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San Francisco

consolidated city and county in California, United States

46 dated entries naming San Francisco, drawn from 39 separate years between 1749 CE and 2010 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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18th century

  • 1749December 7 – Father Junípero Serra begins his missionary work in the New World, 100 days after departing on a voyage from Spain and a day after his arrival at Veracruz in Mexico. During the period from 1769 to 1782, Serra will be the founder of nine missions in the Province of Las Californias, including the sites around which future California cities will be built, including Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá in 1769 and Mission San Francisco de Asís in 1776.source
  • 1769May 14 – Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey, and begin the settlement of California.source
  • 1776June 17 – Lt. José Joaquín Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio, landing on June 29 and, with Father Francisco Palóu, constructing the Mission San Francisco de Asís ("Mission Dolores") of the new Presidio of San Francisco, the oldest surviving building in the modern-day city.source
  • 1776October 9 – Father Francisco Palóu founds the Mission San Francisco de Asís, in what becomes San Francisco.source

19th century

  • 1822August 22 – The English ship Orion lands at Yerba Buena on the North American west coast of Mexico, under the command of William A. Richardson. The area is later acquired by the U.S. and becomes the site of San Francisco.source
  • 1847January 30 – Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco.source
  • 1849February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins, with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco after the 4-month, 21-day journey.source
  • 1849November – English-born merchant Joshua Norton, the future "Emperor Norton", arrives in San Francisco.source
  • 1850April 15 – San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.source
  • 1855May 3 – American adventurer William Walker and a group of armed mercenaries (filibusters) sail from San Francisco in California south to Central America to attempt to conquer Nicaragua.source
  • 1859September 17 – In San Francisco, Joshua Norton proclaims himself to be His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.source
  • 1862March 13 – A smallpox epidemic in San Francisco spreads to British Columbia.source
  • 1873February 20 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco.source
  • 1876June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.source
  • 1880August 24 – The SS Columbia completes her maiden voyage, arriving without incident in Portland, Oregon, after a stopover in San Francisco.source
  • 1886December 17 – English adventurer Thomas Stevens concludes the first circumnavigation by bicycle in Yokohama, having set out on his penny-farthing from San Francisco in 1884.source
  • 1889November 23 – The first jukebox goes into operation, at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.source
  • 1891January 12 – St. Mary's Cathedral is dedicated in San Francisco.source
  • 1899April 13 – The British freighter City of York departs from San Francisco with a crew of 27 and a cargo of timber bound for Fremantle, but never reaches its destination, wrecking on the reefs at Rottnest Island.source
  • 1899July 12 – The British freight ship City of York sinks after striking reefs at Rottnest Island, due to a misunderstanding of signal flare fired from the island's lighthouse. The ship, which was nearing the end of a voyage from San Francisco to Fremantle, Western Australia, evacuates its men in two lifeboats, but one of the boats overturns and 11 men, including the captain, drown.source

20th century

  • 1908March 23 – American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is assassinated in San Francisco by two Korean immigrants, unhappy with his recent support for the increasing Japanese presence in Korea.source
  • 1911January 18 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, the first time an aircraft has landed on a ship.source
  • 1915October 21 – The United Daughters of the Confederacy holds its first annual meeting outside the South, in San Francisco. Historian General Mildred Rutherford addresses the gathering on the "Historical Sins of Omission & Commission", of Yankee historians.source
  • 1919September 6 – The U.S. Army expedition across North America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.source
  • 1926November 10 – In San Francisco, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boarding house landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.source
  • 1928September 3 – Philo Farnsworth demonstrates to the press in San Francisco the world's first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices.source
  • 1933June 22 – Dianne Feinstein, American politician, Senator and mayor of San Francisco (d. 2023)source
  • 1934October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.source
  • 1944December 24 – The first complete U.S. production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is presented in San Francisco, choreographed by Willam Christensen. It will become an annual tradition there, and for the next ten years, the San Francisco Ballet will be the only company in the United States performing the complete work.source
  • 1951September 8 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, 48 representatives out of 51 attending sign a peace treaty with Japan, formally ending the Pacific War; the delegations of the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia do not sign the treaty, instead favoring separate treaties.source
  • 1966August 29 – the Beatles end their U.S. tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It is their last performance as a live touring band.source
  • 1967April 15 – Large demonstrations are held against US involvement in the Vietnam War in New York City and San Francisco. The march, organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, from Central Park to the United Nations drew hundreds of thousands of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Belafonte, James Bevel, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, who marched and spoke at the event. A simultaneous march in San Francisco is attended by Coretta Scott King.source
  • 1968December 9 – Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco, together with the computer mouse, at what becomes retrospectively known as "The Mother of All Demos".source
  • 1969October 11 – The Zodiac Killer shoots and kills taxi driver Paul Stine in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco; this is the serial killer's last known murder.source
  • 1975September 22 – In San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.source
  • 1976March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974.source
  • 1976October 6 – In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford incorrectly declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there is at the time).source
  • 1976September 24 – Patty Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974 (an executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter will set her free after only 22 months).source
  • 1977November 8 – San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.source
  • 1977September 4 – The Golden Dragon massacre, involving rival Chinatown gangs, takes place in San Francisco, United States. Five are killed.source
  • 1978December 4 – Dianne Feinstein succeeds the murdered George Moscone, to become the first woman mayor of San Francisco; she will remain in office until January 8, 1988.source
  • 1978March 28 – San Francisco's City Council signs the United States's most comprehensive gay rights bill.source
  • 1979May 21 – Dan White is convicted of manslaughter, rather than murder, for the assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, after using what would become known as the "Twinkie defense" and persuading a jury that the crime was not premeditated. The maximum sentence is seven years imprisonment, with eligibility for early parole, prompting the "White Night riots" in the gay community.source
  • 1991July 1 – In the U.S., telephone services go down in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco as a result of a software bug, affecting nearly 12 million customers.source

21st century

  • 2007January 9 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco, California; starting the new era of smartphones with this invention. The phone would be released in June.source
  • 2010July 16 – First (test) Instagram posts made by co-developers Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom in San Francisco; the service launches publicly on October 6.source

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