Portal:California
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California is the most populous state of the United States. Located on the Pacific coast of North America, it is bordered by Oregon, Nevada and Arizona in the United States, and Baja California in Mexico. The state's four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. California is known for its Mediterranean climate and ethnically diverse population. The state has 58 counties.
Inhabited by indigenous people for millennia, Alta California was first colonized by the Spanish Empire in 1769, and after Mexican independence in 1821, continued as part of Mexico. Following one brief week as the independent California Republic in 1846, and the conclusion of the Mexican-American war in 1848, California was annexed by the United States and was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850.
California's diverse geography ranges from the sandy beaches of the Pacific coast to the rugged, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the east. The central portion of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most vital agricultural areas in the country. The Sierra Nevada contains Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially-carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the largest living organisms on Earth, the giant sequoia trees, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney. The tallest living things on Earth, the ancient redwood trees, dot the coastline, mainly north of San Francisco. California is also home to the lowest and hottest place in the Western Hemisphere, Death Valley. Bristlecone pines located in the White Mountains are the oldest known trees in the world; one has an age of 4,700 years.
The Mojave Desert (IPA: /ˌmoʊˈhɑvi/ or /məˈhɑvi/), locally referred to as the High Desert, occupies a significant portion of southern California and smaller parts of southwestern Utah, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona, in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it occupies over 22,000 square miles (57,000 km²) in a typical Basin and Range topography.
The Mojave Desert's boundaries are generally defined by the presence of Joshua Trees — they are considered an indicator species for the desert. The topographical boundaries include the Tehachapi together with the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges. The mountain boundaries are quite distinct since they are outlined by the two largest faults in California: the San Andreas and the Garlock. The Great Basin shrub steppe lies to the north; the warmer Sonoran Desert (the Low Desert) lies to the south and east. The desert is believed to have between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants. (more...)
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a world-famous movie theater in Hollywood, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. |
John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, he wrote Of Mice and Men (1937) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940), both of which examine the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and subsequent Great Depression. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters, and his stories drew on real historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century. His body of work reflects his wide range of interests. They were marine biology, jazz, politics, philosophy, history, and myth.
Seventeen of his works, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films, and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.
- 9-1-1 tapes show drivers panicking about State Sen. Carole Migden's driving leading up to her accident.[1]
- Barry Bonds is the new all-time home run king.[2]
- The Waste Management lockout is over and garbage pickup service has resumed in Oakland.[3]
- Bill Walsh, former Stanford and 49ers head coach, inventor of the West Coast offense, died of leukemia at the age of 75.[4]
- Hackers, led by UC Davis' Matt Bishop, break into every electronic voting machine they test, including those built by Sequoia, Hart InterCivic, and Diebold.[5]
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 ...that the Tower Bridge in Sacramento was the first vertical lift bridge in the California Highway System? |
 ...that the San Diego Zoo interns only selected graduates of the Veterinary College of the University of California, Davis? |
 ...that John Muir survived an overnight blizzard while ascending Mount Shasta by lying in the hot sulphur springs found near the summit? |
