November 20

California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Ranchos in 1784
Rancho Dominguez was deeded. The Spanish land grant covered 75,000 acres, including today’s entire Los Angeles harbor. This became the site of the first U.S. national aviation meet and later home to California State University Dominguez Hills.

Ranchos in 1784
Rancho de los Nietos was deeded. The Spanish land grant covered 300,000 acres, including today’s Anaheim, Long Beach, Fullerton, Norwalk, Seal Beach and Whittier.

Spanish and Mexican ranchos of Los Angeles County (1919).

Hypolite Bouchard.

War in 1818
Hippolyte de Bouchard, the French-Argentine privateer, and his 200 men prepared to attack Monterey. He attacked Spain’s colonial capital of Alta California as part of the Argentine revolt against Spanish rule. 

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, began keeping a diary: “Came to this place on the 31st of last month that it snowed. We went on to the pass, the snow so deep we were unable to find the road, when within 3 miles (4.8 km) of the summit, then turned back to this shanty on the Lake… We now have killed most part of our cattle, having to stay here until next spring & live on poor beef without bread or salt. It snowed during the space of eight days with little intermission, after our arrival here.”

Charles Bowles, also known as Black Bart.

Crime in 1880
Charles Bowles, English born gentleman bandit known as Black Bart, left poems at the scene of his crimes. He held up Wells Fargo stage coaches 28 times. The 15th was in Siskiyou County, a mile from the Oregon border.

Protests in 1969  
Native Americans and their supporters seized Alcatraz Island in the name of “Indians of All Tribes.” They offered to buy the island for $24 in beads and cloth, demanded an American Indian University, museum and cultural center. The occupation lasted 19 months.

Sports in 1969  
Willie McCovey, San Francisco Giants first baseman, won the National League Most Valuable Player award.

Sports in 1990 
Rickey Henderson, Oakland A’s outfielder, won the American League Most Valuable Player award.

Sacramento Kings.

Sports in 1990 
The Sacramento Kings won their last game on the road for over a year.

Environment in 1996 
San Francisco posted signs along the waterfront warning fisherman of health hazards from fish caught in the Bay.

Crime in 2003 
Phil Spector, record producer, was charged with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his home in Alhambra.

Phil Spector mug shot (2014).

Plastic bag litter.

San Francisco in 2007 
Large grocery stores in San Francisco stopped using plastic bags when a new city ordnance banning plastic bags took effect.

San Francisco in 2012 
San Francisco Board of Supervisors let people build hundreds of 220-square-foot residential units. Up to 2 people could live in the tiny apartments.

Microapartment.

November 21

Exploration in 1701
Father Eusebio Kino, map maker and first European to travel overland to California, reached the Colorado River. He proved California was not an island.

Nicolas Sanson map showing California as an island (1656).

Margaret and Patrick Breen

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary that a group of men, “Stanton & his Indians” set out to cross the mountains and return with a rescue party.

Post Offices in 1849
A U.S. post office opened in Monterey.

Illustration from Joseph Warren’s A Tour of Duty in California (1849).

Pony Express rider passing a transcontinental telegraph construction crew.

Communication in 1861
The last Pony Express rider reached San Francisco. The Pony Express ended soon after the Transcontinental Telegraph was completed.

Flight in 1921 
The first mid-air refueling took place over Long Beach. Wesley May stepped from the wing of his Lincoln Standard biplane to the wing of a Curtiss JN-4 with a 5-gallon can of gasoline strapped to his back.

First mid-air refuling (1921).

Lava Beds National Monument petroglyph

Parks in 1925
Lava Beds National Monument opened. The 46,000 acres in Siskiyou and Modoc Counties are known for lava fields, petroglyphs and as the site of the Modoc War (1872-1873).

Japanese American Internment in 1945
Manzanar Detention Camp closed. This detention camp in the Owen’s Valley was part of the mass imprisonment of some 110,000 Californians of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Technology in 1969
The first permanent ARPANET link, which grew into the Internet, was made between UCLA and Stanford Research Institute.

Sports in 2001
A series of 100 foot waves rolled in at the Mavericks Invitational surfing competition. The yearly event is near Pillar Point Harbor, south of San Francisco.

IM Flash Technologies.

