another Southern California serial killer, Randy Kraft, is convicted of murdering 16 young men in Orange County. He also receives the death sentence. --- Although L.A. City Mayor Tom Bradley is elected to an unprecedented fifth term, he faces allegations that he was responsible for the deposit of $2 million in public funds in a bank that employed him as a consultant. --- The U.S. Army sends doctors to train at the trauma ward at Martin Luther King Jr/Drew Medical Center. --- The LAPD begins training recruits in the use of semi-automatic weapons. --- Junk bond dealer Michael Milken is indicted in Federal Court on racketeering charges. --- A series of purchases by Japanese companies include Columbia Pictures, the Bel-Air and Biltmore Hotels and the Riviera Country Club. --- The Pan Pacific Auditorium is destroyed by fire. --- The largest infestation of Mediterranean Fruit Flies in Los Angeles County is first found near Dodger Stadium. --- Art Shell is hired to coach the Los Angeles Raiders, becoming the first African American NFL coach. --- Newly retired President Ronald Reagan and his wife arrive from Washington D.C. to live in Bel-Air. --- The Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage opens.
1990
The Long Beach to Los Angeles Blue Line rail opens. --- Six veteran LA Sheriff investigators are convicted of conspiracy to steal money seized from narcotics dealers. --- LAPD Chief Darryl Gates proposes before a Senate Committee that causal drug users be shot. --- California State Senator Joseph Montoya (D-Whittier) receives a 6 1/2 year sentence for selling his vote to special interests. --- State Board of Equalization member Paul Carpenter is sentenced to 12 years in prison for extortion while he served as a State Senator from Norwalk. He is nevertheless reelected two months later but is barred from taking office. --- After the second mistrial in the McMartin child molestation trail, LA District Attorney Ira Reiner announces that he would try defendant Raymond Buckey a third time. --- Dalton Avenue residents accept a $3 million settlement from the City of Los Angeles for a 1988 ransacking LAPD drug raid. --- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan purchases MCA, Inc. --- Giancarlo Parretti of Italy buys MGA-UA. --- A fire in the Metro rail tunnel forces the Hollywood Freeway to close for more than a week. --- The Port of Los Angeles surges ahead of the Port of New York as the nation’s busiest seaport.
1991
After the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms a historic redistricting plan in favor of a growing Latino population, Gloria Molina becomes the first woman and the first Latino this century to be elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. --- Carter Hawley Hale, a major L.A.-based retailer, files for bankruptcy protection. --- A USAir jetliner and a SkyWest commuter plane collide on a runway at LAX. 34 persons are killed and 24 are injured. Investigators point to an error made by an air traffic controller. --- Motorist Rodney King, after being pursued by the Highway Patrol, is stopped and beaten by LAPD officers. Unbeknownst to the officers, the incident is videotaped by George Holliday from his home. The video is subsequently televised on local and national television, sparking outrage and outcries for an investigation. --- Four LAPD officers are charged with police brutality in connection with the Rodney King incident by the Los Angeles District Attorney and are tried and acquitted in a Simi Valley Superior Courtroom. --- An independent commission headed by Warren Christopher releases a report criticizing the LA Police Department’s relationship with the community. --- The LEARN coalition is formed. --- L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputies shoot and kill a gang member at Ramona Gardens housing project, sparking long simmering complaints of police brutality against Latinos. Sheriff Block finally agrees to appoint a citizen panel to recommend reforms. --- Judge Joyce Karlin imposes a light sentence on a Korean-born grocer convicted of fatally shooting a black teenage girl in a dispute over an orange juice bottle. The sentence ignites complaints of racial injustice in Los Angeles courtrooms. --- General Motors decides to close the last Southern California auto-making plant, located in Van Nuys, putting 2,600 people out of work. --- Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers because of his diagnosis as HIV-positive. --- Western, Eastern and Southern Los Angeles County begins use of the new telephone area code 310.
