YEAR BY YEAR: Southern California Chronology

1900: Elevated toll highway for bicyclists, or “veloway,” opens, offering a wood-planked route from the Green Hotel in Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. -- Automobile Club of Southern California founded. -- Los Angeles city population, 102,479. -- Los Angeles County population, 170,298

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1901: Angels Flight begins operating on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. -- Excavations begin at La Brea Tar Pits.

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1902: Michigan defeats Stanford, 49-0, in first New Year’s Day game at Rose Bowl. -- Construction begins on Riverside Mission Inn. -- Long Beach Pike, Southern California’s first seaside amusement park, opens.

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1903: Hollywood incorporates; population, 700; misdemeanor to drive more than 2,000 sheep through the city in one herd. -- William Randolph Hearst publishes Los Angeles Examiner. -- Annual value of orange crop exceeds value of gold produced. -- Southwest Museum founded.

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1904: 20-mile “Hueneme” railway connecting Malibu to Port of Los Angeles opens. -- Los Angeles records first auto theft.

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1905: Colorado River canal dike bursts, creating the Salton Sea.

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1906: City of Hawthorne named for novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. -- Alexandria Hotel opens.

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1907: The California Fruit Growers’ Exchange, a cooperative of citrus concerns, markets oranges to Iowa on trains that advertise: “Oranges for Health--California for Wealth.” -- In Santa Monica, Francis Boggs and Thomas Persons complete first film shot in California, “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

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1908: First lot on Balboa Island sells for $700. -- The Greene brothers complete Gamble House in Pasadena.

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1909: Santa Monica Pier construction begins. -- Southern California’s first airplane assembled in Santa Ana. -- First modern factory built in downtown L.A.’s garment district.

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1910: Pacific Electric Railway Co. becomes world’s largest interurban railway system. -- 21 die when labor leaders James B. and John J. McNamara dynamite Los Angeles Times. -- Watts incorporated. -- Los Angeles city population, 310,198. -- Los Angeles County population, 504,131.

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1911: Frederick Law Olmsted plans model city of Torrance. -- Manhattan Beach closes Strand to African Americans.

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1912: First L.A. gas station opens.

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1913: The Los Angeles Aqueduct opens. -- California Alien Land Act prohibits Japanese farmers from owning land. -- Record high temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit recorded in Death Valley, July 10. -- Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History in Exposition Park opens.

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1914: Longest, highest and only solid concrete municipal pier in the United States built in Huntington Beach. -- Main Ventura oil field produces 90,000 barrels of oil per day. -- Job Harriman founds utopian socialist colony in Antelope Valley.

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1915: Los Angeles leads nation with 55,000 privately owned cars. -- San Fernando Valley residents vote 681 to 25 in favor of becoming part of city of Los Angeles. -- Panama-California Exposition held in San Diego.

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1916: Watts elects Frederick Roberts, state’s first African American assemblyman, who pushes antidiscrimination bills.

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1917: Pasadena Playhouse opens. -- First wooden ship completed at L.A. Harbor launched.

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1918: 2,969 L.A. residents die in worldwide Spanish Flu epidemic. -- California Date Assn. establishes its first packing plant at Indio. -- Downtown L.A.’s Central Park renamed in honor of World War I Gen. John Pershing. -- Los Angeles’ first art/design college, Otis School of Art and Design, opens.

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1919: Hollywood’s Musso & Frank Grill opens. -- First forest service aerial patrol established in Riverside. -- Los Angeles Philharmonic founded. -- California Railroad Commission announces that Los Angeles County’s auto population has reached the “saturation point”--about 100,000.

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1920: Los Angeles’ first parking ban goes into effect, making downtown curbs off limits during peak hours. -- With Prohibition, speakeasies pop up in downtown hotel basements. -- Los Angeles city population, 576,673. -- Los Angeles County population, 936,455.

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1921: Sabatino (Simon) Rodia buys lot in Watts to begin construction of towers with scraps of metal, glass and pottery. -- First Easter sunrise service and “Symphonies Under the Stars” at Hollywood Bowl held.

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1922: Los Angeles’ first radio stations--KFI, KHJ and KNX--air. -- J. Paul Getty and his father, George, begin pumping oil in Long Beach.

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1923: Biltmore Hotel opens. -- Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson constructs Angelus Temple in Echo Park. -- Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opens.

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1924: L.A. moves ahead of San Francisco as state’s most populous city. -- 50 die in explosion aboard USS Mississippi in L.A. Harbor. -- Will Rogers builds ranch in Pacific Palisades. -- Mulholland Drive dedicated.

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1925: Fine Arts Society of San Diego established. -- Central Library in downtown L.A. opens.

