This is a timeline of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, events in the nine counties that border on the San Francisco Bay, and the bay itself.
An identical list of events, formatted differently, may be found .
Prehistory
- The San Andreas Fault (pictured) begins to form in the mid Cenozoic about 30 million years ago
- 9.5 million years ago, the Moraga Volcanics produces most of the lavas that underlie the East Bay ridges from present day Tilden Regional Park to Moraga
- During the Quaternary glaciation beginning 2.58 million years ago, the basin that will be filled by the bay is a large linear valley with small hills, similar to most of the valleys of the Coast Ranges. The rivers of the Central Valley run out to sea through a canyon that will become the Golden Gate. As the ice sheets melt, sea levels rise over the next 4,000 years, and the valley fills with water from the Pacific.
- A strait was formed about 640,000 to 700,000 years ago, while much of modern California was emerging from an ice age, connecting the inland lake covering Central California with the Pacific Ocean.
- Evidence of human occupation of California dates from at least 17,000 BCE.
- The Ohlone people (pictured) inhabit the Bay Area region as early as 6,000 years ago, with a 1770 estimated population of 10,000âÂÂ20,000
- The Coast Miwok inhabit the Sonoma and Marin region as early as 4,000 years ago, with a 1770 estimated population of 2,000
- The Patwin people inhabit the northern Bay region as early as 1,500 years ago, with a 1770 estimated population of 12,000
- The Bay Miwok inhabit the region that is now Contra Costa County, with a 1770 estimated population of approximately 1,700
16th century
17th century
- Despite numerous sailing vessels traveling along the coast, no ships discover the Golden Gate and the San Francisco Bay, due to factors such as fog and ships avoiding sailing close to shore
18th century
19th century
- In 1804, The Bay Area is part of the newly created New Spain state of Alta California
- The Russian-American Company establishes Fortress Ross (ÃÂÃÂãÿþÃÂÃÂààþÃÂÃÂÃÂ, tr. Krepostù Ross) (pictured) in 1812, in what is now Sonoma County
- In 1821, New Spain cedes Alta California, including the Bay Area, to the newly created Mexican Empire
- William A. Richardson (pictured) arrives in San Francisco in 1822, and in 1838 is given Rancho Saucelito in present-day Marin County by Mexican Governor Juan Alvarado
- In 1823, the Bay Area, as part of Alta California, becomes part of the newly founded United Mexican States
- In 1837, Antonio Ortega begins operating a pulqueria (tavern) north of San Francisco, on the former site of Mission San Francisco Solano
- In 1838, a 7.0 M<sub>La</sub> earthquake strikes the Peninsula, on or near the San Andreas Fault, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe)
James W. Marshall finds several flakes of gold at a lumber mill he owned in partnership John Sutter, at the bank of the South Fork of the American River, news of which quickly travels around the world (advertisement for transportation to the Gold Rush pictured, right)<br /> The California Star and the Californian both cease publication in San Francisco due to losing all their staff to the California Gold Rush<br /> The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (pictured, left) ends the MexicanâÂÂAmerican War, and cedes the territory of California (including the San Francisco Bay Area) to the United States from Mexico<br /> San Francisco's population is 1,000
A small coffee stand (1983 menu pictured, left) opens on Clay Street in San Francisco<br /> Boudin Bakery is established in San Francisco, producing San Francisco sourdough (loaves pictured, right)<br /> The Alta California begins publishing in San Francisco<br /> Bayard Taylor visits San Francisco and the Gold Country, writing about the Gold Rush<br /> The Niantic whaling ship is stranded by its crew on the shore of San Francisco, who desert it to join the Gold Rush<br /> Irish immigrants Peter and James Donahue found Union Iron Works (pictured) in South of Market, San Francisco<br /> San Francisco's population is 25,000, an increase by 2,400% from 1848's 1,000
The San Francisco Unified School District is established, as the first public school district in California (historic Ida B. Wells High School building pictured, right)<br /> The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance is formed in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government (1851 hanging pictured, left)<br /> Congregation Emanu-El is chartered in San Francisco<br /> A fire destroys large swaths of San Francisco
After opening a number of businesses in Peru and California, Italian chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli imports 200 pounds of cocoa beans and establishes D. Ghirardelli & Co in San Francisco (1864 advertisement pictured, left)<br /> Henry Wells and William G. Fargo establish Wells, Fargo & Company in San Francisco, a joint-stock association with an initial capitalization of $300,000, to provide express and banking services (iconic stagecoach pictured, right)<br /> The city of Santa Clara is incorporated in Santa Clara County (1910 postcard pictured, right)<br /> Oakland is incorporated in Alameda County (1867 painting shown, right)<br /> Francis K. Shattuck, George Blake, and two partners they met in the gold fields, William Hillegass and James Leonard, lay claim to four adjoining strips of land north of Oakland
The California Academy of Natural Sciences (modern display pictured, left) is founded in San Francisco<br /> Levi Strauss & Co. is established when Levi Strauss (pictured, right) arrives from Buttenheim, Bavaria, in San Francisco to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business<br /> Alameda County is incorporated
Mare Island Naval Shipyard (pictured, left), the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean, is established in Vallejo, Solano County<br /> The Mechanics' Institute Library and Chess Room is founded in San Francisco<br /> The city of Alameda is incorporated in Alameda County (Alameda Works Shipyard pictured, right)<br /> The first department store in San Francisco opens: Davidson & Lane, later renamed The White House.
