Richard Alatorre "Embattled ex-Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to felony tax evasion as a result of a four-year investigation by the federal government."
Frances Albrier "Active in Northern California from the 1920s in getting black women organized as maids into the Pullman porters' union."
Joseph S. Alemany 'Transferred 29 July, 1853, to the See of San Francisco as its first archbishop."
Allen Allensworth "After leaving the army, Allensworth and his family settled in Los Angeles. It was there that he came up with the idea of establishing a self-sufficient, all-black California town, a place where African Americans could live their lives free of the racial discrimination that so often plagued them elsewhere."
Carlos Almaraz "Here lies a chap quick as a cat and short one life."
Blanca Alvarado "Elected to the Board of Supervisors in March 1996, after completing Zoe Lofgren's unexpired term. In January 1998, Blanca served as the first Latina Chairperson in the County's history."
Juan Bautista Alvarado "Serving as governor from 1836 until 1842, he presided over the distribution of the lands of the missions, recently secularized, into the private ownership of California rancheros."
Gilbert M. Anderson "In his heyday, every knew him as "Bronco Billy," a character he played in more than 130 silent westerns produced between 1909 and 1919.
Juan Bautista de Anza "The first European to establish an overland route from Mexico, through the Sonoran Desert, to the Pacific coast of California."
Concepcion Arguello "When she was young, the daughter of the Presidio Commandant fell in love with Nikolai Rezanov, a young Russian officer from Fort Ross who had come to San Francisco to establish trade between his settlement and the still tiny village."
Gertrude Atherton "Most of her novels featured strong-willed, independent heroines active in the world at large, and not infrequently their success stemmed from the characters' frank pursuit of sexual as well as other pleasures."
Mary Austin "She was acknowledged an expert on Indian affairs; and no less personage than Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, sought her opinion on forest lands and grazing."
Edward D. Baker "At the start of the Mexican war in 1846, Representative Baker raised a regiment of troops and led them to the front. To boost congressional support for the unpopular war, he returned to the House chamber in full uniform, lobbied his colleagues, resigned his seat, and rejoined his troops."
Elias Jackson Baldwin "Hell, we're giving away the land. We're selling the climate."
Hubert Howe Bancroft "The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft."
Juan Bandini "It seems clear that his long residence and eminent public services in San Diego entitled him to be considered the first Spanish citizen of his day."
Phineas Banning "The great object of my life has been to assist in getting a good harbor for this county, in which I have steadfastly persisted and am determined to continue in until the great object has been accomplished."
John Bartleson "The first emigrants to cross Utah with wagons came in 1841, six years before the Mormon pioneers."
Washington A. Bartlett "The second occasion for his prompt action arose when he first received the terrible news of the disaster to the Donner party. The people were called together; Bartlett collected as much provisions and clothing as possible, raised money rapidly and lost not a moment in sending forward supplies to relieve the wretched survivors."
Leone Baxter "In the late 1940s they hired Whittaker and Baxter to defeat national health insurance. By the end of 1948, less than 12 months, it was defeated and essentially smeared as being communism."
Edward F. Beale "Within the next two years, Beale made six more journeys across the country. On the second of these (July-September 1848), he crossed Mexico in disguise to bring the federal government proof of California's gold."
Thomas Hart Benton "Benton also supported all legislation that aided settlers and favored the development of the West, including reduction in the price of government lands, suppression of land speculation, westward removal of the Native Americans, and internal improvements."
John Bidwell "Arriving in the Sacramento Valley, California, on November 4, 1841; secured employment on the ranch of John A. Sutter; later engaged in mining; served in the War with Mexico, attaining the rank of major; member of the State senate in 1849."
Ambrose Bierce "Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was born in Ohio on June 24th 1842. He fought for the Union in the Civil War, prospected for gold, worked as a journalist for William Randolph Hearst and wrote short stories before disappearing into Mexico in 1914."
Albert Bierstadt "In 1858 he made the first of several trips to the West. From sketches and oil studies done from nature (admirable works in themselves), he painted in his New York studio the huge, carefully detailed panoramic views of Western Scenery that made him one of America's most admired painters in the 1860's and 70's."
John Bigler "The 1854 legislature honored Governor Bigler by naming a lake after him. In 1870 Bigler Lake was renamed 'Lake Tahoe'."
Warren K. Billings "The bomb was concealed in a suitcase; ten bystanders were killed and forty wounded in the worst terrorist act in San Francisco history. San Francisco screamed with anger and outrage. Two known radical labor leaders -- Thomas Mooney (ca. 1882-1942) and his assistant, Warren K. Billings (1893-1972) -- were arrested. In a hasty and bungled trial carried out in a lynch-mob atmosphere that included several false witnesses, the two were convicted."
Rose Elizabeth Bird "The 25th Chief Justice of the state’s highest court, Chief Justice Bird was appointed to office in 1977 by former Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. and left office in January 1987. As Chief Justice, she was chair of the Judicial Council of California, the constitutional body responsible for improving state court administration."
Benjamin Bonneville "The nature of our military service took him to the frontier, where, for a number of years, he was stationed at various posts in the Far West. Here he was brought into frequent intercourse with Indian traders, mountain trappers, and other pioneers of the wilderness; and became so excited by their tales of wild scenes and wild adventures, and their accounts of vast and magnificent regions as yet unexplored, that an expedition to the Rocky Mountains became the ardent desire of his heart, and an enterprise to explore untrodden tracts, the leading object of his ambition."
Newton Booth "Governor of California from 1871 until 1874, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; elected as an Anti-Monopolist to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1881."
Hippolyte de Bouchard "The pirates found the Ortega Ranch in Refugio Canyon conveniently deserted when they arrived, so they plundered the ranch and set it on fire."
Leon Bouvier "U.S. population should be reduced if the quality of life of all Americans is to remain high. The evidence is overwhelming that 260 million is far above the carrying capacity of the nation. Our resources are being depleted; our environment is worsening; our infrastructure cannot keep pace with growth. Now is the time to say enough. let's get started on the road to an eventual population of 150 million, or about the same as it was in 1950."
Barbara Boxer "A forceful advocate for families, children, consumers, the environment and her State of California, Barbara Boxer became a United States Senator in January 1993 after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives. She was elected to a second, six-year term in 1998."
Thomas Bradley "Among the many 'firsts' that Tom Bradley accomplished in his long life of public service, two of the most significant were winning election as the first African American Mayor of Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city, and helping to stage economically successful Olympic Games."
Samuel Brannan "Brann[a]n was an elder in the Mormon Church, and most of the workmen at the mill were former members, of the Mormon Battalion. So when Brannan went to the mill to see for himself, they readily gave him a tithe of the gold they had obtained in their spare time. When returned to San Francisco in the first part of May, Brannan paraded the streets waving a quinine bottle containing the gold and shouting, 'Gold, gold, gold, from the American River!'"
Richard Brautigan "He become an integral part of the mid-60's San Francisco scene, reading poetry at psychedelic rock concerts and helping to produce underground newspapers with activist groups like the Diggers. He had a great hippie look, with long blond hair and thoughtful granny glasses.?
Harry R. Bridges "Employers and local officials denounced Bridges as a dangerous radical. The Chief of Police declared: 'This strike is just a dress rehearsal by the Communists toward world revolution.'"
David C. Broderick "On his death bed, he said: 'They killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery and the corruption of justice.'"
Edmund G. Brown, Jr. "'I can only shine the light of attention on things, act with a push and a shove,' he says. 'The real creativity has to come from the people, from the bottom up.'"
Kathleen Brown "I have clearly stated my personal opposition to the death penalty ... and equally as forcefully, my unyielding commitment to conscientiously enforcing the laws of the State of California, including the death penalty."
Willie L. Brown, Jr. "The city's first African American mayor, continues to represent the past, present and future of civil rights and the cultural and intellectual diversity that symbolizes San Francisco's history of acceptance."
J. Ross Browne "Browne served the United States government in many capacities. At various times he was a revenue agent, a postal inspector, a customs agent, and an Indian agent. He was appointed Ambassador to China in 1868 by President Johnson, but after he and his family made the trip to Peking (at their own expense), he was recalled by the new administration. Browne spent the remainder of his years with his family on their California estate, traveling and writing about the West."
Dave Brubeck "Jazz legend Dave Brubeck is equally distinguished as composer and pianist. Studies at the College of the Pacific and with Milhaud at Mills College led to the founding, with fellow students, of the experimental Jazz Workshop Ensemble which recorded in 1949 as the Dave Brubeck Octet."
Luther Burbank "During a lifetime devoted to plant breeding, Luther Burbank developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants, including 113 varieties of plums and prunes, 10 varieties of berries, 50 varieties of lilies and the Freestone peach."
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke "Ms. Burke has been influential in acquiring funding for projects and programs we may not have otherwise been able to obtain. Her unwavering support has resulted in the funding of numerous projects ranging from millions in CDBG grants and Prop A funds for projects such as the Culver Bikeway and Senior Center, to MTA Call for Projects monies that have supported operations and improvements in the CityBus system, as well as funding for the repair of the Ballona Bridge and the Mid-Washington Street Tree Project.'"
Anson Burlingame "In 1866, while involved with the Chinese government, we know that Burlingame, his wife and two sons made a trip to California. In April of that year a 12-member group, including the Burlingame family, endured the rigors of a late winter to travel to Yosemite Valley. They were the earliest group of travelers ever to attempt such a visit, but they had the expert guidance of Galen Clark, the famous Yosemite pioneer."
Peter H. Burnett "You have assembled as the representatives of the people to put the State Government into practical operation; and the duty you have before you is a sublime but difficult task, requiring great unanimity, vigor, and wisdom in your councils."
John Butterfield "In 1857, John Butterfield won a $600,000 contract to deliver the St. Louis mail to San Francisco in 25 days. This contract, the largest for land mail service that had yet been given, was awarded to Butterfield's Overland Stage Company after 9 groups had entered bids."
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo "One hundred and three days into the journey, Cabrillo's ships entered San Diego bay. He probably landed at Ballast Point (visible from the Cabrillo NM visitor center) where he claimed the land for Spain. Cabrillo described the bay as 'a closed and very good harbor,' which he called San Miguel. The name San Miguel was changed to San Diego 60 years later by another explorer, Sebastian Vizcaino."
John Cage "In 1952, at Black Mountain College, he presented a theatrical event considered by many to have been the first Happening."
