Portal:California

California
California
State
	State of California
	Flag Seal
	Map of the United States with California highlighted

Introduction

Welcome to the Portal:California. Such a lovely place.

California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km²), it is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and it has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.

California's economy is the largest of any state within the United States, with a $3.37 trillion gross state product (GSP) . It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy , behind India and ahead of the United Kingdom, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco area are the nation's second- and fourth-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.6 trillion respectively ), following the New York metropolitan area's $1.8 trillion. The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people. Slightly over 84 percent of the state's residents hold a high school degree, the lowest high school education rate of all 50 states.

Notable contributions to popular culture, ranging from entertainment, sports, music, and fashion, have their origins in California. The state also has made substantial contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, education, environmentalism, entertainment, economics, politics, technology, and religion. California is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and the largest film industry in the world, profoundly influencing global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the American film industry, hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, the personal computer, the internet, fast food, diners, burger joints, skateboarding, and the fortune cookie, among other inventions. Many full-service restaurants were also invented in the state. The state is also notable for being home to many amusement parks, including Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knotts Berry Farm, and Universal Studios Hollywood. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse. California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade. (Full article...)

Selected article -

Islais Creek, with an abandoned, five storey high copra crane shown

Islais Creek or Islais Creek Channel (previously known as Du Vrees Creek, Islais Channel and Islais Swamp) is a small creek in San Francisco, California. The current name of the creek is said to be derived from a Salinan Native American word "slay" or "islay," the name for the Prunus ilicifolia wild cherries. Once the largest body of water in the city, almost the entire creek today is covered by landfill and converted to an underground culvert and a storm drain, with remnants of the creek flowing at both Glen Canyon Park and near Third Street.

The original Islais Creek stretched from the San Francisco Bay 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west into the Glen Canyon Park and O’Shaughnessy Hollow. The creek, once the largest body of water within San Francisco covering an area of 5,000 acres (7.813 sq mi; 20.234 km²), had two branches. One branch originated near the southern slope of Twin Peaks, formerly known as San Miguel Hills, slightly north of today's Portola Drive. It then coursed through Glen Canyon and through what is now Bosworth Street until it reached the bottom of the Mission Street viaduct at I-280. The other branch began at the Cayuga Avenue and Regent Street intersection. The creek flowed from the intersection down to the Mission Street viaduct where the two branches joined. (Full article...)

