Timeline of San Diego History

Local events are in black ~ World and national events are in gray

           
Early ~ 1760 ~ 1780 ~ 1800 ~ 1820 ~ 1840 ~ 1860 ~ 1880 ~ 1900 ~ 1920 ~ 1940 ~ 1960 ~ 1980

1767
Jesuits are expelled from all Spanish territories. Gaspar de Portola is appointed governor of California.

1768
Inspector General Jose de Galvez organizes expeditions from Baja (Lower) California to settle Alta California. The Russians are beginning to colonize the northern reaches of the West Coast, and the Spanish wish to protect their claim to Alta California. Only secondarily is this a move to Christianize native peoples. The plan is to establish a mission at San Diego, then head north for Monterey. Five groups are to meet in San Diego - two travel by land and three are sent by sea.

Jan 9, 1769
The San Carlos, first of three ships laden with soldiers, personnel, agricultural and church supplies, departs from La Paz. The San Antonio leaves later, followed much later by a supply ship, the San Jose, which turns back.

March 24, 1769
Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada departs Velicata, near the present site of San Rosario, leading a land party of 25 soldiers, 3 muleteers with a packtrain of 180 mules. With Franciscan Father Juan Crespi and about 50 Indians, they hike the rugged desert trail up the Baja peninsula. Father Junípero Serra departs from Loreto Mission March 28, suffering from a painful leg infection. He meets up with Captain Gaspar de Portola at the frontier mission of Santa Maria on May 5th. They travel to Velicata and depart for San Diego on May 15, with the second land party.

April 11, 1769
The ship San Antonio sails into San Diego Bay, after a 54 day journey, and anchors just inside Ballast Point. The San Carlos arrives two weeks later, adverse winds having prolonged her trip to 110 days. Some of the crew had died and most are sick with scurvy. A canvas hospital is set up on the beach.

May 14, 1769
The advance land party of military men, natives and Franciscan brothers, including Father Juan Crespi, reaches the shores of San Diego Bay, where they find 21 sailors and some military men have died, the rest ill with scurvy. A new camp is established on Presidio hill near the present site of Old Town. There is a large Indian village nearby in present-day Mission Valley.

June 27, 1769
Portola and Serra, with the second land party, reach Rosarito after an arduous trip of more than three months from the Loreto Mission. Portola pushes ahead to arrive at San Diego on June 29 with a small group, followed two days later by Father Serra. Journal of San Diego History article about the problems with their route.

July 16, 1769
Mission San Diego de Alcala is officially founded on Presidio Hill, the first of a chain of twenty-one missions to be established along the California coast.

March 19, 1770
The ship San Antonio brings much-needed food and supplies to San Diego and takes some people back to what is now Mexico.

December 16, 1773
The Boston "Tea Party" revives American passions about the issue of taxation without representation. Samuel Adams and other local patriots, masquerading as Mohawk Indians, board three British ships and empty 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor.

August, 1774
The Mission is relocated six miles east of the presidio complex to the present site of Mission San Diego de Alcala, near the Diegueno village of Nipaguay.

1774
The Presidio is designated a military outpost separate from the direct administration of the Presidio of Monterey. Work continues on a larger stockade and the garrison is increased to about twenty five men.

September 26, 1774
The first colonists arrive in San Diego, escorted from the Baja California Mission San Fernando Velicata by Sergeant Jose Ortega of the Presidio.

November 4-5, 1775
Indians surround Mission San Diego de Alcala, set fire to its fragile wooden structures and attack a small contingent of stunned Spaniards. Father Luis Jayme and two other Spaniards are slain and the survivors withdraw to the presidio six miles west. Journal of San Diego History article about the mission revolt.

January 4, 1776
Juan Bautista de Anza arrives at San Gabriel Mission with colonists destined for Monterey and San Francisco. Within a week, de Anza comes to San Diego, where he is joined by Lt. Governor Rivera y Moncada in an investigation of the recent Indian attack upon the Mission.

July to October, 1776
Father Serra returns to San Diego aboard the San Antonio on July 11. Mission buildings are rebuilt with the help of Indians and sailors from the San Antonio who make adobe, dig trenches and gather stone.

1776
The Thirteen Colonies declare their independence from Great Britain.

1777
The first major group of non-soldier settlers arrives at the Presidio and sets up housekeeping in the new adobe fortress.