E. R. S. Canby "'At-wey!' Captain Jack, the Modoc leader, yelled and raised his pistol straight at General Canby. In the Modoc language he had cried 'All ready!' and now he was going to fulfill his promise to the others from his band. He was going to kill General Canby. But his pistol failed to fire. Some accounts say the general jumped but others say he just stood there apparently in disbelief. Captain Jack ****** his pistol again and this time fired directly into the face of General Canby."
Stokely Carmichael "'When I first heard about the Negroes sitting in at lunch counters down South,' he told Gordon Parks in Life magazine in 1967, 'I thought they were just a bunch of publicity hounds. But one night when I saw those young kids on TV, getting back up on the lunch counter stools after being knocked off them, sugar in their eyes, ketchup in their hair -- well, something happened to me. Suddenly I was burning.'"
Horace W. Carpentier "History has thrown most of the blame for the loss of the rancho on the shoulders of Horace W. Carpentier, a real estate speculator."
Jose Antonio Carrillo "Having been exiled by Victoria, became a leader in movement against the governor at San Diego in 1831. Was deeply implicated in trouble of the time at Santa Barbara, where he lived, and where he died in 1862."
Josefa Carrillo "Josefa remained adamantly opposed to the Catholic Church for all the trouble its officials caused her and Henry after they eloped. She refused to leave even one real to the church, evidence of an increasing schism in the 1830s between Californios and the missionaries."
James H. Carson "A Virginia native whose army regiment landed at Monterey just after the Mexican War ended in 1847, deserted his army duties while on furlough to explore and pan the tributaries of the Stanislaus River."
Kit Carson "Between 1828 and 1840, Carson used Taos as a base camp for many fur-trapping expeditions throughout the mountains of the West, from California's Sierra Nevadas to the Colorado Rockies."
James P. Casey "I have an aged mother in the Atlantic States, and I hope that she will never hear how I died. I trust she will never know I am executed on a charge of murder. I am not guilty of any such crime."
Anthony Chabot "Using hundreds of Chinese workers and mustangs, Chabot directed the construction of the dam that was to be 100 feet high, 450 feet long, 28 feet wide at the crest, and 900 feet wide at the base."
George Chaffey "It was in the first week of August, 1881 when George Chaffey, a Canadian Engineer, viewed the wastes known as the Cucamonga Desert and decided that this patch of scrub, if properly watered, could become productive and profitable."
Dorothy Buffum Chandler "What is important here tonight is not the fund-raising or the building that we are in. The only really important thing here tonight is the music we heard performed…That will go on forever."
Otis Chandler "Otis was smart enough to know he was dumb."
Cesar Chavez "Cesar Estrada Chavez founded and led the first successful farm workers' union in U.S. history. When he passed away on 23 April 1993, he was president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO"
Nelbert Chouinard "Even though the talents and ambitions of individuals vary greatly, the same intellectual and spiritual development is necessary to the portrait painter and commercial illustrator alike.'"
Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe "In a series of twenty-three letters to her sister in the East, Clappe took on the persona of Dame Shirley, a self-consciously whimsical 'Dame' who dissected masculine gold rush society with clear prose and a vivid sense of humor."
Eldridge Cleaver "We were well armed, and we had a shootout that lasted an hour and a half. I will tell anybody that that was the first experience of freedom that I had."
Samuel L. Clemens "I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey."
William Tell Coleman "A group of responsible citizens formed the Committee of Vigilance to help control crime. Coleman became chairman. Contrary to many stories about the Vigilantes, they did not participate in indiscriminate hangings. These were a group of good people who worked to keep the city of San Francisco safe while the legal process was almost at a standstill."
Ina Coolbrith "In 1915, she was named poet laureate of California."
Charles Cora "When Charles Cora, a notorious gambler, shot down U.S. Marshal Richardson, and was formally arrested by his friends in office, King, with his vigorous ardor, declared that if Cora was allowed to escape, the sheriff, David Scannell, must hang."
Hernan Cortes "After sailing up the Gulf Coast of Mexico, Cortes landed and built a small settlement at the modern site of Vera Cruz. From there he marched inland toward the central plateau of Mexico and the great Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan."
Alan Cranston "Those who did notice mostly complained that Cranston was offering ideas to terrorists. His response: 'I'm not telling them anything they don't know, just pointing out the obvious. We ignore this reality at our own risk.'"
Charles Crocker "Crocker managed the actual construction of the railroad. He overcame shortages of manpower and money by hiring Chinese immigrants to do much of the back-breaking and dangerous labor. He drove the workers to the point of exhaustion, in the process setting records for laying track and finishing the project seven years ahead of the government's deadline."
Edwin Bryant Crocker "Responsibility for the railroad called upon his engineering education, legal experience, political connections, and charming diplomacy."
Imogen Cunningham "She had made her living as a portrait photographer, and she had also photographed people just for fun. She had a particular affinity with painters, writers, and other photographers, and her best portraits are usually those of creative people."
Kate Richards O'Hare Cunningham "In 1934 she was active in Upton Sinclair's 'End Poverty in California' campaign for the governorship. In 1939-40 she was assistant director of the California Department of Penology."
Richard Henry Dana "There was a grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the scene: a silence and solitariness which affected everything! Not a human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but the pulsations of the great Pacific!"
Clarence Darrow "I have committed one crime: I have stood for the weak and the poor."
Arthur Powell Davis "During his tenure as Director, Reclamation outlined the development of the Colorado River Basin before Congress in 1922. Davis was the first to recommend construction of multipurpose dams whose powerplants would amortize costs of total project."
Eugene V. Debs "Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Lee de Forest "The de Forest technology called Phonofilm, was invented in 1920 and was the very first sound-on-film process."
Ronald V. Dellums "We should learn not to repeat history."
Cecil B. deMille "'You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters.'"
George H. Derby "On behalf of the government he conducted surveys and explorations in what at that time were waste places within our borders."
John L. DeWitt "He was then assigned to command the Fourth Army headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco. There, he was responsible for forcing more than 115,000 persons of Japanese ancestry in 'relocation camps.'"
Joan Didion "In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. Its an aggressive, even a hostile act."
Richard Diebenkorn "The post-1967 abstractions have seemed to many sufficiently referential so that it is a critical commonplace to see them as suffused with a special California light, and as dense with coastal allusions to sky, ocean, seaside and sun, tawny hills, bleached architecture, sharp shadows and angular illuminations, green expanses and glimpsed distant blues, and possibly haunted by the erasure of human presences."
Walter E. Disney "His major accomplishments include producing the first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928); initiating the use of the three-color process in animation for motion pictures; producing the first feature-length animated picture, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); and creating the family theme park Disneyland and such beloved characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck."
Maynard Dixon "By the middle 1890s, in an era acknowledged as the Golden Age of Illustration, he was one of the country's foremost purveyors of nostalgic, Old West images. Hundreds of his pictures appeared in leading newspapers, magazines, and in books by such authors as Jack London, John Muir, O. Henry, Mary Austin, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, and Clarence Mulford (of the Hopalong Cassidy series)."
Grenville M. Dodge "No other man would be more important or more closely identified with the history of the Union Pacific and all western railroading than General Dodge. Trained as a civil engineer, Dodge would influence the Union Pacific's destiny from the first survey to its reorganization thirty years later."
Edward L. Doheny "The Forgotten Bagman of Teapot Dome."
Helen Gahagan Douglas "In the House, Douglas was a thoughtful and consistent New Deal Democrat, who worked tirelessly for liberal programs."
Donald Douglas "Douglas was looking for a way to make his dream of an aircraft company come true when he met a wealthy playboy named David R. Davis. Davis wanted to make a name for himself by becoming the first to fly non-stop across the United States. Douglas drew up plans for a plane called the Cloudster and convinced Davis to put up the $40,000 necessary to build it."
Francis Drake "Beyond merely satisfying historical curiosity, why does it matter exactly where in Nova Albion Drake stayed? The question is not common, perhaps because the answers are sometimes less than flattering. Provincial pride and personal fame have been, and continue to be, major motives in the search for the lost harbor. A tinge of commercialism is found now and then, both in regard to the selling of publications and in the promotion of proposed locations as parks or protected open space, and lately in the hawking of real estate. Even bizarre claims of buried treasure have occasionally been heard."
Robert Duncan "Duncan rejected the notion of a small, elite audience of initiates for poetry; the goals of art were to raise awareness and compassion in the mainstream audience, a concern formed in him from his earliest days with the Fabilli sisters and the political ferments of Berkeley."
Narcisco Duran "During the troublous times of the secularization and sale of the missions it was Father Duran who fought the pillagers step by step, though in vain, and fearlessly unmasked the real aims of the despoilers."
Delaine Eastin "Eastin is the highest ranking official in California's elementary and secondary public school system and the first woman to be elected State Superintendent."
Fred Eaton "The Betrayer."
Jose Maria Echeandia "Some of his contemporaries regarded him as a capricious despot, who would carry out a whim without regard to results."
Thomas A. Edison "'Be courageous! Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.... Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward!'"
Katherine Philips Edson "In 1912, Katherine Edson was elected to the Los Angeles Charter Revision Commission, was named to the executive committee of the National Municipal League (a first for a woman), was appointed to the Progressive Party's state central committee, and was appointed as a special agent of the California Bureau of Labor Statistics.?
March Fong Eu "As with the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad, it was the Chinese laborers who carried out the vision of railroad magnate Charles Crocker, doing what others would not, or could not, do."
William Everson "An internationally acclaimed literary figure and printer, Everson served as poet in residence at the University of California at Santa Cruz during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was a mentor not only to a generation of young Santa Cruz writers, but also to a thriving community of handset printers throughout Northern California."
Eliza Farnham "Planting Potatoes."
Dianne Feinstein "I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish for California, with you, over the last seven plus years: the first-ever ban on assault weapons, family and medical leave, safer neighborhoods, stronger schools, protecting a woman's right to choose. There's much more, however, that needs to be, and can be, done."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti "Ferlinghetti's own poems are simple and speak plainly, and they remain popular with a wide range of readers."
Charles M. Fickert "In the course of the campaign, the old-standing class antagonism was made an issue. The cry 'vote a straight Labor ticket and be true to the cause' gave a considerable Labor vote to Mr. Fickert, and his nomination by the Republican party gave him a similar partisan support."
Jose Figueroa "With the arrival in 1833 of the Mexican appointee, General Jose Figueroa, as the new governor of California, the final implementation of a plan for the widespread secularization of the missions was completed."