Schramsberg Vineyards is established in Napa Valley by Jacob Schram (pictured, left)<br /> The state capitol is moved from Sacramento to San Francisco, due to Flooding of the Central Valley<br /> Minns Evening Normal School in San Francisco is taken over by the state and moved to San Jose as the California State Normal School<br /> William Boothby (pictured, right) is born in San Francisco
An earthquake estimated at 6.3âÂÂ6.7 on the moment magnitude scale hits the Bay Area, with an epicenter in the East Bay. It causes significant damage throughout the region, and comes to be known as the "Great San Francisco earthquake". (damage in the Haywards area pictured, right)<br /> The Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (pictured, right) in Oakland is established by members of the Sisters of the Holy Names from Canada<br /> The University of California (logo pictured, left) is established in Berkeley, along with the first campus in the system, the University of California, Berkeley<br /> Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is incorporated<br /> Vallejo in Solano County is incorporated<br /> Bret Harte begins publishing the Overland Monthly in San Francisco<br /> The Guittard Chocolate Company is founded in San Francisco
The Clay Street Hill Railroad, the first in the San Francisco cable car system (pictured, left), begins operations<br /> South Hall (pictured, right) is built in Berkeley, thus becoming the new location of the University of California, Berkeley, formerly located in Oakland
United States v. Wong Kim Ark is decided in favor of Wong Kim Ark (pictured, left), who is thus considered a U.S. citizen<br /> The San Francisco Ferry Building (pictured, right), designed by A. Page Brown, opens<br /> A columbarium (pictured, right) is built at Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco by Bernard J. S. Cahill, to complement an earlier columbarium built by him<br /> The Baldwin Hotel (pictured, right) in San Francisco, built in 1876, burns down<br /> Francis K. Shattuck dies after being knocked down by a man exiting from a train that Shattuck was attempting to board on the eponymous Shattuck Avenue
20th century
On April 17, Daniel Burnham delivers plans (pictured, left) for the redesign of San Francisco<br /> The next day, a massive earthquake hits San Francisco, starting fires which burn much of the city to the ground. 3,000 people die during the disaster.
The first Portola Road Race (pictured, left) is run through Melrose in Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward, with at least 250,000 attending<br /> Albany (Albany Hill pictured, right) is incorporated in Alameda County<br /> Fort Ross State Historic Park is established in Sonoma County to protect Fort Ross, founded in 1812 as the southernmost point in the Russian colonization of the Americas
The Bay to Breakers (news headline on race pictured, right) is run in San Francisco for the first time<br /> Chinese restaurant Sam Wo (pictured, left. translation: "Three Harmonies Porridge and Noodles") in San Francisco's Chinatown opens<br /> Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County is incorporated<br /> The California Society of Etchers is founded in San Francisco<br /> Essanay Studios opens the Essanay-West studio in Niles, at the foot of Niles Canyon
- Chauncey Thomas opens The Tile Shop on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley to make and sell faience tiles (Hearst Castle tower, decorated with tiles from California Faience, pictured)
- Dewing Park in Contra Costa County is renamed Saranap after the local inter-urban commuter rail system developer's mother, Sara Napthaly
- John Swett, former Superintendent of the San Francisco Public Schools, and "Father of the California public school", dies
Sather Tower (pictured, left), a campanile at the University of California, Berkeley is completed<br /> Temple Sinai (pictured, right) in Oakland is completed<br /> The Baby Hospital Association (organized September 1912), and the Baby Hospital Association of Alameda County (organized September 1913), establish The Children's Hospital of the East Bay in Oakland
The new Beaux-Arts style San Francisco City Hall (pictured, right) opens at the Civic Center, San Francisco<br /> The PanamaâÂÂPacific International Exposition is held in San Francisco, to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. It features the Palace of Fine Arts (pictured, left), the Tower of Jewels (pictured, right), and The San Francisco Civic Auditorium. Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about the exposition during her visit to the city that year.
A large fire in Berkeley (pictured, right) consumes some 640 structures, before being extinguished by cool, humid afternoon air coming through the Golden Gate across the bay<br /> Atherton is incorporated in San Mateo County<br /> California Memorial Stadium (pictured, right) opens in Berkeley, as the home field for the California Golden Bears football team of the University of California, Berkeley<br /> The East Bay Municipal Utility District is formed to provide water and sewage treatment services to the East Bay<br /> The San Francisco Opera Ballet gives its first performance, of La bohème (pictured, left), with Queena Mario and Giovanni Martinelli, conducted by founder Gaetano Merola, at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium
The heated, saltwater Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco opens (pictured, left)<br /> The original Kezar Stadium in San Francisco opens (replica arch pictured, right)<br /> San Carlos is incorporated in San Mateo County<br /> The California Arts and Crafts Ainsley House is built in Campbell
The San Francisco Museum of Art opens at the War Memorial Veterans Building on Van Ness Avenue in the Civic Center (Woman with a Hat by Matisse, from the museum collection, pictured, left)<br /> Benjamin Franklin Davis, grandson of the man who helped develop Levi's jeans, opens his eponymous clothing store in San Francisco<br /> Benicia Capitol State Historic Park opens at the site of California's third capital building (pictured, right), where the California State Legislature convened from February 3, 1853 to February 24, 1854<br /> San Francisco Junior College is established<br /> Lucky Stores is founded in Alameda County<br /> Trolleybuses (pictured, right) began operating in San Francisco
The Berkeley Rose Garden (pictured, right), built with funds from the Civil Works Administration, opens to the public<br /> The Golden Gate Bridge (opening day pictured, left) opens to the public<br /> The HannaâÂÂHoneycomb House (pictured, right), built by Frank Lloyd Wright at Stanford University, is completed<br /> The new San Francisco Mint (pictured, right) is completed<br /> Stanford Memorial Auditorium is completed<br /> Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno is dedicated<br /> The Malloch Building in San Francisco is completed
The 49-Mile Scenic Drive (road sign pictured, left) is created in San Francisco for the Golden Gate International Exposition by the San Francisco Down Town Association<br /> Lake Anza (pictured, right) is created in Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills
The Golden Gate International Exposition (poster pictured, left) opens at newly created Treasure Island<br /> The Neptune Beach amusement park closes in Alameda<br /> Hewlett-Packard is founded in a garage (pictured) in Palo Alto<br /> Blue Shield of California is founded in San Francisco by the California Medical Association<br /> Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley opens, having formed from the Berkeley Buyers' Club, which was associated with the End Poverty in California movement<br /> The Top of the Mark rooftop bar (pictured) is established at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco<br /> Nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence at the University of California, Berkeley wins the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron
The Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base (pictured, right), near Fairfield, in Solano County, is officially activated<br /> Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren dies<br /> Edwin Hawkins is born in Oakland (Edwin Hawkins Singers pictured, left)
- The United Nations Charter is signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco
- Following the effective end of World War II on Victory over Japan Day, thousands of drunken people, the vast majority of them Navy enlistees who had not served in the war theatre, embarked in what the San Francisco Chronicle summarized in 2015 as "a three-night orgy of vandalism, looting, assault, robbery, rape and murder" and "the deadliest riots in the city's history", with more than 1000 people injured, 13 killed, and at least six women raped.