More selected articles

General images -

The following are images from various California-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Map of the route taken by the Anza Expedition of 1775-76, from the Presidio of Tubac to San Francisco Bay. (from History of California)
Image 2Gaspar de Portolá served as the first Governor of the Californias and led the famed Portolá expedition of 1769-70. (from History of California)
Image 3Portrait of a Californio in traditional vaquero clothing. Californios benefitted immensely by the establishment of the ranchos of California, following the Mexican secularization act of 1833. (from History of California)
Image 4San Francisco harbor, c. 1850-51. (from History of California)
Image 5In-N-Out burgers (from Culture of California)
Image 6Poppies, Antelope Valley, a California Impressionist painting by Benjamin Chambers Brown (from Culture of California)
Image 7Angustias de la Guerra played a crucial role in defending women's property rights during the drafting of the Constitution of California. (from History of California)
Image 8General Richard Barnes Mason was the longest serving U.S. Military Governor of California (1847–1849), overseeing California's transition into statehood. (from History of California)
Image 9Juan Bautista de Anza led the 1774-76 Anza Expeditions. (from History of California)
Image 10Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded in 1771 by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel de la Somera. (from History of California)
Image 11Portrait of an "assimilated" Maidu man in Sacramento, 1867. (from History of California)
Image 12General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo reviewing his troops in Sonoma in 1846. (from History of California)
Image 13The railway station in Sacramento in 1874. (from History of California)
Image 14California's first State Capitol building in San Jose, which served as the capital of California 1850-51. (from History of California)
Image 15Map of the Butterfield Overland Mail routes through California, c. 1858. (from History of California)
Image 16Concord Coach no. 251 in Wells Fargo livery in Old Town San Diego. (from History of California)
Image 17Manuel Domínguez built Domínguez Adobe on Rancho San Pedro in 1826. (from History of California)
Image 18The University of California, Berkeley is the flagship school of the UC system. (from Culture of California)
Image 19Forces raising the U.S. flag over the Monterey Customhouse following their victory at the Battle of Monterey (from History of California)
Image 20Goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and Shasta Cascade. (from History of California)
Image 21Stanford University Oval (from Culture of California)
Image 22The Petaluma Adobe, built by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in 1836 on Rancho Petaluma. (from History of California)
Image 23Presidio of San Francisco, founded by José Joaquín Moraga in 1776. (from History of California)
Image 24Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, established in 1770, was the headquarters of the Californian mission system from 1797 until 1833. (from History of California)
Image 25The Treaty of Cahuenga, signed at the Campo de Cahuenga in 1847 by Californio general Andrés Pico and American general John C. Frémont, proclaimed a ceasefire under an American victory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed a year later in 1848, officially ended the Mexican–American War and formally ceded Alta California to the United States. (from History of California)
Image 26The Vallecitos stop of the Butterfield Overland Mail, in Julian, California. (from History of California)
Image 27Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 by order of Governor Luis Antonio Argüello, was the last Californian mission established. (from History of California)
Image 28Joan Didion (from Culture of California)
Image 29The 1846 Bear Flag Revolt declared the California Republic and prefaced the American conquest of California. (from History of California)
Image 30While slavery was abolished in California by Mexican authorities in 1829, the first California State Legislature under U.S. statehood passed the 1850 Indian Indenture Act, which allowed for the forced labor of indigenous Californians by Americans. (from History of California)
Image 31The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions. (from History of California)
Image 32The Battle of Río San Gabriel, in 1847, was a decisive victory for the American campaign in Alta California. (from History of California)
Image 33California was often depicted as an island, due to the Baja California peninsula, from the 16th to the 18th centuries, such as in this 1650 map by cartographer Johannes Vingboons. (from History of California)
Image 34The American capture of San Diego by the USS Cyane in 1846 (from History of California)
Image 35Francis Drake's 1579 landing in "New Albion" (modern-day Point Reyes); engraving by Theodor De Bry, 1590. (from History of California)
Image 36Pacheco Adobe, built 1835 by Salvio Pacheco on Rancho Monte del Diablo. (from History of California)
Image 37Presidio of Santa Barbara. (from Culture of California)
Image 38Founded by Vicente Francisco de Sarría in 1817, Mission San Rafael Arcángel, was the last mission founded during the Spanish period. (from History of California)
Image 39Depiction of the Donner Party heading west on the California Trail. (from History of California)
Image 40Mission Santa Barbara, founded in 1786, was the first mission to be established by Fermín de Lasuén. (from History of California)
Image 41Bodega y Quadra led a 1775 expedition along the coast of California into the Pacific Northwest. (from History of California)
Image 42The 1562 map of the Americas, created by Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez, which applied the name California for the first time. (from History of California)
Image 43Dividing the Light (2007), a skyspace by James Turrell at Pomona College (from Culture of California)
Image 44Advertisement for sailing to California, c. 1850. (from History of California)
Image 45The Battle of San Pasqual in 1846. (from History of California)
Image 46A Southern Pacific Train at Arcade Depot, Los Angeles, 1891 (from History of California)
Image 47The Getty Villa (from Culture of California)
Image 48Depiction of the California hide trade. (from History of California)
Image 49Depiction of the revolt of the Mission Indians against padre Luis Jayme at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1775. (from History of California)
Image 50"Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c. 1850 (from History of California)
Image 51Between 1846-73, U.S. government agents waged a extermination campaign against Indigenous Californians, known as the California genocide, resulting in as many as 100,000 deaths. (from History of California)
Image 52SS California (1848), the first paddle steamer to steam between Panama City and San Francisco, as part of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. (from History of California)
Image 53Map of Spain's Manila galleon trade routes, showing routes between the Spanish East Indies and Acapulco passing along the coast of California. (from History of California)
Image 54Joaquín Murrieta, called the "Robin Hood of California", was a notorious outlaw during the California Gold Rush. He served as inspiration for Zorro, the famed Californian bandit-hero character. (from History of California)
Image 55The colonial coat of arms of the Californias, granted by Antonio de Mendoza, the first Viceroy of New Spain. (from History of California)
Image 56Flag of Company A (The California 100) during the U.S. Civil War. (from History of California)
Image 57Junípero Serra conducting the first mass in Monterey Bay in 1770. (from History of California)
Image 58Balthazar, Inhabitant of Northern California, an 1818 portrait of a Miwok man by artist Mikhail Tikhanov. (from History of California)

Selected quote -

Selected biographies -

Image 1

Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (née Ryan; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was the first lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974 as the wife of President Richard Nixon. She also served as the second lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 when her husband was vice president.