James C. Flood "His mine struck one of the world's richest veins of silver."
Clara Shortridge Foltz "The first woman to be a lawyer on the Pacific Coast (California, 1878)."
Tirey L. Ford "Tirey L. Ford, chief attorney for the United Railroads, who had passed the bribery money from Calhoun to Ruef, was indicted with Calhoun. He was put on the calendar for trial before Calhoun, because we hoped after convicting him to make him confess and turn evidence against Calhoun."
William Fox "Fox was most successful because he was a visionary. He saw a place for sound in the movies when other producers and production companies did not."
Jessie B. Fremont "While her husband was on his first expedition to the Wind River country, Jessie Frémont served as her father's hostess and occasionally translated secret Spanish documents for the State Department. As her husband prepared to leave on his second expedition in 1843, she intercepted and suppressed an order from Washington, D.C., that she feared threatened his command."
John Charles Fremont "With his wife Jessie’s help, Fremont’s written, published accounts of his expeditions became wildly popular with the public, and he became known as the 'Pathfinder.'"
Andrew Furuseth "Furuseth was elected president of the ISU in 1908 and from that time on was the respected voice of all American seamen, not only in the halls of Congress but in the press and to the hundreds of groups to whom he spoke on behalf of the 'sailor's cause.'"
Jose de Galvez "In 1778 the Continental congress sent Captain Willing as agent to New Orleans, and Galvez assisted him secretly with arms and ammunition and $70,000 in cash. Spain offered her mediation between the colonies and Great Britain, and, her offer being repulsed by the latter, declared war on 16 June, 1779. Galvez immediately formed a plan of campaign, and, although he had only a small military force under his command, he did not wait for re-enforcements, but, organizing volunteer regiments, marched northward on the eastern River bank."
Paul Gann "'When I went down to the Capitol and looked around, I saw that every special interest was represented there. I saw the unions were represented. The Corporations were represented. Local governments were represented. All the special interests had their lobbyists at the Capitol. So I thought: the People need their Advocate too.'"
Rupert Garcia "Garcia was initially recognized for the politically oriented posters he made as part of the Chicano art movement between 1967 and 1975, which addressed issues of politics, race, and the Vietnam War."
David Geffen "In 1994 he founded the Dreamworks SKG Hollywood studio and entertainment company with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg."
Henry George "'It would require less than the fingers of the two hands to enumerate those who, from Plato down, rank with Henry George among the world's social philosophers.'"
Irving Gill "Over the next 20 years, with a succession of partners, Gill designed and built hundreds of structures, some familiar, some obscure, a few genuine masterpieces. He built laundries and bath houses, churches and schools, apartment houses and fountains, as well as dozens of private residences for clients both rich and not-so-rich."
Archibald Gillespie "Gillespie, after seeing Johnston's failed charge, moved his men to the south rim of the valley, in hopes of aligning himself on the left of Moore's squad. This decision of Gillespie's not only wiped out the Californios who were waiting to make a side attack, but also led to the capture of Pablo Vejar, Pico's second in command, who was later released at Mule Hill."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman "She believed that men and women should share the responsibility of housework--a radical notion at the turn of the century. She also believed that women should be encouraged, from a very early age, to be independent and to work for themselves."
Allen Ginsberg "His first published work, Howl and Other Poems (1956), sparked the San Francisco Renaissance and defined the generation of the '50s with an authority and vision that had not occurred in the United States since T. S. Eliot captured the anxiety of the 1920s in The Waste Land."
Samuel Goldwyn "'I found that it took a world of time trying to explain my plans to my associates; now I can save all that time and energy, and put it into making better pictures.'"
Samuel Gompers "In a period when the U.S. was bitterly hostile to labour organizations, he evolved the principles of 'voluntarism,' which stressed that unions should exert coercion by economic actions, i.e., strikes and boycotts."
Bertram Goodhue "After viewing the work of Bertram Goodhue at the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, San Diego, Hale decided he had found his man. He was particularly impressed with the true Spanish spirit and exoticism expressed in Goodhue’s Exposition buildings."
Laura de Force Gordon "Without a doubt, Laura de Force Gordon was a feminist in every sense of the word. In addition to travelling to California in a covered wagon, she was also a pioneer in every sense of the word. Even so, to say that Laura de Force Gordon was a pioneering feminist seems to only caricaturize her, because her complexity transcends that label."
Isaac Graham "A contemporary historian, Hubert Howe, said of Graham: At the best, he was a loud mouthed, unprincipled, profligate, and reckless man, whose only good qualities seem to have been the personal bravery and prodigal hospitality of his class, with undoubted skill as a hunter, and a degree of industry."
Thomas Jefferson Green "He served in the First Senate of California and sponsored the bill creating the University of California."
Charles Greene "The Greene brothers' turn-of-the-century bungalow houses brought the Arts & Crafts movement to the west."
Henry Greene "The Greene's believed in creating a totally designed environment. They determined the needs of their client and then formulated a design concept that encompassed the home, site and furnishings."
David Wark Griffith "The Father of Motion Pictures!"
Ethan Allen and Hosea Ballou Grosh "Comstock Lode, richest known U.S. silver deposit, W Nevada, on Mt. Davidson in the Virginia Range. It is said to have been discovered in 1857 by Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh, sons of a Pennsylvania minister and veterans of the California gold fields who died under tragic circumstances before their claims were recorded."
William M. Gwin "In 1848 the American government had taken steps to protect the rights of the grantees in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgos which ended the Mexican War and ceded California to the United States. The Treaty also stated that 'Mexicans shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.' By this action the Mexican land grantees in Alta California were automatically granted citizenship and their deeds which had earlier been inspected had now been officially validated. However reassuring, this was to be only temporary. California's Senator William M. Gwin, representing the new State and the gold miners, now 'squatters,' was successful in persuading the Congress to reverse the conditions of the Treaty."
Robert Haas "The grand scale of his native Northern California is made visible through his precise and highly musical sensibility, as he capitulates to the rhythm of pure relationships, of description, of naming, of saying."
H. R. Haldeman "A former advertising executive who was credited with remaking Nixon's image in his successful 1968 campaign for the White House, served 18 months in prison for his role in Watergate. The episode became one of the great constitutional crises in the nation's history."
Henry W. Halleck "Halleck had the reputation of being the most unpopular man in Washington. It was a title he worked hard to deserve. Surly and gruff in manner, he had no restraints about insulting people, even important governmental officials. He detested politicians and he let them know it."
Andrew L. Hallidie "The final moment of success or failure had arrived. At five o'clock in the morning on August 1, 1873, the group, consisting of Hallidie and his associates, stood at the top of the Clay Street hill at the Jones Street crossing. Day was breaking. A dense fog was coming through the Golden Gate and was rolling over Nob and Russian hills. The bottom of the steep Clay Street grade was obscured by the early morning mist. From the open slot near the middle of the street came a mysterious rattle. Hallidie listened intently, nodded with an air of satisfaction and ordered, 'All aboard.'"
Agoston Haraszthy "Born aristocrat, yet frontiersman at heart, he was equally at home in the elegant ducal salons of Europe or the gaudy nouveaux riches of San Francisco... Playing Bach and Beethoven while enforcing the law of the frontier, he was a soldier, law student, author, sheriff, metallurgist, land promoter, steamboater, saw mill operator, wagon train master, politician, lobbyist, humanist, visionary, but most of all...'The Father of California Viticulture'."
Edward H. Harriman "During the financial panic of the 1890s, Harriman was able to seize control of the Union Pacific railroad. In 1898 he made a tedious, day-light-hours-only trip from the Missouri River to the Pacific on that line, inspecting every mile, every station, every flatcar and engine."
Job Harriman "In 1914, these visionaries established the Llano del Rio Colony, 45 miles north of Los Angeles, in the Antelope Valley. There, although hounded by Otis and the Times, and overwhelmed by prospective colonists disillusioned with the American political system, the colony prospered until it was discovered that an earthquake fault diverted much of the water the colony had counted on for its growth. Surrounding land barons refused to sell water to the colony, and Harriman and his colleagues scouted the country for another site. In 1917, 200 of the 600 original California colonists chartered a train and moved the entire colony to the former lumber town of Stables, Louisiana and changed its name to New Llano."
Bret Harte "Francis Bret Harte, to give the full name which he carried till he became famous, was born at Albany, New York, August 25, 1839. He went with his widowed mother to California in 1854, and was thrown as a young man into the hurly-burly which he more than any other writer has made real to distant and later people. He was by turns a miner, school- teacher, express messenger, printer, and journalist. The types which live again in his pages are thus not only what he observed, but what he himself impersonated in his own experience."
William E. P. Hartnell "Werner, who is deeply interested in the old college whose crumbling ruins may still be seen in the Alisal district, stated that Hartnell college, with its 13 students and two instructors was 'truly the first junior college in California,' as the main purpose was to prepare the youth of the day for the University."
Burnette G. Haskell "'War to the palace, peace to the cottage, death to luxurious idleness . . . . Arm, I say, to death! for Revolution is upon you.'"
Gerald Haslam "'No matter what our color or sex, we have more uniting than separating us. What is most important is that we are all members of the human family.'"
Lansford W. Hastings "After crossing the Oregon Trail in 1842, Lansford W. Hastings returned east to blaze his own trail across the salt desert of what is now Utah in 1846. Hastings authored The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California to promote his new route which included a 65-mile waterless stretch across the desert."
Nadine Hata "With few exceptions, at all levels of instruction, history courses and textbooks perpetuated blatantly chauvinistic, sexist, and racist assumptions about every facet of public and private life in America."
Charles M. Hatfield "The Morena Dam reservoir is barely one-third full and the city's growth hinges on an ample water supply. We think the council should consider hiring Charles M. Hatfield to make some rainfall."
S. I. Hayakawa "A confrontation with striking students at San Francisco State College in 1968 propelled Vancouver-born Samuel I. Hayakawa, already recognized as a world-renowned semantics expert, into a college presidency and later, to the U.S. Senate."
Tom Hayden "He was the world-famous radical elected to the heart of the establishment. When he came to Sacramento as a lowly assemblyman nearly two decades ago, he was regarded warily as an invader and outlaw by his fellow lawmakers, some of whom even tried to expel him from the Legislature as a 'traitor.'"
George Hearst "Upon news of the discovery of gold, moved to California in 1850; highly successful prospector; engaged in mining, stock raising, and farming; moved to San Francisco in 1862."