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1926: Paving of Pico Boulevard, largest single street-paving project to date, costs more than $1 million.

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1927: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences convenes at Biltmore Hotel. -- Sid Grauman opens Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

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1928: L.A. City Hall opens. -- San Francisquito Canyon Dam collapse. -- Henry E. Huntington Library opens in San Marino. -- Built specifically for African American guests, the Somerville Hotel opens on Central Avenue.

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1929: Los Angeles Stock Exchange inaugurated, days before the markets crash. --First Academy Awards held at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. -- Bullock’s Wilshire opens. -- Art Deco Catalina Casino built. -- Wyatt Earp dies in his L.A. home on West 17th Street. -- Roosevelt Highway, later renamed Pacific Coast Highway, opens. -- UCLA moves to Westwood. -- City’s oldest Jewish congregation, Temple B’Nai Brith, relocates to the Wilshire Boulevard.

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1930: The gaming ship Rex anchors in Santa Monica Bay, generating $100,000 a month for the Capone mob. -- Olvera Street rebuilt. -- Los Angeles city population, 1,238,048. -- Los Angeles County population, 2,208,492.

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1931: 10-day celebration called “La Fiesta” marks city’s150th birthday. -- Wiltern Theater opens.

1932: Two inches of snow falls in Los Angeles. -- 37 nations and 1,408 athletes compete in summer Olympics, held in Exposition Park’s Coliseum. -- Eugene Biscailuz elected sheriff of Los Angeles.

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1933: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Long Beach causes 115 deaths and $45 million in damages. -- World’s largest hospital under one roof, Los Angeles County General, opens. -- Dust Bowl immigrants hard hit by droughts and given the derogatory name “Okies” begin migrating to Central and Southern California.

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1934: Farmers Market on 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue established. -- Unemployment in Los Angeles County hits 300,000. -- Old Chinatown condemned and 3,000 Chinese residents forced out to make way for Union Station. -- Santa Anita Racetrack built. -- 8,000 lettuce pickers strike in Imperial Valley.

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1935: Griffith Observatory dedicated.

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1936: Columbia Broadcasting System moves to Los Angeles. -- Power from Boulder Dam reaches the city with a nighttime celebration.

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1937: Toluca Lake resident Amelia Earhart and her twin- engine Lockheed Electra 10-E disappear over the Pacific. -- Los Angeles purchases Mines Field for use as municipal airport, later becoming Los Angeles International Airport.

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1938: After being investigated for corruption, L.A. Mayor Frank Shaw recalled and Fletcher Bowron elected. -- 31 inches of rain causes 100 deaths and $65 million in damages.

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1939: Union Station opens in downtown Los Angeles. -- Local aircraft-plant employment at 20,000.

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1940: The Arroyo Seco Parkway (now Pasadena Freeway) inaugurated, connecting Pasadena with downtown Los Angeles and becoming first freeway in the West. -- 85-mile-long All-American Canal completed, bringing water to Imperial Valley. -- Los Angeles city population, 1,504,277. -- Los Angeles County population, 2,785,643.

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1941: Albert Einstein teaches at Caltech. -- George Patton trains troops in Indio to train his troops.

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1942: Expulsion of 110,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps begins. -- Camp Joseph H. Pendleton established. -- First Mexican braceros arrive to pick crops in Southern California, replacing Japanese workers sent to camps. -- Westlake Park renamed after Gen. Douglas MacArthur. -- Japanese submarine shoots 16 shells at Ellwood oil fields, 12 miles north of Santa Barbara. -- U.S. Navy constructs world’s largest free-standing wood structures in Tustin to house helium-filled airships that will patrol coast. -- Los Angeles undergoes first air raid. -- Hollywood Canteen, a USO hangout to entertain servicemen, founded.

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1943: The Sleepy Lagoon trial. -- During five evenings in and around downtown Los Angeles, sailors and servicemen on leave attack young Mexican Americans in the “Zoot Suit Riots”; 44 injured Mexican Americans are arrested, no soldiers are charged. -- Local aircraft-plant employment reaches 243,000.

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1944: Northrop’s top-security experimental MX-324 “Rocket Wing” introduced, nation’s first military rocket plane. -- San Bernardino Freeway opens. -- Local garment industry employs 35,000 workers.

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1945: Aircraft contracts in Southland surpass $7 billion. -- Between 1942 and 1945, 200,000 African Americans migrate to L.A. -- Residents jam Automobile Club phone lines on V-J Day to ask if gas rations have been lifted.

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1946: Cleveland Rams move to Los Angeles. -- KTLA becomes Los Angeles’ first licensed commercial television station.

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1947: Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, world’s largest wooden airplane, flies one mile on only voyage. -- Los Angeles State and County Arboretum dedicated in Arcadia.