- The Tonga Room restaurant and tiki bar opens at the Fairmont San Francisco
- San Francisco-based Western Pipe and Steel Company ends operations
- The Bay Area Council for economic development is founded in San Francisco
- Samuel P. Taylor State Park is established in Marin County (gravesite of Samuel Penfield Taylor, at park, pictured)
The Point Reyes Light weekly newspaper begins publishing in Marin County<br /> The San Francisco Boys Chorus (pictured) is formed<br /> Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences is created from the merger of the Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences<br /> Beat Generation hangout Vesuvio Cafe (pictured) opens in San Francisco<br /> Westlake Shopping Center opens in Daly City<br /> Richard Diebenkorn has his first art exhibit at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco<br /> The Doggie Diner fast food restaurant opens in Oakland (later iconic doggie head pictured)
The Treaty of San Francisco, between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, is officially signed by 48 nations at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco (signing pictured, right)<br /> Stanford Industrial Park in Palo Alto is completed<br /> A Trader Vic's opens in San Francisco<br /> Nuclear scientist Glenn T. Seaborg (pictured, left) at the University of California, Berkeley shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Edwin McMillan for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements."<br /> The is scuttled near the Farallon Islands, after being used as a target for the Operation Crossroads nuclear test at Bikini Atoll
The Love Pageant Rally is held, on the day LSD becomes illegal, in Golden Gate Park, by the creators of the San Francisco Oracle<br /> The Society for Creative Anachronism (pictured) forms in Berkeley, with a parade down Telegraph Avenue<br /> George Paul Miller is re-elected to California's 8th congressional district<br /> The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (artifacts pictured) opens as a wing of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park<br /> High-end clothier Wilkes Bashford opens in Union Square, San Francisco<br /> The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is formed in Oakland by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale<br /> Moby Grape is formed in San Francisco by Skip Spence and Matthew Katz<br /> The Oakland Coliseum (pictured) opens<br /> Peet's Coffee & Tea (pictured) is founded in Berkeley<br /> The Print Mint begins publishing and distributing posters and underground comics in Berkeley<br /> The San Francisco Bay Guardian weekly alternative newspaper is founded in San Francisco<br /> The American Conservatory Theater moves to San Francisco
- KICU-TV Channel 36 signs on the air in San Francisco
The Mantra-Rock Dance concert takes place at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco<br /> The Human Be-In (poster artwork from magazine cover depicted, left) occurs at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a prelude to the Summer of Love<br /> The University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is established<br /> Creedence Clearwater Revival (pictured, right) is formed in El Cerrito<br /> Rolling Stone magazine (current logo pictured, right) begins publishing in San Francisco<br /> Santana is formed in San Francisco by Carlos Santana (pictured, right)<br /> The Summer of Love comes to San Francisco
- KBHK-TV Channel 44 signs on the air in San Francisco
- KEMO-TV Channel 20 signs on the air in San Francisco
- In the last minute of a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets, Oakland scores two touchdowns to overcome a 32âÂÂ29 New York lead, just as the NBC Television Network breaks away from the game, with the Jets still winning, to air the television film Heidi
- Japan Airlines Flight 2 flying from Tokyo International Airport to San Francisco International Airport lands in the shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, two and a half miles short of the runway, with no injuries
- Douglas Englebart presents The Mother of All Demos (prototype based on the demo pictured) at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco
- The Lawrence Hall of Science (pictured) is established in Berkeley
- KSFR, 94.9 FM, changes to call letters KSAN, and switches formats from classical music to freeform rock
- Luis Walter Alvarez at the University of California, Berkeley is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway between Tracy and Livermore<br /> Advanced Micro Devices is founded in Sunnyvale<br /> American Zoetrope (headquarters at the Sentinel Building pictured) is founded in San Francisco by Francis Ford Coppola<br /> The Exploratorium (interior pictured) is founded in San Francisco<br /> Clothing retailer The Gap (early logo pictured) is founded in San Francisco<br /> The Oakland Museum of California is established<br /> The San Jose Museum of Art (pictured) is established<br /> A "People's Park" (pictured) is created by community activists on University of California, Berkeley property, off Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley<br /> The Bank of America Center building in San Francisco is completed<br /> The Occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists begins<br /> Earth Day is first proposed by John McConnell at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco<br /> An unidentified person sends letters to the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner, taking credit for two fatal shooting incidents, then sends a fourth letter to the Examiner with the salutation "Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking."