Business in 2005
Intel Corp., in Santa Clara, and Micron Tech. announced plans to form a joint venture to make flash memory for removable storage and handheld devices.

November 22

Gold in 1842
Francisco Lopez found 20 ounces of gold while herding cattle on his niece’s ranch in Placerita Canyon, 35 miles north of the Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Mural at the Placerita Canyon Nature Area depicting Francisco Lopez y Arbello’s discovery of gold.

Margaret and Patrick Breen

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary that it froze hard the previous night and there was “No account from those on the mountains.”

London in 1916
 Jack London, one of America’s first literary superstars, died in Glen Ellen at the age of 40. He wrote some 20 novels, 200 short stories and 400 nonfiction articles but is best known for Call of the Wild (1903).

Jack London

Pan American Martin M-130 China Clipper, (1935).

Flight in 1935
The China Clipper took off from Alameda bound for Manila, carrying 111,000 letters. It was the first trans-Pacific airmail service. Delivery took a week. The 25-ton plane with a 130 foot wingspan was the largest aircraft in the world.

King in 1943
Billie Jean King, legendary tennis player in the 1960’s and 70’s was born in Long Beach. She was an early advocate for gender equality in sports.

Shemp Howard.

Howard in 1955
Shemp Howard, one of The Three Stooges, died in Hollywood at age 60. Howard also had a successful career as a solo comedian.

West in 1980
Mae West, actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol, died in Los Angeles at age 87. Her career spanned seven decades but she is best known for “She Done Him Wrong”  (1933).

Sports in 1981
Dan Fouts, San Diego Chargers quarterback, passed for 6 touchdowns vs Oakland, 55-21.

Flight in 1988
The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber prototype was revealed In Palmdale.

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit.

Movies in 1995
Pixar, then headquartered in Point Richmond, released “Toy Story”, the first feature-length film created completely with computer-generated imagery.

Science in 2001
Stanford and U.C. San Francisco researchers reported a list of genes responsible for multiple schlerosis (MS).

Multiple sclerosis.

Cupid’s Span by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (2002). Photograph by James Fike.

San Francisco in 2002
Cupid’s Span, by Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen, was set on the Embarcadero at the foot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

November 23

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Exploration in 1542
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, returning to Mexico after exploring the coast, anchored at San Miguel La Posesion (called Catalina Island today). He planned to stay for the winter and repair his ships. But Tongva warriors attacked and while trying to rescue some of his men, Cabrillo stumbled and splintered his shin. The injury became infected. He developed gangrene and died on January 3, 1543.

Exploration in 1602
Sebastián Vizcaíno, explorer of New Spain, the Philippines, the California coast and Japan, changed Cabrillo’s name of the island, Victoria, to Santa Catalina in honor of one of his ships.

Sebastian Vizcaino drawn by Barron Park School students

Rancho Cucamonga

Exploration in 1819
Padre Joaquin Pasqual Nuez, who was traveling with Gabriel Moraga’s expedition to punish Amajabas Indians for killing Christian natives, named the mountain Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Cucamonga. 

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary: “Same weather; wind W. The expedition across the mountains returned after an unsuccessful attempt.”

https://youtu.be/0FpVPegyww0

Charles Bowles, also known as Black Bart.

Crime in 1882
Charles Bowles, English born gentleman bandit known as Black Bart, left poems at the scene of his crimes. He held up Wells Fargo stage coaches 28 times. His 25th was five miles from Cloverdale in Sonoma County.

Inventions in 1889
The first jukebox began playing at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. Built by the Pacific Phonograph Company, it had tubes attached to an Edison phonograph inside an oak cabinet. Four coin-activated tubes operated individually, so four people could listen to the same song at the same time.

Louis Glass, of San Francisco, phonograph patent (1889).

Flight in 1929
Universal Aviation Corporation began transcontinental service from New York to Los Angeles with an overnight stop in Kansas City. There passengers transferred to a Western Air Express flight the next day for the rest of the journey. The trip cost nearly $300 and took approximately 36 hours, including the Kansas City stop, to complete.

Universal Aviation Corporation.

Sports in 1960
Frank Howard, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder, was voted National League Rookie of Year.

Sports in 1962
Maury Wills, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop, was named National League Most Valuable Player.

