Head West With This Quiz on the History of California

Although hip-hop was born in New York City in the late 1970s, the genre came into its own with the rise of West Coast artists such as Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, and N.W.A. The latter group’s second album, “Straight Outta Compton,” is a reference to a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Many of hip-hop’s biggest names, such as Coolio and Kendrick Lamar, are natives of Compton.

Although it’s the most populous state in the U.S. (with an estimated 40 million people as of 2022), California has sent only one President to the White House: Richard Nixon. Though many people associate Ronald Reagan with California (he served as its governor, after all), Reagan was born in Illinois. Nixon was born in Orange County, California, on January 9, 1913.

In the 1960s, counterculture musicians and folk singer-songwriters congregated in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. Living in the hills above the city, now-famous artists such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Mamas & the Papas, the Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Frank Zappa, and many others often headlined legendary music venues along the nearby Sunset Strip, such as the Troubadour and Whiskey a Go Go.

From the deserts of the south to the ancient forests in the north, California was home to a rich tapestry of Indigenous peoples. But with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, many of those tribes were displaced from their ancestral lands. One exception is the Yurok. Now the largest Indigenous tribe in the state, the Yurok still live among the Redwoods along the Klamath River.

For thousands of years, the Ahwahnechee called Yosemite Valley “Ahwahnee,” meaning “big mouth.” But with the relentless rush of miners that flooded California after the discovery of gold, the majestic beauty of the area came under threat. So in 1864, then-President Abraham Lincoln protected the land for “public use, resort, and recreation,” eight years before the National Parks System took shape in 1872.

The 1930s and ’40s saw a cinematic boom in Los Angeles, and the period became known as the golden age of Hollywood. During this time, five powerful movie studios controlled a majority of the industry: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), RKO, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. Walt Disney, meanwhile, had only produced one full-length film by 1937, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

In 1835, San Francisco was a small bayside settlement named Yerba Buena, meaning “good herb,” a hat tip to the wild mint growing on nearby sand dunes. After 11 years, the city passed an ordinance to change the name to San Francisco, and the new name became official on January 30, 1847.

In 1852, before Alcatraz Island hosted one of America’s most infamous prisons, the U.S. military constructed a lighthouse on the island to guide ships in the busy shipping lanes of San Francisco Bay. The structure was the first lighthouse on the West Coast, and was operational for more than 50 years before being replaced by a taller tower in 1909.

On September 28, 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo entered San Diego Bay and became the first European to ever lay eyes on California. The Spanish named the land “Alta California,” likely after a popular 16th-century novel of the same name with a paradise-like setting. The first Spanish settlement, established in 1769, was the Presidio at San Diego.

Established in 1911, the California state flag features a red star, a brown bear, and the words “California Republic.” The bear is a symbol of the state’s rebellious past. It originally appeared on the banner of the short-lived California Republic in 1846.

Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred control of what is now California (along with Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of other states) from Mexico to the United States. Within two years, thanks to the subsequent gold rush, California became the 31st state to join the union.

First identified in 1895, the San Andreas Fault is a 1,200-mile fault line that runs through nearly the entire state of California north to south, on the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The fault line causes frequent earthquake activity throughout the state, the most devastating example being the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which registered an estimated 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Growing out of the intellectual milieu of nearby Stanford University, a technology hub flourished in the area around Palo Alto, California, in the 1920s, led by early tech companies established by William Hewlett and David Packard. The region soon earned the nickname “Silicon Valley” due to the silicon-based semiconductors found in the tech products made by computer companies. Google, Facebook, HP, Intel, and Apple are all headquartered in the area.

On January 24, 1848, a carpenter named James Wilson Marshall discovered gold at a stream bed near Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. This discovery forever altered the territory, as hundreds of thousands of Americans flocked westward in search of golden riches. The gold rush remains embedded in the identity of California, which is nicknamed the “Golden State.”

The world-renowned wine region known as Napa Valley, located in central California, is famous for its cabernet sauvignon, and gets an assist from both its weather and soil. Cabernet sauvignon grapes prefer sunny and warm (but not hot) climates, and the region’s cool nights and early morning cloud cover are perfect for growing the grape, while its volcanic soil adds complexity that can’t be beat anywhere in the U.S.