Welcome to the Portal:California. Such a lovely place.
California
State of California
Map of the United States with California highlighted
California ( KAL -ih-FORN -yə, - FOR -nee-ə ) 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 the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With over 38.9 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2 ), it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest U.S. state by area, and the most populated subnational entity in North America .
The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas in California are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions respectively. Greater Los Angeles has over 18.7 million residents and the San Francisco Bay Area has over 9.6 million residents. Los Angeles is the state's most populous city and the nation's second-most populous city , after New York City . San Francisco is the second-most densely populated major city in the country, after New York City. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous county , and San Bernardino County is the nation's largest county by area . Sacramento is the state's capital city .
Prior to European colonization , California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America , and the indigenous peoples of California constituted the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico . European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire . In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain . 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 dramatic social and demographic changes, including the depopulation of indigenous peoples in the California genocide . The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850 , as a free state , following the Compromise of 1850 . (Full article... )
The following are images from various California-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 California's first State Capitol building in
San Jose , which served as the capital of California 1850–51. (from
History of California )
Image 3 Depiction of the revolt of the
Mission Indians against padre
Luis Jayme at
Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1775. (from
History of California )
Image 5 The railway station in
Sacramento in 1874. (from
History of California )
Image 7 Map of the
Butterfield Overland Mail routes through California, c. 1858. (from
History of California )
Image 10 A Southern Pacific Train at
Arcade Depot , Los Angeles, 1891 (from
History of California )
Image 12 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 )
Image 13 "Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c.
1850 (from
History of California )
Image 16 Francis Drake 's 1579 landing in "
New Albion " (modern-day
Point Reyes ); engraving by
Theodor De Bry , 1590. (from
History of California )
Image 17 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 )
Image 18 Forces raising the U.S. flag over the
Monterey Customhouse following their victory at the
Battle of Monterey (from
History of California )
Image 19 The Spanish founded
Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the
Californian missions . (from
History of California )
Image 23 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 )
Image 24 Portrait of an "
assimilated "
Maidu man in
Sacramento , 1867. (from
History of California )
Image 25 Advertisement for sailing to California, c. 1850. (from
History of California )
Image 26 General
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo reviewing his troops in
Sonoma in 1846. (from
History of California )
Image 27 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 )
Image 29 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , founded in 1771 by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel de la Somera. (from
History of California )
Image 31 Mission Santa Barbara , founded in 1786, was the first mission to be established by
Fermín de Lasuén . (from
History of California )
Image 34 In-N-Out burgers (from
Culture of California )
Image 36 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 )
Image 38 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 )
Image 41 Mission San Francisco Solano , founded in 1823 by order of Governor
Luis Antonio Argüello , was the last Californian mission established. (from
History of California )
Image 42 San Francisco harbor,
c. 1850–51. (from
History of California )
Image 43 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 )
Image 46 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 )
Image 48 The 1835
Manifiesto a la República Mejicana , by
José Figueroa , was the first book published in California (from
Culture of California )
Image 49 The American capture of
San Diego by the
USS Cyane in 1846 (from
History of California )
Image 51 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 )
Image 52 Depiction of the
Donner Party heading west on the
California Trail . (from
History of California )
Image 53 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 )
Image 55 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 character. (from
History of California )
Image 58 The
University of California, Berkeley is the flagship school of the University of California system. (from
Culture of California )
California is an island, and New York's an island. Maybe it's time for me to change islands.
Image 1 Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (
JIL -ən-hawl,
Swedish: [ ˈjʏ̂lːɛnˌhɑːl] ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the
Gyllenhaal family , he is the son of director
Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter
Naomi Foner , and the younger brother of actress
Maggie Gyllenhaal . He began acting as a child, making his acting debut in
City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films
A Dangerous Woman (1993) and
Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough roles were as
Homer Hickam in
October Sky (1999) and as a psychologically troubled teenager in
Donnie Darko (2001).
Gyllenhaal starred in the 2004 science fiction disaster film
The Day After Tomorrow . He played
Jack Twist in
Ang Lee 's 2005 romantic drama
Brokeback Mountain , for which Gyllenhaal won a
BAFTA Award and was nominated for an
Academy Award . His career progressed with starring roles in the thriller
Zodiac (2007), the romantic comedy
Love & Other Drugs (2010), and the science fiction film
Source Code (2011). Further acclaim came with his roles in
Denis Villeneuve 's thrillers
Prisoners (2013) and
Enemy (2013), and he received nominations for the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performances as a manipulative journalist in
Nightcrawler (2014) and a troubled writer in
Nocturnal Animals (2016). His highest-grossing release came with the
Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), in which he portrayed
Quentin Beck / Mysterio . He has since starred in
Wildlife (2018),
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019),
The Guilty (2021), and
Ambulance (2022). (
Full article... )
Image 2 Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American
landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his
black-and-white images of the
American West . He helped found
Group f/64 , an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored
sharp focus and the use of the full
tonal range of a photograph . He and
Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the
Zone System , a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in
exposure ,
negative development, and
printing .