1992
L.A. suffers severe winter flooding. --- Sparked by the acquittals of the four LAPD officers tried for the videotaped beating of Rodney King, Los Angeles erupts into a week of rioting (Apr 29-May 5) resulting in the deaths of 55 people and $785 million in damage. National Guard and federal troops are called in to help restore order. --- Rebuild LA is formed in the aftermath of the destruction under the leadership of former Baseball Commissioner and Los Angeles Olympic Committee head Peter Ueberoth to help regenerate business and opportunity in distressed areas of Los Angeles. --- Willie Williams, Chief of the Philadelphia Police, is named to succeed Darryl Gates as Chief of the LAPD. --- The first Metrolink commuter train begins operations. --- Esa Pekka Salonen becomes conductor of the LA Philharmonic. --- Yvonne Brathwaite Burke becomes the first African American to be elected to the LA County Board of Supervisors. --- Leticia Quezada becomes the first Latina president of the LA Board of Education. --- Embattled LA County Administrative Officer Richard Dixon retires. --- LA Unified School District chief Bill Anton also retires. --- Four term LA City Mayor Tom Bradley announces that he would not seek another term. --- U.S. Congressman Edward Roybal, dean of Los Angeles Latino politics, retires. His daughter wins his seat in Congress. --- The Metropolitan Water District ends water rationing. --- After 30 years, Johnny Carson retires from NBC’s Tonight Show. --- Magic Johnson rejoins the LA Lakers after his retirement in 1991. He retires again after only two months after complaints about him being HIV positive. --- The Spruce Goose, the enormous cargo aircraft built by Howard Hughes that was displayed in Long Beach next to the Queen Mary, is disassembled and shipped to Oregon. --- Los Angeles based Robinson’s and May Company merge. ---Security Pacific Bank merges into Bank of America. --- Some of the easternmost communities of Los Angeles County begin using new telephone area code 909 along with San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. --- A Bellflower kindergartner becomes the one-millionth person to sign up for a library card in the Los Angeles County Library System.
1993
Wildfires hit Los Angeles County resulting in two deaths and the loss of 720 structures. --- Richard Riordan is elected as the first new mayor in Los Angeles in 20 years. --- The trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez ends in a mistrial. The brothers were charged with the brutal slaying of their wealthy parents. The trial receives a great deal of attention from the Los Angeles media. --- Malibu suffers a major wildfire resulting in three deaths. The area is declared a disaster area. --- Former LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell are convicted in Federal Court on charges of violating the civil rights of Rodney King. --- The first openly gay City Council Member, Jackie Goldberg, is elected in Los Angeles. --- Two men plead guilty and two others are convicted in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. --- The Los Angeles Central Library is finally reopened after suffering two devastating fires in 1986. --- LA’s first subway, the Red Line, is opened. --- The Museum of Tolerance is opened in West Los Angeles. --- The Bullock’s Wilshire store is closed. --- Universal City opens City Walk. --- The new Century Freeway (Interstate 105) opens.
1994
Los Angeles experiences the 6.7 Richter Scale Northridge Earthquake at 4:31 a.m. (Jan 17), which results in 61 deaths and damage estimates of up to $20 billion. --- Nicole Brown Simpson, the wife of football star and actor O.J. Simpson, and friend Ronald Goldman are found brutally murdered. O.J. Simpson is charged with the double murder, but disappears before he can be arrested. He reappears with long-time friend Al Cowlings in a white Ford Bronco, leading a widely televised slow-motion police chase along the freeways of Orange and L.A. Counties. Simpson is arrested without incident after arriving at his Brentwood home. --- World Cup Soccer games are held at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. --- The Peterson Automotive Museum, Craft and Folk Art Museum and Museum of Miniatures open on Museum Row. --- Entertainment moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen form the new entertainment company Dreamworks SKG. --- While tunneling sixty to eighty feet beneath Hollywood for the MTA subway, construction worker Michael Guinther makes a series of Ice Age fossil discoveries, some estimated to be as old as 280,000 years.
