| 1964 | An amendment to the California Constitution revokes the Rumford Act. Union protests lead to the abolition of the braceros program. Los Angeles Music Center opens. Barry Goldwater is nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at San Francisco's Cow Palace. Governor Brown appoints Pierre Salinger to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy left open by the death of Clair Engel. Republicans call Salinger's arrival in the state "carpetbagging" and successfully elect George Murphy to fill the rest of the term. Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. A landing party of five Lakota Sioux led by Richard McKenzie arrives at Alcatraz in an attempt to claim it for a Native American university and cultural center. Hanley and Coyote Fires. Death of Herbert Hoover. |
| 1965 | Watts Riots. U.C. Irvine established. Opening of new Los Angeles Museum of Art buildings in Hancock Park. Berkeley Barb begins publication. Vietnam Day Movement. Berkeley students sit on railroad tracks in an attempt to stop troop trains from leaving the Bay Area. Jerry Garcia starts the group known as The Warlocks in Palo Alto. By the following year, it will be known as the Grateful Dead. |
| 1966 | Black Panther Party founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Bill Graham opens the Fillmore Auditorium which features rock groups. Ronald Reagan campaigns on the platform of opposition to "student unrest". His election as Governor will be marked by the financial impairment of the University of California, persecution of politically incorrect professors, the abolition of the free tuition provided for under the California Constitution, and repeated confrontations with student anti-war and civil rights demonstrators. |
| 1967 | Summer of Love in San Francisco. U.S. Clean Air Act. Mark Spitz sets the world's records for the 400 meter freestyle event and the 100 and 200 meter butterfly events. The U.S. Appeals Court rules the 1919 Criminal Syndicalism Act unconstitutional. The Golden Seals is founded in Oakland as an NHL expansion team. Los Angeles Forum constructed in Inglewood. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Rumford Act and declares the state consitutional amendment revoking the act to be unconstitutional! Huey Newton is arrested after an argument in which an Oakland police officer is killed. American Conservatory Theater moves from Pittsburgh, PA to San Francisco. |
| 1968 | Redwood National Park established. San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant open. Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, following his successful California primary campaign, by Sirhan Sirhan. California Indians receive $29,100,000 for lands lost during the Gold Rush and settlement of California. The payments are distributed on a per capita basis. Failure of the Congress to ratify the eighteen treaties of 1850-51 is given as one of the reasons for the settlement.(September) Eldridge Cleaver runs as the Peace and Freedom Party's presidential candidate. He is arrested, but flees to Algeria when he is released. Richard Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey to become the first native Californian elected to the presidency. San Francisco State College students strike against the Vietnam War. S.I. Hayakawa distinguishes himself by pulling the plug on loudspeakers set up by the students. Charles Finley moves the Athletics from Kansas City to Oakland. Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion |
| 1969 | Helter Skelter. The Exploratorium founded. Angela Davis appointed as associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. UC Regents will refuse to extend her contract because she is an outspoken member of the Communist Party. Massive layoffs in the Southern California aircraft industry. Ferry service between San Diego and Coronado ends with the opening of the Coronado Bridge. People's Park Demonstration. Indians of All Tribes begin a 19 month occupation of Alcatraz Island, beginning a national political movement of Native Americans. David Brower is fired as president of the Sierra Club and founds Friends of the Earth. Altamont Festival. Organizers of this massive rock concert featuring the Rolling Stones and other performers call on the Hells Angels for security. One concert participant is stabbed and killed in an altercation with one of the guards. It marks a sad end to the "decade of dreams and joy". (December) |
| 1970 | Students at UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Pomona College, and other institutions of higher learning join the national strike protesting the killing of four Kent State students by Ohio National Guardsmen. |
| 1971 | Sylmar earthquake. Fort Point National Historic Site established. Fillmore Auditorium closes. United States Marshalls recapture Alcatraz Island. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. |