Adams was a life-long advocate for
environmental conservation , and his photographic practice was deeply entwined with this advocacy. At age 14, he was given his first camera during his first visit to
Yosemite National Park . He developed his early photographic work as a member of the
Sierra Club . He was later contracted with the
United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand the National Park system, he was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. (
Full article... )
Image 3 Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951
– February 17, 1994) was an American journalist and author. After studying journalism at the
University of Oregon , Shilts began working as a
reporter for both
The Advocate and the
San Francisco Chronicle , as well as for
San Francisco Bay Area television stations. In the 1980s, he was noted for being the first openly gay reporter for the
San Francisco Chronicle .
His first book,
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk , was a biography of LGBT activist
Harvey Milk . His second book,
And the Band Played On , chronicled the history of the
AIDS epidemic . Despite some controversy surrounding the book in the LGBT community, Shilts was praised for his meticulous documentation of an epidemic that was little-understood at the time. It was later made into an
HBO film of the same name in 1993. His final book,
Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf , examined discrimination against
lesbians and gays in the military . (
Full article... )
Image 5 Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He
served as the
38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among
Time ' s 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.
Schwarzenegger began
lifting weights at age 15 and won the
Mr. Universe title aged 20, and subsequently the
Mr. Olympia title seven times. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest
bodybuilders of all time, and has written many books and articles about it. The
Arnold Sports Festival , considered the second-most important bodybuilding event after Mr. Olympia, is named after him. He appeared in the bodybuilding documentary
Pumping Iron (1977). After retiring from bodybuilding, he gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action star, with his breakthrough in the
sword and sorcery epic
Conan the Barbarian (1982), a box-office hit with
a sequel in 1984. After playing the
title character in the science fiction film
The Terminator (1984), he starred in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and three other sequels. His other successful action films included
Commando (1985),
The Running Man (1987),
Predator (1987),
Total Recall (1990), and
True Lies (1994), in addition to comedy films such as
Twins (1988),
Kindergarten Cop (1990) and
Jingle All the Way (1996). He is the founder of the film production company Oak Productions. (
Full article... )
Image 6 Hartman in character as Chick Hazard, Private Eye, circa 1978.
Philip Edward Hartman (
né Hartmann ; September
24, 1948
– May
28, 1998) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and graphic designer. Hartman was born in
Brantford, Ontario , Canada, and his family moved to the United States when he was ten years old. After graduating from
California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands including
Poco and
America . In 1975, Hartman joined the comedy group
the Groundlings , where he helped
Paul Reubens develop his character
Pee-wee Herman . Hartman co-wrote the film
Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens' show
Pee-wee's Playhouse .
In 1986, Hartman joined the
NBC sketch comedy show
Saturday Night Live (
SNL ) as a
cast member , and stayed for eight seasons until 1994. Nicknamed "Glue" for his ability to hold the show together and help other cast members, he won a
Primetime Emmy Award for his
SNL work in 1989. He also starred as Bill McNeal in the sitcom
NewsRadio , voiced
Lionel Hutz and
Troy McClure on
The Simpsons , and appeared in supporting roles in the films
Houseguest ,
Sgt. Bilko ,
Jingle All the Way , and
Small Soldiers . (
Full article... )
Image 7 Melvin Jerome Blanc (born
Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the
Golden Age of Radio , he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs, including those of
Jack Benny ,
Abbott and Costello ,
Burns and Allen ,
The Great Gildersleeve ,
Judy Canova , and his own
short-lived sitcom .
However, he became known worldwide for his work in the
Golden Age of American Animation as the voices of
Bugs Bunny ,
Daffy Duck ,
Tweety ,
Sylvester the Cat ,
Yosemite Sam ,
Foghorn Leghorn , the
Tasmanian Devil , and numerous other characters from the
Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons . Blanc also voiced the
Looney Tunes characters
Porky Pig and
Elmer Fudd after replacing their original performers
Joe Dougherty and
Arthur Q. Bryan , respectively, although he occasionally voiced Elmer during Bryan's lifetime as well. He later voiced characters for
Hanna-Barbera 's television cartoons, including
Barney Rubble and
Dino on
The Flintstones ,
Mr. Spacely on
The Jetsons ,
Secret Squirrel on
The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show , the title character of
Speed Buggy , and Captain Caveman on
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and
The Flintstone Kids . (
Full article... )
Image 8 Francis Ford Coppola (
KOH -pəl-ə,
Italian: [ ˈkɔppola] ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the
New Hollywood film movement of the 1960s and 1970s and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time. He is the
recipient of five
Academy Awards , six
Golden Globe Awards , two
Palmes d'Or , and a
British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) .
After directing
The Rain People in 1969, Coppola co-wrote
Patton (1970), which earned him the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay along with
Edmund H. North . Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of
The Godfather (1972), which revolutionized the
gangster genre of filmmaking, receiving strong commercial and critical reception.
The Godfather won three Academy Awards:
Best Picture ,
Best Actor and
Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with
Mario Puzo ).
