Timeline of San Francisco

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of San Francisco, California, United States.

This is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 19th century

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• 1776 - Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís established by colonists from Spain.
• 1791 - Mission San Francisco de Asís building dedicated.

19th century

• 1847
  • Yerba Buena renamed "San Francisco."
  • City hotel built.^[1]
• 1848
  • Territory ceded from Mexico to the United States per Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
  • California Gold Rush begins.
• 1849
  • St. Francis hotel built.^[1]
  • Boudin Bakery, Olympic Amphitheatre,^[2] and Union Iron Works^[3] in business.
  • West Indian Benevolent Association established.^[4]
• 1850
  • April 15: City of San Francisco incorporated.^[5]
  • May 1: John W. Geary becomes mayor.
  • October 29: San Francisco becomes part of the new U.S. State of California.
  • Chamber of Commerce^[6] Society of California Pioneers,^[7] and Jenny Lind Theatre^[2] established.
  • Population: 34,000.^[8]
• 1851
  • May 3: Fire.^[9]
  • San Francisco Committee of Vigilance organized.
  • Pioneer Race Course opens.
• 1852
  • Ghirardelli in business.
  • Mercantile Library Association of San Francisco, Sons of the Emerald Isle, and San Francisco Turn Verein established.^[7]
  • The Golden Era newspaper begins publication.
• 1853 - California Academy of Sciences, Young Men's Christian Association,^[7] and Russ garden^[1] established.
• 1854 - San Francisco Mechanics' Institute established.
• 1855 - Hebrew Young Men's Literary Assoc. active.^[10]
• 1856 - Mirror of the Times^[4] and Daily Morning Call^[11] newspapers begin publication.
• 1857 - State Convention of Colored People held in city.^[12]
• 1858 - Italian Benevolent Society organized.^[7]
• 1859 - San Francisco Schuetzen-Verein founded.^[13]
• 1860
  • March 27: Japanese embassy arrives.^[14]
  • Olympic Club founded.^[15]
• 1861
  • Overland Telegraph Company begins operating (New York-San Francisco).^[9]
  • Fraternitas Rosae Crucis lodge established.^[16]
• 1862 - Heald's Business College^[17] and Franchise League^[4] established.
• 1863
  • San Francisco and San Jose Railroad begins operating.
  • St. Andrew's Society founded.^[7]
  • Cliff House rebuilt.
• 1864 - Concordia-Argonaut Club founded.
• 1865 - Daily Examiner and Daily Dramatic Chronicle newspapers begin publication.^[11]
• 1866 - Merchants' Exchange Association, Caledonian Club,^[7] and Woodward's Gardens^[1] established.
• 1867 - San Francisco City and County Almshouse opens.^[18]
• 1868 - San Francisco County Medical Society established.^[7]
• 1869
  • California Theatre opens.
  • San Francisco Yacht Club founded.^[7]
  • Grand hotel built.^[1]
• 1870 - Golden Gate Park^[9] and San Francisco Microscopical Society^[19] established.
• 1871 - San Francisco Art Association and St. Luke's Hospital^[13][20] established.
• 1872 - Bohemian Club and Bar Association of San Francisco founded.^[7]
• 1873
  • Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating.
  • Polish Society of California organized.^[7]
• 1874 - California School of Design, and Territorial Pioneers of California^[7] established.
• 1875
  • Palace Hotel in business.^[1]
  • Fire patrol established.^[13]
• 1876 - Pioneer Park, Pacific Homeopathic Dispensary Association, and Ligue Nationale Francaise established.^[7]
• 1877
  • Board of Trade, Spanish Mutual Benevolent Society,^[7] and Workingmen's Party of California^[21] established.
  • Baldwin hotel built.^[1]
• 1878 - San Francisco Public Library,^[22][23] Pacific Yacht Club, and Young Women's Christian Association founded.^[7]
• 1879 - Golden Gate Kindergarten Association organized.^[13]
• 1881 - Geographical Society of the Pacific organized.^[7]
• 1883 - Pacific Coast Amateur Photographic Association headquartered in city.^[24]
• 1887 - Cogswell Polytechnical College established.^[17]
• 1888 - Associated Charities^[13] and San Francisco Business College^[17] established.
• 1889 - Pacific-Union Club formed.
• 1890
  • California Camera Club^[25] and University Club of San Francisco established.
  • Population: 298,997.^[8]
• 1891 - Gregg Shorthand school established.^[17]
• 1892
  • Hibernia Bank built.^[26]
  • Trocadero Hotel opens.
• 1893 - Mark Hopkins Institute of Art established.^[27]
• 1894
  • Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts established.^[28]
  • California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 held; Japanese Tea Garden built.
• 1895
  • California School of Mechanical Arts established.^[28]
  • M. H. de Young Memorial Museum opens as Golden Gate Park Museum.^[29]
• 1896 - Sutro Baths open.
• 1898
  • San Francisco Ferry Building opens.
  • City rechartered.^[9]
  • League of California Municipalities headquartered in city.^[30]
  • Buddhist temple founded.^[31][32]
• 1899
  • San Francisco State Normal School established.
  • City Hall built.

