History of California

The history of California begins thousands of years ago and includes important events like the California Gold Rush^[1]; the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad^[1]; the 1906 San Francisco earthquake^[2]; the start of the American gay rights movement^[3]; and the Silicon Valley high-tech boom^[4].

California was first a Spanish colony and then a part of Mexico. The United States began to control the area during the Mexican-American War. California became a U.S. state in 1850.^[5]

Hollywood and Yosemite National Park are in California.^[1] So are many historic sites, like 18th- to 19th century missions; Alcatraz Federal Prison; the Golden Gate Bridge; the first Chinatown in the country; and the Manzanar internment camp, where Japanese-Americans were interned during WWII.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "Early California History: An Overview | Articles and Essays | California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
2. ↑ "The 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake". California Department of Conservation. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
3. ↑ California’s LGBTQ+ Rights Movement: Pioneering Towards Progress and Equality (PDF). Shirley Ann Weber, California Secretary of State.
4. ↑ "Silicon Valley - Tech Hub, Innovation, Growth | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-09-29. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
5. ↑ Cite error: The named reference :0 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).