Born in Ely, Nevada, she grew up with her two brothers in what is now Cerritos, California, graduating from Excelsior Union High School in Norwalk, California in 1929. She attended Fullerton Junior College and later the University of Southern California. She paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, radiographer, and retail clerk. In 1940, she married lawyer Richard Nixon and they had two daughters, Tricia and Julie. Dubbed the "Nixon team", Richard and Pat Nixon campaigned together in his successful congressional campaigns of 1946 and 1948. Richard Nixon was elected vice president in 1952 alongside General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whereupon Pat became Second Lady. Pat Nixon did much to add substance to the role of the vice president's wife, insisting on visiting schools, orphanages, hospitals, and village markets as she undertook many missions of goodwill across the world. (Full article...)
Image 2

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer-songwriter and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her campy style, she has been referred to as the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue. Pursuing a career in gospel music at 16, Perry released her debut album, Katy Hudson, under Red Hill Records in 2001, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records.

She rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—becoming the only album by a female singer to do so. A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo. The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by her recent motherhood and mental health journey. Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–present), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. (Full article...)
Image 3
Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 – December 17, 2003) was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture, gallerist, and educator who came to prominence in the early 1960s. Hedrick’s contributions to art include pioneering artworks in psychedelic light art, mechanical kinetic sculpture, junk/assemblage sculpture, Pop Art, and (California) Funk Art. Later in his life, he was a recognized forerunner in Happenings, Conceptual Art, Bad Painting, Neo-Expressionism, and image appropriation. Hedrick was also a key figure in the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation when he helped to organize the Six Gallery Reading, and created the first artistic denunciation of American foreign policy in Vietnam. Wally Hedrick was known as an “idea artist” long before the label “conceptual art” entered the art world, and experimented with innovative use of language in art, at times resorting to puns. (Full article...)
Image 4
James Robert Baker (October 18, 1947 – November 5, 1997) was an American author of sharply satirical, predominantly gay-themed transgressional fiction. A native Californian, his work is set almost entirely in Southern California. After graduating from UCLA, he began his career as a screenwriter, but became disillusioned and started writing novels instead. Though he garnered fame for his books Fuel-Injected Dreams and Boy Wonder, after the controversy surrounding publication of his novel, Tim and Pete, he faced increasing difficulty having his work published. According to his life partner, this was a contributing factor in his suicide.

Baker's work has achieved cult status in the years since his death, and two additional novels have been posthumously published. First-edition copies of his earlier works have become collector's items. His novel Testosterone was adapted to a film of the same name, though it was not a financial success. Two other books have been optioned for films, but they have not been produced. (Full article...)
Image 5

John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam. (Full article...)
Image 6
Jackson performing in Vienna in 1988

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres; through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance moves such as the moonwalk, to which he gave the name, as well as the robot.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, Jackson made his public debut in 1964 with his older brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons). Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records. He became a solo star with his 1979 album Off the Wall. His music videos, including those for "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an artform and promotional tool. He helped propel the success of MTV and continued to innovate with videos for the albums Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and Invincible (2001). Thriller became the best-selling album of all time, while Bad was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. (Full article...)
Image 7
Ruth E. Norman (born Ruth Nields; August 18, 1900 – July 12, 1993), also known as Uriel, was an American religious leader who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science, based in Southern California. Raised in California, Norman received little education and worked from an early age in a variety of jobs. In the 1940s, she developed an interest in psychic phenomena and past-life regression. These pursuits led to her introduction to Ernest Norman, a self-described psychic, in 1954. He engaged in channeling, past-life regression, and attempts at communication with extraterrestrials. She married Ernest, her fourth husband, in the mid-1950s. Together they published several books about his revelations and formed Unarius, an organization which later became known as the Unarius Academy of Science, to popularize his teachings. The couple discussed numerous details about their alleged past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming a mythology from these accounts.

After Ernest died in 1971, Ruth succeeded him as their group's leader and primary channeler. She subsequently began publishing accounts of her experiences and revelations. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the Space Brothers, would land on Earth later that year, which led the Unarius Academy to purchase a property to serve as the landing site. After the extraterrestrials failed to appear, Norman said that trauma she had suffered in a past life had caused her to make an inaccurate prediction. Undaunted, she rented a building for Unarius' meetings and sought publicity for the movement, claiming to have united the Earth with an interplanetary confederation. She revised the Space Brothers' expected landing date several times, before finally settling on 2001. Her health declined in the late 1980s, prompting her students to try to heal her with rituals of past-life regression. Despite predicting that she would live to see the extraterrestrials land, Norman died in 1993. Unarius has continued to operate after her death, and formed a board of directors. Since the 2000s, leaders have concentrated on individual transformation leading to spiritual change in humankind. (Full article...)
Image 8
Bergen at the 2006 Peabody Awards

Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown (1988–1998, 2018). She is also known for her role as Shirley Schmidt on the ABC drama Boston Legal (2005–2008). In films, Bergen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Starting Over (1979), and for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gandhi (1982).