20th century

1900s-1940s

• 1900 - Population: 342,782.^[8]
• 1901 - San Francisco Architectural Club organized.^[29]
• 1902 - Eugene Schmitz becomes mayor.
• 1906 - April 18: 1906 San Francisco earthquake.^[33]
• 1907
  • July: Mayor Eugene Schmitz imprisoned.^[9]
  • International Hotel built.
  • A. Mutt comic strip begins publication in the San Francisco Chronicle.
• 1908 - South San Francisco incorporated near city.^[34]
• 1910
  • San Francisco Housing Association organized.^[35]
  • Population: 416,912.^[8]
• 1911
  • San Francisco Symphony founded.
  • Cort theatre opens.^[36]
• 1912
  • Lux School for Industrial Training for Girls opens.
  • Book Club of California established.^[37]
  • James Rolph becomes mayor.
  • Tadich Grill in business.^[38]
• 1914 - San Francisco National Guard Armory and Arsenal built.
• 1915
  • February 20: Panama–Pacific International Exposition opens; Tower of Jewels built.
  • San Francisco Labor Temple built.
  • San Francisco City Hall rebuilt.
  • Veterans Auditorium opens.
• 1916
  • Preparedness Day Bombing.^[39]
  • Legal Aid Society established.
  • Buena Vista Cafe in business.
• 1917 - Strand Theater built.^[36][26]
• 1922 - Golden Gate Theatre and Castro Theatre built.^[40]
• 1923 - August 2: US President Harding dies in the Palace Hotel.^[33]
• 1924 - California Palace of the Legion of Honor opens.
• 1925 - Fleishhacker Pool built.
• 1926 - Playland at the Beach in business.
• 1927 - San Francisco Municipal Airport dedicated.^[9]
• 1928 - Amazon Theater opens.^[36]
• 1929
  • Fleishhacker Zoo established.
  • Topsy’s Roost (restaurant) in business.
• 1930 - Pacific Stock Exchange Lunch Club formed.
• 1931 - Stern Grove opens as city park.
• 1932
  • War Memorial Opera House opens.
  • Photographers' Group f/64 founded.^[41]
• 1933
  • San Francisco Opera Ballet founded.
  • Coit Tower built.
• 1934
  • May 9: General Strike begins.^[39]
  • U.S. Penitentiary established on Alcatraz Island.
  • Golden Grain Macaroni Company in business.
• 1935 - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opens as San Francisco Museum of Art in Veterans Memorial Building.
• 1936 - Bay Bridge opens.^[42]
• 1937 - May 27: Golden Gate Bridge opens.^[9]
• 1940 - Holly Courts housing project built.^[9]
• 1944 - Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples established.^[43]
• 1945
  • Tonga Room in business.
  • April 25: United Nations Conference on International Organization begins.
  • June 26: United Nations Charter signed.
• 1946 - National Urban League branch^[44] and Marines' Memorial Club established.
• 1949 - Presidio Theatre built.^[40]