- Burst of Joy, depicting United States Air Force Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm being reunited with his family, after spending more than five years in captivity as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, is taken at Travis Air Force Base (pictured) in Solano County
- 16 people are killed, during a string of racially motivated attacks, dubbed the Zebra murders, committed by African-American men against mostly white victims, in San Francisco, continuing into 1974
- The Oakland A's win the World Series
- Bill Owens' photoessay Suburbia, featuring images of Livermore, is published by Straight Arrow Press in San Francisco
Five unsolved murders of young women are committed in San Mateo County<br /> Apple Inc. (pictured, left) is founded in Cupertino by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne<br /> Napa Valley wineries Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena (pictured, right) place best in the red and white wine categories respectively, against their traditionally first ranked French competitors, in the wine tasting that becomes known as the Judgment of Paris<br /> China Camp State Park is established in San Rafael<br /> Fairfield-based candy company Herman Goelitz sells their first Jelly Bellies<br /> Cyra McFadden's The Serial's first installments are published in the Pacific Sun alternative newsweekly<br /> Dennis Richmond becomes the lead anchor at KTVU news in Oakland, an early African American news anchor in a major US television market<br /> KPIX television in San Francisco debuts a locally produced magazine program called Evening: The MTWTF Show
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors election places Dianne Feinstein (pictured, left), Harvey Milk (pictured, far right) and Dan White on the board<br /> Oracle Corporation is founded in Santa Clara<br /> Victoria's Secret opens its first store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto<br /> Members of the Joe Boys gang open fire at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown, in an assault on rival gang Wah Ching, leaving 5 people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom are gang members.<br /> Apple Computer introduces the Apple II
The first World Games are held in Santa Clara<br /> Erhard Seminars Training in San Francisco dissolved<br /> The Sonoma Valley AVA (winery directional sign pictured, left) is established<br /> The Napa Valley AVA (historic marker pictured, right) is established
The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is established in coastal waters off the Golden Gate<br /> Arthur Leonard Schawlow at Stanford University, along with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn, share the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with lasers<br /> 14 year old Marcy Renee Conrad is murdered in Milpitas<br /> Ceratitis capitata, known commonly as the "Mediterranean fruit fly", infests the Bay Area
A plane heading for Buchanan Field Airport loses control and crashes into the roof of Macys, killing the pilot and two passengers, and seriously injuring 84 Christmas shoppers at the Sun Valley Mall in Concord<br /> Año Nuevo State Park is established at Año Nuevo Island (pictured, left) and points in San Mateo County<br /> Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve (pictured, right) is established<br /> NeXT is founded in Redwood City by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, after being forced out of Apple<br /> The San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl for the second time
The Oakland and Berkeley Hills are hit by a firestorm (damage pictured, left)<br /> Frank Jordan is elected mayor of San Francisco<br /> Groundbreaking ceremonies take place at the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco (logo pictured, right)<br /> San Francisco pornography and striptease club pioneer Jim Mitchell kills his brother and business partner Artie in Marin County<br /> Apple Computer introduces the PowerBook line of subnotebook personal computers
21st century
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The 2013 America's Cup (Oracle Team USA yacht pictured) is held in San Francisco Bay<br /> Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes while landing at San Francisco International Airport<br /> An unofficial death certificate is issued for Jahi McMath by the Alameda County coroner<br /> Andy Lopez is shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy<br /> Warren Hall (pictured), at California State University, East Bay, is demolished by implosion<br /> Graton Resort & Casino opens in Rohnert Park<br /> The Russell City Energy Center goes online in Hayward<br /> SFJAZZ Center (pictured) opens in San Francisco<br /> The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens<br /> Ordinaire, a wine bar and shop serving natural wine, opens in Oakland Solar Impulse begins a cross-US flight, taking off from Moffett Field in Mountain View<br /> The Tom Lantos Tunnels (pictured), at Devil's Slide near Pacifica, open<br /> Gilead Sciences' drug Sovaldi, for the treatment of hepatitis C, is approved by the FDA<br /> Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist Carl Haber is awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant"<br /> San Francisco Bay is designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance<br /> Cancer patient Miles Scott becomes Batkid for a day in San Francisco, turning it into Gotham City, with Mayor Ed Lee and others participating in the Make-A-Wish project <br /> ----<br />
- March
- Democratic California State Senator Leland Yee is arrested by the FBI on charges related to public corruption and gun trafficking
- June
- A new Kaiser Permanente Medical Center opens in San Leandro
- Barbara Halliday is elected mayor of Hayward
- San Francisco political consultant Ryan Chamberlain is apprehended by the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department after explosive materials are allegedly discovered in his apartment
- Amelia Rose Earhart (pictured) departs from Oakland on June 26, and lands back in Oakland on July 1, successfully recreating her namesake Amelia Earhart's unsuccessful 1937 circumnavigation of the Earth
- The San Jose Repertory Theatre ceases operations and files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
- July
- Levi's Stadium (pictured) opens in Santa Clara as the new home of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League
- August
- Actor and comedian Robin Williams (pictured) dies from an apparent suicide at his home outside Tiburon
- Maryam Mirzakhani of Stanford University becomes the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal in mathematics
- The East Bay Municipal Utility District and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission impose mandatory water rationing measures, as a consequence of the ongoing drought in California
- Paul McCartney plays a concert at Candlestick Park, the last event to be held at the venue, and 50 years after The Beatles performed their last concert there
- Two owners and two staff of the now defunct Rancho Feeding Corporation in Petaluma are indicted on federal charges of violating the 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act
- A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes in Napa County (damage pictured), with an epicenter northwest of the city of American Canyon, the largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, sending at least 172 people to the hospital
- September
- The Berkeley city council passes an ordinance to provide free medical marijuana for low-income patients
- Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook presents the Apple Watch (pictured), the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus at the Flint Performing Arts Center in Cupertino
- Stanford University social psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt is awarded a Macarthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship
- Larry Ellison (pictured) steps down as CEO of Oracle Corporation, to become chief technical officer, and executive chairman of the board of directors
- October
- Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman announces plans for the company to split in two, forming Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP, Inc.
