Page 644 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

642  C ALIFORNIA

“Forty-Niners” after the year of
their arrival. The discovery of
silver deposits in the western
Sierras, as well as the completion
of the transcontinental railroad in
1869, brought greater prosperity.
But along with the changes
came racial tensions, ignited by
the influx of Chinese immigrants,
who were brought to help build
the railroad. Immigrants have
since contributed to the state’s The popular Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica
cultural richness as well as its
overpopulation and social tensions. At the same time racial discrimination
On April 18, 1906, San Francisco and violence persisted, state schools
was struck by what was, at the time, the lacked funds, and Hollywood found itself
country’s worst ever earthquake, and attacked by politicians as a hotbed of
many believed that California’s heyday Marxist Communism.
was over. However, the state’s subsequent Since the 1960s, however, California
revival was linked to Hollywood’s lucrative has been the birthplace of some of the
film industry. Movies and the new country’s most significant social move-
medium of television made California ments. The University of Cali fornia at
the symbol of America’s postwar resur- Berkeley was home to the Free Speech
gence – suddenly everybody wanted Movement, and Haight Ashbury in San
the prosperous middle-class existence Francisco was the mecca for “hippies.”
they believed was common here. Today, Silicon Valley is a leading center of
the computer industry, and many world-
KEY DATES IN HISTORY class high-tech firms are based here. Yet,
1542 Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrilho despite progress and prosperity, California
discovers California is still earthquake-prone.
1769 The first mission is set up at San Diego
1776 New presidio set up in San Francisco Society & Politics
1781 Pueblo of Los Angeles founded
1848 US annexes California. Gold discovered If the US as a whole is a melting pot of
1853 Levi Strauss lands in the Bay Area and begins people, California is an ethnic microcosm.
selling his canvas trousers It receives the highest number of
1854 Sacramento becomes the state capital immigrants (more than 200,000 every
1869 Transcontinental railroad completed
1891 Stanford University opens year), and its racial makeup is the nation’s
1893 San Andreas Fault discovered most diverse. The percentage of whites
1906 Earthquake strikes San Francisco and African-Americans is lower than the
1911 The Law of the Range is the first film made national average, but the Asian population
in Hollywood
1929 Actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. hosts the first is more than triple the national level.
Academy Awards presentation Hispanics, too, account for more than a
1945 UN Charter signed in San Francisco quarter of all Californians. This ethnic
1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassinated cocktail is most visible in such cities as
1978 Apple Computer’s first personal computer San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
1984 Los Angeles hosts its second Olympics
1992 Statewide racial riots Popu lation growth has inevitably
2001 Energy crisis; rolling blackouts conserve disturbed the balance between rural and
electricity urban sectors. Since the 1950s, farmlands
2003 Election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as 38th have declined as the need for housing
Governor of California
has arisen. Today, the fast-expanding

640-643_EW_USA.indd 642 11/3/16 11:00 AM