California Historical Event Timeline

California Historical Event Timeline

This is a list of events that may have affected your California ancestors.  

Click (here) for a list of the Counties of California. 
**There will be links to useful Resources that can aid you in your California research at the bottom of this post.**

• Pre 1540s the inhabitants of California were Native Americans.  There were many tribes, and it is estimated that there were over 135 dialects. 
• 1540 A sea voyage for New Spain travels up the mouth of the Colorado River, and they become the first Europeans known to land in California.      
• 1542 Laws were passed in Spain to help protect the Native inhabitants of New Spain from Enslavement.
• 1545 Hundreds of thousands die (mostly natives) in Cuba and New Spain from a Typhus epidemic.
• 1669 California's first mission built in San Diego Bay.
• 1769 Franciscan Padres start building the first of 21 missions between San Diego, and Sonoma. 
• 1769 Gaspar de Portola leads a Spanish Expedition from Mexico, to start new Settlements in Alta California. 
• 1775, Mission Delores built in San Francisco
• 1812 Fort Ross in Northern California established by Russian fur traders.
• 1820s Ships from Boston start arriving to trade with established Spanish Settlements.
• 1821 Mexico becomes California's new rulers, after Mexico gains independence from Spain.
• 1837 Great Plains Small Pox Epidemic
• 1846 U.S. invades Mexico and reaches San Diego.  
• 1848 Gold discovered in Coloma, California  
• 1848 U.S. gains California, as part of a Peace Treaty ending the Mexican War. 
• 1850 California becomes the 31st State.  
• 1860 Pony Express Starts delivering to Sacramento.
• 1861 - 1865 American Civil War.
• 1862 - The Great Flood caused over 10 Million dollars in damage in California.  
• 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Issued
• 1868 Small Pox Pandemic
• 1869 The first Transcontinental Railroad Completed
• 1876 Alexander Graham Bell receives first U.S. Patent for the telephone.
• 1882 Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act, which ends Chinese immigration for decades
• 1900 Oil Discovered in California 
• 1901 California is able to supply power to many large cities.
• 1905 Founding of the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League in San Fransico, after the San Francisco Chronicle does a series  Slandering Japanese Immigrants.
• 1906 Great San Francisco Quake, and Fire, caused and estimated 3,000 - 5,000 deaths.
• 1910 Angel Island Opens.  It is the Ellis Island of the West Coast, and acted as a prison as well to house immigrants from China during the Chinese Exclusion Act.  
• 1913 California Alien Land Law passed, it prevented all Asian immigrants from owning land or property. 
• 1917 U.S. Enters WWI.
• 1918-1919 Great Influenza Pandemic caused at least 115,000 California deaths.
• 1920 ACLU Founded
• 1924 Congress starts bestowing citizenship on some Native Americans.
• 1929 The Great Depression Begins.
• 1941 U.S. Enters WWII
• Feb 1942 President Roosevelt sign a executive order for relocation of all with Japanese decent to Interment Camps.  There was a large population affected by this in California.

I compiled this information by doing many basic searches, about California History, Weather, and Major Epidemics to hit the U.S.  All of the information compiled here is available on many sites.  It can all be easily found by searching the internet, and none of it is from a single exclusive source.  

If I find more major information I will update this page.  

Handy California Resources.  
**The local geographical resources will be on the County and City pages**
California Genealogical Society and Library
Oakland, Ca. 1-510-663-1358
http://www.californiaancestors.org/

Southern California Genealogical Society
Burbank, Ca. 1-818-843-7247    
http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/

California State Genealogical Alliance
http://www.csga.com/

California Birth Index
http://www.californiabirthindex.org/

Family Search to look at the California Death Index
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1932433?collectionNameFilter=true

California Historical Society
http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/

California Digital Newspaper Collection
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=cl&cl=CL1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1

California Digital State Archives
http://www.digitalstatearchives.com/california

California State Archives
http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives

California Railroad Meuseum
https://www.californiarailroad.museum/education/library

California State Indian Museum
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=486

Santa Barbara Mission Archive - Library
http://www.sbmal.org/librarypage/

Oregon - California Trails Association
http://www.octa-trails.org/