- Stanford University professor William E. Moerner (pictured), Eric Betzig and Stefan Hell are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their use of fluorescence in microscopy
- Livermore golf coach Andrew Nisbet is sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges of molesting three of his juvenile students, and then plotting to kill them while being held in jail
- The Daughters of Charity Health System approves the sale of Daly City's Seton Medical Center and San Jose's O'Connor Hospital to Prime Healthcare Services
- The San Francisco Bay Guardian free weekly alternative newspaper ceases publication after 48 years (logo pictured)
- The San Francisco Giants defeat the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series, their third championship in five seasons
- Ross William Ulbricht is arrested in San Francisco, charged with running the Silk Road dark web online illicit marketplace
- Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook states in an editorial that he is "proud to be gay", becoming the first openly gay leader of a major U.S. company
- University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announces plans for a Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay, to develop existing UC campuses in Richmond
- Susan Xiao-Ping Su, founder and former president of the defunct Pleasanton-based Tri-Valley University, is sentenced to 16 years in prison for visa and mail fraud
- November
- Libby Schaaf (pictured) is elected mayor of Oakland, defeating incumbent mayor Jean Quan
- Measure D, a sugary drink tax, is approved by Berkeley voters, the first such tax in the United States
- Mike Honda is elected to California's 17th congressional district, defeating Ro Khanna
- David Chiu is elected to California's 17th State Assembly district, defeating David Campos
- Sam Liccardo is elected mayor of San Jose, defeating Dave Cortese
- A new, unnamed species (pictured) in the coral genus Leptogorgia is discovered off the coast of Sonoma County, near the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries
- Up to 18,000 nurses from at least 21 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and 35 clinics around the Bay Area go on strike, citing issues with patient care standards and Ebola safeguards
- The 27 story 535 Mission Street office skyscraper opens in the South of Market district of San Francisco
- Marian Brown of the San Francisco Twins, dies, her sister Vivian having died in January 2013 (sisters pictured)
- The Oakland Airport Connector automated guideway transit (AGT) system begins operating between the BART Coliseum station and Oakland International Airport station
- The Watershed Alliance of Marin reports that no coho salmon had returned to Redwood Creek in 2014, prompting concerns of likely local extinction of the species.
- The remains of the SS City of Rio de Janeiro (pictured), which shipwrecked in 1901, are found off the shores of San Francisco at the Golden Gate
- December
- Protesters of the grand jury decision in the death of New Yorker Eric Garner take to the streets in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco
- A large storm (video shown) leaves 150,000 households without power across the Bay Area
- San Jose demolishes The Jungle, the nation's largest homeless person encampment
- Google unveils a fully functioning prototype of the Google driverless car, with plans to test it on Bay Area roads beginning in 2015
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- January
- Personal genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe announces a $60 million investment by Genentech for Parkinson's research
- The Golden Gate Bridge closes to automobile traffic for the first time in its history, in order to install a mobile concrete median (pictured)
- Birds coated with an unidentified sticky grey substance are found along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, and are sent to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield for cleanup efforts
- Ford Motor Company announces the creation of the Ford Research and Innovation Center, located in Palo Alto (logo pictured)
- The Tesoro refinery in Martinez closes due to a strike affecting nine refineries in the US
- February
- The National Weather Service announces that due to the ongoing California drought, San Francisco received no January rainfall for the first time in 165 years. The Bay Area had the driest January on record.
- The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center opens a new hospital in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco (construction pictured)
- President Barack Obama attends the White House Cybersecurity Summit at Stanford University
- San Francisco resident Christie White, battling cancer, sues the state of California for the right to die at home, by physician assisted suicide
- Shipowners at the Port of Oakland suspend the unloading of container and other cargo ships, due to a slowdown during contract negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
- The UCSF Medical Center receives a philanthropic donation of $100 million from Chuck Feeney, the largest gift by an individual in the history of the UC system.
- Avaya Stadium, the new home of the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, stages its first Earthquakes soccer game
- March
- Scientists (pictured) at the Ames Research Center announce they have synthesized "...uracil, cytosine, and thymine, all three components of RNA and DNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space."
- Patrick Willis, linebacker for eight years with the San Francisco 49ers, retires at age 30 due to a foot injury
- Prime Healthcare Services rejects an offer to purchase Daly City's Seton Medical Center and San Jose's O'Connor Hospital from the Daughters of Charity Health System
- The U.S. Geological Survey report, "Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast", estimates there is a 72 percent chance that a magnitude-6.7 or larger quake will strike the Bay Area before the year 2044
- Professor Ronald Rael, of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley unveils a 9' high 3D printed architectural experiment, entitled "Bloom", the first printed structure of its type.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration more than doubles the size of the Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuaries (underwater topography pictured)
- The San Francisco Police Department relocates its headquarters from the Hall of Justice to a new facility at Mission Bay (insignia pictured)
- Lawyer and Reddit executive Ellen Pao loses in a gender discrimination lawsuit against Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- April
- The Brookings Institution reports that San Francisco has the wealthiest people, in the top 5% of its population, of any major U.S. city, and the fastest growing income inequality S.F.'s richest are wealthiest in the land
- Governor Jerry Brown imposes mandatory water rationing for the first time in state history, requiring all local water supply agencies, including the Alameda County, Marin, Sonoma and Santa Clara Valley Water Districts, reduce water use by 25%, due to the ongoing drought in California
- Author and community activist Eddy Zheng is pardoned by governor Brown, for crimes he committed at age 16
- Apple, Inc. introduces the Apple Watch (pictured)
- Over 100 prominent Bay Area Catholics sign a full page advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle appealing to Pope Francis to replace Salvatore Cordileone as archbishop of the San Francisco Archdiocese, for fostering "an atmosphere of division and intolerance."
- The World War II era aircraft carrier (pictured) is rediscovered near the Farallon Islands by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo closes
- The San Francisco-based Heald College system shuts down, when its parent company, Corinthian Colleges, goes out of business
- Tesla Motors announces the Powerwall, a battery system for home use
- May
- Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry (pictured) is awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award
- The San MateoâÂÂHayward Bridge closes to traffic, for the first time since opening in 1967, for resurfacing and maintenance.
- San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón orders a review of at least 3,000 arrests over the last 10 years, in response to evidence that San Francisco Police Department officers may have shown racial bias, based on their having sent racist and homophobic text messages
- San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to ban chewing tobacco at sports venues, including AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants
- The Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project dedicates its first project, a future solar farm at Hayward's former landfill site
- Dead gray whales wash ashore at Half Moon Bay, then at Portuguese Beach in Sonoma County, with a sperm whale also washing ashore at Point Reyes National Seashore, the third, fourth and fifth dead whales found on Bay Area beaches (among eight in Northern California) in less than 2 months
- Oakland based start-up Next Thing Co. raises over $1.5m in its Kickstarter campaign for its forthcoming $9 miniature computer, Chip.