1995
The Ambassador Concert Hall in Pasadena closes. --- Los Angeles is given an 80% chance of a major earthquake within 30 Years. --- Olympic gold medalist diver Louganis reveals that he has had AIDS virus since before the 1988 games in Seoul. --- Heavy Rains cause mudslides and floods. --- The son of actor Carroll O'Connor commits suicide, which leads O’Connor to accuse his son’s suspected drug supplier. --- An audit of the MTA subway project finds MTA officials had shredded documents, leaked bid data, and attempted to hide apparent misconduct. --- Chasen's, the legendary Hollywood restaurant, closes after 58 years. --- The Los Angeles Rams football team moves from Anaheim to St. Louis. The Raiders also leave Los Angeles to return to Oakland. --- The Port of Long Beach becomes the nation's leading handler of ocean containers. --- UCLA wins its first national basketball championship in 20 years when it defeats the University of Arkansas. --- Nearly 1,000 people march in Downtown L.A. to demonstrate the loss of relatives lost to gun violence. --- After a long feud, composer Schoenberg’s heirs announce their intention to take back the collection of his archives from the USC School of Music. --- The L.A. City Council passes tighter rules on sales of bullets. Gun dealers in city limits would be required to check IDs and keep records on buyers. --- In three incidents, 3 Carole Little employees are slain. Threats and violence against the L.A. apparel maker cause fear throughout the L.A. fashion industry. --- Walt Disney pays $19 billion to buy Capital Cities/ABC. --- U.S. Senator Bob Dole criticizes Hollywood for debasing American culture. --- The Long Beach Naval Shipyard and 3,000 jobs are slated for termination by a Defense Department base closure panel. --- The Unabomber makes a July 4th threat to blow up an airplane at LAX and then calls it a prank in a follow-up letter. Security is still tightened. --- University of California Regents vote to end affirmative action programs at UCLA and all other UC campuses. The action ignites protests on and off the campus. --- U.S. Immigration agents raid garment sweatshops in El Monte, uncovering what resembles a slave operation of 60 Thai workers. 55 arrests are made at three locations in the Los Angeles area. --- Taped interviews with LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman are publicly aired in the O.J. Simpson murder trial to impeach the detective’s testimony that he had never used racist language. --- A 3-year-old girl is killed and two others hurt by gunfire when their car makes a wrong turn onto a dead-end Eastside street and is ambushed by gang members. --- A San Fernando Valley man shoots and kills a teenage tagger after the youth threatens him and demands his wallet.--- 474 days after his arrest as a double-murder suspect, a jury finds O.J. Simpson not guilty in his highly publicized trial. --- A severe budget crunch leads Los Angeles County supervisors to begin layoffs of county workers. --- The first L.A. County Health Services layoffs are made. The federal government provides funds to save some positions. --- L.A. City Council member Nate Holden is exonerated in a sexual harassment lawsuit in which the plaintiff is ruled as having welcomed advances from the councilman. --- MTA chief executive White is fired from his job. --- Two children are killed in a freak accident as a garbage truck rod rips into a school bus. --- The environmental group American Rivers calls the Los Angeles River the most endangered urban waterway in the nation.
1996
The Army Corps of Engineers begins a $312-million controversial construction project to build concrete walls up to eight feet high atop levees along the last 12 miles of the Los Angeles River. --- Wells Fargo Bank buys out First Interstate Bank, the largest bank based in Los Angeles. --- After threats of secession, especially by the San Fernando Valley, L.A.’s City Hall begins to seriously discuss city charter reform. Mayor Riordan and the City Council fail to agree on a plan, which leads to a court decision siding with the mayor. The Mayor’s plan goes onto the April ballot. --- Mayor Riordan questions the City council and community groups over whether LAPD chief Willie Williams should serve a second term as chief. The mayor takes exception to how the chief manages the department. --- Joseph E. Drew becomes the second chief executive to quit the MTA in a year. --- The FAA begins operations at the new $29 million 277-foot tall air traffic control tower at LAX. --- A subway-tunneling machine twice gets stuck while boring through the Santa Monica Mountains. --- MTA’s inspector general and a U.S. Senate committee begin investigating the transit agency. --- The largest brush fire in Southern California since the 1993 Malibu fires burns through the Santa Monica Mountains. --- Congress reduces funding for the MTA subway project. --- Employees complain about a mural at MTA’s downtown headquarters. The artwork is covered-up for a period of time. The mural depicts a naked running man in a series of photographic images taken more than a hundred years ago by photographer Edward Muybridge. --- After a two-year legal battle, the MTA agrees to an out-of-court settlement requiring it to deploy at least 152 more buses, reduce