Portal:California

Introduction Welcome to the Portal:California. Such a lovely place. California State State of California Flag Seal 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 an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With nearly 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. 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 U.S. state, with a $4.0 trillion gross state product as of 2024. 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. Notable contributions to popular culture, ranging from entertainment, sports, music, and fashion, have their origins in California. California is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, profoundly influencing global entertainment. The San Francisco Bay and the Greater Los Angeles areas are seen as the centers of the global technology and U.S. film industries, respectively. (Full article...) Selected article - Downtown Stockton Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the 11th-most populous city in California and the 60th-most populous city in the United States. Stockton's population in 2020 was 320,804. It was named an All-America City in 1999, 2004, 2015, and again in 2017 and 2018. The city is located on the San Joaquin River in the northern San Joaquin Valley. It lies at the southeastern corner of a large inland river delta that isolates it from other nearby cities such as Sacramento and those of the San Francisco Bay Area. Stockton was founded by Charles Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after Robert F. Stockton, and it was the first community in California to have a name not of Spanish or Native American origin. (Full article...) More selected articles General images - The following are images from various California-related articles on Wikipedia. SS California (1848), the first paddle steamer to steam between Panama City and San Francisco, as part of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. (from History of California) Map of the Butterfield Overland Mail routes through California, c. 1858. (from History of California) 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) 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) Bilingual English-Spanish sign in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. (from Culture of California) 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) 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) Portrait of an "assimilated" Maidu man in Sacramento, 1867. (from History of California) General Richard Barnes Mason was the longest serving U.S. Military Governor of California (1847–1849), overseeing California's transition into statehood. (from History of California) Advertisement for sailing to California, c. 1850. (from History of California) The American capture of San Diego by the USS Cyane in 1846 (from History of California) The Battle of Río San Gabriel, in 1847, was a decisive victory for the American campaign in Alta California. (from History of California) Forces raising the U.S. flag over the Monterey Customhouse following their victory at the Battle of Monterey (from History of California) The colonial coat of arms of the Californias, granted by Antonio de Mendoza, the first Viceroy of New Spain. (from History of California) Concord Coach no. 251 in Wells Fargo livery in Old Town San Diego. (from History of California) Presidio of Santa Barbara. (from Culture of California) The Battle of San Pasqual in 1846. (from History of California) 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) 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) In-N-Out burgers (from Culture of California) Pacheco Adobe, built 1835 by Salvio Pacheco on Rancho Monte del Diablo. (from History of California) 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) Junípero Serra conducting the first mass in Monterey Bay in 1770. (from History of California) Juan Bautista de Anza led the 1774-76 Anza Expeditions. (from History of California) Depiction of the Donner Party heading west on the California Trail. (from History of California) 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) Depiction of the California hide trade. (from History of California) San Francisco harbor, c. 1850–51. (from History of California) A Southern Pacific Train at Arcade Depot, Los Angeles, 1891 (from History of California) 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) General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo reviewing his troops in Sonoma in 1846. (from History of California) Goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and Shasta Cascade. (from History of California) 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) Balthazar, Inhabitant of Northern California, an 1818 portrait of a Miwok man by artist Mikhail Tikhanov. (from History of California) Mission Santa Barbara, founded in 1786, was the first mission to be established by Fermín de Lasuén. (from History of California) The Vallecitos stop of the Butterfield Overland Mail, in Julian, California. (from History of California) The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions. (from History of California) The University of California, Berkeley is the flagship school of the University of California system. (from Culture of California) The railway station in Sacramento in 1874. (from History of California) Francis Drake's 1579 landing