
When was San Francisco and the Bay Area discovered and colonized
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.
Captain Drakes of the Golden Hind steered his ship into the bay in 1769and spent five weeks living there with the natives. In 1769 Sergeant Jose Ortega found the entrance to San Francisco's Bay but it was only in 1776 that the first party of colonizers arrived.
http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/sfh2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco
http://www.sanfrancisco.com/history/

