“There’s only the American Dream and the California dream.”
—Gov. Gavin Newsom
This year marks the 175th anniversary of California’s admission to the U.S. as the 31st state. But statehood wasn’t the beginning of the story. Celebrating California is a collection of 175 stories that highlight California’s unique history and role in the world. The goal is to offer examples of California’s unique character and that of its residents, past and present. That means among the good there will be some bad. For every success story, there’s a failure, a tragedy, an injustice. It’s from these mistakes that we learn and grow stronger together. Share a story with us that helps define what California means to you.
Bummer and Lazarus are the most famous dogs in San Francisco’s history. Maybe even in California’s history. Between 1861 and…
Inspiration comes to Malvina Reynolds as she drives through a Daly City housing development in 1962. Her song, "Little Boxes,"…
On March 18, 1947, a basketball game tips off at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Corona. It has all the makings…
For decades, nobody questions that Artie Samish runs Sacramento. Starting as a lobbyist in the early 1920s, Samish gradually amasses…
Assembly member Blanca Rubio agrees to meet me at Chicory, a coffee shop in Sacramento frequented by members of the…
World War II effectively ends in 1945 when the United States detonates an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6,…
On a summer day in the San Joaquin Valley, 101 in the shade, I merge onto Highway 99 past downtown…
After California’s male voters decisively defeat a women’s voting rights ballot measure in 1896, suffragists display plenty of public bravado.…
Rebecca M. Austin, ca. 1880-1887. [2013-0197], California State Library Erstwhile school teacher Rebecca Merritt Austin and husband James move to…
DiMaggio invests part of his first year salary with the Yankees to partner with his baseball-playing brothers on this restaurant,…