1782
Juan Pantoja y Arriaza, pilot on La Princesa, charts San Diego Bay and indicates place names on map. Journal of San Diego History article about the Pantoja Map and the Port of San Diego.

1784
Father Junípero Serra, 70, dies at Monterey, having founded nine missions in 15 years.

1786
Two French ships arrive in San Diego.

1787
American ship Columbia circumnavigates the globe and stirs interest in California.

1790
The Presidio population now numbers more than 200, including soldiers, civilians and children.

1793
George Vancouver arrives on the British ship Discovery, the first foreign vessel to enter San Diego Bay.

1795
Manuel de Vargas, pioneer school teacher, opens the first public school.

1796
Spanish begin construction of Fort Guijarros, with crude barracks, at the base of Ballast Point on Point Loma, in hopes of defending San Diego from ships entering the bay. The fort, made of adobe and armed with a 9 pound cannon, is completed in 1797.

1797
San Diego mission becomes most populous in California with 1,405 Indians.

June 13, 1798
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. The 18th of the 21 California missions, it is named after Saint Louis IX, King of France. It grows quickly to become the largest mission with a peak population of nearly 3,000 during the 1820s. Photo of Mission San Luis Rey, 1870s.

1800
A new commander's house is finished in the Presidio plaza. The garrison now numbers more than 100. First American ship, Betsy, arrives at San Diego.

November 22, 1800
Earthquake of 6.5 magnitude hits San Diego region

August 25,1800
First American ship, Betsy, under command of Capt. Charles Winship, arrives at San Diego.

March 17, 1803
American ship Lelia Bird, under command of Capt. William Shaler, attempts to leave San Diego port with 1000 smuggled otter skins. Spanish battery on Fort Guijarros (at Ballast Point on Point Loma) fires on the Lelia Bird, which returns fire. Spanish guards on board the ship are later freed. Nobody is injured.

1808
Construction begins on new San Diego Mission church.

1810
Mexican war of independence from Spain begins in central Mexico with few direct impacts on the frontier, except for increasing trade with foreign merchants.

1812
War of 1812 between United States and Great Britain begins.

1812
Earthquake destroys the San Diego Mission church, which is reconstructed in 1813.

1813
Work begins on Mission Dam and aqueduct, finished in 1816-17. Photo of Mission Dam in 1874.

March, 1817
The Traveler departs with California's first shipment of grain.

1820-1830
More settlers bring the total population to more than six hundred residents. Presidio families begin to establish homes in what becomes Old Town San Diego. The adobes of Maria Reyes Ibanez at the corner of present-day Juan and Wallace Streets, Rafaela Serrano on Juan Street, and Pio Pico next door are all finished by 1824. Between 1827 and 1830 several other structures are built around Old Town plaza including those of Juan Rodriguez, Jose Antonio Estudillo, Juan Bandini, Dona Tomasa Alvarado, and Rosario Aguilar. (From "A Brief History of Old Town" by Iris W. Engstrand and Ray Brandes.)

1821
Mexico wins independence from Spain and San Diego comes under Mexican rule for about 25 years. First known home (today's Presidio Hills Golf Course golf shop) is built in Old Town.

April 20, 1822
Mexican flag is raised over the Presidio. California swears allegiance to Mexico.

1823
Los Peñasquitos, the first private rancho, is granted by the Mexican government - 8,486 acres to Captain Francisco María Ruíz; eventually 33 land grants covering 948 square miles are recognized.

1825
San Diego becomes the unofficial capital of Upper and Lower California, because of the preference of new Governor Jose Maria Echeandia. The Presidio, with its dwindling garrison, goes into significant decline.

1826
San Diego Presidio soldiers skirmish with Indians, killing 28.

1826
Jedediah Smith, the first American to arrive overland in San Diego, opens a route from Salt Lake Valley.

1828
Fur trappers Sylvester Pattie and his son James Ohio Pattie are imprisoned by Gov. Echeandia. Sylvester dies in jail and his son is eventually released to vaccinate thousands against smallpox.

1829
Boston trader Henry Delano Fitch elopes with Josefa Carrillo from San Diego.

1832-33
Malaria epidemic kills many Indians. Secularization Act leads to closing of missions.

September 1, 1834
Juan Bandini and Jose Hijar arrive on the brig Natalie with 140 colonists.

December 21, 1834
13 votes are cast in San Diego's first pueblo election. Juan Osuna is elected first alcalde (mayor) over Pio Pico.

January 1, 1835
Recently elected officials take office when San Diego becomes a pueblo.