The Godfather Part II (1974) became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics, the film earned Coppola two more Academy Awards, for Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Director , making him the second director (after
Billy Wilder ) to win these three awards for the same film. (
Full article... )
Image 9 Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (
KROH -bər lə GWIN ;
née Kroeber ; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of
speculative fiction , including
science fiction works set in her
Hainish universe , and the
Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than
twenty novels and over a hundred short stories , in addition to poetry,
literary criticism , translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".
Le Guin was born in
Berkeley, California , to author
Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist
Alfred Louis Kroeber . Having earned a master's degree in French, Le Guin began doctoral studies but abandoned these after her marriage in 1953 to historian Charles Le Guin. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which have been described by
Harold Bloom as her masterpieces. For the latter volume, Le Guin won both the
Hugo and
Nebula awards for best novel , becoming the first woman to do so. Several more works set in Earthsea or the Hainish universe followed; others included books set in the fictional country of
Orsinia , several works for children, and many anthologies. (
Full article... )
Image 11 John Whiteside Parsons (born
Marvel Whiteside Parsons ; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American
rocket engineer ,
chemist , and
Thelemite occultist . Associated with the
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 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.
Born in Los Angeles, Parsons was raised by a wealthy family on
Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, California. Inspired by
science fiction literature , he developed an interest in rocketry in his childhood and in 1928 began
amateur rocket experiments with school friend
Edward Forman . He dropped out of
Pasadena Junior College and
Stanford University due to financial difficulties during the
Great Depression , and in 1934 he united with Forman and graduate
Frank Malina to form the Caltech-affiliated
Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) Rocket Research Group, supported by GALCIT chairman
Theodore von Kármán . In 1939 the GALCIT Group gained funding from the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to work on
Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) for the U.S. military. After the U.S. entered World War II, they founded Aerojet in 1942 to develop and sell JATO technology; the GALCIT Group became JPL in 1943. (
Full article... )
Image 13 William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and occasional musician who is best known for co-creating
Tom and Jerry and providing the vocal effects for the series' title characters. Alongside
Joseph Barbera , he also founded the animation studio and production company
Hanna-Barbera .
Hanna joined the
Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as
Captain and the Kids . In 1937, while working at
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna met
Joseph Barbera . In 1957, they co-founded
Hanna-Barbera , which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, creating or producing programs such as
The Flintstones ,
The Huckleberry Hound Show ,
The Jetsons ,
Scooby-Doo ,
The Smurfs , and
Yogi Bear . In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to
Taft Broadcasting for $12
million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company until 1991. At that time, the studio was sold to
Turner Broadcasting System , which in turn was merged with
Time Warner in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors. (
Full article... )
Image 14 Nancy Patricia Pelosi (
pə-LOH -see ;
née D'Alesandro ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who served as the
52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. A member of the
Democratic Party , she was the first woman elected as U.S. House Speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of
Congress , leading the
House Democrats from 2003 to 2023. A member of the House since 1987, Pelosi currently represents
California's 11th congressional district , which includes most of
San Francisco . She is the dean of
California's congressional delegation .
Pelosi was born and raised in
Baltimore , and is the daughter of mayor and congressman
Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. She graduated from
Trinity College, Washington in 1962 and married businessman
Paul Pelosi the next year; the two had met while both were students. They moved to New York City before settling down in San Francisco with their children. Focused on raising her family, Pelosi stepped into politics as a volunteer for the Democratic Party in the 1960s. After years of party work, she was first elected to Congress in a
1987 special election and is now in her 19th term; she is the dean of
California's congressional delegation . Pelosi steadily rose through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected
House minority whip in 2001 and elevated to
House minority leader a year later, becoming the first woman to hold each of those positions in either chamber of Congress. (
Full article... )
Image 15 Andre Romell Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as
Dr. Dre , is an American record producer and rapper. He is the founder and
CEO of
Aftermath Entertainment and
Beats Electronics , and co-founded and was the president of
Death Row Records . Dre began his career as a member of the
World Class Wreckin' Cru in 1985, and later found fame with the
gangsta rap group
N.W.A . The group popularized explicit lyrics in
hip hop to detail the violence of street life. During the early 1990s, Dre was credited as a key figure in the crafting and popularization of
West Coast G-funk , a subgenre of hip hop characterized by a
synthesizer foundation and slow, heavy production.
Released as Death Row's first major project, Dr. Dre's solo debut studio album,
The Chronic (1992) made him one of the best-selling American music artists of 1993. It earned him a
Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance with the single "
Let Me Ride ", as well as several accolades for the single "
Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang " (featuring Snoop Dogg). That year, he produced Death Row labelmate
Snoop Doggy Dogg 's debut album
Doggystyle , and mentored producers such as his stepbrother
Warren G (leading to the multi-platinum debut
Regulate... G Funk Era in 1994) and Snoop Dogg's cousin
Daz Dillinger (leading to the double-platinum debut
Dogg Food by
Tha Dogg Pound in 1995), as he would mentor other producers including
Mel-Man and
Scott Storch . In 1996, Dre left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment; his compilation album,
Dr. Dre Presents: The Aftermath (1996) and second studio album,
2001 (1999) followed thereafter. (
Full article... )
Tafoni at Salt Point, Sonoma Coast, California
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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:
Things you can do