in "New Albion" (modern-day Point Reyes); engraving by Theodor De Bry, 1590. (from History of California) While slavery was abolished in California by Mexican authorities in 1829, the first California State Legislature under U.S. statehood passed the 1850 Indian Indenture Act, which allowed for the forced labor of indigenous Californians by Americans. (from History of California) 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) Dividing the Light (2007), a skyspace by James Turrell at Pomona College (from Culture of California) Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded in 1771 by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel de la Somera. (from History of California) Depiction of the revolt of the Mission Indians against padre Luis Jayme at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1775. (from History of California) Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 by order of Governor Luis Antonio Argüello, was the last Californian mission established. (from History of California) The 1835 Manifiesto a la República Mejicana, by José Figueroa, was the first book published in California (from Culture of California) "Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c. 1850 (from History of California) Poppies, Antelope Valley, a California Impressionist painting by Benjamin Chambers Brown (from Culture of California) Stanford University Oval (from Culture of California) The Petaluma Adobe, built by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in 1836 on Rancho Petaluma. (from History of California) The Getty Villa (from Culture of California) The 1846 Bear Flag Revolt declared the California Republic and prefaced the American conquest of California. (from History of California) Gaspar de Portolá served as the first Governor of the Californias and led the famed Portolá expedition of 1769-70. (from History of California) Presidio of San Francisco, founded by José Joaquín Moraga in 1776. (from History of California) California's first State Capitol building in San Jose, which served as the capital of California 1850–51. (from History of California) Manuel Domínguez built Domínguez Adobe on Rancho San Pedro in 1826. (from History of California) Bodega y Quadra led a 1775 expedition along the coast of California into the Pacific Northwest. (from History of California) Flag of Company A (The California 100) during the U.S. Civil War. (from History of California) Selected quote - Selected biographies - Larson in 2018 Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress. She played supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, and has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockbusters. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. At age six, Larson was the youngest student admitted to a training program at the American Conservatory Theater, and she began her acting career in 1998 with a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She appeared as a regular in the 2001 sitcom Raising Dad and briefly dabbled with a music career, releasing the album Finally Out of P.E. in 2005. She subsequently had supporting roles in the comedy films Hoot (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and 21 Jump Street (2012), and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the television series United States of Tara (2009–2011). (Full article...) Eastwood in 2010 Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Eastwood's greatest commercial successes are the adventure comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its action comedy sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980). Other popular Eastwood films include the Westerns Hang 'Em High (1968), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Pale Rider (1985), the action-war film Where Eagles Dare (1968), the prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the war film Heartbreak Ridge (1986), the action film In the Line of Fire (1993), and the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995). More recent works include Gran Torino (2008), The Mule (2018), and Cry Macho (2021). Since 1967, Eastwood's company Malpaso Productions has produced all but four of his American films. (Full article...) Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball. O'Malley's father, Edwin Joseph O'Malley, was politically connected. Walter, a University of Pennsylvania salutatorian, went on to obtain a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), and he used the combination of his family connections, his personal contacts, and both his educational and vocational skills to rise to prominence. First, he became an entrepreneur involved in public works contracting, and then he became an executive with the Dodgers. He progressed from being a team lawyer to being both the Dodgers' owner and president, and he eventually made the business decision to relocate the Dodgers franchise. Although he moved the franchise, O'Malley is known as a businessman whose major philosophy was stability through loyalty to and from his employees. (Full article...) London in 1903 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...) Nixon in 1972 Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (née Ryan; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was 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 Artesia, 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, insisting on visiting schools, orphanages, hospitals, and village markets as she undertook many missions of goodwill across the world. (Full article...) Official portrait, 1983 Nancy Reagan (/ˈreɪɡən/; 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...) Milk in June 1978 Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in New York. He acknowledged his homosexuality in adolescence but secretly pursued sexual relationships well into adulthood. The counterculture of the 1960s caused him to shed many of his conservative views about individual freedom and sexual expression. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera store. Although he held an assortment of jobs and frequently changed addresses, he settled in the Castro, a neighborhood that was experiencing a mass immigration of gay men and lesbians. He ran for city supervisor in 1973 but the existing gay political establishment resisted him. Milk's campaign was compared to theater due to his personality, earning media attention and votes, although not enough to be elected. He campaigned again in the next two supervisor elections, dubbing himself the "Mayor of Castro Street". The voter response caused him to also run for the California State Assembly. Due to his growing popularity, he led the gay rights movement in battles against anti-gay initiatives. Milk was elected city supervisor in 1977 after San Francisco began to choose neighborhood representatives rather than city-wide ones. During Milk's almost eleven months in office, he sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing, and employment. The Supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11–1, and Mayor George Moscone signed it into law. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk's bill. (Full article...) Horace Jeremiah "Jerry" Voorhis (April 6, 1901 – September 11, 1984) was a Democratic politician and educator from California who served five terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1937 to 1947, representing the 12th congressional district in Los Angeles County. He was the first political opponent of Richard M. Nixon, who defeated Voorhis for re-election in 1946 in a campaign cited as an example of Nixon's use of red-baiting during his political rise. Voorhis was born in Kansas, but the family relocated frequently in his childhood. He earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University (where he was elected to the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa) and a master's degree in education from Claremont Graduate School. In 1928, he founded the Voorhis School for Boys and became its headmaster. He retained the post into his congressional career. (Full article...) Manson's 1968 mugshot Charles Milles Manson (né Maddox; November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some cult members committed a series of at least nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the film actress Sharon Tate. The prosecution contended that, while Manson never directly ordered the murders, his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy. Before the murders, Manson had spent more than half of his life in correctional institutions. While gathering his cult following, he was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who introduced Manson to record producer Terry Melcher. In 1968, the Beach Boys recorded Manson's song "Cease to Exist", renamed "Never Learn Not to Love" as a single B-side, but Manson was uncredited. Afterward, he attempted to secure a record contract through Melcher, but was unsuccessful. (Full article...) Seaborg in 1964 Glenn Theodore Seaborg (/ˈsiːbɔːrɡ/ 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...) Parsons in 1941 John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. 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. Parsons was raised in Pasadena, California. He began amateur rocket experiments with school friend Edward Forman in 1928. Parsons was admitted to Stanford University but left before graduating due to financial hardship during the Great Depression. In 1934, Parsons, Forman, and Frank Malina formed the Caltech-affiliated Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) Rocket Research Group, with support by GALCIT chairman Theodore von Kármán. The group worked on Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) for the U.S. military, and founded Aerojet in 1942 to develop and sell JATO technology during World War 2. The GALCIT Rocket Research Group became JPL in 1943. (Full article...) The GFDL logo The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify (except for "invariant sections") a work and requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies may also be sold commercially, but, if produced in larger quantities (greater than 100), the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient. The GFDL was designed for manuals, textbooks, other reference and instructional materials, and documentation which often accompanies GNU software. However, it can be used for any text-based work, regardless of subject matter. For example, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia uses the GFDL (coupled with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License) for much of its text, excluding text that was imported from other sources after the 2009 licensing update that is only available under the Creative Commons license. (Full article...) Perry in 2016 Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold over 143 million units worldwide. She is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. Billboard ranked her fourth on its "Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists" list and twenty-fifth on their "Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century" list. At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. (Full article...) Tate in a promotional photo for Valley of the Dolls, 1967 Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (née Tate; January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements and small television roles before appearing in films as well as working as a model. