Short answers, pulled from the story.
A local band of the Ohlone tribe inhabited the low-lying marshy region for more than 3,000 years before Spanish colonists arrived in the late 18th century. They created numerous oyster shell mounds across the peninsula, some as large as 14 feet tall.
Construction on a tidal canal through the marshland between Oakland and Alameda started in 1874 but was not completed until 1902. This massive engineering project resulted in Alameda becoming an island after it previously occupied a peninsula connected to Oakland.
The Alameda Terminal made history as the site of the arrival of the first train via the First transcontinental railroad to reach the shores of San Francisco Bay. The borders of Alameda were expanded to include the entire island in 1872, incorporating Woodstock into Alameda.
Naval Air Station Alameda decommissioned in 1997 and turned over to the City of Alameda for civilian development. A USN Vought A-7E Corsair II fighter jet crashed into the Tahoe Apartments in Alameda on the 7th of February 1973 during a routine training mission from Lemoore Naval Air Station.
The 2020 United States census reported that Alameda had a population of 78,280 with racial makeup including 43.6% White and 32.5% Asian. There is a large Filipino community and also a major Portuguese community within the city limits.