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• 1776 - San Francisco founded
  
  wikipedia.org
  
•   1847 - January 30 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
  
  wikipedia.org
  January 30, 1847
  
• 1850 - April 15 - City of San Francisco incorporated
  
  historyorb.com
  
•   1850 - September 17 - Great fire in San Francisco
  
  historyorb.com
  September 17, 1850
  
•   1852 - July 3 - Congress authorizes US's 2nd mint (San Francisco, California)
  
  historyorb.com
  July 3, 1852
  
• 1854 - San Francisco
  San Francisco, the commercial metropolis of California, and the queen city of the "far West," is situated on the western shore of the magnificent bay from which it derives its name. It stands in a plain about half a mile wide, gently inclined towards the bay, with numerous hills behind it. The soil on which this city is built is very sandy ; and in the vicinity, more particularly toward the north, are a number of sandhills. It is regularly laid out, the streets crossing each other at right angles. The houses till recently were mostly frame, but since the destructive fires that have occurred several times, laying the greater part of the town in ruins, brick and iron are becoming more extensively used. The city now contains many well-built fire proof stores and banking houses. The better class of frame houses are painted white, with green blinds, presenting the appearance of the houses in New England...
  
  Population. — The inhabitants of San Francisco have been variously estimated from ... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1866 - TERRIBLE EXPLOSION -- GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.
  San Francisco, Monday, April 16.
  
  A terrible explosion of what was supposed to be nitro glicerine, occurred at a 1:15 o'clock to-day, near WELLS, FARGO & Co.'s building. The explosion shook the earth like an earthquake for a circle of a quarter of a mile.
  
  SAMUEL KNIGHT, Superintendent of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express, died in half an hour of injuries received. G. W. BELL, Supervisor and Assayer, was instantly killed. MR. WALLUT, Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Assayer; JOSEPH ELLIOTT; JOHN GALLAGHER; FRANK WEBSTER and WILLIAM JUSTIN were also killed.
  
  Eight dead bodies were so mutilated that they could not be identified. LOUIS McLANE, Capt. ELDRIDGE, of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and Judge HOFFMAN, were bruised and cut. FELIX LAMAX, D. STACY, JEFFERSON TAYLOR, H. BLANE, clothing dealer, Capt. J. AYRES, FRED LEIZ, FRANK MORAN and others, were injured, but not fatally. Some will never be identified, as fragments of human flesh, bones and brains were found nearly two blocks... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1868 - Built on Made Land
  San Francisco is so largely built on made land that the timbers of old wharves were recently exhumed half a mile from the present water front.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  June 13, 1868
  
•   1868 - In digging a foundation in San Francisco, a heavy barrel was exhumed, and great was the excitement when it became rumored that a barrel of gold dust had been hidden there some twenty years ago.
  When opened, it proved to be full of very putrid flour.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  August 22, 1868
  
• 1869 - First westbound train arrived in San Francisco
  
  www.worldatlas.com/ webimage/ countrys/ namerica/ usstates/ catimeln.htm
  
•   1869 - Teaching Chinese Girls
  Teachers are to be employed to instruct the Chinese girls in San Francisco, where they are rapidly increasing. The work is undertaken by the churches.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  June 19, 1869
  
• 1873 - August 2 - A San Francisco cable car travels on Clay Street between Kearny and Jones Streets during its first trial run.
  
  http://www.independentsentinel.com/
  
•   1874 - A Curious Clock
  A Thompson, Connecticut, clock company has shipped a curious clock to San Francisco, to be placed in the tower of the greatest hotel on the continent, where it will furnish the time for 500 dials, which are to be operated by compressed air carried in pipes all over the building. The building has 500 rooms and there is to be a dial in every room.
  The Galveston Daily News
  Galveston, Texas
  February 24, 1874
  
•   1876 - June 4 - An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
  
  historyorb.com
  June 4, 1876
  
• 1887 - San Francisco experienced its greatest snowstorm of record. Nearly four inches was reported in downtown San Francisco, and the western hills of the city received seven inches. Excited crowds went on a snowball throwing rampage
  
  WeatherForYou.com
  
•   1889 - November 23 - Debut of 1st jukebox (Palais Royale Saloon, San Francisco)
  
  historyorb.com
  November 23, 1889
  
• 1893 - August 10 - The first Chinaman was deported from San Francisco for non-registration.
  