- The population of San Jose is now officially over 1,000,000, making it the tenth largest city in the United States, according to the U.S. census
- Vandals damage an inflatable dam across Alameda Creek in Fremont, releasing 50 million gallons of drinking water into San Francisco Bay
- The Solar Energy Research Center opens at the newly built Chu Hall at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley
- The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association Playoffs, and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975
- June
- Surgeons at University of California, San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center successfully complete 18 surgeries in the nation's first nine-way, two-day kidney transplant chain in a single city
- Six people are killed and eight are injured, some with life-threatening injuries, after a balcony collapses in Berkeley, near the campus of the University of California, Berkeley; five of the casualties are Irish students.
- The Golden State Warriors win the National Basketball Association Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, their first championship since 1975
- The surviving members of the Grateful Dead play the first concerts of their farewell tour, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dead, at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium
- July
- Former state senator Leland Yee pleads guilty to a federal racketeering charge, confessing to using his bids for secretary of state and Mayor of San Francisco to extort bribes
- A gunman opens fire at Pier 14 in San Francisco's Embarcadero district, killing Kathryn Steinle. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Francisco Sanchez, is subsequently arrested and charged with murder.
- The Wragg Fire wildland fire (pictured) starts just off of California State Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Napa County
- August
- Alphabet, a holding company and conglomerate owning several companies owned by or sprung from Google, is founded
- September
- The Valley Fire encroaches into Napa and Sonoma Counties
- Tesla Motors begins shipping the Model X SUV (pictured) from its Fremont factory
- UC Berkeley chemistry and materials science professor Peidong Yang is awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant
- Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi releases the documentary San Francisco 2.0, chronicling the recent high tech takeover and gentrification of the City
- The Golden State Warriors finalize the purchase of 12 acres of land in Mission Bay, San Francisco, to house a future stadium
- November
- San Jose is the richest city in the United States, according to Bloomberg
- Topless stripper Carol Doda, an iconic Condor Club performer, dies in San Francisco (Condor Club c. 1973 pictured)
- Wang Hall, housing the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, opens at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- December
- Artificial intelligence laboratory OpenAI is founded in San Francisco
- Linux software pioneer and Debian founder Ian Murdock (pictured) dies in San Francisco at age 42
- CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to visit a US port, comes to the Port of Oakland
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- January
- Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, including Peidong Yang (pictured, above), announce they were able to induce Moorella thermoacetica to photosynthesize, despite its not being photosynthetic. It also synthesized semiconductor nanoparticles, thus using light to produce chemical products other than those produced in photosynthesis.
- A federal court jury in San Francisco finds Raymond Chow Kwok-cheung guilty of all 162 charges against him, including murder, after a five year long undercover federal operation
- William Del Monte, the last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, dies in Marin County at age 109
- Paul Kantner (pictured), guitarist, vocalist and co-founder of Jefferson Airplane, dies in San Francisco
- The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive opens its new building to the public (entrance pictured)
- February
- The Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers, in Super Bowl 50, held at Levi's Stadium (halftime show pictured)
- Apple Inc says it will not comply with an FBI request to provide unblocking software for an IPhone owned by one of the perpetrators of the 2015 San Bernardino attack
- March
- An Altamont Corridor Express train derails in Sunol
- Ben Bagdikian, journalist, author, and dean emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, dies in Berkeley
- The first Silicon Valley Comic Con, organized by Steve Wozniak and Stan Lee, is held at the San Jose Convention Center
- Former Intel CEO and chairman Andy Grove (pictured), one of the major figures in the growth of Silicon Valley, dies
- The wreck of the (pictured) is confirmed in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, 95 years after it had gone missing
- Tesla Motors announces the Model 3, pre-orders of which reach 115,000 within 4 hours of the announcement.
- April
- The Oakland Tribune ceases publication after 142 years, and is replaced by the East Bay Times
- Hundreds of pages of University of California, Berkeley records are released, showing a pattern of documented sexual harassment and firings of non-tenured staff
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes a parental leave law requiring employers to offer six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents, the first city in the US to do so.
- The long closed UC Theatre in Berkeley, formerly a revival house movie theater, reopens as a music venue
- The Golden State Warriors win against the Memphis Grizzlies, their 73rd win of the season, breaking the previous NBA record, held by the 1995âÂÂ96 Chicago Bulls, for the most victories in a single season
- Napster founder and philanthropist Sean Parker donates $250 million to create the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, with funds going to over 300 scientists at 40 laboratories, in 6 institutions, including the University of California at San Francisco
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes a law requiring all new buildings below 10 stories to have rooftop solar panels, making it the first major US city to do so
- Sanford and Joan Weill donate $185 million to the University of California, San Francisco to create the Weill Institute for Neurosciences
- May
- A poll of 1,000 people, by the Bay Area Council, showed that 34 percent are considering leaving the area, due primarily to the high costs of living and housing, and traffic.
- McDonald's tests garlic fries at four restaurants in the South Bay, using locally grown garlic from Gilroy (Gordon Biersch Brewing Company garlic fries pictured)
- The Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (pictured) is named NBA MVP, in their first unanimous vote
- It is revealed that the FBI hid microphones outside an Oakland Alameda County Superior Court building (pictured), between March 2010 and January 2011, as part of an investigation into bid rigging and fraud by Alameda and San Mateo County real estate investors, this done without a warrant
- The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (pictured) reopens after the completion of a two-and-a-half-year expansion, by architecture firm Snøhetta, more than doubling the gallery space
- Pittsburg moves to install surveillance cameras along California State Route 4, in response to a series of 20 freeway shootings in the area that have taken the lives of six people, and injured 11, in the past year
- Scientists find evidence of methane-producing microbes in water coming from underground at The Cedars, freshwater springs along Austin Creek in Sonoma County, the first time these methanogens that thrive in harsh environments have been discovered beyond the ocean floor
- The San Jose Sharks win against the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup ice hockey playoffs, advancing them to the Stanley Cup Finals, their first trip to the finals since their founding in 1991
- San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr resigns after the officer-involved shooting death of a woman.
