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Incorporated cities and towns in California

  • Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, California, began its most famous tradition with a boast. In 1890, Professor Charles F. Holder of the Valley Hunt Club, a local social club, explained why the town should hold a festival. His words were: "In New York, people are…
  • San DiegoJapan once planned to crash plague-flea planes into San Diego. Surrender five weeks earlier stopped the 1945 plan.
  • Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento raised its whole downtown by building brick walls and filling in dirt.
  • Palm Springs, CaliforniaPalm Springs, California, reached 124 degrees Fahrenheit on the 5th of July 2024, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city. Even so, the desert resort is busiest when the weather cools. Between November and March its population…
  • Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California became the first American city to lose three major league teams within five years.
  • Dana Point, CaliforniaA harbor built in 1966 wiped out a famous surf wave at Dana Point. The breakwater cut through Killer Dana.
  • Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara once had the world's largest silent-film studio. Flying A Studios worked there from 1910 to 1922.
  • San Jose, CaliforniaFrom 1950 to 1969, San Jose's city manager annexed property 1,389 times. The city grew from 17 to 149 square miles.
  • Goleta, CaliforniaGoleta, California did not legally exist as a city until 2002. For years it had tens of thousands of residents.
  • Irvine, CaliforniaIrvine, California was planned as a necklace of villages with a university as its pendant. Only cars were planned for.
  • Santa Clara, CaliforniaSanta Clara, California, home to Intel, AMD and Nvidia, began as a Spanish mission founded in 1777.
  • Inglewood, CaliforniaIn 1941, a wildcat strike shut an Inglewood aircraft factory, and Roosevelt sent in the National Guard.
  • Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California got its name from a line of poetry quoted at a rock. Frederick Billings recalled it in 1866.
  • San FranciscoGold rush sailors abandoned about 500 ships in San Francisco's harbor. Many became storehouses, saloons and hotels.
  • Alameda, CaliforniaAlameda, California became an island when workers dredged a canal through marshland.
  • Los AngelesIn 1908, a librarian reported at least 12 ways to say Los Angeles. The federal government picked one in 1934.

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