  The World Almanac and Book of Facts, Volume 1894 Press Publishing Company. 1894
  
•   1897 - Dead Fish Don't Grow
  ROD AND CREEL.
  Anglers Who Are Returning From Their Vacations.
  
  Anglers are returning from their summer vacations with reports of excellent fishing enjoyed at some of the mountain resorts. Fish Commissioner Vogelsang, who had a very pleasant outing in the big meadow country, states that the rainbows take a large fly of rough pattern, and when hooked they make a game struggle for freedom. A majority of the anglers who visit the meadows catch their trout by either whipping or trolling a spoon.
  
  Henry Skinner, a popular salesman of E. T. Allen & Co., is enjoying first-class trout-fishing on the Truckee near Boca. Mr. Skinner is a master of the rod, and there are few among the fraternity who can cast a fly as stylishly as Colonel Skinner and with such precision. It is no wonder, then, that his many friends in this City have been recipients of some nice boxes of Truckee River trout.
  
  Anglers must not lose sight of the fact that thee best fishing on Truckee River is invariably to... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1900 - FELL ON MOLTEN GLASS. Scores Killed and Injured by the Collapse of a Roof. SEVERAL ROASTED TO DEATH.
  Disaster Occurred at a Football Game in San Francisco - Victims Were Hurled on a Red Hot Furnace - Bodies Drawn From the Retorts With Pokers - The Dead and Injured.
  
  San Francisco (Special). - By the collapse of the roof of the Pacific Glass Works while it was crowded with men and boys who were watching a football game between the Stanford and University of California teams, fifteen persons were killed. More than 100 persons fell into the furnace of the factory upon ovens and retorts containing molten glass when the roof collapsed. The injured number eighty-three, and of these several cannot survive.
  
  The dead are:
  EDGAR FAIRHAVEN, eleven years old.
  W. H. ECKFELDT, twelve years old.
  WILLIAM VANELCIA, eighteen years old.
  THOMAS J. RIPPON, twenty-four years old.
  JAMES A. MULRONEY, forty years old.
  MARQUIS VAN DURN, forty-five years old.
  VIRGIL NEUBY, fifteen years old.
  CHARLES MONSHAN, thirty-four years old.
  TALLEYRAND BARNWELL, sixteen years old.
  LUNON GIRARD, sixteen... Read MORE...
  
  
• 1901 - San Francisco - By the West Gate of the World by Edwin Markham
  If Xenophon had journeyed westward from Athens, pressing beyond the amber caverns of the Baltic, beyond the tin mines of Thule, out past the Gates of Hercules, exactly west, across an ocean and a continent, the next Ihalalta of his men would have saluted the Pacific at the Golden Gate from the low, shifting sand hills of the unrisen San Francisco. For the violet veiled city of Athene and the gray draped city of St. Francis are in one line of latitude.
  
  San Francisco crowns the extremity of a long, rugged peninsula, a little north of the centre of California,
  
  "The land that has the tiger's length,
  The tawny tiger's length of arm,"
  
  the land that stretches from pine to palm,
  
  "Haunch in the cloud rack, paw in the purring sea."
  
  The one break in the mountain wall of the California Coast Range is the Golden Gate, the watery pass that leads from San Francisco to the Pacific. Spurs and peaks and cross ridges of this mountain chain would at long range seem to encompass the city... Read MORE...
  
  
• 1901 - February 22 - The Pacific Mail Steamship Company's SS City of Rio de Janeiro sinks entering San Francisco Bay, killing 128.
  
  wikipedia.org
  February 22, 1901
  
• 1905 - San Francisco - The popsicle was invented by 11-years-old Frank Epperson in 1905. Epperson (1894-?) lived in San Francisco, California.
  Epperson had left a fruit drink out overnight (with a stirrer in it), and it froze, making a new treat. His frozen treat was originally called the Epsicle. Epperson got a patent on his "frozen ice on a stick" many years later, in 1923. The Epsicle was later renamed the popsicle. Epperson also invented the twin popsicle (with two sticks so it could be shared by two children), Fudgsicle, Creamsicle and Dreamsicle.
  www.enchantedlearning.com/ inventors/ us.shtml
  
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•   1906 - Earthquake
  April 18, 1906 - An earthquake in San Francisco is followed by four days of a devastating fire. An estimated 3,000 lives are lost and damage is estimated at $500 million in 1906 dollars.
  
