Welcome to the Portal:California. Such a lovely place.
California
State of California
Map of the United States with California highlighted
California is a state in the Western United States , lying on the American Pacific Coast . It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With 39 million residents across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2 ), it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest by area, and most populated subnational entity in North America . The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions , with 19 million and 10 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is the state's most populous city and the nation's second-most , after New York . California's capital , Sacramento , is located in the Central Valley .
Prior to European colonization , California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America . European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization by the Spanish Empire . The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence , but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War . The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to social and demographic changes, including depopulation of indigenous peoples in the California genocide . The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state in 1850 , as a free state , following the Compromise of 1850 .
California's economy is the largest of any US state, with a $3.6 trillion gross state product . It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. California's agricultural industry has the highest output of any U.S. state, and is led by its dairy , almonds , and grapes . With the busiest port in the country (Los Angeles ), California plays a pivotal role in the global supply chain, hauling in about 40% of goods imported to the US. 84% of residents 25 or older hold a high school degree , the lowest high school education rate of all 50 states . Despite a continuing exodus of businesses from Downtown San Francisco and Downtown Los Angeles , California retains one of the largest number of Fortune 500 companies. (Full article... )
The following are images from various California-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo , established in 1770, was the headquarters of the
Californian mission system from 1797 until 1833. (from
History of California )
Image 2 Map of Spain's
Manila galleon trade routes, showing routes between the
Spanish East Indies and
Acapulco passing along the
coast of California . (from
History of California )
Image 4 Angustias de la Guerra played a crucial role in defending
women's property rights during the drafting of the Constitution of California. (from
History of California )
Image 6 General
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo reviewing his troops in
Sonoma in 1846. (from
History of California )
Image 7 The
University of California, Berkeley is the flagship school of the University of California system. (from
Culture of California )
Image 8 Map of the route taken by the
Anza Expedition of 1775–76, from the
Presidio of Tubac to
San Francisco Bay . (from
History of California )
Image 10 Between 1846 and 1873, U.S. government agents waged an extermination campaign against
Indigenous Californians , known as the
California genocide , resulting in as many as 100,000 deaths. (from
History of California )
Image 11 Portrait of a
Californio in traditional
vaquero clothing. Californios benefitted immensely by the establishment of the
ranchos of California , following the
Mexican secularization act of 1833 . (from
History of California )
Image 12 Portrait of an "
assimilated "
Maidu man in
Sacramento , 1867. (from
History of California )
Image 14 Depiction of the
Donner Party heading west on the
California Trail . (from
History of California )
Image 15 "Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c. 1850 (from
History of California )
Image 16 The American capture of
San Diego by the
USS Cyane in 1846 (from
History of California )
Image 19 Founded by
Vicente Francisco de Sarría in 1817,
Mission San Rafael Arcángel , was the last mission founded during the Spanish period. (from
History of California )
Image 21 Junípero Serra conducting the first
mass in
Monterey Bay in 1770. (from
History of California )
Image 22 Depiction of the revolt of the
Mission Indians against padre
Luis Jayme at
Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1775. (from
History of California )
Image 23 Bilingual English-Spanish sign in the
Colorado Desert of
Southern California . (from
Culture of California )
Image 25 Francis Drake 's 1579 landing in "
New Albion " (modern-day
Point Reyes ); engraving by
Theodor De Bry , 1590. (from
History of California )
Image 27 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , founded in 1771 by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel de la Somera. (from
History of California )
Image 28 The 1835
Manifiesto a la República Mejicana , by
José Figueroa , was the first book published in California (from
Culture of California )
Image 29 In-N-Out burgers (from
Culture of California )
Image 30 Mission San Francisco Solano , founded in 1823 by order of Governor
Luis Antonio Argüello , was the last Californian mission established. (from
History of California )
Image 34 Advertisement for sailing to California, c. 1850. (from
History of California )
Image 35 The Spanish founded
Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the
Californian missions . (from
History of California )
Image 36 Map of the
Butterfield Overland Mail routes through California, c. 1858. (from
History of California )
Image 42 The railway station in
Sacramento in 1874. (from
History of California )
Image 44 The
Treaty of Cahuenga , signed at the
Campo de Cahuenga in 1847 by Californio general
Andrés Pico and American general
John C. Frémont , proclaimed a ceasefire under an American victory. The
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , signed a year later in 1848, officially ended the
Mexican–American War and formally ceded
Alta California to the United States. (from
History of California )
Image 45 San Francisco harbor,
c. 1850 –51. (from
History of California )
Image 49 Mission Santa Barbara , founded in 1786, was the first mission to be established by
Fermín de Lasuén . (from
History of California )
Image 51 California was often depicted as an island , due to the
Baja California peninsula , from the 16th to the 18th centuries, such as in this 1650 map by cartographer
Johannes Vingboons . (from
History of California )
Image 52 Joaquín Murrieta , called the "
Robin Hood of California", was a notorious
outlaw during the
California Gold Rush . He served as inspiration for
Zorro , the famed Californian bandit-hero. (from
History of California )
Image 54 Forces raising the U.S. flag over the
Monterey Customhouse following their victory at the
Battle of Monterey (from
History of California )
Image 56 The 1562 map of the Americas, created by Spanish cartographer
Diego Gutiérrez , which applied
the name California for the first time. (from
History of California )
Image 57 A Southern Pacific Train at
Arcade Depot , Los Angeles, 1891 (from
History of California )
Image 59 California's first State Capitol building in
San Jose , which served as the capital of California 1850–51. (from
History of California )
California is like an artificial limb the rest of the country doesn't really need. You can quote me on that.