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic and dramatic acting performances, Tate was hailed as one of Hollywood's most promising newcomers, being compared favorably with the late Marilyn Monroe. She made her film debut in 1961 as an extra in Barabbas with Anthony Quinn. She next appeared in the British mystery horror film Eye of the Devil (1966). Her first major role was as Jennifer North in the 1967 American drama film Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. The role would help her to become a rising sex symbol of Hollywood, appearing in a Playboy photoshoot by filmmaker Roman Polanski, Tate's future husband. That year, she also performed in the comedy horror film The Fearless Vampire Killers, directed by Roman Polanski. Tate's last completed film, 12+1, was released posthumously in 1969. (Full article...) Official portrait, 1981 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement, and his presidency is known as the Reagan era. Born and raised in Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and was hired the next year as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California where he became a well-known film actor. During his acting career, Reagan was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild twice, serving from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In the 1950s, he became the host for General Electric Theater and also worked as a motivational speaker for General Electric. Subsequently, Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech during the 1964 U.S. presidential election launched his rise as a leading conservative figure. After being elected governor of California in 1966, he raised the state taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus and implemented harsh crackdowns on university protests. Following his loss to Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican Party's nomination and then a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. (Full article...) Did you know - ... that Cypress College basketball coach Don Johnson, who was an All-American at UCLA, developed two players with minimal experience who later played for his alma mater and set records in the NBA? ... that a California sea lion, later named Freeway, was thought to have traveled up Chollas Creek before getting onto California State Highway 94? ... that construction of Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit uncovered tracks from the California Street Cable Railroad? ... that an attempt by six employees of a California TV station to remain on the air by working unpaid lasted just three days? ... that Richmond station includes a "rather disquieting" artwork by William Mitchell? ... that the San Diego Trough Fault Zone can produce an earthquake that devastates the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego, California? ... that the westernmost population of California fan palms is found on the slopes of Cerro Bola in Baja California, Mexico? ... that before Foster City was built on Brewer Island, unsuccessful proposals included a hog farm, two military air bases, two civilian airports, and an entertainment complex larger than Disneyland? Selected picture - A rainbow at Vernal Fall Vernal Falls Credit: God of War Vernal Fall is a large waterfall on the Merced River just downstream of Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park, USA. While the official height of the waterfall is 317 ft 0 in (96.62 m), the United States Geographical Survey has measured it at approximately 240 ft 0 in (73.15 m). Selected panorama - San Francisco at Sunset The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 14th most populous city in the United States, with a 2007 estimated population of 764,976. One of the most densely populated major American cities, San Francisco is part of the much larger San Francisco Bay Area, which is home to approximately 7.2 million people. 