West Coast History Timeline

1769—First permanent Spanish settlement, in San Diego

1811—John Jacob Astor establishes a trading post at Astoria, Ore.

1819—Spain withdraws claims to Oregon

1836—Marcus Whitman establishes the first white settlement near present-day Walla Walla, Wash.

1843—Settlers establish first provisional government in Oregon

1846—War between Mexico and the United States

1848—Mexico cedes California to the United States. Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill. Oregon Territory created.

1849—Gold rush brings more than 100,000 people to California

1850—California becomes the 31st state

1850—Donation Land Claim Act brings thousands of new settlers

1851—First settlers on the site of Seattle. Portland incorporated as a city.

1853—Washington Territory created. Levi Strauss sells durable “jeans” (originally brown) to gold miners.

1855—Hungarian Count Agoston Haraszthy founds California’s first winery

1859—Oregon becomes 33rd state

1862—Homestead Act

1869—Transcontinental railroad

1873—First San Francisco cable cars

1881—Northern Pacific Railroad reaches Spokane

1889—Washington becomes 42nd state

1906—San Francisco earthquake

1908—First Hollywood movie studio

1910—Angel Island, the “Ellis Island of the West,” opens in San Francisco Bay

1914—Signposting begins on the forerunner of Route 66

1939—John Steinbeck chronicles the westward journey of “Okies” in The Grapes of Wrath

1940 —First Los Angeles freeway

1948—First McDonald’s hamburger restaurant, in San Bernadino, Calif.

1955—Disneyland opens. Microsoft founder Bill Gates born in Seattle.

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