William Randolph Hearst "Inspired by the journalism of Joseph Pulitzer, Hearst turned the newspaper into a combination of reformist investigative reporting and lurid sensationalism."
Francis J. Heney "In the course of the trial, the prosecutors were socially ostracized; the Chronicle and the Examiner ridiculed their efforts; Fremont Older was kidnapped; a witness' house was dynamited, and Francis Heney was shot in the head at point blank range in the courtroom by a 'madman.'"
William F. Herrin "The bill was filed by the complainants, the Southern Pacific Company and the Oregon & California Railroad Company, to set aside an order made by the Railroad Commission of Oregon under date of September 21, 1910, and to enjoin the defendants, the members of the commission and the attorney general of the state, from enforcing it. By this order the commission found, after hearing, that certain freight rates maintained by the Southern Pacific Company between Portland and other places on its lines in Oregon were unreasonable, excessive, and discriminatory, and the commission required the company, in lieu of the rates thus disapproved, to put into effect the 'just and reasonable and nondiscriminatory charges' set forth in the order."
William Hewlett "The legendary garage -- designated the birthplace of Silicon Valley -- is a California state historical landmark."
Ira Michael Heyman "One of the most notable and visible changes in Berkeley during Heyman's administration was the change in the demographics of the student body: non-white undergraduates were 27% of the student body in 1980 and rose to 51% by 1990. Heyman commented that it might take 20 years to understand this 'service' that Berkeley provided to higher education and to California."
Mighel de Hidalgo "After six months of fighting, Hidalgo fell into a royalist trap and was captured. Because he was a priest, he was subjected to a lengthy hearing by the Inquisition, after which he was found guilty of heresy and treason, defrocked, and, on July 30, 1811, executed by a firing squad in the city of Chihuahua. His head, along with those of three other revolutionary leaders, was cut off and sent to Guanajuato, where it was put on a pole and displayed for a decade."
Thomas Hill "When the artist was seventy, an art critic called him 'The most ardent devotee at the shrine of Yosemite and the most faithful priest of the valley.'"
Alger Hiss "On Aug. 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor from Time magazine and self-admitted ex-communist, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) identifying Alger Hiss and several other federal officials of having been members of a Communist cell whose purpose had been to infiltrate the U.S. government."
John S. Hittell "California has a peculiar chorography. No other country comprises within so small a space, such various, so many, and such strongly-marked chorographical divisions. Mountains the most steep, barren, and rugged; valleys the most fertile and beautiful; deserts the most sterile; spacious bays, magnificent rivers, unparalleled waterfalls, picturesque lakes, extensive marshes, broad prairies, and dense forests-all these are hers."
Theodore H. Hittell "It was these people, thus brought together from the north and the south, the east and the west, that amalgamated and combined to lay the foundations of and initiate on Its career of progress—which is yet barely commenced—the state of California, pre-eminently in fact, as well as in name, the Golden State of the Union."
Rachel Hobson Holmes "Little Isabel, the first child born in California to American citizens, died in July, approximately one month after the marriage of her parents. She was buried, as she had been baptized, at the Santa Barbara mission."
Mark Hopkins "Mark Hopkins served as treasurer for the Central Pacific Rail road throughout the construction period until his death in 1878."
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston "They were stripped from their home and taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. Jeanne, the youngest of the Wakatsuki children, was seven at the time. Even though she was born in the U.S. and she spoke only English, Jeanne was taken to Manzanar and treated as if she was a foreigner or an enemy of the United States."
John Galen Howard "He rendered services to San Francisco on the Advisory Committee for rebuilding after the earthquake and fire in 1906, in the development of the Civic Center, and in the construction of a Municipal Auditorium and War Memorial."
Dolores Huerta "She became a fearless lobbyist in Sacramento, and in 1961 succeeded in obtaining the citizenship requirements removed from pension, and public assistance programs. She also was instrumental in passage of legislation allowing voters the right to vote in Spanish, and the right of individuals to take the driver’s license examination in their native language. In 1962 she lobbied in and Washington DC for an end to the 'captive labor' Bracero Program."
Isaac Humphrey "He showed it to Isaac Humphrey, who had been a gold-miner in Georgia. From the size and character of the specimens exhibited, Humphrey pronounced the mines much richer than the gold-fields of Georgia."
Timothy Dwight Hunt "The Presbyterian Church came to California by sometimes almost comical means. Wrote historian Clifford Drury, 'when news of the discovery of gold reached Honolulu, the Rev. Timothy Dwight Hunt . . . was serving as pastor of a community church. . . About one-half of his congregation sailed for California, so Hunt decided to follow. . . He was the first Protestant pastor to arrive in California to engage in full-time religious work."
Collis P. Huntington "At his death he was one of the six men who were at the head of the American railroad system, an art connoisseur and patron, a humanitarian and financier."
Henry E. Huntington "Huntington greatly expanded the existing railway lines, creating an extensive inter-urban system that provided the transportation necessary to encourage population growth. As a result of the railway linkages and the development of the property adjacent to the lines, the population of the region tripled between 1900 and 1910."
Aldous Huxley "In 1954 Huxley published an influential study of consciousness expansion through mescaline, The Doors Of Perception and became later a guru among Californian hippies."
William B. Ide "They having possession of the barracks at Sonoma, held the place, and proceeded to organize an Independent Government, by electing WILLIAM B. IDE governor and commander-in-chief of 'the Independent forces,' as they were styled, and JOHN H. NASH Chief Justice (commonly known as the Alcalde, under the Mexican government).--It was thought by some, that they should adopt a Flag to represent their Government; and most of them being hunters and adventurers, the idea was suggested by one Capt. FORD, that a Grizzly Bear should be the motto."
Ishi "In August 1911, Ishi, the last surviving member of the Yahi Indian tribe, walked out of the foothills near Mount Lassen - leaving behind his Stone Age world - and entered twentieth-century California society."
Larry Itliong "Larry Itliong carved his immortal place in the history of the farm workers ... when he led a strike of Filipino-American farm workers in the grape vineyards of Delano on September 8, 1965."
Helen Hunt Jackson "Jackson continued her struggle to redress Indian grievances and also returned to her earlier career as a writer of poetry, essays, and novels. In 1884, based upon her earlier experience with the California Indians, she hurriedly wrote the popular, commercially successful novel, Ramona."
Luis Jayme "The first of a chain of 21 missions which stretch northward along the coast of California, Mission San Diego became known as the Mother of the Missions. In 1775, the Mission was attacked by pagan Indians who destroyed it by burning the existing structures. Padre Luis Jayme, the pastor, was killed in this attack when he tried to calm the Indians. Padre Jayme became the first Christian martyr in California and is buried in the Mission Sanctuary."
Robinson Jeffers "To make an advance, to contribute to poetry, Jeffers affirmed, would require 'emotions or ideas, or a point of view, or even mere rhythms, that had not occurred to [his contemporaries].'"
John Jenkins "Jenkins was brought back and taken to a building that occupied a corner at Sansome and Pine streets, the site on which the Royal Insurance Building is now located. The prisoner duly tried by a jury and condemned to be hanged."
Steven Jobs "Wozniak and Jobs designed the Apple I computer in Jobs's bedroom and they built the prototype in the Jobs' garage."
J. Neely Johnson "On the 2nd of June, 1856, Governor J. Neely Johnson having declared the city of San Francisco to be in a state of insurrection, issued orders to Wm. T. Sherman to enroll as militia, companies of 150 men of the highest standard and to have them report to him, Sherman, for duty."
Robert Underwood Johnson "As a citizen of the United States I wish to record my opposition to the pending bill confirming the grant of the Hetch Hetchy Valley and other portions of the Yosemite National Park to the city of San Francisco, executed May 11, 1908."
Thomas ap Catesby Jones "Disregarding the rumor that Great Britain had bought California for $7 million, Jones proposed to make full sail for Monterey and take California for the United States."
David Starr Jordan "My first impressions of Leland Stanford were extremely favorable, for even on such slight acquaintance he revealed an unusually attractive personality,' Dr. Jordan wrote. 'His errand he explained directly and clearly.... His education ideas, it appeared, corresponded very closely with my own."
Theodore D. Judah "It is a highway which leads to peace and future prosperity. An iron bond for the perpetuation of the Union and independence which we now enjoy."
Henry J. Kaiser "Kaiser was a visionary, not a details man. Although he was an active participant in major corporate decisions, he despised desk work and committee reports. His was a 'hands on' management style. His passion was not for flow charts or the conventional etiquette of corporate authority, but for 'ad hoc' decisions, reached with a small circle of key executives during informal and vigorous free flowing strategy sessions."
Isaac S. Kalloch "The Sunday evening addresses were supposed to be sermons on religious topics, but Kalloch always began with a "prelude" devoted to non- religious topics. These preludes became more and more political as Kalloch grew to realize his power. His audiences listened to them with bated breath. There was a distinct let-up when the prelude ended, and the pulpit orator turned preacher. The audiences then lost something of their tenseness."
Jeffrey Katzenberg "In short order, Katzenberg regrouped. Along with two pals, mega-moguls Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, he created DreamWorks, the first new Hollywood studio in 60 years."
Denis Kearney "I spent the winter of 1887-8 in New York and Washington agitating for the total exclusion of the Chinese, which resulted in the Scott Exclusion Act of 1888."
Stephen Watts Kearny "At the beginning of the Mexican War he was made commander of the Army of the West with the rank (June, 1846) of brigadier general. With about 1,600 men he marched over the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico, entered the city of Santa Fe without opposition, and organized a civil government for the territory."
William Keith "William Keith was the leading artist in San Francisco at the end of the nineteenth century. His combination of artistic genius, business acumen, strong personality and hard work enabled him to build a prestigious reputation and a financially successful career."
Donald Kennedy "The Pacific Rim's a big place, and you've got to have all kinds of countries and cultures represented if you want to get serious about disaster planning and preparation"
Kate Kennedy "Miss Kate Kennedy, the deposed principal of the North Cosmopolitan Grammar School, is not satisfied with the action of the members of the Board of Education. She yesterday made a complaint to the Superior Court, in which she alleges that for more than twelve years past she has been in the employ of the board as principal of the North Cosmopolitan Grammar School, and received for her services $175 a month. On the 2d of May, as she was proceeding to perform her duties, avers that the defendants, unlawfully and without cause, prevented her from performing her duties. She has since been so restrained, and therefore prays that a writ of mandate be issued commanding and requiring defendants to admit plaintiff to the enjoyment of her position."