fares and provide safer rides. A lawsuit had been filed against the MTA accusing it of favoring rail projects for more affluent commuters over poor and minority bus riders. --- The $498 million Harbor Freeway Transit Way opens, a 10.3-mile bus and car-pool facility running down the median of the Harbor (110) Freeway. The project includes the first-ever viaduct built along an existing freeway in Los Angeles. --- The $75 million Skirball Cultural Center and Museum opens in Sherman Oaks. --- Demolition crews begin removing the cupola of 120-year-old St. Vibiana’s Cathedral. Preservationists obtain a temporary restraining order to halt the demolition. The Los Angeles Conservancy battles the Los Angles Archdiocese in court to rescue the earthquake-damaged church. --- Due to ongoing legal battles with preservationists over the old cathedral, the Los Angeles Archdiocese seeks out an alternate site. A parking lot owned by the county between Temple Street and the Hollywood Freeway is purchased for $10.85 million. Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo unveils a preliminary model of the new cathedral. --- The historic Angels Flight railway reopens on Bunker Hill. --- Ernest Fleischmann, legendary managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, retires after 27 years. --- The City of Los Angeles bans the use of gas-powered leaf blowers by gardeners near residences. --- Tommy Lasorda retires as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1997
Most of southeastern Los Angeles County, including Long Beach, switches from telephone area code 310 to 562. This region had switched from area code 213 to 310 only five years earlier. --- Bill Cosby’s son, Ennis, is murdered while trying to change a tire on his disabled car. A Russian émigré is later convicted of the crime. --- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Pathfinder project provides close-up photographs from Mars. --- The California Assembly passes a law making it easier for the San Fernando Valley to secede from the City of Los Angeles. --- Two heavily armed bank robbers wearing body armor engage police in a horrific shootout in North Hollywood. --- The City of Los Angeles imposes a business tax on home-based writers. --- LAPD Chief Willie Williams agrees to vacate his job in exchange for a $375,000 severance package. Bernard C. Parks is selected to succeed him as the new Chief. --- Incumbent Richard Riordan defeats State Senator Tom Hayden for a second term as mayor of the City of Los Angeles. --- The San Gabriel Valley begins using the new telephone area code 626. --- County health inspectors briefly close L.A. City Mayor Richard Riordan’s restaurant, The Original Pantry. Prior to this, the venerable restaurant had boasted of never having closed. --- The Long Beach Naval Shipyard closes. Historic preservations oppose the demolition of the former base but the decision is made to move ahead with developing the property into an ocean container shipping facility. Citing national security concerns, new opposition arises when the City of Long Beach proposes leasing the facility to a Chinese government-owned shipping company. --- The Getty Center opens. --- Hepatitis-infected strawberries are discovered in Los Angeles public schools. --- Former Black Panther Party leader Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt is freed after his 1972 conviction for a Santa Monica murder is reversed. --- L.A. City Councilman Mike Hernandez is arrested for cocaine possession. He apologizes for his drug abuse and enters a rehabilitation program. A movement of outraged constituents of Hernandez fails to organize a recall election. --- After the Los Angeles City Council postpones a ban on gas-powered blowers, it decides to reduce the penalty once the ban took effect. --- The El Nino storms hit Southern California.
1998
El Nino storms continue to batter Southern California, causing tremendous damage along the Malibu coastline. --- Construction begins on Staples Center - the newest Los Angeles area sports arena. --- Gardeners demonstrate in Downtown L.A. against a Los Angeles city ordinance prohibiting the use of leaf blowers. --- Peter O’Malley, son of the man who first brought the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, sells the team to Rupert Murdock. --- All but the most downtown portion of Central Los Angeles County still using telephone area code 213 begins to use the new area code 323. --- A freeway chase ends in a live televised suicide as a disgruntled HMO patient sets his parked pickup truck on fire at a freeway interchange and shoots himself. Television stations change their policies towards live airing of possible violent confrontations. --- Los Angeles County voters pass a ballot measure to deny the use of county transit sales tax for additional subway projects. Planned extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City are scrapped. --- Seeking to bring equality with dogs, Mayor Richard Riordan proposes to license cats in Los Angeles. After much howling by cat-loving Angelenos, the proposal is shot down by the City Council. --- The $100 million Long Beach Aquarium opens to huge crowds. --- The Internet site LosAngelesAlmanac.com is launched as the first comprehensive almanac covering Los Angeles County.