Image 1 John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as
Jack London , was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of
animal welfare ,
workers' rights and
socialism . London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his
dystopian novel The Iron Heel , his non-fiction
exposé The People of the Abyss ,
War of the Classes , and
Before Adam . (
Full article... )
Image 2 Glenn Theodore Seaborg (
SEE -borg; April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the
synthesis , discovery and investigation of ten
transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951
Nobel Prize in Chemistry . His work in this area also led to his development of the
actinide concept and the arrangement of the
actinide series in the
periodic table of the elements .
Seaborg spent most of his career as an educator and research scientist at the
University of California, Berkeley , serving as a professor, and, between 1958 and 1961, as the university's second chancellor. He advised ten US presidents—from
Harry S. Truman to
Bill Clinton —on nuclear policy and was Chairman of the
United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1961 to 1971, where he pushed for commercial
nuclear energy and the peaceful applications of nuclear science. Throughout his career, Seaborg worked for arms control. He was a signatory to the
Franck Report and contributed to the
Limited Test Ban Treaty , the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty . He was a well-known advocate of science education and federal funding for pure research. Toward the end of the
Eisenhower administration , he was the principal author of the Seaborg Report on academic science, and, as a member of President
Ronald Reagan 's
National Commission on Excellence in Education , he was a key contributor to its 1983 report "
A Nation at Risk ". (
Full article... )
Image 4 Major Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the
British South Africa Company and to the
British Army in
colonial Africa , and for teaching
woodcraft to
Robert Baden-Powell in
Rhodesia . Burnham helped inspire the founding of the international
Scouting Movement .
Burnham was born on a
Dakota Sioux Indian reservation in Minnesota, in the small village of Tivoli near the city of Mankato; there he learned the ways of
American Indians as a boy. By the age of 14, he was supporting himself in California, while also learning scouting from some of the last of the cowboys and frontiersmen of the
American Southwest . Burnham had little formal education, never finishing high school. After moving to the
Arizona Territory in the early 1880s, he was drawn into the
Pleasant Valley War , a feud between families of ranchers and sheepherders. He escaped and later worked as a civilian tracker for the
United States Army in the
Apache Wars . Feeling the need for new adventures, Burnham took his family to southern Africa in 1893, seeing
Cecil Rhodes 's
Cape to Cairo Railway project as the next undeveloped frontier. (
Full article... )
Image 5 Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "
King of Pop ", he is regarded as
one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized street dance moves such as the
moonwalk , which he named, and the
robot .
He was the eighth child of the
Jackson family , and made his public debut in 1964 with his older brothers
Jackie ,
Tito ,
Jermaine , and
Marlon as a member of
the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons). The Jackson 5 signed with
Motown in 1968 and achieved worldwide success with Michael as lead singer. Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown and recorded multiple successful singles. He became a global solo star with his 1979 album
Off the Wall .
His music videos , including those for "
Beat It ", "
Billie Jean ", and "
Thriller " from his 1982 album
Thriller , are credited with breaking
racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. He helped popularize
MTV and continued to innovate with videos for his albums
Bad (1987),
Dangerous (1991),
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and
Invincible (2001).