Sports in 1991
The Sacramento Kings ended the NBA’s longest losing streak of 43 games on the road.

Nike Women’s Marathon (2013).

Sports in 2005
The 2nd Annual Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco, with some 15,000 runners, raised $14 million to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Today it is the largest women’s marathon in the world.

San Francisco in 2008       
Brian Goggin unveiled his art installation, “Language of the Birds,” in San Francisco’s North Beach. The $120,000 effort involved hundreds of people.

Business in 2010     
A U.S. federal jury in Oakland decided that SAP AG should pay Oracle Corp, in Redwood City, $1.3 billion for copyright infringement. In 2011 A U.S. District Judge called the award excessive and reduced it to $272 million.

November 24 

Overland Journeys 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary: “Fine in the morning. Towards evening, Cloudy & windy. Wind W. Looks like snow. Freezing hard.”

Post Offices in 1908
A U.S. post office opened in Las Plumas. It’s in the Sierra foothills gold country, near the Feather River, close to where Dame Shirley wrote The Shirley Letters (1851-52). Las Plumas flooded when Lake Oroville, a reservoir, was created in 1967.

Lake Oroville

Prisons in 1927        
National Guard troops battled 1,200 prisoners at Folsom State Prison following a Thanksgiving Day break out. Ten convicts and two guards died.

Folsom State Prison (1927).

Ruth Rowland Nichols.

Flight in 1930
Ruth Rowland Nichols set a women’s transcontinental speed record flying from New York to California in a Lockheed-Vega. She beat Charles Lindbergh’s time. A friend of Amelia Earhart, Nichols held world records for speed, altitude and distance for a female pilot.

Literature in 1947
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Pearl, was published. Born in Salinas, Steinbeck wrote twenty-seven books, several of which take place in California. 

John Steinbeck

Government in 1947 
The Un-American Activities Committee found 10 California actors and directors in contempt because they refused to reveal whether they were Communists. They became known as the “Hollywood Ten.”

Business in 1949       
Alexander and Justine Cushing opened the Squaw Valley Development Company. Their Lake Tahoe area ski resort began with a double chairlift and two rope tows.

Warren Miller, photo by Ray Atkeson, Squaw Valley (1950).

Protests in 1964 
The U.C. Berkeley Academic Senate defeated a motion supporting the Free Speech Movement on campus. Students insisted the administration lift the ban on political activities on campus and recognize their right to free speech and academic freedom.

Fires in 2007
A fast-moving wildfire destroyed 53 homes and spread through seven square miles in the hills above Malibu. Five men were charged with starting the fire which caused over $100 million in losses.

Wildfires (2007).

Government in 2010       
Kamala Harris became the first woman, first African American and first Indian American in California to be elected as the state attorney general.

Kamala Harris.

November 25

Sebastian Vizcaino drawn by Barron Park School students

Exploration in 1602 
Sebastián Vizcaíno, explorer of New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, California coast and Japan, named San Clemente Island. He was searching for safe ports for Spanish galleons returning from the Philippines.

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary: “Wind about W.N.W. Cloudy. Looks like the eve of a snow storm. Our mountaineers intend trying to cross the Mountain tomorrow if [the weather is] fair. Froze hard last night.”

Margaret and Patrick Breen

DiMaggio in 1914       
Joe DiMaggio, baseball star, was born in Martinez. He is best known as a Yankee slugger and for marrying Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio on their wedding day (1-14-1954).

Fawnskin Post Office.

Post Offices in 1929
The Fallsville post office opened, not far from Fawnskin. The San Bernardino mountain community named for Valley of the Falls is popular with bicyclists.

Movies in 1940
Woody Woodpecker first appeared in Knock Knock. That was the first time Woody’s trademark laugh, voiced by Mel Blanc, was heard.

Hollywood in 1947 
Movie studio executives blacklisted the “Hollywood Ten.” The actors and directors who they would not hire were jailed because they refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Music in 1976
The Band played a farewell concert, “The Last Waltz,” at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. They were joined on stage by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Charles, The Staple Singers and Eric Clapton.

Sports in 1986
Jose Canseco, Oakland A’s, won the American League Rookie of Year award.