1835
Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) arrives in San Diego as a common seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim. Dana's book "Two Years Before the Mast", published in 1841, is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a detailed account of hide-curing, woodcutting, local wildlife and rattlesnakes during his four months in San Diego. Read more on Dana's San Diego visit.

1835
The Mexican military and last residents abandon the Presidio and the site becomes a ruin. Photo of Presidio Hill in 1872 shows ruins at upper left, "Serra palm" at right.

1837
Juan Bandini leads rebellion, captures Los Angeles.

1837-39
Smallpox epidemic kills many Indians. Indians plunder San Diego back-country ranches.

1838
San Diego's pueblo status is revoked because of a decrease in San Diego's population (probably 100-150). From 1838 to the Mexican War San Diego is governed as part of the sub-prefecture of Los Angeles.

1845
New Governor Pio Pico orders land confiscation and sale of the California missions. California is divided into 2 districts; southern district from San Luis Obispo south.

May 13, 1846
United States declares war on Mexico, invades Mexico from the east, reaching San Diego in December. The Mexican-American War in Baja California

July 29, 1846
Marine detachment from the sloop-of-war Cyane raises the first American flag in the Plaza of Old Town San Diego. Detail from a painting of the U.S.S. Cyane by Carlton T. Chapman

October 31, 1846
Admiral Robert F. Stockton arrives aboard Congress. Fort Stockton is established on the top of Presidio Hill in November 1846 to defend the city during the Mexican War.

December 6, 1846
General Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West" enagages General Andres Pico and his Mexican-Californian army in a bloody battle at the Valley of San Pasqual, near present-day Escondidio. The United States suffers many casualties, including nineteen American dead and many more wounded. The Mexicans are reported to have six soldiers killed at the battle, and many more wounded as well. Although the war for California is won by the United States, the Battle of San Pasqual proves to be an important victory for the Californios. Journal of San Diego History article on the battle.

January 29, 1847
Mormon Battalion arrives in San Diego, without ever fighting a battle. Five companies totaling 500 men had been mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 16, 1846, along with some 34 women and 51 children, to join U.S. forces in the war with Mexico. Under command of Philip St. George Cooke after reaching Santa Fe, some 339 men, 4 or 5 women and perhaps 6 children complete the 2000 mile trek to San Diego.

January 24, 1848
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill starts the California Gold Rush.

February 2, 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war between Mexico and the United States. Treaty also sets the boundary between US and Mexico which arbitrarily divides the two countries (Native peoples are the most impacted, since historically and by language groupings they are one group, suddenly cast into two sections.)

1849
Colonel Cave Johnson Couts (1821-1874) comes to San Diego to act as an escort for the American-Mexican Boundary Commission from San Diego to Colorado River. The same year he is elected delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

1850
Census sets non-Indian population of San Diego at 650, County of San Diego at 798. Population table ~ 1850 census transcription

February, 1850
San Diego County is created as one of California's original 27 counties. It includes much of the Colorado and Mojave deserts, extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River and including all of present-day Imperial County and much of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Sketch of Old Town by Powell, 1850.

March 18, 1850
William Heath Davis purchases 160 acres in "New Town" (now downtown San Diego). His home, originally located at State and Market Streets, is the oldest surviving structure in San Diego's New Town. Built on the East Coast and shipped around Cape Horn, it is a well-preserved example of a prefabricated "salt box" family home, now housing a museum at 4th and Island in the Gaslamp district.

March 27, 1850
An Act to Incorporate the City of San Diego is passed. First election establishes government by a Common Council and elected mayor. San Diego's first Mayor is Joshua Bean, brother of the famous Judge Roy Bean.

September 9, 1850
California is granted statehood by the United States of America.

1851
Antonio Garra, a Cupeno leader residing at the village of Cupa, leads last of the major Indian revolts, prompted by the county's attempt to collect taxes from Indian tribes, at Don Juan Warner's Ranch. Garra's first objective is to destroy Camp Independence, the military camp established on the Colorado River for the protection of overland travelers. Garra is executed by firing squad, January 17, 1852. Pourade on the Garra uprising.

April 5, 1851
Cave Johnson Couts marries Ysidora, daughter of Juan Bandini, in Old Town, amid a fiesta that lasts a week. Rancho Guajome is a wedding gift from Abel Stearns, the bride's brother-in-law. Journal of San Diego History article on Rancho Guajome.