- The Golden State Warriors beat Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association Playoffs, and advance to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive year
- June
- The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority's ballot measure, the San Francisco Bay Clean Water, Pollution Prevention, and Habitat Restoration Program, passes with 2/3 of the vote in the 9 Bay Area counties, providing $500 million in funding for wetland restoration and other projects
- Protesters attack Trump supporters at a Donald Trump campaign stop in San Jose, leaving one supporter bloodied after having their head bludgeoned
- Public protest erupts over the sentencing of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault, to six months of jail and three years of probation, by Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Aaron Persky
- Oakland Police Department chief Sean Whent steps down, while the department is being investigated for an alleged sex scandal possibly involving an underage girl, following the suicide of one officer associated with the scandal
- Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf appoints City Administrator Sabrina Landreth as head of the Oakland Police Department, putting it under civilian control, after 3 police chiefs resign within 9 days, while the department is under multiple investigations
- In San Francisco's highly volatile housing market, a North Beach resident's rent is increased by 344%, from $1,800 a month to $8,000, with him facing eviction for nonpayment
- The Oakland City Council votes unanimously to ban the handling of coal and coke at the city's shipping and storage facilities, including the as yet unfinished Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal
- Stanford University researchers, including study co-author Robert Jackson, find evidence for new groundwater in the California Central Valley, tripling the previous estimates for deep aquifer reserves in the region
- The Sonoma Stompers professional baseball team add two female players to their roster, outfielder-pitcher Kelsie Whitmore and infielder Stacy Piagno, the first women to play professional baseball for a mixed-gender team in the US since the 1950s.
- San Francisco bans the sale of products made from expanded polystyrene (typical pollution pictured), including packing material, buoys and cups, the most stringent ban on foam-type plastics in the US
- July
- The augmented reality mobile game Pokémon GO, developed by San Francisco-based Niantic, Inc. (stock value at release pictured), is published by The Pokémon Company, reaching 15 million downloads within one week
- More than 140 Silicon Valley technology figures, including Steve Wozniak, Vinod Khosla (pictured), and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, sign a statement opposing Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency, saying it will potentially have a negative impact on innovation Silicon Valley Writes a Protest Letter Against Trump
- Verizon Communications announces their intent to acquire Yahoo's internet business for US$4.8 billion
- August
- The San Francisco Millennium Tower (pictured) is found to have sunk 16 inches since construction, and is tilting 2 inches towards the northwest
- California declares that Napa County, and California, are free of the invasive species Lobesia botrana (pictured), known as the "European grapevine moth", with no moths found since June 2014
- A statue of Tony Bennett is unveiled outside the Fairmont Hotel, the venue at which he first sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in 1961
- Governor Jerry Brown signs legislation banning the use of state transportation funds for new coal export terminals, in response to a developer's failed proposal to build a coal terminal at the Port of Oakland
- San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (pictured) refuses to stand for the national anthem at a preseason football game, in protest of police brutality and racism in the United States
- September
- Napa Valley's Margrit Mondavi, the widow of wine pioneer Robert Mondavi, and advocate for the culture of the region, dies at her home in Napa at age 91
- Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (pictured) donates $20 million to a number of elections organizations, with the express purpose of supporting Democratic Party candidates and issues, and defeating Donald Trump, making him the 3rd largest donor in the 2016 campaigns
- Discovery Bay former realtor Marco Gutierrez, the co-founder of Latinos for Trump, says to Joy Reid on MSNBC that Mexican culture in the US is "dominant" and that "If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner"
- Influential San Francisco political activist and broker Rose Pak, an advocate for the Chinatown community, dies in San Francisco
- The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announces a new science program, Chan Zuckerberg Science, with $3 billion in investment over the next decade, with the goal of helping to cure, manage, or prevent all disease by the year 2100. $600 million is to be spent on Biohub, a location in San Francisco's Mission Bay District near the University of California, San Francisco
- The Sawmill Fire breaks out in rural Cloverdale, near The Geysers, in Sonoma County, followed by the Loma Fire (pictured) in the Santa Cruz Mountains
- The MacArthur "Genius" grant recipients are announced, including Stanford University bioengineering professor and inventor Manu Prakash, San Jose graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, and San Francisco sculptor Vincent Fecteau
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes a law, authored by Scott Wiener, barring the city from doing business with companies that have a home base in states such as North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, that forbid civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
- October
- Theranos announces it will close its laboratory operations, shutter its wellness centers and lay off around 40 percent of its work force, while focusing on an initiative to create miniature medical testing machines
- Researchers led by Ali Javey at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announce the creation of a transistor with a working 1-nanometer gate, the smallest transistor reported to date
- A new California law, authored by San Jose Assemblywoman Nora Campos (pictured), will allow San Jose to be the first California city to create "tiny homes" for the homeless, bypassing some state building codes
- The new control tower (pictured) at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) begins operating
- The US Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services releases a 432-page report stating that the San Francisco Police Department stops and searches African Americans at a higher rate than other groups, and inadequately investigates officers use of force. The report details "numerous indicators of implicit and institutionalized bias against minority groups", with a large majority of suspects killed by police being people of color
- Peninsula Clean Energy begins providing electricity to 20 percent of residential customers in San Mateo County, all municipalities, and all small- to mid-size businesses, as a Community Choice Aggregation program, an alternative to Pacific Gas and Electric
- Wells Fargo chairman and CEO John Stumpf announces he will retire, shortly after the bank is issued $185 million in fines for creating over 1.5 million checking and savings accounts and 500,000 credit cards that its customers never authorized. This includes $100 million in fines from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest in the agency's history.