1950s-1990s

• 1952 - The Purple Onion nightclub in business.
• 1953 - City Lights Bookstore in business.^[39]
• 1955 - City Lights Pocket Poets Series begins publication.
• 1957
  • San Francisco International Film Festival founded.
  • Caffe Trieste in business.^[45]
• 1959 - Embarcadero Freeway opens.
• 1965 - Intersection for the Arts incorporated.
• 1967 - Summer of Love.
• 1969 - 555 California Street built.
• 1971 - Peoples Temple in San Francisco and Church of the Tree of Life^[16] established.
• 1972
  • San Francisco Pride begins.
  • Golden Gate National Recreation Area established.
  • Transamerica Pyramid built.
• 1973 - Church of the Gentle Brothers and Sisters incorporated.^[16]
• 1974
  • People's Food System active (approximate date).^[46]
  • Southern Exposure (art space)^[47] and San Francisco Cable Car Museum established.
  • April 15: Hibernia Bank robbery by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
• 1975 - Rainbow Grocery Cooperative opens.^[46]
• 1976 - Bay Area Video Coalition founded.
• 1977 - Theatre Rhinoceros and Suicide Club founded.
• 1978
  • November 18: Jonestown mass murder-suicide at the People's Temple Guyana compound.
  • November 27: Moscone–Milk assassinations.
  • December 4: Dianne Feinstein becomes mayor.
• 1979 - May 21: White Night riots.
• 1980 - Davies Symphony Hall opens.
• 1981 - San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and Hansberry Theatre established.
• 1986 - Cacophony Society formed.
• 1987 - Luggage Store (arts organization) established.^[47]
• 1989 - October 17: Loma Prieta earthquake.
• 1991 - Museum of the City of San Francisco opens.^[48]
• 1992
  • Critical Mass (bicycle event) began.
  • Clarion Alley Mural Project organized.
  • Latino Coalition for a Healthy California headquartered in city.
• 1993 - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opens.
• 1994 - Santarchy begins.
• 1995 - Craigslist founded.
• 1996
  • Willie Brown becomes mayor.
  • Internet Archive headquartered in city.^[49]
  • Long Now Foundation established.
• 1998 - Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts founded.^[47]

21st century

• 2003
  • Bernal Heights Preservation established.^[50]
  • U.S. National Security Agency/AT&T Room 641A in operation.
• 2004 - Gavin Newsom becomes mayor.
• 2005 - November: Proposition H gun control ordinance passed.
• 2007
  • Twitter Inc. in business.^[51]
  • Noisebridge founded.^[52]
• 2008
  • Edible Schoolyard established at San Francisco Boys and Girls Club.
  • One Rincon Hill (apartment building) constructed.
  • Airbnb in business.
• 2009
  • Uber (company) in business.
  • FailCon begins.
  • San Francisco Appeal begins publication.^[53]
• 2010 - The Bay Citizen and Ocean Beach Bulletin begin publication.^[53]
• 2011
  • January 11: Ed Lee becomes mayor.
  • November 8: San Francisco mayoral election, 2011.
  • TechCrunch Disrupt conference begins.
• 2013 - Google bus protests begin.
• 2014 - San Francisco Giants baseball team win World Series contest.

See also

• History of San Francisco
• National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco, California
• List of pre-statehood mayors of San Francisco
• List of mayors of San Francisco (since 1850)
• Timeline of the San Francisco Bay Area

Other cities in California

• Timeline of Fresno, California
• Timeline of Los Angeles
• Timeline of Oakland, California
• Timeline of Sacramento, California
• Timeline of San Diego
• Timeline of San Jose, California

