1500 1600 1700 1800 1848 1855 1865 1873 1879 1895 1895 1898 1906 1907 1908 1912 1916 1918
1579: Sir Francis Drake anchors at Drake's Bay, Point Reyes 1603: Sebastian Vizcaino charts California coast; misses San Francisco Bay   1769:Don Gaspar de 1806: Russian aristocrat Ni- 1848: James Marshall finds 1855: James King of 1865: Charles and 1873: University of 1879: Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty 1895: Fremont Older 1895: Fremont Older 1898: Ferry Building opens 1906, April 17th: Enrico 1908: Intense campaign of 1913: Legislature passes Red Light Abatement Act; Barbaby Coast brothels close 1916: Preparedness Day Bombing. After a bitter waterfront strike, a bomb explodes during a great parade, killing 10 people and wounding 40; Labor figures Tom Mooney and Warren Billings charged with murder 1918: Twin Peaks Tunnel connects Parkside district with downtown
  Portola finds San kolai Rezanov meets Concha gold in Sutter's Fort. Gold William starts M.H. de Young California Medical becomes editor of old becomes editor of old Caruso sings role of Don education and rat extermina-
  Francisco Bay Arguello, Spanish Governor's Rush changes California evening Bulletin start Chronicle School begins   San Francisco Bulletin San Francisco Bulletin   Jose in Carmen   tion by Dr. Rupert Blue ends
  daughter; they fall in love.         1880: Eadweard Muybridge's   1899: Frank Norris bubonic plague in city.    
  1776: Mission Do-     1849: Thousands of 1856: Morning Call 1869: Transconti-nental railroad connects San Francisco to U.S. 1874: New Mint on "Zoöpraxiscope" projects the 1895: James D. Phelan 1895: James D. Phelan publishes McTeague 1906, April 18th: Massive earthquake   1913: Bulletin is the first jour- 1918: Fremont Older leaves Bulletin, becomes editor of Hearst's Call; exposes District Attorney Fickert in Mooney case.
    lores founded   1833: Missions   immigrants overwhelm begins Fifth Street opens world's first moving pictures elected mayor. elected Mayor   strikes at 5:12 a.m. City Hall and other 1908: Graft prosecutor Heney nal to print word "jazz."
      secularized   city. Prices skyrocket.         1900: First case of buildings destroyed. Fires burn almost shot in court. His assailant  
    1776: Presidio     1856: James King of 1875: Palace Hotel 1882: Oscar Wilde visits and lectures in San Francisco.   1895: Arnold Genthe bubonic plague all of commercial and much of residential shot dead in cell. Police Chief 1914: Board of Supervisors or-
    founded     1835: William Rich-   1849: Stephen Massett William shot by Su-   opens begins photographing   areas. Over 3,000 dead, 200,000 homeless. Biggy disappears in bay; his ders all cemeteries vacated, ex-
      ardson builds first   gives city's first theatri- pervisor Casey. 2nd 1870: State legisla-     Chinatown 1901: Teamster- The Graft Prosecution: L-R Francis Heney, William Burns, Fremont Older, Rudolph Spreckels body found two weeks later. cept Mission Dolores & Presi-  
      house in town   cal performance Committee of Vigi- ture designates por- 1877: Anti-Chinese 1882: U.S. Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act Waterfront strike
  dio. Thousands of remains go 1919: Ina Coolbrith made Poet Laureate of California
   