  Timeline: U.S. Storm Disasters, American Experience
  www.pbs.org
  April 18, 1906
  
•   1906 - October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
  
  wikipedia.org
  October 11, 1906
  
•   There have been five cases of bubonic plague in San Francisco, four of them resulting fatally.
  
  The Clinton Mirror
  Clinton, Iowa
  August 24, 1907
  
•   1915 - February 20 – In San Francisco the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.
  
  wikipedia.org
  February 20, 1915
  
•   1916 - July 22 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 injuring 40
  
  wikipedia.org
  July 22, 1916
  
•   1917 - January 25 – An anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco occurs and police close about 200 prostitution houses.
  
  wikipedia.org
  January 25, 1917
  
•   1929 - March 2 – The longest bridge in the world at this time, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.
  
  wikipedia.org
  March 2, 1929
  
•   1933 - January 5 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
  Before the project began, many people thought building the bridge was impossible. And when the construction started, most thought that dozens would die in the process. The rule of thumb at the time was that for every million dollars spent on a project, one person would die — and the Golden Gate Bridge was going to cost $37 million.
  
  At first, those fears seemed to be proved unfounded. On Jan. 5, 1933, construction began — and it continued without a single fatality for four years. (www.npr.org)
  
  
  Construction of the bridge began in 1932, during the Great Depression, when jobs were scarce. The men working on the Golden Gate Bridge (a four-and-a-half-year project) were greatly envied, even though they worked in very dangerous conditions, balancing high above the freezing ocean waters.
  
  To combat the dangerous working conditions, bridge designer Joseph Strauss introduced the hard hat and a safety net that stretched end to end under the bridge. Nineteen workers fell. Saved by that... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1937 - May 27 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic.
  The next day, with a push of a telegraph button, President Franklin Roosevelt opened the bridge to cars, too.
  
  The area known as the Golden Gate is the channel formed where the mouth of the San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean. People used the name Golden Gate as early as 1846, even before the gold rush and long before the bridge. Explorer John C. Frémont was possibly the first to call the rocky straits the "Golden Gate."
  
  wikipedia.org
  May 27, 1937
  
• 1939 - February 18 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
  
  wikipedia.org
  February 18, 1939
  
•   June 26, 1945: United Nations charter signed, San Francisco, CA
  
  The Old Farmer's Almanac www.almanac.com
  June 26, 1945
  
•   1949 - CHINATOWN FIRE DAMAGE $20,000.
  San Francisco, Sept. 9. (AP) - A three alarm fire his Chinatown early Thursday.
  
  The blaze broke out in the basement of a vacant three story building on California street just above Grant. It was controlled in a half hour. Fire Chief EDWARD P. WALSH estimated damage at $20,000.
  
  Seventy five persons in an adjoining lodging house were evacuated. WALSH said the fire may have been started by an itinerate sleeping in the vacant building, formerly a hotel. Three firemen were hurt fighting the blaze.
  Reno Evening Gazette
  Reno, Nevada
  September 9, 1949
  
•   1956 - January 9 - First "Dear Abby" column appears in San Francisco Chronicle
  How Dear Abby column started at The Chronicle
  TODAY'S EXTRA: Her column of sage advice started at The Chronicle
  By Peter Hartlaub Published 4:00 am, Saturday, January 24, 2009
  
  Pauline Phillips walked into the Chronicle building 53 years ago this month with almost no chance of getting the advice column job she was seeking. The newspaper already had the position filled, and Phillips had recently been rejected by the San Mateo Times, a much smaller paper.
  
  But editor Stanleigh Arnold believed in a meritocracy, offering Phillips the chance to rewrite the answers given by his current advice columnist to see whether Phillips could do a better job. Phillips walked a few blocks away to her husband's office, kicked his secretary out of her chair and pounded out the answers in a couple of hours.
  
  "By the time she got back to Hillsborough, that's where she was living at the time, they had already called three times," remembers Jeanne Phillips, Pauline's daughter and the current Dear... Read MORE...
  
  
• 1962 - January 21 - Snow falls in San Francisco
  
  historyorb.com
  
• 1989 - October 17 - An earthquake in San Francisco (6.9 on the Richter scale) kills 67 people and leads to the cancellation of game 3 of the World Series.
  
  http://www.independentsentinel.com/
  
• 1989 - October 17 - An earthquake in San Francisco (6.9 on the Richter scale) kills 67 people and leads to the cancellation of game 3 of the World Series.
  
  http://www.independentsentinel.com/
  
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