Top 10 Most Important Historical Facts About San Diego, California

The first European explorer to land in what is now San Diego Bay occurred on the 28^th of September 1542. Portuguese mariner Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo on the flagship San Salvador had sailed north from Mexico under the Spanish flag and declared his discovery a Spanish possession. Despite his praise of the area and it being an ideal site for a city to extend Spain’s territories in the Americas his recommendations were not taken up until over two centuries later although surveys of the area were conducted in the interim period.

In 1769 ships heavily laden with supplies, soldiers, agricultural equipment and supplies as well as supplies for establishing churches in the area departed for San Diego from La Paz. One of the three ships, the most heavily laden San Jose turned back. Of the two ships to arrive one took 54 days the other 110. Both crews had suffered from heavy losses during the voyage and many of those that survived were sick from scurvy. During the same period a land party set off consisting of soldiers, a pack train of 180 mules and local Indians. The first camp was set up at Presidio Hill on their arrival and meeting up with the surviving sailors. Missionaries arrived to set up the first mission station in what would become California.

The mission of San Diego de Alcala was attacked by Native American Indians in early November 1775, the wooden structures were set ablaze and the small contingent of Spanish settlers was attacked. Three Spaniards died in the attack including Father Luis Jayme. The surviving members of the small community took shelter at Presidio just six miles to the west. The following year the mission station was rebuilt with defensive trenches and stone walls.

An earthquake of 6.5 hit the San Diego area on the 22^nd of November 1800, eight years later a new San Diego Mission church was constructed for the growing community. Another earthquake in 1812 destroyed the newly completed church; it was reconstructed the following year.

From 1820 until 1830 the arrival of new settlers increased the population of San Diego to over 600. Old Town began to be established on what is today’s Juan and Wallace Streets. Old Town Plaza was established during this period. Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and San Diego found itself under the rule of Mexico for the next 25 years after the Mexican flag was officially raised at the Presidio on the 20^th of April, 1822. California at that time swore its allegiance to the Republic of Mexico.

An epidemic of malaria broke out in 1832-3 and killed many of the Native Americans at the mission station. Many mission stations were then closed after the declaration of the Secularization Act. The Presidio that had seen many years of decline was finally abandoned by the Mexican military and the last few families in 1835. From 1837 until 1839 a smallpox epidemic wiped out a number of the Native Americans living around San Diego.

The United States declared war on Mexico on the 13^th of May 1846, the invading American army reached San Diego by December although the American flag had been raised in Old Town, San Diego that July after the USS Cyane arrived in the bay. Fort Stockton was established on the former site of the Presidio as a defensive measure during the ongoing war.

In 1850 San Diego County was created as one of 27 counties in California, it included much the present day San Bernardino and Riverside counties as well as all of what is now Imperial County. In the same year William Heath Davis purchased 160 acres of what is now downtown San Diego. His house is the oldest surviving building in what is now New Town, San Diego. The house was constructed on the East Coast, shipped around the southern point of South America (Cape Horn) to California. It is now a museum. Also in 1850, San Diego’s first Mayor, Joshua Bean was elected.

San Diego was hit by its biggest recorded hurricane, a category 1, on the 2^nd of October 1858, with winds in excess of 75mph. The storm caused homes to collapse and boats were washed ashore although no deaths were recorded. A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit the area in May 1862 and in the same year a smallpox epidemic killed hundreds of Mexicans and Native Americans across Southern California, the epidemic struck in San Diego in 1863.

Sources for this article:-

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/timeline/timeline