Disneyland in 1996
The Disneyland “Main Street Electrical Parade” ended after 24 years. The replacement show, “Light Magic,” failed. The “Main Street Electrical Parade” returned in 1999 for Walt Disney World’s Millennium Celebration and lasted until April 1, 2001. “SpectroMagic” started the next day.

Wilson in 1998       
Flip Wilson, comedian and actor, died in Malibu at age 64. He is best known for the “Flip Wilson Show” (1970-1974).

Crime in 2010   
U.S. authorities found a tunnel used to smuggle drugs between Mexico and San Diego. It was the second tunnel found in the region in less than a month. Investigators seized some 20 tons of marijuana. 

Del Monte.

Business in 2010      
Del Monte, in San Francisco, agreed to be acquired by a group led by KKR & Co. in a $4 billion deal.

Crime in 2011        
A shopper in Los Angeles pepper-sprayed other Black Friday bargain hunters. Robbers in northern California shot at customers to steal their purchases, marring the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poQNiny22_w

November 26

Ranchos in 1839 
Rancho Los Medanos, a 8,859-acre Spanish land grant, was deeded. Its name means “sand dunes.” Today it is home of suburban Contra Costa County communities, across the bay from San Francisco.

Rancho diseno

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, traveling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary: “Began to snow yesterday in the evening. Now rains or sleet. The mountaineers don’t start to day.”

Sports in 1868
The first baseball game played in an enclosed field in San Francisco was at The Recreation Grounds, at 25th & Folsom.

Team photo of unknown San Francisco baseball team, circa 1876

Crime in 1911        
John Edwards, known as “The King of the Opium Ring,” was arrested near his San Francisco home. Police found more morphine, cocaine and opium than ever found in the possession of one man.

Government in 1913    
San Francisco Chief of Police White issued an order stopping women from visiting local pavilions during prizefights.

A prizefight pavilion.

Crime in 1933     
A mob dragged John Holmes and Thomas Thurmond out of the Santa Clara County jail and hung them at St. James Park. Holmes and Thurmond were arrested for kidnapping and murdering Brooke Hart, young heir to a San Jose department store fortune. 

Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes.

Sports in 1965
Jim Lefebvre, Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman, was voted National League Rookie of Year.

November 27

Exploration in 1826
Jedediah Smith reached Mission San Gabriel. While forging trails to California and Oregon, he survived three massacres and a bear mauling. When Smith reached San Diego, his expedition was the first across the southwest, crossing the Mohave Desert and the San Bernardino Mountains from Utah.

Jedediah Strong Smith

Margaret and Patrick Breen

Overland Journeys in 1846
Patrick Breen, travelling with the Donner Party, wrote in his diary: “Continues to snow. The ground not covered. Wind W. Dull prospect for crossing the mountains.”

Sports in 1924
A record crowd, some 57,000 people, watched a high school football game between Los Angeles High School and Polytechnic High School. They tied, 7-7.

Government in 1941        
Jefferson declared itself an independent state in “patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon” and planned to “secede every Thursday until further notice.” The rebellion was short-lived but long-remembered.

Proposed state of Jefferson.

Crime in 1978 
Dan White, former San Francisco city supervisor, shot and killed mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk. Diane Feinstein became acting mayor, then was elected by the Board of Supervisors to complete Moscone’s term.

Government in 1996      
A federal judge blocked enforcement of a California initiative to dismantle affirmative action, saying civil rights groups had a “strong probability” of proving it unconstitutional.

Greyhound bus crash (2005).

Accidents in 2005     
A Greyhound bus overturned on U.S. Highway 101 near Santa Maria when the driver feel asleep. Two people died and dozens injured.

Crime in 2006      
Two men were arrested for stealing almonds and walnuts in the Central Valley. About $400,000 of stolen nuts were recovered, part of an estimated $2 million stolen over the past year.

Almond orchard in bloom.

Google.

Business in 2007   
Google, in Mountain View, announced plans to develop renewable energy as part of a plan to clean the environment and reduce the company’s own power bill.

Business in 2007     
Wells Fargo & Co., in San Francisco, announced plans to take a $1.4 billion pretax charge tied to increased losses on home equity loans.

Movies in 2013
Walt Disney Animation Studios released “Frozen.” The highest-grossing animated film of all time stars Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell.