June 2

Transportation in 1873 
Construction began on Clay Street in San Francisco for the world’s first cable railroad. The line was completed and ready for a trial run on August 2, 1873.

Crime in 1876
Charles Earl Bowles, English born gentleman bandit known as Black Bart, held up Wells Fargo Stagecoaches 28 times. The third robbery was in Siskiyou County, five miles north of Cottonwood.

 

 

Dance in 1933
San Francisco Ballet debuted at War Memorial Opera House. It is one of the oldest, most distinguished ballet companies in America. 

Rolph in 1934
James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, San Francisco mayor (1912-1931) and California Governor (1931-1934), died in San Francisco at age 64. He lived at the same Mission District home throughout his life.

Kellerman in 1936
Sally Kellerman, actress, activist, author, producer, singer and voice-over artist, was born in Long Beach. Most recently she provides voice talent to “The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange” (2013).

Haid in 1943
Charles Haid, actor and director, was born in San Francisco. He is best known for his roles in police dramas, like “Hill Street Blues” (1981-1987) and “NYPD Blue” (1994).

Literature in 1959
Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem “Lysergic Acid” in San Francisco. He had recently experienced LSD for the first time. It was at the first international conference on LSD therapy at the Palo Alto Mental Research Institute, financed by the U.S. Army and the CIA to study the effects of psychotropic drugs on human behavior.

Hutton in 1979
Jim Hutton, film and television actor, died in Los Angeles at age 45.  He is best remembered for his role as Ellery Queen (1975-1976) in the series of the same name. He is the father of actor Timothy Hutton.

Education in 1988
St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in San Francisco announced plans to accept young women beginning in the Fall of 1999.

Sports in 1989
The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in 22 innings, 5-4. It was one of the longest games in team history.

Government in 1992
Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were nominated to U.S. Senate seats, making California the first state to have two women in the U.S. Senate.

Government in 1998
Proposition 227 won with 61% support. That effectively ended California’s 30 years of bilingual education by requiring that all children be taught in English. 

Business in 2005
Sun Microsystems Inc., in Santa Clara, agreed to buy Storage Technology Corp. for $4.1 billion in cash. That strengthened its presence in the data storage market.

Welnick in 2006
Vince Welnick, musician, died in Sonoma County at age 55. He became the Grateful Dead’s keyboard player in 1990 after other drummers died.

Government in 2008
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a record $6.5 billion budget.

Ferrer in 2008
Mel Ferrer, actor, director and producer, died in Santa Barbara at age 92. His films included “Lili” (1953) and “The Brave Bulls” (1951) and he appeared in episodes of “Falcon Crest” (1981-1984) and “Murder She Wrote” (1985-1989).

Perez in 2011
Lt. Vincent Perez, a San Francisco firefighter, died after being caught in a flashover at a 4-story home.

June 3

Missions in 1770
Father Junipero Serra dedicated Mission San Carlos de Monterey at Carmel. It was first established at the presidio in Monterey but moved in 1771 to the Carmel Valley on a hillside, “two gunshots” from the ocean.

Ranchos in 1846
Rancho Palos Verdes was deeded. Today Palos Verdes is a wealthy Los Angeles suburb of approximately 41,643 residents.

Government in 1849
Brevet Brigadier-General Bennet Riley, Military Governor of California, ordered “the formation of a State constitution or a plan for a territorial government.”

Business in 1878
Mammoth Mining Company was organized to mine Mineral Hill, which caused a brief Mono County gold rush. Fifteen hundred people moved to Mammoth City that year. But the company shut down in 1880 and population declined to less than 10. Today it is a hiking and skiing community.

Transportation in 1913
San Francisco retired the last horse-drawn streetcar, more than 20 years after the introduction of electric streetcars.

Race Relations in 1943
U.S. Navy sailors and Marines battled Latino youths in what became the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles.

Giannini in 1949
Amadeo Peter Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, died in San Mateo at age 79. Among other businesses, he helped grow the motion picture and wine industries in California.

Music in 1956
Santa Cruz banned Rock and Roll. City authorities announced a total ban on rock and roll at public gatherings, calling the music “Detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth and community.”

Tranportation in 1984
San Francisco’s California Street cable cars returned to service after nearly 20 months and $58.2 million in redesign and construction costs.

Accidents in 2001
Daniel Katz, age 24, disappeared while flying over San Bernardino National Forest. This began one of the most extensive and high-tech searches in the area’s history. His wrecked rented plane was found on a steep mountainside north of Rancho Cucamonga in 2008.

Wasserman in 2002
Lew Wasserman, talent agent and movie executive, died in Beverly Hills at age 89. He was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood history.

Crime in 2007
Paris Hilton attended the MTV Movie Awards then reported to jail. She was to serve a 45-day sentence for a probation violation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. Hilton was released after three days but a Los Angeles County judge ordered her back to jail.

Bromige in 2009
David Bromige, poet and professor, died in Sebastopol at age 75. He was Sonoma County’s second poet laureate (2001-2003).

 

Arness in 2011
James Arness, actor, died in Los Angeles at age 88. He played in some 50 films and television shows, including “Gunsmoke” (1955-1975), one of the longest running series.

Government in 2013
California Coastal Commission reached a $2.5 million settlement with Sean Parker, Napster co-founder, who spent $10 million to build a large movie-set-like wedding site in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits.

June 4

Transportation in 1849
The USS Panama anchored in San Francisco Bay. There were already about 200 deserted ships in the harbor because their crews had abandoned them for the gold fields.

Transportation in 1849
Eighteen sailors from the USS Ohio abandoned their ship to go to the gold diggings.

Transportation in 1849
The Pacific Mail Steamship Co.’s ships – California, Oregon, and Panama – established a regular round trip schedule ferrying gold seekers and mail between Panama and San Francisco.

Business in 1863
One man was killed and another died of wounds a few days later in a shootout over eggs on the Farallon Islands. Eggs, valuable in San Francisco, were free for gathering on the islands off the coast. David Batchelder and 27 armed men sailed there to harvest them, challenging the Egg Co. for the business. 

Post Offices in 1867
The Pleasanton post office opened. It should have been Pleasonton but a clerical error changed the spelling.

Transportation in 1876
The Transcontinental Express train arrived in San Francisco, 83 hours and 39 minutes after leaving New York City.

Business in 1942
Capitol Records opened in Los Angeles, founded by songwriter Johnny Mercer. It was first West Coast-based label in the U.S. It began the practice of giving free records to radio DJs to promote air play. It signed The Beach Boys in the early 1960s.

 

 

Race Relations in 1943
Some 200 sailors formed a caravan of about twenty cars and taxis to hunt Mexican American youth dressed in zoot-suits. They traveled through downtown Los Angeles and the eastside of the city, out to the suburbs as far as Belvedere Gardens.

Sports in 1958
Hank Sauer and B. Schmidt, San Francisco Giants, became the second players in MLB history to hit consecutive pinch home runs.

Sports in 1964 
Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodger, pitched his third no-hitter to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0.

Sports in 1970 
The San Diego Padres picked Mike Ivie as their first overall draft choice. He debuted at age 18 and became one of only five MLB players to hit two pinch-hit grand slams in the same season.

Sports in 1971 
In the longest game in their history, the Oakland A’s beat the Washington Senators in 21 innings, 5-3.

Crime in 1972
Angela Davis, political activist, professor and author, was acquitted of killing a white guard. She was arrested, charged, tried and acquitted of conspiracy in the armed take-over of a Marin County courtroom, in which four persons died in 1970.

Labor in 1975
California Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law. It was the first law in the U.S. that gave collective bargaining rights to farm workers.

Protests in 1989
Thousands of people gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to protest the slaughter of students and other citizens at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. 

Sports in 1990
Ramon Martinez, Los Angeles Dodgers, struck out 18 Atlanta Braves, 6-0. That tied Sandy Kofax’s club record.

Sports in 1992 
San Jose voters rejected the Giants plan to build a new stadium south of San Francisco.

Government in 1999
Senators Diane Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act. It authorized $300 million over 10 years to restore the lake’s water.

Business in 2001
Hewlett-Packard, in Palo Alto, agreed to pay $400 million to Pitney Bowes to settle a 6-year-old patent dispute over printer technology.

Business in 2003
Palm Inc., in Sunnyvale, said it would buy rival Handspring, headquartered in Mountain View, in a stock deal valued at $195 million.

Brown in 2003
Delmar Brown, legendary fly fisherman, died in Watsonville at age 84. He practically invented fly fishing, was known for the Del Brown Crab Fly and catching a 127-pound tarpon using 8-pound test line.

Business in 2005
Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp. in Redwood City, reportedly planned a joint venture with Harvard University to create a database and journal to track improvements in world health with a $115 million grant. But he withdrew the donation to protest the resignation of Harvard President Lawrence Summers in 2006.

Crime in 2007
Nine Hmong leaders, a former Laotian military general, and a former California National Guard officer were arrested for their alleged plot to overthrow the communist government of Laos. They were charged with violating the US federal Neutrality Act. In 2009 federal prosecutors in Sacramento dismissed charges against Vang Pao, the former Laotian general.

 

Environment in 2008
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought after two years of below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff and a court-ordered restriction on water transfers.

Business in 2008
Google, in Mountain View, announced leasing 42 acres at Moffet Field, a former naval air station nearby. The annual rent was initially $3.7 million.

Crime in 2009
Federal officials charged Angelo Mozilo with civil fraud and illegal insider trading. He built Countrywide Financial Corp., in Calabasas, into a giant high-risk mortgage company. He was accused of deceiving shareholders and profiting on confidential information.

Wooden in 2010
John Wooden, college basketball’s legendary coach, died in Los Angeles at age 99. The “Wizard of Westwood” built one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports at UCLA and was one of the most revered coaches ever.

June 5

Literature in 1848 
John C. Fremont submitted his Geographical Memoir to the U.S. Senate. He named the entrance to San Francisco Bay “Chrysopylae,” meaning Golden Gate in Greek to honor the ancient Golden Horn of Constantinople.

Post Offices in 1867
San Juan Capistrano post office opened. By 1877 San Juan Capistrano had a school, telegraph office, post office, two stores, hotel, four saloons and forty to fifty homes, mostly of adobe.

Business in 1875
Pacific Stock Exchange formally opened in San Francisco. It organized chaotic trading in Comstock Lode silver mines. 

Accidents in 1936
George Zink, 40-year-old San Francisco Bay Bridge worker, fell to his death. He was the 22nd man killed on the transbay bridge construction.

Race Relations in 1943
Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. Racial violence broke out for days between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city and Latino youths, recognizable by zoot suits they wore.

Civil Rights in 1959
Forty San Francisco Bay Area teachers, accused of being Communists, were subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The American Civil Liberties Union said it would do everything possible to block the hearings.

Crime in 1968 
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. presidential candidate, was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian. Kennedy died the next day.

Government in 1973
Doris Davis was elected mayor of Compton. She became the first African-American woman to govern a city in a major metropolitan area.

Sports in 1977 
The Los Angeles Dodgers retired Walt Alston’s #24. He managed the Brooklyn-then-Los Angeles Dodgers between 1954 and 1976. He was known as “The Quiet Man.”

Crime in 1997
Cremated remains of some 2,000 people were found in a Discovery Bay storage facility. They were kept by a flying service that was supposed to dispose of the remains at sea or over the Sierras.

Public Health in 1981
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five people in Los Angeles had a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. Those turned out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.

Torme in 1999
Mel Torme, Jazz and pop singer, died in Los Angeles at age 73. Called the “Velvet Fog,” Torme was best known for standards.

Sports in 2002
Magic Johnson, legendary Los Angeles Laker, was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ramone in 2002
Dee Dee Ramone, founding member, songwriter and bassist for the Ramones, died in Hollywood at age 49. He struggled with drug addiction for much of his life.

Reagan in 2004
Ronald Reagan died in Bel-Aire. Actor and politician, he served as Governor of California (1967–1975) and President of the United States (1981–1989).

Crime in 2005
FBI agents in Lodi arrested Hamid Hayat, age 22, for training at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for supporting terrorists by training with them in Pakistan.