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1948: Hollywood Freeway opens. -- Nation’s first Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang forms in Fontana.

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1949: Kathy Fiscus, a 3-year-old who had fallen down a 14-inch water pipe, is found dead while all of L.A. watches live on television. -- First parking meter (5 cents an hour) erected in North Hollywood. -- Daryl F. Gates, a USC public administration student, joins LAPD. -- The nation’s first four-level freeway interchange, composed of the Harbor, Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Ana freeways, opens. -- Ed Roybal elected to Los Angeles City Council, first Mexican American to serve in 68 years.

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1950: Lakewood homes offered for sale; with 17,000 residences, it’s nation’s biggest single-ownership real estate development. -- Los Angeles city population, 1,970,358. -- Los Angeles County population, 4,151,687.

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1951: Los Angeles Rams win NFL championship. -- California establishes Metropolitan Transit Authority.

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1952: NBC opens Burbank studio. -- Ronald Reagan marries actress Nancy Davis at Little Brown Church in Studio City. -- Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon broadcasts “Checkers” speech from Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre.

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1953: Driest year on record, with 4.08 inches of rainfall. -- Oldest McDonald’s hamburger stand opens in Downey at Lakewood Boulevard and Florence Avenue.

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1954: Capitol Records Tower opens. -- On Sept. 13, Los Angeles experiences its worst smog attack to date.

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1955: Disneyland in Anaheim opens. -- West Covina is fastest-growing city in the United States.

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1956: Glendale’s Brand Library opens. -- Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) established.

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1957: Los Angeles bans use of home incinerators.

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1958: Lured by free land in Chavez Ravine on which to build a stadium, land that had been condemned and cleared for a canceled public housing project, the Brooklyn Dodgers move to L.A.

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1959: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena opens. -- The Dodgers win World Series at Coliseum.

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1960: Cesar Chavez organizes migrant farm workers and creates the United Farm Workers of America. -- John F. Kennedy accepts presidential nomination at the national Democratic convention in Sports Arena. -- Los Angeles city population, 2,461,595. -- Los Angeles County population, 6,038,771.

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1961: Red Car transit system permanently dismantled. -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art founded. -- Nearly 500 homes damaged or destroyed in Bel-Air and Brentwood wildfires. -- Sam Yorty elected L.A. mayor.

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1962: Marina del Rey dedicated as world’s longest man-made small-craft harbor. -- Ports O’Call Village in San Pedro opens. -- Dodger Stadium formally opens.

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1963: Baldwin Hills dam bursts, killing five people. -- Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” hits No. 1. -- Gilbert Lindsay elected first African American to L.A. City Council.

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1964: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Ahmanson Theater at Music Center opens. -- Universal Studios opens

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1965: After the arrest of motorist Marquette Frye, riots engulf Watts, causing the deaths of 34 people and damages of $40 million. -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens.

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1966: Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park opens. -- Ronald Reagan elected governor of California.

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1967: SS Queen Mary gets permanent berth in Long Beach harbor. -- Los Angeles Free Clinic opens. -- Mark Taper Forum opens. -- Los Angeles Kings form.

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1968: Robert F. Kennedy killed. -- O.J. Simpson wins Heisman Trophy.

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1969: The Manson murders. -- At height of Vietnam War, 70% of San Diego work force is military related. -- Angels Flight closes. -- Four million gallons of oil spill from Unocal Corp. well in Santa Barbara Channel, killing seabirds, blackening beaches and sparking the modern environmental movement.

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1970: Lion Country Safari in Irvine opens. -- 250 acres of Southern California land urbanized every day. -- The Crips gang, based in L.A., forms. -- Los Angeles city population, 2,811,801. -- Los Angeles County population, 7,055,800.

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1971: A 6.4-magnitude earthquake based in San Fernando results in 58 deaths and $511 million in damages. -- LAPD develops nation’s first Special Weapons and Tactics team, or “SWAT.”*

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1972: Pepperdine University opens Malibu campus. -- The Los Angeles Lakers win their first world championship. -- First African Methodist Episcopal Church Building on Towne Avenue burns down.

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1973: USC vs. Ohio State Rose Bowl game records largest attendance ever for a college football game, 106,869. -- Koreatown founded. -- Tom Bradley defeats Sam Yorty and becomes L.A.’s first black mayor. --

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1974: J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu opens. -- SWAT squads and officers attack a Siberian Liberation Army safe house on 54th Street in South Los Angeles; 6 SLA members are killed in ensuing two-hour gun battle.

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1975: Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena opens. -- The Bloods, an L.A.-based street gang, forms. -- California’s first Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, found in Marina del Rey.

