San Francisco and the Bay Area's gradual discovery by Europeans began in 1542. However, the area wasn't uninhabited even at that point. Indigenous people are known to have been in existence for 10,000 - 20,000 years prior to the discovery. Read More..

The Gold Rush era in San Francisco lasted almost two decades, between the years 1846 and 1864. Gold was first discovered 120 miles away at Sutter's Mill. Sam Brannan, a tabloid publisher at the time printed as fact his suspicions about the gold present in Sutter's Mill, hoping to draw attention from the East. Read More..

The 1906 earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18, caused major havoc and disaster resulting not only in collapsed buildings but fires that raged for days without control. The city's water supply was affected and almost 500 people are said to have lost their lives. Read More..

Rapid rebuilding of San Francisco began right after the devastating earthquake of 1906. The city was soon restored and even celebrated its rebirth in 1915. People without livelihoods were granted loans by the Bank of Italy (which later became Bank of America) and San Francisco began to thrive financially. Read More..

The Oakland Bay Bridge was inaugurated towards the end of 1936 while the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in the summer of 1937. Read More..

Alcatraz Island was given to Julian Workman by the Pio Pico, a Mexican governor, in 1846, for building a lighthouse. John Fremont, California's Military Governor, bought the island from Workman that same year. Four years later, the island was designated a military base by President Millard Fillmore. Read More..

The 50s represented disillusionment that thinking people from various walks of life began to feel with the American Ideals and system. These thinkers came to be called "Beatniks," by columnist Herbert Caen. They evolved into the peace-loving hippies of the 1960s who were quite heavily into psychedelics. Read More..

It was 5:04 pm on the 17th of October, 1989 when San Francisco's Bay Area was struck by a devastating earthquake. It came to be named the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Quake of '89 and even the World Series Earthquake (because it occurred during the 1989 baseball world series' warm up matches). Read More..

San Francisco saw the sudden and rapid rise of the Silicon Valley in the 1990s. The computer industry pioneered in this region by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak suddenly grew into an industry with many more entrepreneurs jumping onto the bandwagon in search of quick money. This was the famous dotcom boom of the 1990s. Read More..