| 1972 | Golden Gate National Recreation Area established. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) begins operation. The deYoung Museum and the Spreckels Palace of the Legion of Honor merged into the San Francisco Fine Art Museums. (No vibrations in the graves of the Spreckels or deYoung families are noted.) Mark Spitz wins an unprecedented seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics, setting a world's record in each event he enters. The Lakers win the NBA Championship. Charlie Chaplin returns to Hollywood to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Oakland wins the World Series. |
| 1973 | Heavy frosts kill large stands of eucalyptus in the Oakland Hills, necessitating state and federally funded logging to reduce the fire hazard. The Zebra murders begin. The name comes from the radio channel which police use to coordinate the manhunt. Oakland wins the World Series. Tom Bradley defeats Sam Yorty to become the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city. American Graffiti by George Lucas depicts teenage life in a Central Californian town during the 1950s. |
| 1974 | The Zebra murders end with the arrest of four suspects. The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst. Huey Newton flees to Cuba. Oakland wins the World Series over the Dodgers, the first time the series has been monopolized by California teams. |
| 1975 | Tujunga forest fire. Eldridge Cleaver returns to the United States. The Golden State Warriors win the NBA Championship. President Gerald Ford survives two assassination attempts in two trips to California. FBI informer Sara Jane Moore attempts to win the confidence of the group she is infiltrating by shooting at President Gerald Ford. She misses and is quickly apprehended. City newspapers reveal that Billy Sipple, who rescued Gerald Ford, is gay. |
| 1976 | Gray whale declared official state marine mammal. The Seals hockey team moves to Cleveland and becomes known as the Barons. The Zebra murders trial ends after 376 days with the conviction of the four "Death Angels", members of a Black Muslim splinter group. Twenty-five white persons have been killed or wounded in the course of their jihad. Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan run for their respective party presidential nominations, but are defeated. |
| 1977 | A brushfire destroys many homes in Santa Barbara. The death penalty is restored by an act of the state legislature. The Bakke Case. Huey Newton returns to the United States to face criminal charges. The Oakland Raiders win the Super Bowl. Stanford students demonstrate against university investments in South Africa. Ventana Wilderness Fire. Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion. |
| 1978 | Heavy rains cause severe flooding in the Los Angeles area. Hillside dwellers find their foundations collapsing underneath them. Kern, Tulare, and Mono County are also affected. Redwood National Park is expanded. Proposition 13. Apartment owners, led by tax rebel Howard Jarvis, manage to convince Calfornia voters to approve a property tax cut and constitutional limit. Promises to pass on the savings to tenants are not realized and state services suffer. (Utility companies do pass on the savings to their customers.) Other states choose not to follow California's example. Expansion of Redwood National Park. Jonestown Massacre. Congressman Leo Ryan goes to South America to investigate allegations of abuse by People's Temple founder Reverend Jim Jones. He and several aides are shot by assassins sent by the Reverend, who then orders his followers to commit suicide. Special squads kill those who resist. Assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White. |
| 1979 | White Night. Gay demonstrators clash with police after Dan White is found guilty only of manslaughter. San Francisco police counterattack with a riot of their own until stopped by Deputy Police Chief Kevin Mullins. It is thereafter known as "Mullin's Retreat." Diane Feinstein is elected mayor of San Francisco in her own right. Joan Baez founds Humanitas International. |
| 1980 | Los Angeles wins the NBA Championship. Jerry Brown runs for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, but is defeated by incumbent Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan convinces the American electorate that he did good things for California and is elected President over the currently unpopular Jimmy Carter. The Berkeley Barb ceases publication. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral opens. |
| 1981 | Oakland Raiders win the Super Bowl. A U.S. sailor stationed at Mare Island is arrested after Mayor Dianne Feinstein receives an extortion letter. The letter threatens the detonation of a nuclear device on 15 July if the City does not pay a ransom of $100 million in industrial diamonds. Massive brush fire destroys nearly a fifth of the city of San Bernardino. The Medfly. Attempts to control the spread of this pest through the release of sterile males fails when the males prove to be unsterilized. Governor Brown orders the unpopular spraying of the Bay Area with malathion to combat the pest. His popularity plummets. Los Angeles beats New York in the World Series. |