May 29, 1851
San Diego Herald publishes its first edition. Photo of front page.

January 3, 1853
San Diego County Board of Supervisors holds its first meeting.

1853
Liuetenant George Horatio Derby (1823-1861) arrives to divert San Diego River back into False Bay. Derby is remembered best as Squibob or John Phoenix, for his humorous pieces published in the San Diego Herald, and Phoenixiana, first printed in 1855. Read Derby's stories on American Memory (this is humor-not history).

1853
First known vigilantism occurs after indigent tailor John Warren is found bludgeoned to death by the jawbone of an ox. Townspeople, led by Ephraim Morse and Robert Israel, round up three Indians suspected of the crime. Without a trial, two are hanged in Old Town and the third escapes. Journal of San Diego History article on Warren and treatment of Indian murderers.

1854
Warner's Pass (San Pasqual) road is declared a public road by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, serving as a main road between San Diego and the Colorado River until 1868, when shorter routes to the south, leading through the pass at Jacumba, began to be used by stagecoaches. Stagecoach Days

November 15, 1855
The "Old Spanish" lighthouse on Point Loma is illuminated for the first time 15 minutes before sunset. Photo of Point Loma Lighthouse. The site, 422 feet above sea level is frequently enshrouded in fog. A new lighthouse at sea level would replace it in 1891. The original lighthouse, restored in 1935, would become the nucleus of the Cabrillo Monument.

1856-57
Whaley House, built by Thomas Whaley, is the oldest brick structure in southern California. In addition to being the home of the Whaley family, it served variously as granary, store, court-house, and school and as the town's first theater. Photo of Whaley house in 1872.

August 13, 1857
The schooner Loma is launched, the first boat to be built in San Diego shipyards.

1857
James Birch establishes the "Jackass" mail route between San Diego and San Antonio; passengers must traverse the Oriflamme Canyon and Colorado Desert on muleback. Stage driver James E. Mason brings first overland mail to town and decides to settle here.

October 2, 1858
San Diego is hit with a 75mph Category 1 hurricane, the biggest on record, causing some homes to collapse and boats to wash ashore but no deaths.

1860
San Diego population is 731. San Diego County population is 4324. Population table

1860
San Diego Herald, San Diego's first newspaper, founded in 1851 by John Judson Ames, publishes its last edition.

1861
San Diego floods from heavy rains; state-wide storms.

1861
United States Civil War begins. It ends April 9, 1865 with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Journal of San Diego History articles on San Diego and the Civil War.

May 27, 1862
Earthquake of 6.0 magnitude hits San Diego region

1862
Smallpox epidemic kills hundreds of Indians and Mexicans in Southern California. Beginning in San Juan Capistrano, the epidemic reaches San Diego in 1863. Read about San Diego's Smallpox Fear of 1862-63.

1863-5
Floods of 1861-2 are followed by the Great Drought. During the fall and winter of 1862-63 only 3.87 inches of rain falls in San Diego County. Little more than five inches of rain falls in 1863-64. Ranchers drive their cattle to the mountains and into Baja California. The once-great cattle industry of California is virtually destroyed.

April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is assasinated by John Wilkes Booth, while watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.

1865
First public school house opens in San Diego. Mary Chase Walker is its first teacher. She receives a salary of $65/month. After eleven months she quits teaching and marries Ephraim Morse, president of the school board.

1867
Photo of Old Town in 1867, just before the arrival of "Father Horton".

April 15, 1867
Alonzo Erastus Horton arrives from San Francisco on the paddle-wheel steamer Pacific. On that same day he gives the County Clerk $10 to cover the cost of a new election for the Board of Trustees, which is held on April 27th. On May 10, with local merchant Ephraim Morse as auctioneer, Horton acquires 800 acres of land, which would become New San Diego, for $265. SDHS copy of auction entry, documenting sale. Horton returns to San Francisco and opens a land sales office on Montgomery Street. Read more about The Real Story of Horton's Purchase in the Journal of San Diego History.

1868
Kimball brothers buy 26,400 acres of Rancho de la Nacion and lay out National City. Photo of Frank Kimball.

Feb 15, 1868
Ephraim Morse presents a resolution to the Board of Trustees of San Diego that land be set aside for a city park. Morse, Thomas Bush and Alonzo Horton select the land now known as Balboa Park.