Thriller is the
best-selling album of all time , while
Bad was the first album to produce five US
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. (
Full article... )
Image 6 Nancy Davis Reagan (; born
Anne Frances Robbins ; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress who was the
First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President
Ronald Reagan , the 40th president of the United States.
Reagan was born in New York City. After her parents separated, she lived in
Maryland with an aunt and uncle for six years. When her mother remarried in 1929, she moved to Chicago and later was adopted by her mother's second husband. As
Nancy Davis , she was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in films such as
The Next Voice You Hear... ,
Night into Morning , and
Donovan's Brain . In 1952, she married Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the
Screen Actors Guild . He had two children from his previous marriage to
Jane Wyman and he and Nancy had two children together. Nancy Reagan was the first lady of California when her husband was
governor from 1967 to 1975, and she began to work with the
Foster Grandparents Program . (
Full article... )
Image 7 Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five
Primetime Emmy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the
CBS sitcom
Murphy Brown (1988–1998, 2018). She is also known for her role as
Shirley Schmidt on the
ABC drama
Boston Legal (2005–2008). In films, Bergen was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for
Starting Over (1979) and for the
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for
Gandhi (1982).
Bergen began her career as a fashion model and appeared on the cover of
Vogue before she made her screen debut in the film
The Group (1966). She starred in
The Sand Pebbles (1966),
Soldier Blue (1970),
Carnal Knowledge (1971), and
The Wind and the Lion (1975). She made her
Broadway debut in the 1984 play
Hurlyburly and starred in the revivals of
The Best Man (2012) and
Love Letters (2014). From 2002 to 2004, she appeared in three episodes of the
HBO series
Sex and the City . Her other film roles include
Miss Congeniality (2000),
Sweet Home Alabama (2002),
The Women (2008),
Bride Wars (2009),
Book Club (2018) and
Let Them All Talk (2020). (
Full article... )
Image 9 Angelina Jolie (; born
Angelina Jolie Voight ; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of
numerous accolades , including an
Academy Award , a
Tony Award and three
Golden Globe Awards , she has been named Hollywood's highest-paid actress multiple times.
Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside her father,
Jon Voight , in
Lookin' to Get Out (1982). Her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production
Cyborg 2 (1993), followed by her first leading role in
Hackers (1995). After starring in the biographical television films
George Wallace (1997) and
Gia (1998), Jolie won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a sociopath in the 1999 drama
Girl, Interrupted . Her portrayal of the
titular heroine in
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) established her as a household name. Her fame continued with roles in the action films
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005),
Wanted (2008), and
Salt (2010). She also received acclaim for her performances in the dramas
A Mighty Heart (2007) and
Changeling (2008), the latter earning her a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actress . Her other commercial successes include the fantasy film
Maleficent (2014), its
2019 sequel , and the superhero film
Eternals (2021). She played a voice role in the
Kung Fu Panda animated film series from 2008 to 2016. Jolie has directed and written the war dramas
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011),
Unbroken (2014), and
First They Killed My Father (2017). (
Full article... )
Image 10 John Whiteside Parsons (born
Marvel Whiteside Parsons ; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American
rocket engineer ,
chemist , and
Thelemite occultist . Associated with the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the
Aerojet Engineering Corporation . He invented the first
rocket engine to use a
castable ,
composite rocket propellant , and pioneered the advancement of both
liquid-fuel and
solid-fuel rockets.
Born in Los Angeles, Parsons was raised by a wealthy family on
Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, California. Inspired by
science fiction literature , he developed an interest in rocketry in his childhood and in 1928 began
amateur rocket experiments with school friend
Edward Forman . He dropped out of
Pasadena Junior College and
Stanford University due to financial difficulties during the
Great Depression , and in 1934 he united with Forman and graduate
Frank Malina to form the Caltech-affiliated
Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) Rocket Research Group, supported by GALCIT chairman
Theodore von Kármán . In 1939 the GALCIT Group gained funding from the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to work on
Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) for the U.S. military. After the U.S. entered World War II, they founded Aerojet in 1942 to develop and sell JATO technology; the GALCIT Group became JPL in 1943. (
Full article... )
Image 11 Francis Ford Coppola (
KOH -pə-lə,
Italian: [ˈkɔppola] ; born 7 April 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the
New Hollywood film movement of the 1960s and 1970s and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time.