| 1982 | The Forty Niners beat Cincinatti in the Super Bowl. Los Angeles wins the NBA Championship. George Deukmejian narrowly defeats Tom Bradley for the governorship of California, mostly because five percent of the electorate cannot bring itself to vote for a black man. The Raiders move to Los Angeles. |
| 1983 | Mark Spitz is inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Coalinga earthquake. |
| 1984 | The Raiders win the Super Bowl. Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. Voters approve the California Lottery. Opening of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco where Walter Mondale is nominated for president. Death of Ansel Adams. |
| 1985 | Forty Niners win the Super Bowl. Los Angeles wins the NBA Championship. Opening of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant, San Luis Obispo County, despite waves of protests. Junipero Serra is named "Venerable" by the Vatican. Dan White commits suicide. |
| 1986 | Racism plays a role in the reelection of Governor Deukmejian as he once again defeats Tom Bradley. Chief Justice Rose Bird is ousted by a right-wing smear campaign. Wells Fargo absorbs Crocker Bank. |
| 1987 | Los Angeles wins the NBA Championship. |
| 1988 | Congress passes legislation granting compensation to Japanese Americans interned during the Second World War. Los Angeles wins the NBA Championship. Los Angeles wins the World Series. |
| 1989 | Forty Niners win the Super Bowl. Eighty ACT-UP (Aids Coalition To Unleash Power) block the Golden Gate Bridge. Loma Prieta earthquake. Massive shock felt in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Saltwater pumps for fire protection are turned on for the first time. The Cypress Overpass collapses. Part of the Bay Bridge falls, but is restored in a matter of weeks. Progressive Mayor Art Agnos angers well-to-do Marina District residents when he informs them that they have fifteen minutes to remove personal belongings before demolition of their earthquake damaged homes. The Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants in the only World Series interrupted by an earthquake. |
| 1990 | Forty Niners win the Super Bowl. |
| 1991 | Massive demonstration in San Francisco against the Gulf War. Prior to this event, peace demonstrators annoy commuters by blocking traffic on the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. Four Los Angeles police officers are videotaped beating motorist Rodney King. |
| 1992 | Riots erupt after a Simi Valley jury finds the four officers videotaped beating Rodney King not guilty. (April) Fifty eight people die. The following day, tens of thousands of Los Angeles citizens converge on the riot area to help victims clean up. San Francisco Police Chief Hongisto is fired after he orders his officers to clear the racks of 2000 copies of an issue of the gay Bay Times which criticizes his tactics against King demonstrators. |
| 1993 | Federal prosecution of the officers responsible for beating Rodney King results in the conviction of two of them for violating King's civil rights. (April) San Francisco police begin persecuting Food Not Bombs organizers who hand out meals to the homeless in city parks and plazas. |
| 1994 | Los Angeles earthquake. 57 people killed. Death of Richard Nixon. Proposition 187. The California electorate votes to deny education, health care, and welfare to illegal immigrants. Unpopular Pete Wilson is reelected on the back of this isolationist sentiment. |
| 1995 | The UC Board of Regents votes to eliminate Affirmative Action programs. Forty Niners win the Super Bowl. Death of Bill Graham. |
| 1996 | California voters approve the so-called "California Civil Rights Initiative" which ends all affirmative action programs. |
| 1997 | Death of Jerry Garcia. |
| 1998 | Edmund G. Brown Jr. elected Mayor of Oakland. He promises to stop the stagnation which has plagued the city for many years. Death of Tom Bradley. Investigation of abuse by prison guards at Cocoran State Prison. Gray Davis elected first Democratic Governor of California in 16 years. Voters approve initiative protecting casinos on Indian reservations. New Museum of Technology dedicated in San Jose. |
| 1999 | Hollywood Ten turncoat Elia Kazan is awarded a controversial lifetime achievement award by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. The national governing board of the Pacifica Network lock out employees of Berkeley's radio station KPFA, igniting a storm of protest by activists. Gray Davis angers reactionaries when he refuses to appeal a court decision calling Proposition 187 unconstitutional. |