William and Elizabeth Thatcher Kent "Congressman William Kent and his wife, Elizabeth Thatcher Kent, bought 295 acres here for $45,000 in 1905. To protect the redwoods the Kents donated the land to the Federal Government and, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared it a national monument."
Stan Kenton "Called 'the most significant figure of the Modern Jazz age' by Frank Sinatra."
Clark Kerr "Dr. Kerr describes the attempts of the Committee on Privilege and Tenure of the northern section of the Academic Senate, of which he was a member, to reduce the devastating impact of the oath by holding hearings with the thirty-two faculty members who had refused to sign the oath and recommending that they not be fired."
Ken Kesey "Kesey ingested these hallucinogens and wrote of his drug-induced experiences for government researchers. From this experience, Kesey wrote his most celebrated novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and began his own experimentations with psychedelic drugs."
Kientepoos "The Modocs continued to successfully elude federal troops, but due to dissension among the Indians, Captain Jack eventually surrendered. He and five others were eventually hung for murder."
Rodney King "What were the deep roots that ignited this tragedy, this rebellion? There will be many questions and many answers. However, there was really only one direct, immediate cause that was the flash point; when the jury in the televised trial of the four officers accused in the beating of Rodney King announced they had found the officers innocent."
T. Butler King "The sale of the territory by Mexico to the United States had necessarily cut off or dissolved the laws regulating the granting or procuring titles to land; and, as our own land laws had not been extended over it, the people were compelled to receive such titles as were offered to them, without the means of ascertaining whether they were valid or not."
Thomas Starr King "According to General Winfield Scott, the Union Army commander-in-chief, Starr King 'saved California to the Union.'"
James King of William "The horrible and heart-rending occurrence, the shooting down of Mr. King in broad daylight, in the public street, has justly aroused the indignation of the entire community."
Maxine Hong Kingston "China Men includes a chronological list of discriminatory laws regarding Chinese immigrants and celebrates the strengths and achievements of the first Chinese men in America as well as the exploitation and prejudice they faced. Several sinologists complained that Kingston reconstructed myths that are only remotely connected to original Chinese legends and that her pieces don't accurately portray high culture."
Eusebio Kino "By helping the various Piman groups to come together to resist the fierce Apache tribes, Kino brought peace and security to the Pimería. In turn, the Pimas and other tribal groups affectionately regarded Kino as a leader and advocate. When a tragic misunderstanding resulted in the Pima Revolt of 1695, it was Kino who brought an end to hostilities and reestablished peace."
Michael Kirst "California's schools improved during the late 1990s but the energy crisis is sapping so much of the state's financial surplus that potential funding losses could threaten the system with another decline."
Walter Knott "Walter Knott's little farm grew into a restaurant. When the lines at the restaurant became too long, Walter moved old historic buildings onto the property and built a 'ghost town' to keep patrons busy while they waited for a table. Eventually, the ghost town turned into an amusement park, and the city of Buena Park grew up around it."
Joel Kotkin "Some conservatives may regard labor’s potential self-destruction as a welcome development. But in a country where mediating institutions—churches, neighborhood groups, and employee organizations prominent among them—provide a critical shield against the ferocity of both the state and the marketplace, the prospective decline of organized labor as a mainstream force ought to give citizens concerned with the functioning of our democracy little cause for celebration."
Alfred L. Kroeber "A Mission Record Of The California Indians."
Dorothea Lange "You put your camera around your neck along with putting on your shoes, and there it is, an appendage of the body that shares your life with you. The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera"
Thomas Oliver Larkin "He was the first and only American consul to the Mexican government and was a confidential agent of the U.S., trying to bring about American occupation of California without war."
Jesse L. Lasky "He worked his way into theatrical production and made a name for himself by 1913, when his brother-in-law Sam Goldwyn (then known as Goldfish) persuaded him to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. They hired Cecil B. DeMille, a first time film director, to go out west to shoot their first feature. DeMille moved the Lasky company into a barn in a suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood. Thus the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company became the first permanent feature film company actually located in the town of Hollywood."
Peter Lassen "The Fandango Pass is not in the Sierra Nevada, and its original name was not "Fandango." Its original name was 'Lassen Pass,' and it was pioneered by Peter Lassen as a way to entice immigrants into California by going around the Sierra Nevada to the north."
Timothy Leary "Always media conscious, the former Harvard professor popularized the phrase ``turn on, tune in, drop out'' during an era when the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution reflected youthful rebellion against authority."
Joseph Le Conte "The Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte: Electronic Edition."
Jacob P. Leese "Born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, on August 19, 1809, became active in the Santa Fe trade, went into partnership with Hugo Reid in Monterey in 1834, and with Hinckley and Spear in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1836. He built the first substantial structure in San Francisco."
Stephen Levy "Stephen Levy is Director and Senior Economist of the Center for Continuing study of the California Economy (CCSCE) in Palo Alto."
Sinclair Lewis "The first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature."
Meyer Lissner "Meyer Lissner, a reform attorney often portrayed as a champion of public power, opposed the holding of a decisive 1911 citywide straw poll on the subject because he knew most Angelinos would cast their ballots for municipal ownership. This, he said, would be 'unfair' to the three utilities."
Marcus Loew "By 1912 Loew's Theatrical Enterprises consisted of 400 cinemas all across the country. Loew created Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when he bought Metro Pictures in 1920, adding a controlling interest in Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924."
Jack London "A committed socialist, he insisted against editorial pressures to write political essays and insert social criticism in his fiction."
Apolinaria Lorenzano "Apolinaria Lorenzano, once the proud owner of three ranchos, mourned the loss of her lands: 'I find myself in the greatest poverty, living by the favor of God and from handouts.'"
Allen Loughead "Allen Loughead, a Santa Clara University student, watched Montgomery's gliders in 1904. In 1913, he and his brother, Malcolm, flew a seaplane off San Francisco Bay. It was the first aircraft built by what eventually became aerospace giant Lockheed-Martin."
Malcolm Loughead "Malcolm Loughead then left the company, changed the spelling of his name to "Lockheed," and made a fortune by introducing hydraulic brakes for automobiles."
George Lucas "Easily one of the most influential figures in late twentieth century popular culture, George Lucas has helped transform the way movies are made, the way they are marketed, and perhaps most important, the way they are experienced by an audience. His company, Lucasfilm Ltd., is the only achievement of its kind since the coming of sound, a self-contained multimedia production enterprise with subsidiaries and sister companies serenely independent of Hollywood influence."
Gilbert Lujan "In all, the full spectrum of my erudition and Chicano experience became the source of my ethno-aesthetic pursuits and the vocabulary for my eventual ideological stance. It became a significant necessity to explore this initially academic discovery and examination of Art as it became and developed into a civic community advocacy role."
Charles F. Lummis "In 1884, he walked from Ohio to California in a pair of knickerbockers and street shoes to take a job as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times."
Charles Lux "Charles Lux bought 1,464 acres of Buri Buri land and became a partner of Henry Miller, thus forming the firm of Miller and Lux, Pacific Coast land barons and cattle kings."
William Gibbs McAdoo "Elected in 1932 as a Democrat to the United States Senate from California and served from March 4, 1933, to November 8, 1938, when he resigned."
Ward McAfee "Dr. Ward McAfee, Professor , California State University, San Bernardino."
James McClatchy "McClatchy eventually helped found The Sacramento Bee and the McClatchy newspaper empire."
Valentine S. McClatchy "The Japanese are less assimilable and more dangerous as residents in this country than any other of the peoples ineligible under our laws. . . . With great pride of race, they have no idea of assimilating in the sense of amalgamation. They do not come here with any desire or any intent to lose their racial or national identity."
John W. Mackay "In 1873, after 22 years of toiling in many different mines in two states, Mackay struck one of the greatest silver veins in history. His "mountain of silver", the Big Bonanza, as the mine was called, produced more than $400 million in ore in just a little over four years."
Joseph McKinney "Joseph McKinney, the first elected Sheriff in Sacramento County government, was the first peace officer slain in the line of duty in Sacramento County."
Ortie McManigal "Supposedly sixteen sticks of dynamite were placed in the Times alleyway, known as "ink alley" near drums of highly flammable materials. Later James B. McNamara, brother of Ironworkers Secretary/Treasurer John J. McNamara, and Ortie McManigal would be blamed for the bombing."
James B. McNamara "It was James B. McNamara who planted The Los Angeles Times bomb, said McManigal; he told how “McNamara turned open the stopcocks of the gas mains of the building when he set the bomb."
Aimee Semple McPherson "McPherson based much of the appeal of her movement on faith healing, adult baptism by immersion, and a pervading aura of optimism and spectacle."
Carey McWilliams "All this was payback for McWilliams’ tireless work as debunker of California’s myths and as self-appointed advocate for the exploited. Decades later, his many books and articles for the popular press remain authoritative accounts of social struggle in California, and his impact upon subsequent observers of the California scene is so broad as to be almost inestimable."
John Marsh "He was a pioneer of six American frontiers, a founder of commonwealths, a power in every community in which he lived. What other frontiersman, I ask, can equal that record? What other man figured as largely in the pioneer annals of the frontier as he?"
James Wilson Marshall "Marshall tried for a short time to hold onto his land, but was soon pushed off by the ever increasing hordes. Many of the miners believed he possessed some kind of supernatural powers and virtually forced him to find gold for them, threatening him with hanging if he didn’t deliver."
Robert Bradford Marshall "In a 1919 letter to California Governor William Stephens, Colonel Robert Bradford Marshall, Chief Geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), proposed a plan to build storage reservoirs along the Sacramento River system, and transfer water from the Sacramento Valley to the San Joaquin Valley via two large canals lying on both sides of the Sacramento River. The plan earned Marshall the nickname, 'The Father of the Central Valley Project.'"
Biddy Mason "In 1851, Smith moved his household again, this time to San Bernardino, California, where Brigham Young was starting a Mormon community. Smith probably did not know that California had been admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free state and that slavery was forbidden there. Mason petitioned the court and in 1856 won freedom for herself and for her daughters. She moved to Los Angeles and found employment as a nurse and midwife. Hard work and her nursing skills allowed her to become economically independent."
Richard B. Mason "In his dispatch Mason mentioned that 'There is more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers than would pay the cost of the late war with Mexico a hundred times over.'"