References

Further reading

Published in the 19th century

• Bogardus' San Francisco, Sacramento city and Marysville business directory. 1850. 
• Frank Soulé; John H. Gihon; James Nisbet (1855), Annals of San Francisco, New York: D. Appleton & Company 
• San Francisco (article) (1870) The Overland Monthly, January 1870 Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 9–23. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., Publishers
• Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr (1874), "San Francisco", Centennial Gazetteer of the United States, Philadelphia: J.C. McCurdy & Company 
• "San Francisco", Appleton's Illustrated Hand-Book of American Cities, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1876 
• B.E. Lloyd (1876), Lights and Shades in San Francisco, San Francisco: Printed by A.L. Bancroft, OCLC 25178673 
• San Francisco Street Directory and Guide, San Francisco: W.C. Disturnell, 1882 
• "San Francisco". Western and Southern States. Appletons' General Guide to the United States and Canda. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1889. 
• Joseph Sabin, ed. (1889). "San Francisco". Bibliotheca Americana 18. New York. OCLC 13972268. 
• Bay of San Francisco, the Metropolis of the Pacific Coast and Its Suburban Cities: a History, Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, OCLC 8666576 
• Faust's pocket map and guide with a complete street directory of San Francisco. H.W. Faust. 1898. 

Published in the 20th century

1900s-1940s

• Robert C. Brooks (1901), "San Francisco", Bibliography of Municipal Problems and City Conditions, Municipal Affairs 5 (2nd ed.), New York: Reform Club, OCLC 1855351 
• San Francisco-Oakland Directory. Oakland: Walter S. Fry Co. 1907. 
• "San Francisco", United States (4th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1909, OCLC 02338437 
• Helen Throop Purdy (1912), San Francisco: As it Was, As It Is, and How to See It, P. Elder 
• Edward Hungerford (1913), "San Francisco: the Newest Phoenix", The Personality of American Cities, New York: McBride, Nast & Company 
• Frank Morton Todd (1914), Chamber of Commerce Handbook for San Francisco, San Francisco, OCLC 2650239 
• Robert Ernest Cowan (1914), "San Francisco", Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906, San Francisco: Book Club of California 
• Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin and Albert Bushnell Hart, ed. (1914). "San Francisco". Cyclopedia of American Government 3. D. Appleton and Company. 
• Samuel Williams (1921). City of the Golden Gate: A Description of San Francisco in 1875. San Francisco: Book Club of California. 
• Directorio comercial de San Francisco, California, 1924 (in Spanish), San Francisco, Calif.: Juan Anino, 1924 

1950s-1990s

• Around the world in San Francisco: a guide book to the racial and ethnic minorities of the San Francisco-Oakland district, San Francisco: Abbey Press, 1955 
• Robert Mayer (1974), Howard B. Furer, ed., San Francisco: a Chronological & Documentary History, 1542-1970, American Cities Chronology Series, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, ISBN 0379006146 
• Maupin, Armistead (1978). Tales of the City. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-096404-7. OCLC 29847673. 
• Ferlinghetti, Lawrence (1980). Literary San Francisco: A pictorial history from its beginnings to the present day. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-250325-1. OCLC 6683688. 
• Ory Mazar Nergal, ed. (1980), "San Francisco", Encyclopedia of American Cities, New York: E.P. Dutton, OL 4120668M 
• Margolin, Malcolm (1981). The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Heydey Books. ISBN 978-0-930588-01-4. OCLC 4628382. 
• Asbury, Hubert (1989). The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld. Dorset Press. ISBN 978-0-88029-428-7. OCLC 22719465. 
• Lotchin, Roger W. (1997). San Francisco, 1846–1856: From Hamlet to City. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06631-3. OCLC 35650934. 
• "San Francisco, California". Encyclopedia of Urban America. ABC-CLIO. 1998. ISBN 9780874368468 – via Credo Reference. (subscription required)

Published in the 21st century

• Hartman, Chester (2002). City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-08605-0. OCLC 48579085. 
• San Francisco, Lonely Planet, 2002, OL 8647758M 
• Solnit, Rebecca. Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (University of California Press, 2010). 144 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-26250-8
• Richard Hu (2012), Urban Design In Downtown San Francisco: A Paradigm Shift? – via International Planning History Society 
• Susan Crawford et al. (2014), Community Fiber in Washington, D.C., Seattle, WA, and San Francisco, CA: Developments and Lessons Learned, Berkman Center Research Publication (2014-9) – via Social Science Research Network  CS1 maint: Explicit use of et al. (link)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to San Francisco, California.

• "Decades". Found SF. Shaping San Francisco. 
• Digital Public Library of America. Items related to San Francisco, various dates
• Noah Veltman. "History of SF Place Names". 

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