Coppola is the recipient of five
Academy Awards , six
Golden Globe Awards , two
Palmes d'Or , and a
British Academy Film Award (BAFTA).
After directing
The Rain People in 1969, Coppola co-wrote
Patton (1970), which earned him the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay along with
Edmund H. North . Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of
The Godfather (1972), which revolutionized the
gangster genre of filmmaking, receiving strong commercial and critical reception.
The Godfather won three Academy Awards:
Best Picture ,
Best Actor and
Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with
Mario Puzo ).
The Godfather Part II (1974) became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics, the film earned Coppola two more Academy Awards, for Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Director , making him the second director (after
Billy Wilder ) to win these three awards for the same film. (
Full article... )
Image 12 Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive for
the Walt Disney Company , which was founded by his uncle,
Walt Disney , and his father,
Roy O. Disney . At the time of his death, he held more than 16 million shares (about 1% of the company), and served as a consultant for the company, as well as director emeritus for the board of directors. During his tenure, he organized ousting of the company's top two executives:
Ron W. Miller in 1984 and
Michael Eisner in 2005.
As the last member of the
Disney family to be actively involved in the company, Disney was often compared to his uncle and to his father. In 2006,
Forbes magazine estimated his personal fortune at $1.2 billion. (
Full article... )
Image 13 Thelma Catherine "
Pat "
Nixon (
née Ryan ; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was the
First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974 as the wife of President
Richard Nixon . She also served as the
second lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 when her husband was vice president.
Born in
Ely, Nevada , she grew up with her two brothers in what is now
Cerritos, California , graduating from Excelsior Union High School in
Norwalk, California in 1929. She attended
Fullerton Junior College and later the
University of Southern California . She paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, radiographer, and retail clerk. In 1940, she married lawyer Richard Nixon and they had two daughters,
Tricia and
Julie . Dubbed the "Nixon team", Richard and Pat Nixon campaigned together in his successful
congressional campaigns of 1946 and 1948. Richard Nixon was elected vice president in 1952 alongside General
Dwight D. Eisenhower , whereupon Pat became Second Lady. Pat Nixon did much to add substance to the role of Second Lady, insisting on visiting schools, orphanages, hospitals, and village markets as she undertook many missions of goodwill across the world. (
Full article... )
Image 14 Paul Norton "
Pete "
McCloskey Jr. (September 29, 1927 – May 8, 2024) was an American politician who represented
San Mateo County, California , as a
Republican in the
U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.
Born in
Loma Linda, California , McCloskey pursued a legal career in
Palo Alto, California , after graduating from
Stanford Law School . He served in the
Korean War as a member of the
United States Marine Corps . For his service, he was awarded the
Navy Cross and the
Silver Star . He won election to the House of Representatives in 1967, defeating
Shirley Temple in the Republican primary. He co-authored the 1973
Endangered Species Act . He unsuccessfully challenged President
Richard Nixon in the
1972 Republican primaries on an anti-
Vietnam War platform and was the first member of Congress to publicly call for President Nixon's resignation after the
Saturday Night Massacre . (
Full article... )
Image 15 Linus Carl Pauling FRS (
PAW -ling; February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was an American
chemist ,
biochemist ,
chemical engineer ,
peace activist , author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.
New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of five people to have
won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being
Marie Curie ,
John Bardeen ,
Frederick Sanger , and
Karl Barry Sharpless ). Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes, and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being
Marie Curie .
Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of
quantum chemistry and
molecular biology . His contributions to the theory of the chemical bond include the concept of
orbital hybridisation and the first accurate scale of
electronegativities of the elements. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the
alpha helix and
beta sheet in
protein secondary structure . Pauling's approach combined methods and results from
X-ray crystallography ,
molecular model building, and quantum chemistry. His discoveries inspired the work of
Rosalind Franklin ,
James Watson ,
Francis Crick , and
Maurice Wilkins on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms. (
Full article... )
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File:Victor Adam after Louis Choris - Vue du Presidio san Francisco, 1822.jpg
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File:Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, CA, jjron 22.03.2012.jpg
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File:World War II woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California 1942.jpg
Nicknames: The Golden State
Capital: Sacramento
Total area: 163,696 mi2
Land: 156,002 mi2
Water: 7,694 mi2
Highest elevation: 14,505 ft (Mount Whitney )
Population 39,250,017 (2016 est)
Admission to the Union: September 9, 1850 (31st )
State symbols:
Things you can do