Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Coyote Hills Shell Mound dates to around 10,000 BCE and stands as the earliest known archaeological evidence of human habitation in the Bay Area estuaries. Oral traditions from the Ohlone and Miwok peoples suggest they have lived in this region for several hundreds if not thousands of years before European contact.
Sir Francis Drake became the first European to land in the area and claim it in June 1579 at Drakes Bay near Point Reyes. He claimed the region for Queen Elizabeth I as Nova Albion or New Albion, though the English made no immediate follow-up to the claim.
James W. Marshall discovered gold in the American River on the 21st of April 1848, sparking a California gold rush that transformed the region's demographics within months. By the end of 1849, newcomers flooded into the Bay Area at a rate of one thousand per week, including the first large influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States.
Immediate casualty estimates by the U.S. Army's relief operations recorded 498 deaths in San Francisco, 64 deaths in Santa Rosa, and 102 in or near San Jose, for a total of about 700. More recent studies estimate the total death count to be over 3,000, with over 28,000 buildings destroyed.
Fred Terman joined Stanford University faculty and his students David Packard and William Hewlett helped usher in the region's high-tech revolution. In 1955, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory opened for business in Mountain View near Stanford, becoming the first semiconductor company in the Bay Area despite being a financial failure.