Bergen began her career as a fashion model and appeared on the cover of Vogue before she made her screen debut in the film The Group (1966). She starred in The Sand Pebbles (1966), Soldier Blue (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), and The Wind and the Lion (1975). She made her Broadway debut in the 1984 play Hurlyburly and starred in the revivals of The Best Man (2012) and Love Letters (2014). From 2002 to 2004, she appeared in three episodes of the HBO series Sex and the City. Her other film roles include Miss Congeniality (2000), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), The Women (2008), Bride Wars (2009), Book Club (2018) and Let Them All Talk (2020). (Full article...)
Image 9
Hanna in 1977

William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of Tom and Jerry as well as the voice actor for the two title characters. Alongside Joseph Barbera, he also founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera.

Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as Captain and the Kids. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna met Joseph Barbera. In 1957, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, creating or producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company until 1991. At that time, the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn was merged with Time Warner in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors. (Full article...)
Image 10
Le Guin in 1995

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (/ˈkroʊbər lə ˈɡwɪn/ KROH-bər lə GWIN; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".

Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, to author Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Having earned a master's degree in French, Le Guin began doctoral studies but abandoned these after her marriage in 1953 to historian Charles Le Guin. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which have been described by Harold Bloom as her masterpieces. For the latter volume, Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. Several more works set in Earthsea or the Hainish universe followed; others included books set in the fictional country of Orsinia, several works for children, and many anthologies. (Full article...)
Image 11
The GFDL logo

The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify (except for "invariant sections") a work and requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies may also be sold commercially, but, if produced in larger quantities (greater than 100), the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient.

The GFDL was designed for manuals, textbooks, other reference and instructional materials, and documentation which often accompanies GNU software. However, it can be used for any text-based work, regardless of subject matter. For example, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia uses the GFDL (coupled with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License) for much of its text, excluding text that was imported from other sources after the 2009 licensing update that is only available under the Creative Commons license. (Full article...)
Image 12
Snoop Dogg in 2019

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper and actor. His fame dates back to 1992 when he was featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, "Deep Cover", and then on Dre's debut solo album, The Chronic. Broadus has since sold over 23 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide. His accolades include an American Music Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and 17 nominations at the Grammy Awards.

Broadus' debut solo album, Doggystyle, produced by Dr. Dre, was released by Death Row Records in November 1993, and debuted at number one on the popular albums chart, the Billboard 200, and on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Selling 800,000 copies in its first week, Doggystyle was certified quadruple-platinum in 1994 and featured the singles "What's My Name?" and "Gin and Juice". In 1994, Death Row Records released a soundtrack, by Broadus, for the short film Murder Was the Case, starring Snoop. In 1996, his second album, Tha Doggfather, also debuted at number one on both charts, with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The next year, the album was certified double-platinum. (Full article...)
Image 13
Feinstein in 2004

Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (/ˈfaɪnstaɪn/; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.

Born in San Francisco, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955. In the 1960s, she worked in local government in San Francisco. Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969. She served as the board's first female president in 1978, during which time the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White drew national attention. Feinstein succeeded Moscone as mayor and became the first woman to serve in that position. During her tenure, she led the renovation of the city's cable car system and oversaw the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Despite a failed recall attempt in 1983, Feinstein was a very popular mayor and was named the most effective mayor in the country by City & State in 1987. (Full article...)
Image 14
Maddow in 2018

Rachel Anne Maddow (/ˈmædoʊ/ (listen), MAD-oh; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010. Maddow has received multiple Emmy Awards for her broadcasting work and in 2021 received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her book Blowout (2019).

Maddow holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Stanford University and a doctorate in political science from the University of Oxford and is the first openly lesbian anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States. (Full article...)
Image 15
Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947) is an American former football running back, actor, and broadcaster. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills, and is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. However, Simpson's professional success would be overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman.

Simpson played college football at the University of Southern California, where won the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected first overall by the Bills in the 1969 NFL Draft. During his nine seasons with the Bills, Simpson received five consecutive Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections from 1972 to 1976. He also led the league in rushing yards four times, in rushing touchdowns twice, and in points scored in 1975. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, earning him NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and is the only to do so in a 14-game regular season. Simpson holds the record for the single-season yards-per-game average at 143.1. After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, Simpson pursued an acting and broadcasting career. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. (Full article...)