Mary Masuda "Mary Masuda called the sheriff for help, even provided names, but was told there was nothing he could do. Still, she refused to be bullied. She'd lost too much in the war already."
David Mas Masumoto "David Mas Masumoto makes it seem like growing peaches and grapes in the Central Valley and writing about the process is just about the best job, the best life, in the world."
Robert Matsui "Today’s terrorist bombing - on the very day that Secretary Powell was in Jerusalem to discuss an end to the violence - makes one thing abundantly clear: Secretary Powell should not meet with Yasser Arafat. Instead, your Administration should announce its unequivocal support for the State of Israel, which is in a fight for its survival against the forces of terror."
Edward E. Matteson "The invention of hydraulic mining is generally attributed to Edward E. Matteson near Nevada City, California in February of 1852."
Bernard Maybeck "Bernard Maybeck joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, first as a drawing instructor (1894) and later served as the university's first professor of architecture (1898-1903)."
Louis B. Mayer "He was the master manipulator, and it was generally acknowledged that of all the great actors on the lot--the Barrymores, Spencer Tracy, Lon Chaney, Garbo--L.B. was No. 1."
Adah Isaacs Menken "So Adah Menken went her exciting way from town to town, and men fell in love with her and her poetry, with her intellect and her lovely face and her exquisite figure. And rather than see them unhappy, she was generous in her love."
Frank Merriam "Now, therefore, I, Frank F. Merriam, governor of the state of California, and by virtue thereof commander-in-chief of the militia of the state of California, do hereby call and order and authorize the adjutant general of the state of California to forthwith call and order into active service such portion of the active militia of the state as may be necessary to protect life and property,"
Ezekiel Merritt "Merritt, the quartermaster, could neither read nor write. He was an old mountaineer and trapper, lived with an Indian squaw, and went clad in buckskin fringed after the style of the Rocky Mountain Indians."
Victor H. Metcalf "It is almost impossible to describe the ruin wrought by the earthquake and especially the conflagration. The conflagration was due entirely to the absolute lack of water supply. The people however, are confident and hopeful for the future and have not in any sense lost their courage. They feel under deep obligations to you and the national Government for the prompt and efficient assistance rendered them."
Manuel Micheltorena "The position Micheltorena took with his first acts brought dissatisfaction in the other camp and resulted in banding the native California officials, Alvarado, Vallejo and Castro together again, being all equally desirous to expel the new governor."
George Miller "I am honored that LCV - a leading environmental watchdog - has given me their highest ranking as a defender of the environment and natural resources."
Henry Miller "Pilgrims came from all parts of the country and abroad, so many that eventually he had to leave. It is characteristic of America and this day of public images that Miller should be identified as the monkish Sage of Big Sur."
Joaquin Miller "From the day I was suddenly discovered and pointed out in London I have been an entire stranger in my own land....As for that red-shirted and hairy man bearing my name abroad and 'standing before Kings', I never saw him, never heard of him until on returning to my own country, I found that this unpleasant and entirely impossible figure ever attended and even overshadowed my most earnest work."
Czeslaw Milosz "Who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"
Norman Mineta "In nominating him, President Bush said, 'Norm made a reputation in the halls of Congress as someone who understands that a sound infrastructure in America will lead to economic opportunity for all Americans.'"
Eugene Duflot de Mofras "During his visit here he was in correspondence with the officials at home, but it is not known that his visit had any political bearing or significance, and if he had any instructions in this direction from the government he did not disclose them."
Gloria Molina "Molina has a legislative history of standing up for the average citizen against almost insurmountable odds."
Garci Ordonez de Montalvo "Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very near to the terrestrial paradise, which was peopled with black women without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of amazons."
Thomas J. Mooney "Thomas J. Mooney (1892-1942) was the central figure in the most notorious labor frame-up in the early half of the twentieth century."
Gabriel Moraga "His journey left an indelible mark on the state, giving Moraga the liberty of naming most major rivers and landmarks."
Jose Moraga "A distinguished officer and is credited with having founded the San Francisco presidio and mission."
Julia Morgan "Julia Morgan became one of the first women to graduate from the University of California with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1894."
George Moscone "Moscone's working class background and empathy for working class people fueled his interest in civil rights for all people."
Peter Moyle "Anything we do to the land winds up affecting the streams that flow through the land."
John Muir "As a writer, he taught the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage."
William Mulholland "The Man Who Built the Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct."
Joaquin Murieta "Described by one historian a 'vicious and abandoned character, low, brutal, and cruel, intrinsically and at heart a thief and a cut-throat.'"
Charles Christian Nahl "His most famous commission was to design the Grizzly Bear that adorns the California State flag."
David Neagle "Had tried his hand at a number of occupations with indifferent success. He had been a migratory mine worker, a saloon operator and police chief in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff. He then drifted on to Montana Territory, before returning to San Francisco in 1883. There he became active in politics and was soon appointed deputy sheriff."
Felipe de Neve "There was a speech by Governor de Neve, a blessing and prayers from the mission fathers -- all watched by the Yang-Na Indians. Thus did El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angeles of Porciuncula) come into existence."
Huey P. Newton "Originally born in a small town in Louisiana and later moving with his family to Oakland, California as an infant, Huey P. Newton became the co-founder and leader of the Black Panther movement for over 2 decades."
John Francis Neyland "Bridges and the ILA, forced by the vote, remained disappointed that the Council collaborated with the manipulative capitalists in the Industrial Association, and most of all with Neyland, whom strikers viewed as the purveyor of anti-labor propaganda."
Richard M. Nixon "Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin 'that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.'"
Frank Norris "Frank Norris Books Online."
Mario Obledo "California is going to become a Hispanic state, and that anyone who does not like it should leave."
William S. O'Brien "Mr. O'Brien was one of the four principal stockholders of the mine on the Comstock ledge, called the "big bonanza," which was discovered in 1874."
Fremont Older "For some years I have wanted to write a frank story of my experiences as an editor of a newspaper in San Francisco. I couldn't. I was not allowed to. Such a story, to have any value, implied a confession, and I was not free to confess."
Edward James Olmos "This renowned actor, producer and director never rests when it comes to improving the lives of at-risk children, helping children embrace their heritage, and providing better opportunities for all children."
Culbert L. Olson "The most controversial aspect of his entire career was his pardon of Tom Mooney."
Peter O'Riley "Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O'Riley, found a strange kind of gold while prospecting on the eastern slopes of the mountain range. They had dug into the northern end of the Comstock Lode, named after Henry Comstock who had staked claims in the area. The Comstock was to yield a third of a billion dollars in silver."
Antonio Maria Osio "There are very few published histories of Mexican California written by the Californios, the Spanish speaking residents before 1848. This text is a rare and very important document because its author produced it independently of the historical project of Herbert Howe Bancroft and as such it offers an alternative vision of this period produced by a person who lived through it."
Harrison Gray Otis "Harrison Gray Otis (1837-1917) was publisher of the Los Angeles Times for three decades, a powerful conservative force in turn-of-the-century Southern California, and an unrivaled promoter of regional growth."
Henry Oxnard "There is a story, though it's verity has not been confirmed, that when it came time to name the city Henry Oxnard was on the telephone with a person in the state capitol. The telephone connection was not a good one and the person on the other end could not understand Mr. Oxnard when he said he wanted the town named for a Greek word meaning 'sugar'. He tried spelling it but was still not understood so he said, "Oh, hell! Just name it Oxnard". The story is probably not entirely, if at all true, but it makes a good tale."
Romualdo Pacheco "Romualdo Pacheco was the only Hispanic who has served as Governor of California."
David Packard "From 1936 to 1938, Packard was an engineer with the General Electric Co. in Schenectady, N.Y. In 1938, he returned to Palo Alto and the following year formed a partnership known as Hewlett-Packard Company with William R. Hewlett, a friend and Stanford classmate."
Francisco Palou "In 1776, Fr. Francisco Palou selected a site on San Francisco Bay to build the sixth mission."
James Ohio Pattie "Creator of the first western potboiler."
Vicente Peralta "Vicente Peralta and his family were part of a group of people known as Californios--Spanish-speaking people who had come from Mexico or Spain to settle in California. Californios had lived on California soil since 1769. That's when Spanish priests began building missions, or Catholic churches, along the coast, in hopes of converting Native Americans to Christianity."
William Pereira "The works of Southern California architect William Pereira span more than 50 years. He influenced the look of the Southern California we live in more than most people realize."
James D. Phelan "I am not surprised that the East should have had a poor opinion of San Francisco so long as it supinely endured shameless pillage and unrestrained corruption."
Andres Pico "On January 8, 1847, about 500 Mexican militia led by commanders Jose Maria Flores and Andres Pico offered the last serious Mexican resistance against U.S. invasion forces at the Battle of the San Gabriel River."
Pio Pico "Pico fled to Mexico to prevent the conquering Americans from capturing him and taking him prisoner. He later reclaimed his title to the land he had previously acquired and invested in more real estate, becoming wealthy and influential. Pico became a private citizen, successful businessman, and served on the Los Angeles City Council."
Willis Polk "Polk was instrumental in redirecting the course of architecture in the San Francisco region according to the ideals of the academic movement."
Alonzo W. Poole "About noontime, word reached the picnickers that U.S. Marshal Alonzo W. Poole along with Walter Clark, a Southern Pacific land appraiser, and two local citizens, Walter Crow and Mills D. Hartt, were ejecting settlers from their home. The four were later to be referred to as 'the railroad men.'"
Gaspar de Portola "Gaspar de Portola, as the newly appointed Governor of Baja California, was responsible for expelling the Jesuits from Baja California, where they had established 14 missions in 72 years."
Pedro Prat "Many more might have been lost had the San Carlos not had the services of Pedro Prat, the ship’s African doctor, who was praised by a Spanish priest for saving lives with medicinal herbs and minerals."
Arthur Quinn "Each generation of Californians is dominated by a new group of immigrants who become the scapegoats for the old group,"
Max Rafferty "Every educational problem is caused by (a) stupidity or (b) unwillingness to work."
William Chapman Ralston "In the summer of 1875 he was a hero and a prince in the eyes of the ordinary people."
Joseph A. Rattigan "The university stands today as a symbol of a man who, in an age of cynicism, has spent his life fighting for the underdog -- the young, the old, minorities and the poor."
Ronald Reagan "At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government."
Hugo Reid "But when Reid returned home, weakened by tuberculosis, Victoria nursed him back to health so he could serve as a delegate to California's 1849 Constitutional Convention, where he championed public schools and vocally opposed slavery."