Government in 2005
Big city mayors from around the world signed urban environmental accords. That ended a 5-day U.N. World Environment conference in San Francisco.

Crime in 2009
Raymond Lee Oyler, a 38-year-old convicted arsonist, was sentenced to death for starting the Esperanza wildfire (2006). Five federal firefighters died defending a rural home from raging, wind-driven flames.

Forsman in 2009
Clyde Forsman, singer and accordion enthusiast known for his full body tattoos, died in San Francisco at age 94. He was a founding member of “Those Darn Accordions.”

Government in 2012
California voters approved Proposition 28. It reduced the time citizens can serve in the state Legislature from 14 years to 12, but allowed a member to serve the entire time in one house.

Crime in 2012
Aldo Joseph Baccala, age 71, of Sonoma County, was charged with 167 felony counts of grand theft, securities fraud and elder abuse after investigators uncovered his $20 million Ponzi scheme.

June 6

Business in 1850 
Levi Strauss made his first pair of sturdy pants for sale to gold miners. Today Levi Strauss & Co. is the world’s largest brand-name apparel manufacturer.

Accidents in 1853 
The Carrier Pigeon, a merchant sailing vessel from Boston, wrecked and sank when it struck a reef off Whale Point, later called Pigeon Point. That prompted the building of the Pigeon Point lighthouse in San Mateo County.

Inventions in 1871
Hannah G. Suplee and  John H. Mooney, of San Francisco, patented an Improvement in sewing machines.

Business in 1914
Three movie companies in Los Angeles and San Francisco merged to form the Paramount Picture Corp. Recent releases include “Mission: Impossible” (1996), “Transformers” (2007),  the Marvel Cinematic Universe series (2008–11) and Indiana Jones (1981–2008).

Movies in 1930
A talkie newsreel was shown at the Marion Davies and Embassy Theaters as well as motion-picture houses throughout Northern California and Nevada.

Government in 1978 
Passage of Proposition 13 cut California property taxes by 57%, beginning a downward trend in state budgets. Spending for California public schools, which during the 1960s ranked among the top nationally fell to 50th in 2014.

 

 

Haley in 1979
Jack Haley, stage, radio, and film actor and singer, died in Los Angeles at age 81. He is best known as the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).

Business in 1986
Ronn Teitelbaum opened Johnny Rockets, a diner themed restaurant, on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles. By 2000 it grew to 138 restaurants in 25 states.

 

Getz in 1991
Stan Getz, legendary tenor jazz saxophonist, died in Malibu at age 64. He was best known for popularizing bossa nova with a worldwide hit single “The Girl from Ipanema” (1964).

Sports in 1992
The Sacramento Surge defeated the Orlando Thunder, 21-1, in the World Bowl 2 of the World League of American Football played in Montreal, Canada. 

Public Health in 1996
San Francisco became the first city in the nation to sue the tobacco industry. It sought an end to advertisements aimed at children and repayment of millions of public dollars spent to treat smoking-related illnesses.

Public Health in 2001
A Los Angeles jury awarded more than $3 billion to Richard Boeken, a lifelong smoker. It decided Philip Morris was responsible for his lung cancer. The award was reduced to $50 million. Boeken died in 2002.

Business in 2004
Oracle, in Redwood City, issued a $5.1 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft, headquartered in Pleasanton, at $16 per share.

Business in 2005
Apple Corp., in Cupertino, confirmed plans to switch to microprocessors made by Intel Corp., headquartered in Santa Clara.

Business in 2005
PropLogis, the largest U.S. real estate investment trust, announced plans to buy developer Catellus Corp. for $4.9 billion. Both were headquartered in San Francisco.

Business in 2009
Palm Inc., in Sunnyvale, introduced the Pre smart phone. Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, accused the Pre of copying elements of the user interface. Two days later Apple unveiled an updated versions of its popular iPhone.

Business in 2011
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple in Cupertino, unveiled a service called iCloud to store music, photos, documents, and electronic books and wirelessly transfer them between Apple devices. 