1999
Northern Los Angeles County switches from telephone area code 805 to the new area code 661. This area of the county was originally the first in 1957 to break from area code 213. --- Voters again amend the LA City Charter, last changed in 1924, to disperse power throughout city government as protection against corruption. New charter provisions give the Mayor of Los Angeles, one of the least powerful of the nation’s big city mayors, greater power. It also provides for the formation of neighborhood councils, ostensibly allowing greater local participation in city government. The latter provision addressed one of the key concerns raised by the San Fernando Valley secession movement. --- A terrible fire causes $1.2 million worth of damage to St. Thomas The Apostle Catholic Church in the Pico-Union area. Cardinal Roger Mahony cancels a trip to visit the mostly Central American immigrant congregation and conduct services in the church parking lot. --- The Hollywood segment of the MTA Red Line opens. --- FBI agents arrest 23-year fugitive Kathleen Ann Soliah in a St. Paul, Minnesota, and residential neighborhood. Soliah was wanted on a 1976 Grand Jury indictment for plotting to kill LAPD officers by planting bombs underneath police cars. She was alleged to have been a member of the 1970s radical Symbionese Liberation Army group. --- A jury awards a Los Angeles family a record-breaking $4.9 billion against General Motors for pain and disfigurement and punitive damages. The family had been returning from a 1993 Christmas Eve church service when a drunk driver rear-ended their Chevrolet Malibu at the 89th and Figueroa intersection, causing the Malibu to burst into flames. The punitive damages are later reduced to $1.8 billion. --- A neo-Nazi gunman from Washington State enters the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and begins shooting. Two staff members and three children are wounded. Television pictures of police leading a chain of children away from the center are replayed around the world. The gunman is alleged to have later been responsible for the murder of postal carrier Joseph Ileto in Chatsworth. The alleged gunman turns himself over to police in Las Vegas a day later and is returned to Los Angeles. He faces federal murder charges and subsequent state charges on murder, attempted murder and carjacking. --- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) loses contact with their $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter as it begins to orbit Mars. NASA reveals that a simple arithmetic conversion from English measurements to metric measurements had not been made, dooming the space vehicle. Later during the year, JPL loses yet another Mars mission, the $165 million Mars Polar Lander. For inexplicable reasons, the space vehicle disappears as it begins to descend towards the Martian surface. --- The LAPD is hit by its worst scandal in 60 years when former officer Rafael Perez alleges that he and other Rampart Division officers engaged in illegal actions including perjury, staged shootings, false arrests, false evidence, witness intimidation, beatings, theft and drug dealing. Perez offered to cooperate on these allegations in exchange for a reduced sentence in his cocaine theft conviction. The District Attorney begins a review of hundreds of cases related to these allegations. The convictions of four men are consequently overturned and they are released from prison. --- Los Angeles Times management falls under fire for agreeing to run a special editorial piece in the newspaper about Staples Center and, at the same time, share advertising income from the piece with the Center. Reporters on the piece knew nothing about the arrangement. Legendary Times Publisher, Otis Chandler, comes out of retirement to openly criticize the move.