Kenneth Rexroth "An important poet in his own scene, and deserves our eternal appreciation for having invented the idea of San Francisco as a center of literary innovation."
Malvina Reynolds "I am still shy with people. I can easily face and talk with and sing to a hundred or a thousand. But at a party, next to a stranger, I haven't much to say."
Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov "Rezanov brought back two ideas from his venture into Spanish California - the desire to establish permanent trade relations, and the wish to found a trading base on what the Russians referred to as the "New Albion" coast north of Spanish territory."
Friend W. Richardson "I returned to Sacramento, called the Prison Board and explained the situation. I told them that already the word was around that I had the solution of the murder, and that unless we took quick action the convict in Folsom Prison would be murdered."
William H. Richardson "General Richardson was a brave and honorable man, and beloved by all. He was about 33 years of age, a native of Washington, D. C., and married. Cora was confined in the County jail. We will now leave this case in the mind of the reader and take it up later on."
Edward F. Ricketts "While 'Doc' of Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday is a character based on Steinbeck's close friend Ed Ricketts, there are distinct and pronounced differences between the fictional hero and the real man."
John Rollin Ridge "They entered into negotiations with the federal government, made the best bargain they thought they could, and, in 1835, signed a treaty that ceded their lands in the East for land in what is now Oklahoma."
Bennett Riley "In April of 1849, General Bennett Riley became California's seventh military governor. Two months later, he heard that Congress again had adjourned without setting up a government for California; he issued a proclamation calling for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention. On August 1, 1849, Californians elected 48 delegates."
Fernando Rivera y Moncada "By late 1780, Rivera had recruited many soldiers and settlers needed for the new settlements in Alta California. The settlers were sent by sea to Loreto in Lower California and then to San Gabriel where they arrived safely on August 18, 1781."
Alfred Robinson "They called upon Governor Echeandia at the San Diego Presidio and received permission to establish trading from the ship at La Playa, displaying goods for sale and products of New England factories."
James Rolph, Jr. "For the next 19 years Rolph was "Sunny Jim" to San Franciscans with "There are Smiles That Make You Happy" as his theme song."
Frank Roney "In Roney’s estimation, Kearney’s Workingman’s Party of California 'left its impress for years afterwards in having produced during its brief existence an inferior and more numerous class of political bosses and blacklegs than had been produced in all the preceding history of the city.'"
Angelo Rossi "Yes, we should give thanks to Almighty God that we are Americans. Pray God we may remain out of war. Pray God that all Americans back our President in his struggle to keep us out of war."
Edward R. Roybal "Roybal was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 1962. He was the first Hispanic from California to serve in Congress since the 1879 election of Romualdo Pacheco."
Jerry Rubin "His very first protest took place in Berkeley, California in 1964. He walked the picket line to protest against a local grocer who refused to hire blacks."
Abraham Ruef "Wealthy public utility corporations hired Ruef as an attorney to represent their interests before city officials. Ruef then passed on portions of his attorney's fees as bribes."
Edward Ruscha "In1962 Ruscha mapped a journey from Los Angeles to his native Oklahoma by photographing 26 gasoline stations along the route."
Arabella Ryan "On the evening of Thursday, November 15, 1855 Charles Cora, an Italian gambler, attended the performance at the American Theatre, where the Ravels were playing in Nicodemus, or, The Unfortunate Fisherman. He was accompanied by his mistress, variously known as Belle Cora and Arabella Ryan."
T. Claude Ryan "Mr. T. Claude Ryan sold his Model T Ford for $400 to purchase a war-surplus Jenny in 1922. With this purchase he launched an outstanding career in the aviation field."
Arthur H. Samish "Samish said to the dummy, 'This is my legislature. How are you Mr. Legislature?'"
Aaron A. Sargent "Senator Sargent, in 1878, introduced the 29 words that later became the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States."
Ellen Clark Sargent "Ellen Clark Sargent was one of the powerful, wealthy women who led the California woman suffrage movement in the 1890s."
William Saroyan "In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world but shall smile at the infinite delight and mystery of it."
Mario Savio "There is a time," he said, "when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."
David Scannell "David Scannell was elected Sheriff of San Francisco in 1855. A native New Yorker, he arrived in San Francisco on the steamer 'Gold Hunter' in 1851, with the intention of making quick riches in the fever for the yellow metal that had infected the United States since the discovery of gold in California."
Eugene E. Schmitz "To the considerable surprise of all concerned, 1901 saw him elected Mayor of San Francisco; the first Union Labor mayor in United States history."
Arnold Schoenberg "The name Schoenberg is inextricably linked in most people's minds with serialism and The Second Viennese School."
Bobby G. Seale "More important let's get beyond the present extremist practices of avaricious racist corporate monopoly globalizing capitalism having evolved a system which concentrates 90% of all the political-economic power in to the hands of the one percent cooperate money-rich around this our earth."
William Selig "In 1915, he closed the Chicago studio and the Edendale studio and moved his entire operations into the Mission Avenue Zoo/Studio."
Robert Semple "Robert Semple, editor of California's first newspaper, the Californian, wanted to share the news."
Junipero Serra "Serra spent the rest of his life as head of the Franciscans in Alta California. Already over fifty years old, dangerously thin, asthmatic, and seriously injured in one of his legs, the undaunted Serra led the founding of the Mission of San Diego in 1769, aided an expedition in locating San Francisco Bay, and personally founded eight other missions, including his lifelong headquarters, the mission San Carlos Borromeo at Carmel."
Caroline Maria Severance "The name of Caroline Severance was virtually synonymous with the U. S. women's club movement."
William E. Shannon "William E. Shannon, 27 years old, a native of Ireland and three years a resident of California, secured the declaration in the Bill of Rights that neither slavery or involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this state."
William Tecumseh Sherman "He once declared that all Indians not on reservations 'are hostile and will remain so until killed off.'"
George Shima "A Japanese immigrant to recognized the possibilities of farming the islands of the San Joaquin Delta. Called the "Potato King" because of his extensive farming and marketing operations, especially in potatoes, Shima played a major role in developing the Delta."
William Shockley "He argued that the future of the population was threatened because people with low IQs had more children than those with high IQs. His views became increasingly controversial and race-based. While people continued to respect his achievements in physics and engineering, many public figures and scientists pointed out that "his contributions to physics did not lend scientific credence to his judgments on genetics."
Robert P. Shuler "The Prohibition Party candidate who received the highest vote total in a single election was Rev. Robert P. Shuler in a 1932 California race for the US Senate."
Benjamin Silliman, Jr. "Silliman had practical experience in Pennsylvania oil fields, and after a limited investigation predicted a great future for oil deposits in southern California."
Upton Sinclair "Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as 'muckraking.' His best-known novel was 'The Jungle' which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry. 'The Jungle' was influential in obtaining passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act."
John Drake Sloat "He read the proclamation declaring California annexed to the United States and caused the American flag to fly over the Custom House on Monterey Bay. Thus, our Nation stretched from "Sea to Shining Sea" and Commodore Sloat did it without ever having fired a shot."
Francis Marion Smith "To haul borax from the mill at Borate to the railhead at Daggett, Smith first used the 20 mule teams and wagons. Beginning in 1894, a steam traction engine known as 'Old Dinah' pulled borax wagons and hauled freight, traversing the 11 mile trek to the railroad."
Jedediah Strong Smith "But few realized that among his greatest exploits were Jedediah Smith's trail-blazing expeditions across the deserts of American West. In fact, Jedediah was the first American to enter California overland from the east (across the forbidden Mojave Desert) and the first to cross the enormous Great Basin Desert and return east, overland from California."
Page Smith "Smith used this occasion as a symbolic protest against what he considered the rigidity of the "publish or perish" system governing University faculty promotion and tenure. This issue was a major and paradoxical bete noire in Smith's attitude towards academic life since he himself was uncommonly prolific and published over two dozen books. His Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America (1990) provided an elaborate critique of contemporary academic life."
Claus Spreckels "As an experiment, in 1873 he planted sugar beets in Aptos, Santa Cruz County. By 1888, he established the Western Beet Sugar Company in Watsonville."
John D. Spreckels "John D. was the wealthiest man in San Diego. He owned all of North Island at various times. He owned the San Diego-Coronado Ferry System, the Union-Tribune Publishing Co., the San Diego Electric Railway, San Diego and Arizona Railway, and the Belmont Park in Mission Beach. In addition to the Spreckels Theater, several downtown buildings were built by John D. , including the Union Building, the San Diego Hotel, and the Golden West Hotel. Thousands of people were employed by John D., and at one time, he paid 10% of all the property taxes in San Diego County."
Rudolph Spreckels "Even though this causes a break between us, I am going to stand with Gus. I think Gus is right. Father, I am always going to stand for the right all my life."
Robert Gordon Sproul "As true Americans we dream of the future of our children rather than of the past of our forefathers, eminent though these may have been."
Jane Lathrop Stanford "Jane Stanford is widely credited with saving Stanford University from collapse. She also made one of the most important early contributions to women's rights by opening Stanford's doors to female students despite fierce criticism."
Leland Stanford "As governor, Stanford kept this pledge, despite his responsibilities to the public, by helping to secure massive state investment and land grants for the railroad project."
Abel Stearns "He served as the first alcalde (mayor) during the Mexican period and president of Los Angeles under American rule. Stearns was typical of the Americans who came to Southern California during both the Mexican and the American periods. He adopted some of the Californio ways of life, but put his own American stamp on others."
John Steinbeck "I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
Henry Morse Stephens "Those who dwell in the city of San Francisco and in whole area affected by the great earthquake felt from the first that they were living through an historic epoch and that the eyes of the world were fixed upon them. As the great fire spread, even those who lost their homes and saw the city of their love being consumed by the flames, realized that they were in the presence of one of the most tremendous conflagrations ever known and felt in the very magnitude of the disaster the realization of the fact that its magnitude gave it a permanent place in history."
Robert F. Stockton "The flag of the United States is now flying from every commanding position in the Territory, and California is entirely free from Mexican domination."
Erich von Stroheim "Von Stroheim's first biographer dubbed him "the Hollywood scapegoat." Though he was not the only director at the time to go far over budget or behave wildly on the set, he was the only one to do so while flouting the authority of studio executives and failing to make much money at the box-office."