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Warner History of the Yosemite area John Young (astronaut) Farran Zerbe Zodiac (film) Featured lists 1984 Summer Olympics medal table 1st Academy Awards 51st Academy Awards 52nd Academy Awards 53rd Academy Awards 54th Academy Awards 56th Academy Awards 58th Academy Awards 59th Academy Awards 60th Academy Awards 61st Academy Awards 62nd Academy Awards 63rd Academy Awards 64th Academy Awards 65th Academy Awards 66th Academy Awards 67th Academy Awards 68th Academy Awards 69th Academy Awards 70th Academy Awards 71st Academy Awards 72nd Academy Awards 73rd Academy Awards 74th Academy Awards 75th Academy Awards 76th Academy Awards 77th Academy Awards 78th Academy Awards 79th Academy Awards 80th Academy Awards 81st Academy Awards 82nd Academy Awards 83rd Academy Awards 84th Academy Awards 85th Academy Awards 86th Academy Awards 87th Academy Awards 88th Academy Awards 89th Academy Awards 90th Academy Awards 91st Academy Awards 92nd Academy Awards 93rd Academy Awards 94th Academy Awards 95th Academy Awards 96th Academy Awards List of California hurricanes List of governors of California List of California tornadoes Leo Carrillo on stage and screen List of Crystal Dynamics video games List of international goals scored by Landon Donovan List of mergers and acquisitions by Gen Digital List of Golden State Warriors head coaches List of acquisitions by Juniper Networks List of municipalities in California List of tallest buildings in San Diego List of 1960 Winter Olympics medal winners List of Arrested Development episodes List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations List of Caltrain stations List of Chevron Championship winners List of Las Vegas Raiders head coaches List of Los Angeles Chargers head coaches List of Los Angeles Clippers seasons List of Los Angeles Metro Rail stations List of Muni Metro stations List of Oakland Athletics team records List of SacRT light rail stations List of San Diego Padres team records List of San Francisco 49ers head coaches List of San Francisco Giants Opening Day starting pitchers List of San Francisco Giants first-round draft picks List of San Francisco Giants managers List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines List of San Jose Sharks players List of VTA light rail stations List of acquisitions by Adobe List of acquisitions by Cisco List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts List of acquisitions by eBay List of cities and towns in the San Francisco Bay Area List of mergers and acquisitions by Apple List of mergers and acquisitions by Yahoo List of tallest buildings in Los Angeles List of tallest buildings in Oakland, California List of tallest buildings in San Francisco Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame List of Los Angeles Angels first-round draft picks List of Los Angeles Dodgers first-round draft picks List of Los Angeles Lakers seasons Mayor of San Diego Mayor of San Francisco List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet List of milestone home runs by Barry Bonds List of Oakland Athletics first-round draft picks List of Pomona College people 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards List of San Diego Padres first-round draft picks A-Class articles 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment Featured topics Jake Gyllenhaal Featured portals Portal:California Portal:California roads Featured pictures File:1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon poster.jpg File:2010 mavericks competition.jpg File:20070616 Chris Young visits Wrigley (4)-edit3.jpg File:Acorn woodpecker holding a nut in its beak-0225.jpg File:Agassiz statue Mwc00715.jpg File:Albert Bierstadt - Among the Sierra Nevada, California - Google Art Project.jpg File:Albino Alligator 2008.jpg File:Alcatraz03182006.jpg File:Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party.jpg File:Amboy (California, USA), Hist. Route 66 -- 2012 -- 1.jpg File:Ansel Adams and camera.jpg File:Beulah Ream Allen receiving the Medal of Freedom (1945).jpg File:Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), Corte Madera.jpg File:Boats on Lake Oroville during the 2021 drought.jpg File:Bodie ghost town.jpg File:Border USA Mexico.jpg File:Brown pelican in flight (Bodega Bay).jpg File:Burned mobile home neighborhood in California edit.jpg File:Buteo jamaicensis in flight at Llano Seco-1520.jpg File:CA-84 Woodside April 2023 002.jpg File:CA Ground Squirrel on rock.jpg File:CID Array.jpg File:Cable Car No. 1 and Alcatraz Island.jpg File:California island Vinckeboons5.jpg File:California sea lion in La Jolla (70568).jpg File:California state coat of arms (illustrated, 1876).jpg File:CampanileMtTamalpiasSunset-original.jpg File:Cervus canadensis nannodes at Tomales Point.jpg File:Chemerinsky during Hyatt III sketch.jpg File:Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889.jpg File:Crystal Mountains CA02.jpg File:Cynthia Woodhead 1980 - Restoration.jpg File:Deathvalleysky nps big.jpg File:Devastation in San Bruno.jpg File:Donner Lake as seen from Donner Pass.jpg File:Double-crested cormorant at Sutro Baths-6460.jpg File:Dungeness crab face closeup.jpg File:EdwardTeller1958 fewer smudges.jpg File:Egretta thula at Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds.jpg File:Elephant seals fighting.jpg File:Eureka Inn, Entrance Hall.jpg File:European starling at Bodega Head-1209.jpg File:Fort Baker and Angel Island.jpg File:Fort Mason Center and Downtown San Francisco.jpg File:GGB reflection in raindrops.jpg File:GREIDER Carol 2014 - Less vignetting.jpg File:Gateway Generating Station rectified.jpg File:Giant Marbles in Joshua Tree National Park.jpg File:GoldenGateBridge BakerBeach MC.jpg File:Grauman's Chinese Theatre, by Carol Highsmith fixed & straightened.jpg File:Greater Yellowlegs2.jpg File:Greater white-fronted goose in flight-1045.jpg File:Gull ca usa.jpg File:Hawk eating prey.jpg File:Heinrich Berann NPS Panorama of Yosemite without labels.jpg File:Hotel Del c1900b.jpg File:Igor Stravinsky LOC 