2000
Former LAPD officer Rafael Perez agrees to a plea bargain with prosecutors for a five-year sentence on drug theft charges in exchange for providing informing on alleged corruption and police abuses within the Rampart Division. Perez fingers about 70 other officers who were alleged to have been involved or known of falsifying of police reports and framing and even injuring and beating suspects. Dozen of LAPD officers are consequently relieved of duty pending investigations. One alleged victim of these abuses, Javier Francisco Ovando, is released from serving a 23-year sentence for assault on police officers. Perez had admitted to shooting then framing Ovando. After filing a lawsuit against the City, Ovando receives a $15 million settlement. Later in the year, three former Rampart officers are convicted on police corruption charges coming out of the investigation (a fourth officer is acquitted). The convictions, however, are overturned when a Superior Court Judges agrees that the jury had considered irrelevant evidence. --- The Los Angeles Board of Education votes to abandon the Belmont Learning Center construction project after receiving reports of toxic gas leakage from the former oil field. By years end, with increased pressure for finding new school space for the burgeoning pupil population and over much debate, Superintendent Roy Romer and members of the Board begin to reconsider proposals for reopening the site as an educational facility. --- Justice for Janitors wins a 25 percent wage increase over three years for office janitors after a high profile three week strike supported by Hollywood celebrities, Jesse Jackson and presidential candidate, Vice President Al Gore. --- Major stockholders of the Times-Mirror Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, agree to merge the company into The Tribune Company of Chicago in a deal valued at $6.8 billion. Los Angeles becomes the largest U.S. city without a locally owned, general interest daily newspaper. --- The U.S. Justice Department threatens to take the City of Los Angeles to court on allegations of police and civil rights abuses. After much debate and political maneuvering, Mayor Richard Riordan agrees to expand the LAPD Internal Affairs Division, use more sophisticated methods to track officer behavior, grant more power to the Police Commission and the Inspector General, and keep detailed race and gender statistics on police stops. --- Lori Gonzalez, the granddaughter of LAPD Chief Bernard Parks, is murdered in her car as she drives out of a fast food establishment and is fired upon at close range by a gunman. --- Los Angeles County’s murder rate begins to inexplicably climb after a decade-long decline. In response, Chief Parks pledges to put more officers on the streets of Los Angeles. --- About 30,000 delegates, party workers, media personnel and protestor descend on Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention held in Staples Center. The LAPD takes serious precautions to prevent civil disorder by protestors as experienced in the Seattle last year. Critics, however, decry what they describe as excessive assault by police against mostly peaceful demonstrators when a few protestors begin throwing bottles and rocks at police over the fence. LAPD Chief Bernard Parks even goes so far as to apologize to peaceful demonstrators who were roughed up by riot police. --- The last three stations of the 15-year, $4.7 billion Metro Subway project open in North Hollywood, Universal City and Hollywood/Highland. --- Interim Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines reorganizes the district into 11 sub-districts. --- Former Colorado Governor Roy Romer is selected to become Superintendent of the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District. --- Drivers and operators of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) begin a strike that halts bus and rail service for 32 days. Low-income, public transit-dependent riders are most affected. --- In response to unacceptable wage increase proposals, Los Angeles County workers begin "rolling" strikes that culminate in a countywide strike. The strike lasts for only one day when union leaders find weak support from rank and file members and they face an appeal from Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to not withhold public health services to less advantaged citizens. The union ends up compromising with the County by signing an agreement for half of their demands. --- Screen Actor Guild (SAG) actors end a six-month strike against television commercial production in exchange for compensation from commercials appearing on cable television. The strike brought economic hardship to technical production workers dependent on production work. --- Steve Cooley defeats two term incumbent Gil Garcetti with 64 percent of the vote. The candidates engaged in an unprecedented 15 debates. --- Democrat Adam Schiff defeats incumbent Republican James Rogan for the 27th Congressional District seat. Both candidates spent $10 million on campaign, making it one of the most expensive U.S. Congressional contests in the nation. --- An increase in holiday electricity usage and sharply rising power prices under a backfiring deregulation plan threatens the financial stability of Southern California Edison. The company warns of bankruptcy unless utility rates can be increased. In contrast, the City of Los Angles Department of Water and Power (DWP), a municipal-owned utility exempt from deregulation, basks in a surplus of power and the ability to insulate its customers from rate hikes. --- The 8,000-member Faithful Central Bible Church of Inglewood purchases the Great Western Forum in Inglewood for $22.5 million.
Historical Sites & Structures
Los Angeles County

Los Angeles History

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Early Settlement of Los Angeles

The Early Settlement of Los Angeles

Los Angeles County - Timeline - History