Did you know -

... that Turkish psychologist Doğan Cüceloğlu contemplated suicide due to his poor command of English while a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, and later taught 16 years at CSU Fullerton?
... that baseball player Eric Filia worked as a butler at the Playboy Mansion while he was suspended by the University of California, Los Angeles?
... that the city of Palo Alto, California, is named after a big tree?
... that after losing his job at KBIF when his father was convicted on tax-withholding crimes, future California politician Jim Patterson bought Fresno's KIRV and turned it into a Christian radio station?
... that the westernmost population of California fan palms is found on the slopes of Cerro Bola in Baja California, Mexico?
... that it was Caltech experimental physicist Rana X. Adhikari's idea to build a gravitational-wave observatory in India?
... that LaNada War Jack, a leader of the Third World Strike at UC Berkeley and the Occupation of Alcatraz during her student days, is today a distinguished professor of Native law and governance?
... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?

Selected picture -

Western Gull (Larus occidentalis). Image taken in Monterey, California

Western Gull

Credit: Daniel Schwen

The Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) is a large white-headed gull that lives on the western coast of North America. It is a large gull, around 60 cm long with a white head and body, and gray wings. It has a yellow bill with a red subterminal spot (this is the small spot near the end of the bill that chicks peck in order to stimulate feeding).

Selected panorama -

Crystal Mountains

The Crystal Range is a small group of mountains located within the Desolation Wilderness in the U.S. state of California. It is a subrange of the Sierra Nevada. The highest and most southerly peak is Pyramid Peak at 9987 ft; Mount Agassiz is next north at 9967 ft, with Mount Price (9975 ft) rounding out the southern group of peaks. Tells Peak is the northernmost named peak in the range.

Topics

Government of California

List of California state agencies • Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments • California Attorney General • California State Board of Education • CDF Aviation Management Program • CalPERS • California Air Resources Board • California Commission for Economic Development • California Department of Boating and Waterways • California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection • California Department of Insurance • California Insurance Commissioner election, 2006 • California Legislative Analyst's Office • California Military Department • California Public Utilities Commission • California Speaks • California State Lands Commission • California State Lottery • California executive branch • CaliforniaVolunteers • California State Capitol • List of California District Attorneys • Districts in California • State of California enterprise IT systems • Department of Fair Employment and Housing • California Geological Survey • Governor of California • 11-99 Foundation • California Institute for Regenerative Medicine • California Insurance Commissioner • Joint Powers Authority • Local Agency Formation Commission • Secretary of State of California • List of law enforcement agencies in California • California State Controller • California State Police • California Department of Transportation • California State Treasurer • Westlands Water District

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File:Photograph of Members of the Mochida Family Awaiting Evacuation - NARA - 537505 - Restoration.jpg
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File:Russian chapel at Fort Ross (2016).jpg
File:Sacramento,-California---State-Capitol.jpg
File:Sally Ride (1984).jpg
File:San Francisco City Hall as seen from 100 Van Ness at dusk (wide).jpg
File:San Francisco International Airport at night.jpg
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File:Spanish shawl.JPG
File:Steve Jobs and Macintosh computer, January 1984, by Bernard Gotfryd - edited.jpg
File:Strip photo of San Francisco Cable Car 10.jpg
File:Surfer in california 2.JPG
File:Tower Bridge Sacramento edit.jpg
File:Tracy Caldwell Dyson in Cupola ISS.jpg
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File:Vineyards of Napa Valley panorama.jpg
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State facts

Nicknames: The Golden State
Capital: Sacramento
Total area: 163,696 mi²
- Land: 156,002 mi²
- Water: 7,694 mi²
Highest elevation: 14,505 ft (Mount Whitney)
Population 39,250,017 (2016 est)
Admission to the Union: September 9, 1850 (31^st)

State symbols:

Insect: California Dogface Butterfly
Bird: California Valley Quail
Fossil: Saber-toothed cat
Dance: West Coast Swing
Colors: Blue & Gold
Animal: California Grizzly Bear
Flower: California Poppy
Gem: Benitoite
Rock: Serpentine
Fish: California Golden Trout
Songs: I Love You, California
Tree: California Redwood
Mineral: Gold

Related WikiProjects

Main Project

California

Sub-projects

Southern California • Los Angeles • San Francisco Bay Area • Santa Barbara County • California State Highways • California County Routes • University of California • California State University

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Cleanup and expand stub-class articles relating to California

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