Jim Silverman - On This Day in California History

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2017 by Jim Silverman

All rights reserved

Front cover: all images courtesy Library of Congress.

First published 2017

e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978.1.43966.222.9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017938343

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.713.3

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Introduction

Reading a one-day-at-a-time calendar of California history is akin to reading J.J. Abramss script for his television show Lost, in which chronology and geography are scrambled. One days anecdote about a sixteenth-century Spanish explorer discovering San Diego Bay might be followed the next dayand hundreds of years laterby a San Francisco woman patenting an undergarment.

This book is not about historys causes and effects, nor is it a sweeping narrative or an in-depth account of any single event. Instead, you will find bits and pieces of great, curious, tragic and humorous momentsearthquakes, Indians, sports, music, crime, business and government.

Taken together, these bits and pieces are parts of the elusive puzzle called California history.

January

JANUARY 1, 1902: A TRADITION BEGINS

The Rose Parade, an annual event in Pasadena since 1890, was looking for a new way to entertain the crowd when someone suggested a football game. The sport, a novelty in California, would be a change from horse races, ostrich races and the race pitting a camel and an elephant (the elephant won). The contest between the Michigan Wolverines and Stanford Cardinal turned into a blowout. It wasnt just the 490 Wolverine victory. Ten thousand people showed up where two thousand were expected. When the game got out of hand, so did the crowd. So began the tradition of college football games on New Years Day.

JANUARY 2, 1847: BATTLE OF THE MUSTARD STALKS

The only battle of the Mexican-American War fought in todays Silicon Valley was the Battle of Santa Clara, called the Battle of the Mustard Stalks. It took place near Mission Santa Clara de Ass when U.S. forces went to rescue their men captured while buying or stealing cattle from a ranchero. Locals watched the two-hour fight in a wild mustard field from their rooftops. Four Mexicans and two Americans were injured and four Mexicans killed before a ceasefire was called. You can visit the Armistice Oak Tree Site, State Historic Landmark No. 260, in Santa Claras Civic Center Park.

JANUARY 3, 1543: PAINFUL DEMISE

Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer for Spain, died of gangrene and was buried on San Miguel Island, off the Santa Barbara coast. A true conquistador, he conquered Mexico with Hernn Corts, grew rich on New World gold and became the first European to navigate the California coast; he was probably searching for a shortcut to China, the mythical Strait of Anin. He sailed past San Francisco Bays foggy mouth, traveling as far north as Point Reyes before turning south. Cabrillo fell, splintering his shin in a battle with Tongva warriors near modern-day Los Angeles. The wound grew infected and led to his demise at age forty-three or forty-four.

JANUARY 4, 1776: OUR LADY OF SORROWS

While patriotic American colonists were fighting for freedom from Great Britain, Juan Bautista de Anza and his expedition to settle Alta California reached Mission San Gabriel near modern-day Los Angeles. They had marched north from Mexico for three months with 240 friars, soldiers and settler families; 695 horses and mules; and 385 bulls and cows. The Spanish king commanded settlements be built to block Russias territorial expansion south from Alaska, where they hunted furs to sell in China. De Anzas party overshot Monterey Bay and accidentally became the first Europeans to see San Francisco Bay.

JANUARY 5, 1848: GOLD RUSH HIGHLIGHTS

In his message to Congress, President James Polk announced the discovery of gold in California: The explorations already made warrant the belief that the supply is very large and that gold is found at various places in an extensive district of country. Exactly two years later, the California Exchange opened in San Francisco. It was a marketplace dealing in raw gold and gold coins, including doubloons, shillings, francs, florins, pesetas, guilders and rupees, plus American eagles and double eagles.

JANUARY 6, 1945: SKUNK AND DEPP

Pep Le Pew, the cartoon skunk created by Chuck Jones and voiced by Mel Blanc, debuted in Odor-Able Kitty for Warner Bros. in Los Angeles. Le Pew inspired Johnny Depp for his role of Captain Jack Sparrow:

What I loved about Pep Le Pew was this guy who was absolutely convinced that hes a great ladies man. And hes a skunk. Watching those cartoons, this guy falls in love, deeply falling in love with this cat. The cat clearly despises him, but Pep Le Pew takes it as sort of a, Shes just playing hard to get. Shes shy. Poor thing. I always loved a character like that, just blinders no matter what the actual reality is happening around him. This guy sees only what he wants to see. Pep Le Pew was the kind of character who always was able to run between the rain drops. Hed just always make it through.

JANUARY 7, 1939: TERRORIST OR SCAPEGOAT?

Thomas Joseph Tom Mooney, political activist and labor leader, was pardoned and freed after twenty-two years in prison. He was charged and tried three timesbut never convictedof transporting explosives to blow up power transmission lines during a Pacific Gas & Electric strike in 1913. So, nobody was surprised when he was convicted of bombing the July 22, 1916 Preparedness Day Parade in San Francisco honoring the U.S. entry into World War I. The blast killed ten people and wounded forty. Many people suspect that Mooney was scapegoated.

Mass meeting at Union Square in San Francisco to protest the conviction of Tom Mooney. Bain News Service (March 9, 1918). Courtesy Library of Congress.

JANUARY 8, 1847: DONNER PARTY AGONY

Patrick Breen, traveling with the tragic Donner Party, trapped by deep snow in the Sierra Nevada and starving, wrote in his diary: Mrs. Reid & company came back this morning; could not find their way on the other side of the Mountain. They have nothing but hides to live on. Martha is to stay here. Milt. & Eliza going to Donners. Mrs. Reid & the 2 boys going to their own shanty & Virginia. Prospects Dull. May God relieve us all from this difficulty if it is his Holy will. Amen. Nearly half of the Donner Party died en route to California.

JANUARY 9, 1900: NOVEL LUNCH BOX

Adelia Osborne of Pomona patented a lunch box. This inventionhas for its object the general improvement in this class of devices, the special object of the invention being to provide a compartment lunch-box so constructed as to permit ventilation and the free circulation of air within airspaces surrounding the inner compartments containing the food. This was an early improvement over the basic lunch pail.