October 10, 1868
San Diego's Weekly Union publishes its first edition near the Plaza in Old Town. Today's San Diego Union-Tribune would result from a merger of The San Diego Union and The Evening Tribune, founded Dec. 2, 1895. John D. Spreckels purchases the Union in 1890 and the Tribune in 1901. Spreckels' estate sells the newspapers in 1928 to Ira Clifton Copley of Illinois. Photo of San Diego Union building on 4th Street south of Broadway in 1872.

April 8, 1869
First post office is established in New San Diego. Dr. Jacob Allen is appointed postmaster.

1869
Albert Seeley purchases the run-down Bandini Adobe in Old Town and spends six months in renovation of the old home to create the Cosmopolitan Hotel, building the Seeley Stables next door. Photo of Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1872 shows Seeley's Black Hawk livery stable at left.

1869
Alonzo Horton completes a wharf at the end of 5th Avenue, at a cost of about $45,000. On March 24, Horton sells $5,500 worth of commercial and residential lots in one day. His new town begins to boom. Horton Hall opens around Christmas 1869. This two-story brick building on the southeast corner of Sixth and F streets has shops downstairs and a meeting hall with 400 seats upstairs, serving as downtown's first public theater. Horton Hall burns in 1897 and is torn down shortly thereafter. Photo of Horton Hall.

1870
City of San Diego population is 2300. San Diego County population is 4951. Population table

1870
Black prospector Fred Coleman discovers placer gold near present-day Julian, setting off local "gold fever". First lode mine, the George Washington Mine, is discovered in February of 1870. By 1875, mines in the area produce over $2 million in gold. By 1876, many of the mines are closed, though significant gold production continues until about 1911. Read more about the "Gold Fever". ~ Photo of Julian , circa 1874.

Feb 4, 1870
San Diego becomes the first city west of the Mississippi to set aside land for an urban park. This 1440 acre tract becomes the site for City Park, now Balboa Park. San Diego's City Park, 1868-1902

1870
Alonzo Horton opens his Horton House hotel on D Street (now Broadway) between Third and Fourth Streets (where the U. S. Grant Hotel now stands). Photo of Horton House. He sets aside a half block across the street as a plaza for his visitors (now Horton Plaza). Photo of original Horton Plaza (note Horton House at left).

October 24, 1870
George P. Marston and his 20-year-old son, George White Marston, arrive in San Diego. Young George takes a job as a clerk at Horton House - eventually becomes a successful businessman, civic leader and founder of the San Diego Historical Society.

1871
County archives are moved from the Whaley House in Old Town to the new seat of municipal government, the newly built County Courthouse in New San Diego. Photo of courthouse in 1872.

1871
Mount Hope Cemetery is established.

1872
Tourmaline is discovered near Pala, though previously known to the Indians. Mining increases by the turn of the century, stimulated by the high price of tourmaline in China. About 90% of the gem production in Southern California comes from five mines in inland San Diego County.

April 20, 1872
Fire sweeps Old Town, destroying key business buildings.

1872
Mission San Diego de Alcala is in disrepair. Photo of Mission in 1872.

1873
Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania Railroad sets off brief railroad boom with start of construction of Texas & Pacific Railroad from San Diego east; bond failure in Paris and Wall Street panic halts boom.

1874
San Diego Chamber of Commerce publishes its first City Directory, including 22 photos, promoting New San Diego as a place to live and listing schools, churches, lodges, and downtown businesses.

1874
The San Diego Society of Natural History is founded at a meeting held in the office of local attorney and naturalist, Daniel Cleveland.

1875
Ah Quin, age 27, arrives in San Diego aboard a four-masted schooner wearing the traditional queue and carrying everything he owns on his back. Because of his diplomacy and mastery of English, Ah Quin quickly finds work as a labor contractor for the California Southern Railroad. Later Ah Quin is recognized as the unofficial Mayor of Chinatown, an area bounded by Island, J, 3rd and 4th.

1875
Murderer Pancho Lopez and a band of six ruthless bandits instigate gunfight at Gaskill's Store in Campo. Six men are killed, Luman Gaskill is wounded in the chest but survives. Read more about Luman Gaskill and his "Frontier Medicine".

1877
Severe drought in San Diego County.

1877
Following a five-year partnership with Charles Hamilton, merchant George Marston establishes the first store of his own in a small wood structure on the northwest corner of what is now Fifth Avenue and Broadway. George White Marston: The Merchant Prince of San Diego

December 5,1877
Lieutenant Reade of the U.S. Weather Bureau gives first public demonstration of the telephone in San Diego County.

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