| 1530 | Discovery of Baja California by Hernando Cortes. |
| 1542 | Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sails up the California Coast. He dies on San Miguel Island, but his pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo reaches the Columbia River. |
| 1579 | Pirate captain (later Sir) Francis Drake puts in somewhere on the California coast for repairs. The most likely spot is Point Reyes, which he claims as New Albion for Queen Elizabeth. |
| 1602 | Sebastián Vizcaíno discovers either Monterey Bay or San Francisco Bay. |
| 1701 | Father Kino crosses Southeastern California. |
| 1754 | The necessity of applying to the King for land titles is abolished. |
| 1767 | Jesuits expelled from Mexico. Their missions in Baja or Antigua California are turned over to the Franciscan order, which is charged with expanding their influence into Alta California. |
| 1768 | Franciscans take over Jesuit missions in Baja California. |
| 1769 | Mission San Diego de Alcalá founded. Portola Expedition. Discovery of San Francisco Bay. |
| 1770 | Mission San Carolos Borroméo or "Carmelo" founded. Presidio of Monterey established. |
| 1771 | Mission San Antonio de Padua founded. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel founded. |
| 1772 | Pedro Fages leads expedition to explore San Francisco Bay region. His party become the first white men to see the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Valleys. Mission San Luís Obispo is founded. |
| 1773 | New Spain Viceroy Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa authorizes the miltary commanders of San Diego and Monterey to assign land to Indians and new colonists. The boundary between Alta and Baja California is set 30 miles south of the present Mexican/United States border. |
| 1775 | Juan Bautista de Anza explores a land route between San Diego and Sonora, Mexico. Manuel Burton, a soldier in the Monterey garrison who is married to a Coastanoan woman, receives the first land grant in Alta California, a 140-vara plot in the Carmel Valley. Indians at Mission San Diego revolt, killing Father Luis Jaume and a carpenter. Birth of Salvator Ignacio Linares, first white child born in Alta California. His mother is enroute to the Presidio of San Francisco. |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence adopted in Philadelphia. Mission San Francisco de Asís or "Dolores" is founded. de Anza establishes the Presidio of San Francisco. Mission San Juan Capistrano is founded. Trail blazed between Santa Fe and Colorado River. |
| 1777 |
Mission Santa Clara de Asís founded. San Jose, future capital of Silicon Valley, is founded. Monterey becomes the capital of Alta California. |
| 1779 | Governor Felipe de Neve drafts regulations for the governance of Alta California. |
| 1780 | Mission San Diego must be rebuilt after an Indian raid. |
| 1781 | Pueblo de Los Angeles is founded. |
| 1782 | French Revolution begins. Mission San Buenaventura founded. Presidio of Santa Barbara founded. |
| 1784 | Governor Pedro Fages allows several retiring veterans permission to choose land within what is now Los Angeles County. Jose María Verdugo, who claims parts of what are now the cities of Burbank and Glendale as the Rancho San Rafael, is the first beneficiary. Death of Father Junipero Serra, founder of California's Franciscan missions. |
| 1786 | Governor Fages receives an legal opinion (written in 1785) which upholds his right to grant lands to soldiers as long as those lands lay outside the four square leagues owned by pueblos and did no harm to mission or Indian holdings. French scientist Jean François falup de la Pérouse leads a scientific expedition to California where he observes the mission system and condemns it. Mission Santa Barbara is founded. |
| 1787 | Mission La Purísma Concepción founded. |
| 1791 | Mission Santa Cruz founded. Mission La Soledad is founded. |
| 1792 | George Vancouver, captain of the British sloop Discovery, pays a visit to San Francisco Bay. |
| 1794 | John Groehm (Graham) is the first American to visit California. He dies shortly after his arrival. Construction of El Castillo de Monterey. Construction of Castillo de San Joauín at the Golden Gate. Governor Diego de Borica condemns treatment of Indians at the Franciscan missions. |
| 1796 | The American vessel Otter lands ten men and a woman who are escapees from Australia's Botany Bay penal colony at Monterey. Spanish officials are furious until they learn that the men are skilled artisans. |
| 1797 | Mission San José is founded. Mission San Juan Bautista is founded. Mission San Miguel Arcángel is founded. Mission San Fernando Rey is founded. Pueblo de Santa Cruz is founded across the river from the mission. Though meticulously planned, the project fails. |
| 1798 | Mission San Luís Rey is founded. |
| 1803 | Governor José Joaquín Arrilaga protests that under the Mission system, the progress of California Indians towards civilization is retarded. Destruction of Mission San Diego by earthquake. |
| 1803 | Shots are exchanged between the company of the American ship Lelia Bird and the garrison of San Diego when Spanish authorities arrest some of the crew for illegally trading with the Indians. Death of Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, successor to Father Serra. |
| 1804 | Mission San Inés is founded. Official separation of Baja and Alta California. Discovery of the Kings River. |
| 1806 | Nicolai Rezanov visits San Francisco to buy supplies for the Russian trading post at Sitka. |
| 1810 | First Mexican Revolution. |
| 1811 | Russian fur trappers establish Port Roumiantzoff, Bodega, and Kuskof. Exploration of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. |
| 1812 | Franciscans establish the office of the prefect which oversees the California missions' relationship with the government and other temporal matters. Russian fur traders establish Fort Ross. Their company gives them strict instructions to pay the Indians for hunting privileges and supplies. They are not allowed to enter Indian territory without the consent of the local people. |
| 1813 | The Cortés (Spanish Legislature) passes a decree calling for partial secularization of mission lands. Gabriel Moraga discovers and names the Merced River. The Spanish Frigate La Flora seizes the Mercury, an American vessel which has been poaching sea otters. |
| 1816 | John Gilroy (Scotland) becomes California's first non-Spanish settler. |
| 1816 | Thomas Doak becomes the first Yankee settler in California. |
| 1817 | Mission San Rafael Arcángel is founded. |
| 1818 | Privateer Hìpolito Bouchard sacks Monterey and raids along the coast. Spanish authorities prohibit Indians from riding horses, an act meant to reduce the number of escapes from mission settlements and the likelihood of raids against European settlements. |
| 1819 | San Bernardino Asistencia established. The arrival of military reinforcements from Mexico inaugarates a period of lawlessness in Monterey. |
| 1821 | Mexico declares independence from Spain. |