32392u.jpg File:Jane Russell in The Outlaw.jpg File:JetBlue292Landing.jpg File:Jfader dryden.jpg File:JohnShea.jpg File:Joshua tree keys view pano more vertical.jpg File:Juvenile pelecanus occidentalis in flight.jpg File:Kobe Bryant 7144 adjusted.jpg File:LAPD Bell 206 Jetranger.jpg File:LagunaBeachCA photo D Ramey Logan.JPG File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg File:Langechildren2.jpg File:Lansdowne Herakles Getty Museum.jpg File:Line scan photo of nine car BART C1 train in 2017.jpg File:Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.jpg File:Los Angeles Pollution.jpg File:Los angeles from getty panorama.jpg File:LutraCanadensis fullres.jpg File:Male northern pintail at Llano Seco.jpg File:Male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) strutting.jpg File:Map of Cathedral Peak Granodiorite.svg File:Marilyn Monroe photo pose Seven Year Itch.jpg File:Mary Pickford cph.3c17995u.jpg File:McClure Tunnel west.jpg File:Mission Santa Clara.jpg File:Mono lake tufa.JPG File:Mudpot at Lassen Volcanic National Park in August 2019.webm File:NPG 2010 112 Lucia Chamberlain by Zaida Ben-Yusuf.jpg File:Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981.jpg File:Oppenheimer (cropped).jpg File:Palace of Fine Arts (16794p).jpg File:Parlos Verdes Light House Aug 2012.JPG File:Pelecanus erythrorhynchos at Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds.jpg File:Photograph of Members of the Mochida Family Awaiting Evacuation - NARA - 537505 - Restoration.jpg File:Pigeon Point Lighthouse (2016).jpg File:Pioneertown california saloon and bath house.jpg File:Point Arena Lighthouse, Mendocino County.jpg File:Point Reyes Lighthouse (April 2012).jpg File:Post-and-Grant-Avenue-Look.jpg File:Pyrosoma atlanticum (12256).jpg File:Randy's donuts1 edit1.jpg File:RiP2013 GreenDay Mike Dirnt 0002.JPG File:Ronald Reagan with cowboy hat 12-0071M edit.jpg File:Rosalind Goodrich Bates (1931).jpg File:Russian chapel at Fort Ross (2016).jpg File:Sacramento,-California---State-Capitol.jpg File:Saint Teresa of Avila Church, Bodega (2023)-L1003432.jpg File:Sally Ride (1984).jpg File:San Francisco City Hall as seen from 100 Van Ness at dusk (wide).jpg File:San Francisco International Airport at night.jpg File:San Francisco in ruin edit2.jpg File:San gorgonio pass wind farm california pano.jpg File:SanFrancisco1851a.jpg File:SanFranciscoharbor1851c sharp.jpg File:Sea otter nursing02.jpg File:Seaborg in lab - restoration.jpg File:Sfearthquake3b.jpg File:Sharon Tate Valley of the Dolls 1967 - Restoration.jpg File:Shasta dam under construction new edit.jpg File:Sonoma chipmunk at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.jpg File:Spanish shawl.JPG File:Steve Jobs and Macintosh computer, January 1984, by Bernard Gotfryd - edited.jpg File:Strip photo of San Francisco Cable Car 10.jpg File:Surfer in california 2.JPG File:Tower Bridge Sacramento edit.jpg File:Tracy Caldwell Dyson in Cupola ISS.jpg File:US-NBN-CA-Oakland-2248-1870-10-388-B.jpg File:US-NBN-CA-Petaluma-2193-1870-100-209-A.jpg File:US-NBN-CA-San Francisco-1741-1870-5-6758-B.jpg File:US-NBN-CA-San Francisco-1741-1870-20-2772-C.jpg File:US-NBN-CA-San Francisco-1741-1870-50-1616-A.jpg File:USA Lassen NP Kings Creek CA edit3.jpg File:Vernal Falls Rainbow.jpg File:Victor Adam after Louis Choris - Vue du Presidio san Francisco, 1822.jpg File:Vineyards of Napa Valley panorama.jpg File:Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, CA, jjron 22.03.2012.jpg File:Waxman during Hyatt III sketch.jpg File:World War II woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California 1942.jpg State facts 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: Insect: California Dogface Butterfly Bird: California Valley Quail Fossil: Saber-toothed cat Dance: West Coast Swing Colors: Blue & Gold Animal: California Grizzly Bear Flower: California Poppy Gem: Benitoite Rock: Serpentine Fish: California Golden Trout Songs: I Love You, California Tree: California Redwood Mineral: Gold Related WikiProjects Related WikiProjects Main Project California Sub-projects Southern California • Los Angeles • San Francisco Bay Area • Santa Barbara County • California State Highways • California County Routes • University of California • California State University Subportals Related portals Things you can do Things you can do Create Requested California Articles Help assess articles supported by WikiProject California Help suggest content for usage in this portal by using the archive links to obtain instructions Write California-related topics if you see a redlink which is worthy of an article Cleanup and expand stub-class articles relating to California Associated Wikimedia The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: Commons Free media repository Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals Wikidata Free knowledge base Wikinews Free-content news Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikisource Free-content library Wikiversity Free learning tools Wikivoyage Free travel guide Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus More portals Discover Wikipedia using portals List of all portals The arts portal Biography portal Current events portal Geography portal History portal Mathematics portal Science portal Society portal Technology portal Random portal WikiProject Portals Shortcuts to this page: P:CALIFORNIA • P:CAL