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1976: Spring rains end “worst drought in 72 years.” -- To commemorate country’s bicentennial, Republic of Korea gifts city with friendship bell to display in San Pedro.

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1977: Tommy Lasorda named manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. -- George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries opens. -- Prop. 13 passes, freezing property taxes.

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1978: The “Hillside Strangler” murders of nine women. -- LA Conservancy founded. -- Pasadena holds first Doo Dah Parade. -- Daryl F. Gates becomes chief of police.*

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1979: Long Beach Pike closes.

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1980: -- East Mojave National Scenic Area, a 1.4-million-acre site, becomes first National Scenic Area. -- Los Angeles city population, 2,967,000. -- Los Angeles County population, 7,477,503.

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1981: Fernando Valenzuela begins rookie season with Dodgers. -- First Space Shuttle flight, Columbia, lands at Edwards Air Force *Base.

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1982: Spago opens. -- UCLA moves its home football games from Coliseum to Rose Bowl.

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1983: Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson drowns in Marina del Rey. Storm destroys end of Santa Monica Pier.

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1984: Los Angeles Raiders win Super Bowl. -- Rafer Johnson lights the flame at opening ceremonies of summer Olympics. -- West Hollywood becomes independent city. -- James Huberty kills 21 adults and children at San Ysidro McDonald’s, the deadliest single mass murder in U.S. history to date.

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1985: Eight East Los Angeles residents chase and subdue fugitive “Night Stalker” killer Richard Ramirez. -- Roger M. Mahony named archbishop of Los Angeles. -- Heal the Bay formed. -- Rock Hudson dies of AIDS.

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1986: Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) opens -- Arson fires gut Central Library. -- Mojave aviator Dick Ruttan completes first nonstop, non-refueled, around-the-world flight. -- First Los Angeles Marathon held.

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1987: Pope John Paul II visits Southland. -- A 5.9-magnitude Whittier quake causes eight deaths and $358 million in damages. -- Marineland closes.

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1988: Dodgers defeat the Oakland A’s in World Series. -- Lakers win their sixth world championship. -- Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage opens.

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1989: Regulators seize Lincoln Savings & Loan and accuse Charles H. Keating of fraud. -- Herald Examiner ceases publication. -- Pan Pacific Auditorium burns down.

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1990: Armand Hammer Museum in Westwood opens. -- LAPD records record high in gang-related violence, with total of 9,500 reported crimes. -- Los Angeles city population, 3,485,390. -- Los Angeles County population, 8,769,944.

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1991: Artist Christo erects 1,700 yellow umbrellas in Tejon Pass. -- Blue Line opens.. -- Gloria Molina, first Latina and first woman, takes seat on Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. -- Laker Magic Johnson announces he has HIV virus and will retire from basketball.

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1992: After the LAPD officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King are acquitted, riots break out for two days in Los Angeles; 51 people die, 2,116 are injured, 6,345 are arrested and 3,767 buildings are burned. -- Willie L. Williams named LAPD chief. -- Bullock’s Wilshire closes. -- The Christopher Commission, established to recommend an overhaul of the LAPD, publishes report.

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1993: Century Freeway opens. -- Red Line between Pershing Square and Union Station opens. -- Richard Riordan elected L.A. mayor. -- Freeway and highway shootings at occupied vehicles reach high of 18 reported offenses. -- 18,000 acres burn in Malibu and Topanga Canyon; 350 buildings damaged or destroyed.

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1994: A 6.7-magnitude quake based in Northridge causes 57 deaths and $27 billion in damages. -- 70,000 protesters march against the illegal immigration initiative Prop. 187. -- Brazil defeats Italy in final game of soccer’s World Cup at the Rose Bowl. -- East L.A.’s Brooklyn Avenue renamed Cesar Chavez Avenue. -- Petersen Automotive Museum opens. -- Orange County declares bankruptcy.

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1995: 60 Thai nationals held in slave labor at El Monte garment factory freed. -- Three UC Irvine doctors embroiled in infertility scandal. -- O.J. Simpson found not guilty in murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. -- Raiders move to Oakland. -- Rams move to St. Louis. -- UC Regents end affirmative action in admissions policies

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1996: LA Conservancy presents archdiocese with temporary restraining order to stop demolition of St. Vibiana’s cathedral.. -- Angels Flight reopens.

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1997: Bodies of 39 men and women associated with Heaven’s Gate cult found in Rancho Santa Fe. -- Police Chief Willie L. Williams takes $375,000 severance package. -- Los Angeles experiences its longest dry spell, 219 days. -- Long Beach Naval Shipyard closes. -- Getty Center opens.

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1998: Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific opens. -- Rupert Murdoch buys the Dodgers. -- Ground broken on new sports arena and new cathedral downtown. -- California Science Center opens.