Daniel W. Strong "In 1860, Judah was in the mountains, making a reconnaissance of several routes, using a barometer to determine elevations. He examined a route through Eldorado County, California, by way of Georgetown, another by way of Henness Pass at the headwaters of the North Yuba, and third by the Dutch Flat Route over Donner Pass. Judah's attention to the latter route, which was the one over which the railroad was built, came at the suggestion of Dr. Daniel W. Strong, a druggist of Dutch Flat."
Herman Suhr "The Industrial Workers of the World sent two organizers, Herman Suhr and Blackie Ford, to Wheatland to lead the laborers in their protest. During one of many subsequent tense confrontations between strikers and police officials, called in by growers, a deputy sheriff fired a warning shot into the air. His goal was to break up the protesters. But a wholesale riot ensued, leaving four strikers dead. The National Guard was called in and 100 migrant workers were arrested. This action effectively ended the strike and Suhr and Ford later received life sentences for their part in the riot."
Adolph Sutro "Sutro ran for mayor as the populist 'anti-octopus' candidate,— in opposition to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which dominated California politics."
John A. Sutter "I had a talk with my employed people all at the Sawmill. I told them that as they do know now that this Metal is Gold, I wished that they would do me the great favor and keep it secret only 6 weeks, because my large Flour Mill at Brighton would have been in Operation in such a time, which undertaking would have been a fortune to me, and unfortunately the people would not keep it secret, and so I lost on this Mill at the lowest calculation about $25,000."
Pablo Tac "Tac expressed thanks to God for the coming of the missionaries to his country. He did observe, however, that thousands of his people died 'as a result of the sickness that came to California.'"
Amy Tan "Tan has said that her intention in writing is not to provide historical information, but rather to create a work of art. Her work is generally received in this manner. Critics have said that her works are not necessarily "Chinese" in nature, but are instead stories with universal themes (generational conflicts, war of the sexes, etc.) that have an added dimension of being told through narrators that are constantly searching for a balance between their Chinese heritage and American lifestyles."
Roger B. Taney "In 1857, as the author of the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford, Roger Taney ruled that the Constitution did not recognize the citizenship of an African American who had been born a slave."
Zachary Taylor "Traditionally, people could decide whether they wanted slavery when they drew up new state constitutions. Therefore, to end the dispute over slavery in new areas, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage."
Jack B. Tenney "Tenney was the chairman of the Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, dedicated to finding and exposing Communists and fascists in California. Even though the estimates of Communist influence both in California and the United States as a whole were almost certainly exaggerated, the Tenney committee commanded Americans’ irrational fear effectively enough to justify their actions, at least for a while."
Frederick Terman "It has been said that an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. Inasmuch as Silicon Valley is an institution, Fred Terman is that man, the Father of Silicon Valley."
David S. Terry "Elected to the CA state supreme court in 1855. In 1855 he was involved in an altercation with the leader of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee in which he stabbed Hopkins through the neck with a Bowie knife. In 1857 he became chief justice of the CA State Supreme Court. Killed U.S. Senator David Broderick in a duel in 1859."
Chang-Lin Tien "The popular administrator had clashed with UC regents over the dismantling of affirmative-action programs, and during the search for a new UC system president, Tien--who is the nation's first Asian Pacific American to head a major research university--was not even granted an interview."
Francis E. Townsend "Townsend had tapped a major social problem in America (poverty among the elderly) and the nation was crying out for a solution."
Toypurina "I hate the padres and all of you, for living here on my native soil, for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers."
William Turnbull "Turnbull believes that an architect should successfully create a sense of place, while remaining sensitive to the unique qualities of each client and site."
Frederick Jackson Turner "Turner is considered to be the founder of Western history."
Jesse Unruh "Jesse M. Unruh rose from an impoverished childhood to become one of the most powerful people in the history of California politics in a political career spanning four decades, during which he served as Speaker of the California State Assembly and later as Treasurer of California."
Luis Valdez "Through his efforts, Chicano culture has been recognized as a vital component of the American experience."
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo "Vallejo early decided to pursue a career in both politics and the military and by age twenty-one had been elected to the territorial legislature and had distinguished himself in various campaigns against the Indians."
George Vancouver "The sea has now changed from it's natural, to river coloured water, the probable consequence of some streams falling into the bay, or into the ocean to the north of it, through the low land......Not considering this opening worthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the Northwest, being desirous to embrace the advantages of the prevailing breeze..."
Arturo Vargas "I was so proud of my parents for taking a risk and speaking out," he recalls. "That day was a defining moment for me because I knew I wanted to work toward social change and justice."
Tiburcio Vasquez "The great reign of terror which followed the gold rush days was not caused so much by the miscellaneous roughs who came into prominence as gunmen but by the organized raids of a succession of leaders who took to banditry to avenge some great injustice or the wanton murder of some member of the family. Such were the two who attained the most prominence, Joaquin Murrietta and Tiburcio Vasquez."
Manuel Victoria "They listed as grievances the governor's suspension of the government of Santa Barbara, the execution of several people, in violation of the procedures of law, and the banishment of several prominent Californios. Victoria was termed a despot."
Jean Louis Vignes "Soon Vignes was making more and better wine than any growers in the state and was regarded as the 'father of the wine industry in California.'"
Sebastian Vizcaino "Sebastian Vizcaíno, leading a fleet consisting of the ships San Diego and Santo Tomás, and the frigate Tres Reyes, sailed past Carmel Bay and on December 16, 1602 rounded Punta de los Pinos (Point Pinos) and entered the harbor. They named the harbor after the viceroy of Mexico, Don Gaspár de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Count of Monte Rey, who had dispatched the expedition. They were the first known European explorers to reach Monterey."
Rose A. Vuich "The complaints, which derided Sen. Vuich by name, were secretly recorded by the 'businessman,' who was actually an undercover FBI agent. That evidence helped convict the two senators of corruption -- and underscored her reputation for honesty and diligence."
Joseph Reddeford Walker "While crossing the Sierra Nevada in 1833 Walker and his party were the first white men to gaze upon the Yosemite Valley. They were also the first to see the huge redwood trees that became known as 'Sequoia gigantea.'"
Jack Warner "Jack ran the studio with a firm and frugal hand and often clashed with his producers, writers, and stars, most famously with Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney A frustrated vaudevillian, he spiced his quarrels with a robust sense of humor and practical jokes. Also famous for his hawkish political views and occasional tactless cracks. (Once, when he was introduced to Mme. Chiang Kai-chek, he muttered that he had forgotten his laundry.)."
Earl Warren "Earl Warren was an immensely popular Republican governor when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him to the Supreme Court. Ike later regretted his choice; he had hoped to appoint a moderate conservative; Warren proved to be an unabashed liberal."
Thomas T. Waterman "The sheriff turned Ishi over to University of California anthropologist Thomas T. Waterman, who took Ishi to live at his institution's anthropology museum, then located in San Francisco. Ishi graciously shared knowledge about his culture and beliefs with Waterman, anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and Surgeon Saxton T. Pope."
Frank Waters "The great difference between the Indian conception of the environment--that is, the land and the world of Nature--and the English-American-Anglo view --is that land, the Earth, is just inanimate Nature to be exploited at will for our benefit. The Indian viewpoint is that the Earth is a living entity and must be respected and protected."
Maxine Waters "Congresswoman Maxine Waters is considered by many to be one of the most powerful women in American politics today. She has gained a reputation as a fearless and outspoken advocate for women, children, people of color and poor people."
Ulysses S. Webb "He is clear in argument, thoroughly in earnest, full of the vigor of conviction, never abusive of adversaries, imbued with highest courtesy, and yet a foe worthy of the steel of the most able opponent."
Harris Weinstock "Men, such as these, backed by the support and approval of the commercial bodies and the leading daily newspapers, representing as they do, much of the intelligence, the wealth, the conservatism, the enterprise, and presumably also the good citizenship of the community, felt impelled to play the part, as they believed, of patriotic heroes, and, in the name of law and order, ended up committing the very crimes against law and order with which the alleged invading offenders were charged."
John B. Weller "In conclusion, gentlemen, let me say, I will cordially co-operate with you in all measures calculated to advance the interests of the state and promote the prosperity of the people."
Nathanael West "West considered himself an outsider. He believed that society was decaying, and the American dream is a sad, monstruous myth."
Clem Whitaker "The pioneers in the political consulting business were a husband-and-wife team in California, Clem Whitaker and Leona Baxter, who founded a public relations firm in 1934."
Asa Whitney "Asa Whitney, a New York merchant who had made a fortune in the Orient, realized that the transcontinental railroad was the key to both Asiatic trade and settlement of the trans-Mississippi region."
Charlotte Anita Whitney "Miss Charlotte Anita Whitney . . . helped to organize the Communist Labor Party of California, and was subsequently charged and convicted under California’s Criminal Syndicalism Act of 1919. In appealing her conviction, she claimed that she had never intended for the party to commit acts of violence or terrorism."
Benjamin D. Wilson "In July of 1845, Don Pio Pico authorized Benjamin Wilson to take a force of eighty well-armed men to pursue the raiders and teach them a lesson."
Pete Wilson "In his second Inaugural Address, Governor Wilson described his vision for a better California as a place 'where work is respected and rewarded, where every right is balanced by responsibility, and where freedom thrives and opportunity burns bright.'"
William Wolfskill "William Wolfskill became established in the region and pioneered the citrus industry in California. He would eventually own the world's largest orange grove of the day."
William Workman "Workman and co-leader Rowland organized the first wagon train of permanent Eastern settlers which arrived in southern California on November 5, 1841."
Stephen Wozniak "In 1976 Wozniak couldn't afford an Altair. So he built his own computer, using a cheaper microprocessor and adding several memory chips."
Ewing Young "Ewing Young led his 1829 fur trading expedition south from Taos along the Salt River to the head of the Gila River, which he followed west to the Colorado River. This would be the middle of the three routes of the Old Spanish Trail. After striking the Colorado and crossing the adjacent 90-mile jornada on the west, Young followed Jedediah Smith's trail across the Mojave Desert, through the Cajon Pass, to the mission of San Gabriel. Young avoided the difficulties Smith had experienced with the Mexican authorities; and after hunting and trapping in the Central Valley, Young led his party back to Santa Fe."
Adolph Zukor "Paramount's antitrust problems began when the Federal Trade Commission investigated block booking in 1921. In a complaint filed on August 30 of that year, the FTC charged Famous Players-Lasky with restraint of trade by forcing exhibitors to buy unwanted films."