San Francisco is a popular tourist destination with notable landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Chinatown, as well as the mix of architecture and the steep rolling hills it is so well known for. The city is redeveloping areas such as the Embarcadero, including South Beach and Mission Bay. The historic center of San Francisco
includes the northeast quarter of the city with the Financial District and primary shopping district.
History
1869
The Central Pacific Railroad completes the building of the railroad from the East Coast to San Francisco, an event that is enthusiastically celebrated in the city.
1870
The City Government decides to build the Golden Gate Park.
1873
On August 2nd the cable-car, Andrew Hallidie's brainchild, makes its first trip over the 100yd-stretch of Clay Street between Kearny and Jones Streets.
1875
Opening of the Pacific Stock Exchange.
1876
The Southern Pacific Railroad completes construction of the line from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
1877
July sees the first serious rioting against the Chinese. A Citizen's Safety Committee restores law and order.
1887
February 5th goes down in history because it was the only day on which snow covered the whole of San Francisco.
1903
Fifteen new banks are opened within a month; the following year sees the founding of the Bank of America, now the USA's biggest bank.
1906
A serious earthquake on April 18th destroys four-fifths of the city.
Even worse than the force of the earthquake (8.25 on the Richter Scale) is the raging fire which follows and which the fire-fighters cannot quell because the water-mains burst. Some 28,000 houses are destroyed and 500 people killed. During the rapid reconstruction many buildings are designed in the Neo-Classical style, influenced by the Chicago Exhibition of 1893.
1907
A plague epidemic is successfully brought under control after several months.
1912
James Rolph begins 19 years in office, thereby becoming the city's longest-serving Mayor.
The city's first streetcar line commences operations in Geary Street.
1915
The great Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened in Lincoln Park a few months after the first ship to take the new route through the Panama Canal docks in San Francisco.
Dedication of the present City Hall.
1921
Opening of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park.
1933
The island of Alcatraz off San Francisco becomes a Federal Penitentiary.
1934
A general strike paralyses San Francisco for weeks.
1936
November 12th: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is opened to traffic.
1937
May 27th: Dedication of the Golden Gate Bridge constructed by Joseph B. Strauss.
1945
April 24th: Opening of the inaugural assembly of UNO in the War Memorial Opera House, followed by the signing there two months later of the original charter.
1951
September 18th: Yoshida, the Japanese Prime Minister, signs the Treaty marking the ending of hostilities between Japan and the USA in the War Memorial Opera House.
1963
March 23rd: The penitentiary on Alcatraz is closed down. A year later the island is occupied by Sioux Indians who lay claim to Alcatraz, but they are forced out in 1971.
1967
April 15th: One of the first big peace marches protesting against the Vietnam War takes place in Market Street. Others follow at regular intervals.
1978
Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, one of the eleven Supervisors, are gunned down in City Hall by an ex-colleague who had been fired by Milk and whose sentence to seven years in jail had resulted in protest demonstrations. A week later Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, is named as Moscone's successor. She is the city's first woman Mayor.
1983
Dianne Feinstein is re-elected Mayor with an overwhelming majority.
1984
After two years' closure the cable cars come back into service on June 21st.
1986
The Nobel Peace Prizewinner, Mother Teresa, builds a convent in San Francisco.
At the seventh attempt the electorate votes for the restriction on building in downtown San Francisco. In future not more than 475,000sq.ft/4.4 hectares of building can be started annually.
1987
Whereas the townscape was changed in the early eighties by several new skyscrapers, there are now more than half a dozen new hotels which have changed the appearance of the district around Union Square. Some 16% of available office space is empty; rents are falling for the first time.
1988
After ten years as Mayor, Dianne Feinstein is replaced in office by Art Agnos.
When digging foundations for a new bank building at the corner of Kearny and Sacramento Streets artifacts are discovered which point to Chinese having settled in San Francisco prior to 1850.
1989
For reasons of economy, the Pentagon decides to close the Presidio. This infuriates the citizens and results in protests.
On October 17th at 5.04 p.m. (during the rush-hour) San Francisco is struck by the worst earthquake (6.9 points on the Richter Scale) since that of 1906. The Marina quarter is the worst affected: a lot of houses are set on fire as the result of gas leaking from burst mains. A 1.25mi/2km section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapses, burying numerous cars.
1990
June: Serious fires, some started deliberately, cause widespread devastation in southern California.
1991
Two new museums, the Friends of Photography (Ansel Adams Center) and the Museum of the City of San Francisco, open.
1992
The Embarcadero Freeway is razed.
1995
100th Anniversary of radio in San Francisco.
1997
Linda McCartney produces "Summer of Love" exhibit.
1999
Hearst Corporation buys the San Francisco Chronicle from the heirs of Michael de Young, divests itself of the Examiner.
2001 to present
High technology and entrepreneurship continue to be mainstays of the San Francisco economy.
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