    lance hangs Casey. tion of city as riot; Chinatown bu-
  1909: San Francisco Seals win first league championship to Colma.
      1846: Captain Montgomery of the Portsmouth raises American flag, claims city for the United States   1849-1851: Six major   Golden Gate Park sinesses burned   1901: Eugene Schmitz 1907: Strike by Car Men's Union against the United Railroads; one of the most violent urban strikes in history; United Railroads President Patrick Calhoun, facing trial for bribing Supervisors, is considered a hero;   acquitted    
        fires destroy San Fran- 1858: Overland stage begins between San Francisco and East     1886: Construction unions elected Mayor   1915: Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens; one of the most successful fairs in history in spite of war in Europe; Mayor Rolph goes every day; Palace of Fine Arts, temporary like other buildings, remains after all others are torn down 1921: Dashiell Hammett marries, begins writing in San Francisco
        cisco almost faster than 1873: Hallidie's cable car tested, begins service 1878: 4 teams form form Building Trades Council.   1909: P.H. McCarthy elected
        it can be rebuilt. "Pacific Base Ball 10,000 workingman parade 1902: Frank Norris Mayor; Graft Prosecution Steuart Street, July 22nd, 1916: Preparedness Day bombing; two bodies lie under sheet, right, as bystander looks at bomb damage in wall.
          League"   publishes The Octopus ends.  
        1851: Authorities over-whelmed by crime; 1st Committee of Vigilance hangs and expels criminals 1859: Justice David
1887: William Randolph Hearst becomes owner of San Francisco Examiner     1921: Movie star "Fatty" Arbuckle charged with murder after girl dies in wild St. Francisco Hotel party
Drake's Golden Hindat Point Reyes       1846: Ship Brooklyn ar-   Terry kills Senator Da- 1903: Pacific Coast April 18, 1906:Sacramento Street looking east at fire. 1910: San Francisco voters pass bond issue to dam river in Sierra Nevada Mountains for water supply; John Muir, Sierra Club, oppose it February 1917: After Billings is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, Tom Mooney is convicted and sentenced to hang.
      rives with Sam Brannan   vid Broderick in duel League formed
      and 230 Mormon settlers         1906: Board of Education creates segregated Oriental schools; President Roosevelt intervenes, order is rescinded 1907: Albert Michelson, graduate of city's Lowell High, is first American Nobel Prize winner, for Physics
    Mission Dolores     1862: Telegraph line connects New York and San Francisco 1888: Examiner publishes E.L. 1904: A.P. Giannini  
1846: Washington Bartlett elected first alcalde (Mayor)   Thayer's Casey At The Bat Genthe photo of Chinese boys starts Bank of America   1922: Radio station KPO begins broadcasting
  1851: La Sonnambula performed; first opera in California       April 1917: Bulletinreports that chief prosecution witness in the Mooney trial suborned perjury. Billings and Mooney draw international attention.
  1890: John McLaren becomes Superintendent of Golden Gate Park; stays 53 years. 1895: Donaldina Cameron joins Presbyterian Mission, 920 Sacramento Street; rescues Chinese girls from prostitution 1905: Architect Daniel 1906: Graft Prosecution indicts Mayor
1911: Abraham Ruef goes to  
    Palace Hotel Burnham proposes Schmitz and Boss Abraham Ruef for San Quentin. Fremont Older 1922: Helen Wills wins U.S. women's singles championship; first of thirty-one major titles, including eight at Wimbledon
Exploration,Travel   Art   Romance 1847: San Brannan begins California Star, city's first newspaper; later merges with Alta
 
Exploration   Art   Romance redesign of city extortion.     campaigns to get Ruef out.
             
Commerce Literature Journalism   Commerce Literature Journalism  
   
          1892: Sierra Club founded in San Francisco; John Muir is first president 1907: Board of Supervisors implicates Ruef in briberies; Ruef pleads guilty to extortion; Schmitz convicted; Edward R. Taylor appointed Mayor   Panama-Pacific International Exposition: Avenue of Palms, left; Horticulture Palace, distance; Tower of Jewels, right.  
Disaster, Violence Music Medicine, Science   Disaster, Violence Music Medicine, Science 1911: James Rolph ("Sunny 1917: San Francisco Conservatory of Music founded by Ada Clement  
                1923: President Warren G. Harding dies in Palace Hotel, lies in state
Politics, Law Race Sports   Politics, Law Race Sports   Jim") elected Mayor.
    1846: Under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico cedes California to the United States          
Environment Labor Transportation   Environment Labor Transportation   1896: First automobile in San Francisco   Exploration, Travel   Art   Romance
        1894: Midwinter Exposition, Golden Gate Park Physicist Albert Michelson 1911: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra plays first season    
Entertainment   KEY   Other Entertainment   KEY     Other Commerce Literature Journalism  
    1924: Palace of the Legion of Honor, gift of Adolph and Alma Spreckels, opens in Lincoln Park
View of San Francisco c. 1846 1851 photo of San Francisco Disaster, Violence Music Medicine, Science
Indeed, although in my travels I saw very good sites and beautiful country, I saw none which pleased me so much as this. And I think that if it could be well settled like Europe there would not be anything more beautiful in all the world, for it has the best advantages for founding in it a most beautiful city.  San Francisco was never a village. It had the atmosphere of a city when it was only a tented town. It has been a city ever since. I'd rather be a busted lamp post on Battery Street (San Francisco) than the Waldorf-Astoria. Cool, Grey, City of Love      
  Politics, Law Race Sports
 - George Stirling - 1912: Municipal Railway begins service; first public transportation system in the United States    
Serene, indifferent to fate              She sits beside the Golden Gate Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz Environment Labor Transportation
     
Fremont Older Willie Britt Entertainment   KEY   Other 1925: Kezar Stadium opens in Golden Gate Park
Fr. Francisco Palou Bret Harte