Sports in 2011
The Golden State Warriors, in Sacramento, hired Mark Jackson to be their new head coach. Jackson, a former NBA star and television sports commentator had never coached a professional basketball team.

Williams in 2013
Esther Williams, teenage swimming champion and Hollywood movie star, died in Beverly Hills at age 91. She appeared in “aqua musicals” in the 1940s and 1950s, featuring elaborate synchronized swimming and diving.

June 7

Lasuén in 1736
Padre Fermín Lasuén was born in Spain. He governed the California mission system three years longer than Junipero Serra and founded Mission Santa Barbara (1786),  La Purísima Concepción (1787), Santa Cruz (1791), Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (1791), San José (1797), San Juan Bautista (1797), San Miguel Arcángel (1797), San Fernando Rey de España (1797) and San Luis Rey de Francia (1798).

Overland Journeys in 1828
Jedediah Smith, on his second journey to California, led a party of people down the Klamath River. They were starving when Indians brought them food. Smith’s party turned north to Oregon where most were killed by Umpqua Indians. 

Transportation in 1860
Workmen began laying track for the Market Street Railroad in San Francisco. It opened on July 4, 1860, as both a horse car and steam train line.

Organizations in 1875
The California Rifle and Pistol Association was founded. Today its members represent competitive and recreational shooters, hunters, youth, women, police, firearm experts and trainers and people who own guns to defend their families.

Libraries in 1879
San Francisco Public Library opened. Andrew Hallidie, promoter of the cable cars, was a major public library advocate. A new Civic Center Library, which opened in 1996, was a setting for the film “City of Angels” (1998).

Inventions in 1887
Amelia Waterhouse of San Francisco patented a reversible broiler or toaster.

Movies in 1909 
Mary Pickford, “America’s Sweetheart,” made her screen debut at age 16 then made a film each week for the rest of the year. She later co-founded United Artists and was an original member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Harlow in 1937
Jean Harlow, legendary film actress and 1930s sex symbol, died in Los Angeles at age 26. She was known as the “Blond Bombshell” or the “Platinum Blonde” and popular for her “Laughing Vamp” characters.

Radio in 1955
Lux Radio Theater permanently signed off the air. The show launched in New York in 1934 then moved to Los Angeles in 1936 and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

Radio in 1959 
KLX-AM in Oakland changed its call letters to KEWB. Today it’s KNEW-AM, a business talk-radio format.

Public Health in 1967
Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic opened in San Francisco. It began with a $500 donation from All Saints Episcopal Church. The clinic started a nationwide free clinic movement. 

Crime in 1967
Three Moby Grape band members were arrested on Mt. Tamalpais for having sex with underage girls after a concert at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. 

Theater in 1974
Steve Silver’s “Beach Blanket Babylon” premiered at the Savoy Tivoli in San Francisco. Its songs that poke fun at pop and political culture are performed by actors wearing enormous hats/wigs and gaudy costumes. Today it is the longest-running musical revue in the world. 

Miller in 1980
Henry Miller, writer, died in Pacific Palisades at age 88. His Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), Tropic of Capricorn (1939) and The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (1949–59), were banned in the U.S. until 1961.

Sports in 1982
Steve Garvey, Los Angeles Dodgers, became the fifth player to play in 1,000 consecutive games. Overall with the Dodgers, he played in 1,727 games for 14 seasons and hit .301 with 211 homers and 992 RBI.

Science in 1999
Scientists at U.C. Berkeley’s Lawrence Livermore Labs reportedly created elements 118 and 116 from krypton-86 and Lead-208. But in 2002 Victor Ninov was accused of faking the data. False data by Ninov was also reported on elements 110 and 112 from experiments in 1994 and 1996.

Science in 2007
U.C. San Francisco scientists reportedly identified a new species of bacteria, Bartonella Rochalimae. An American tourist was sickened by it after spending weeks trekking in Peru. 

Business in 2010
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple in Cupertino, unveiled the iPhone 4. Apple sold some 72 million iPhones in fiscal year 2011.. 

Crime in 2013
Richard Ramirez, the 53-year-old known as the “Night Stalker” killer, was executed at San Quentin Prison in Marin County. He had been on death row or nearly 28 years.