San Francisco is a city on the California coast, situated on a bay spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge. The city was founded in 1776. It is a popular tourist destination featuring a number of historical sites that commemorate various historical events that have shaped the modern city.
San Francisco was officially founded June 29, 1776 by Spanish settlers. It was celebrated with a mass at what was then called Mission Dolores, a Catholic encampment just inland from the bay. A fort overlooking the bay was completed in 1794.
San Francisco was initially Spanish, then Mexican territory. In 1848, the US defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War, and took over California and Texas. Around the same time, the city was renamed San Francisco.
The Gold Rush of 1848-49 brought a huge influx of settlers into San Francisco. The city developed rapidly, and its population boomed. The city became the largest on the West Coast.
The Transcontinental Railroad, built between 1863 and 1869, linked the eastern and western coasts. It brought large numbers of Chinese immigrants to San Francisco, first to work on the railroad, and later to live and work in the city.
The city is highly susceptible to earthquakes because of its location on the San Andreas Fault. On April 18, 1906, a major earthquake damaged buildings and started fires that raged throughout the town. Approximately 75 percent of the city was destroyed.
San Francisco remained economically stable during the Great Depression, and invested considerably in infrastructure. The Oakland and Golden Gate bridges were completed in 1936-37, and Alcatraz was constructed in 1939.
San Francisco served as a naval hub during World War II. It was also the site of the signing of the UN Charter in 1945, which created the United Nations, and the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, which officially ended the war with Japan.
The San Francisco Renaissance, which occurred during the 1950s, was a period of cultural growth spurred by the Beat Poetry movement. The city became the center of counter-culture in the US.
The hippie movement of the 1960s culminated in the 1967 Summer of Love. The event drew more than 100,000 people, mostly hippies, to the city, and featured psychedelic drugs and music.
San Francisco played a central role in the gay rights movement of the 1970s. Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was assassinated in 1978.
The dot-com boom of the late 1990s brought technological companies to the city. The dot-com bubble burst in 2001, causing many of those companies to go out of business.