- Tesla Motors posts a profitable quarter, their first in 8 quarters, defying industry expectations
- November
- The San Francisco â Oakland Metropolitan Region has the worst road conditions of any major US metropolitan area (71% rated "poor"), with the San Jose region rated third nationwide (59%) (street of San Francisco pictured)
- The nine Bay Area counties all vote overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton for president, from 62% (Solano County) to 85% (San Francisco)
- Hundreds of people turn out in San Francisco (pictured), Oakland and Berkeley, protesting the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, blocking freeways, lighting fires and chanting, "Not our president" and "Fuck Trump"
- Half the students at Berkeley High School, as well as students at Oakland Technical High School, Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School, and high schools in San Jose and Contra Costa County walk out of classes the morning after Donald Trump is elected president
- The cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Albany pass 1 cent/ounce soda taxes, to combat health risks from excessive sugar consumption
- Protesters against President-Elect Donald Trump join hands around Lake Merritt in Oakland
- Mayor Ed Lee declares that San Francisco will remain a sanctuary city, in response to the election of Donald Trump as president, stating, "I know that there are a lot of people who are angry and frustrated and fearful, but our city's never been about that. We have been and always have been a city of refuge, a city of sanctuary, a city of love."
- With the approval of both companies' shareholders, Tesla Motors will merge with SolarCity, which will expedite Elon Musk's plans to introduce solar roofing tiles to integrate with home automobile charging
- An American-born, non-Muslim woman in Fremont, finds a note on her car, reading "Hijab wearing bitch this is our nation now get the fuck out", after making a peace walk to the top of Mission Peak, where presumably the note writer had observed her wearing a head scarf, which she wears to protect her scalp from the sun, due to having lupus. The incident is part of a wave of 437 incidents of hateful intimidation or harassment, since the presidential election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center
- During a concert at the SAP Center at San Jose, Kanye West is booed by shoe-throwing fans, as he goes on a political tirade, including stating that he had not voted in the presidential election, but that "If I would have voted, I would have voted for Trump"
- San Jose teacher and transgender activist Dana Rivers (formerly David Warfield), who made headlines in 1999 for fighting unsuccessfully to keep a teaching position in Sacramento after sharing her transition with her high school students, is arrested in Oakland, charged with the murders of 3 acquaintances: married couple Patricia Wright and Charlotte Reed, and their 19-year-old son, Toto Diambu-Wright
- Robert P. Goldman, professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley, publishes the 7th and final volume of his translation of the critical edition of Valmikis epic poem, the Ramayana, one of the foundational texts in the history of India, with core themes dating back to the Vedic period
- Copies of an anti-Muslim letter are sent to the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose, and Islamic Centers in Long Beach and Claremont, reading, in part, "Your day of reckoning has arrived, there's a new sheriff in town â President Donald Trump. He's going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he's going to start with you Muslims... <nowiki>[he is]</nowiki> going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the jews <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>."
- A liberal household in Concord is targeted at night by vandals, who plant 56 United States flags defaced with pro-Trump remarks such as "Build The Damn Wall" and "I Luv The Donald", and who then cut the house's power, causing a loud explosion
- The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is hit by hackers, using ransomware, demanding $70,000 in bitcoins, with fare machines reading "OUT OF SERVICE", resulting in passengers riding for free
- San Francisco area activist Gregory Lee Johnson, the defendant in the landmark 1989 Supreme Court decision Texas v. Johnson abolishing laws against flag burning on free speech grounds, declares that Donald Trump is "using the bully pulpit for fascism and forced patriotism", after Trump tweets "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag â if they do, there must be consequences â perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!" Donald Trump is a 'fascist,' says landmark Supreme Court case 'flag-burner' Gregory Lee Johnson
- December
- A fire at an Oakland warehouse (pictured), which was hosting a music event, kills 36 people, the deadliest fire in Oakland history.
- The Biomimetic Millisystems Lab at the University of California, Berkeley designs a wall-jumping robot, called Salto (Latin for jump), modelled after the galago, and which is described as the most vertically agile robot ever built
- John Stewart, chief judge at the San Francisco Superior Court, discards 66,000 arrest warrants for criminal infractions, like sleeping on the sidewalk, public urination and public drunkenness, stating "You're putting somebody in jail because they're poor and can't pay a fine. We got a lot of criticism, but we thought it was the right thing to do."
- More than 300 Silicon Valley technology company employees sign a letter declaring they will not help build a registry, for the upcoming Trump Administration, to be used to track Muslims in the United States, stating "We refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable"
- Uber rolled out self-driving cars (test vehicle pictured) in San Francisco, its headquarter city, and is almost immediately ordered to stop the service by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which cited it as illegal until an autonomous vehicle testing permit is acquired
- Yahoo reports that hackers had, in 2013, stolen data on more than 1 billion user accounts, the largest hack worldwide to date
- Apple, Google, Uber and Twitter all took the Never Again pledge, declaring that they will not support the development of a registry of Muslims in the United States as proposed by President-Elect Donald Trump
- Scientists at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory created the world's thinnest wire, 3 atoms thick, using diamondoids to aid the manufacturing process
- January
- After a series of storms hit California, including January storms causing flooding on the Russian River, Northern California, including the Bay Area, is no longer in drought
- The Land Trust of Napa County, with The Trust for Public Land, secures the largest conservation easement in its history, 7,260 acres northeast of Calistoga known as Montesol Ranch, near Mount St. Helena, and contiguous to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
- Kevin Starr (pictured), American historian and California's State Librarian, best known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "Americans and the California Dream", dies in San Francisco, the home of his birth as a seventh-generation Californian
- Protests of the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump occur in cities across the Bay Area (SF protest pictured), including local versions of the Women's March on Washington, a human chain along the span of the Golden Gate Bridge (pictured), and a 90% no show of dockworkers at the Port of Oakland
- Due to severe storms, Governor Jerry Brown declares states of emergency in multiple counties, including all nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties
- The cities of Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley affirm their formal (for San Jose, informal) status as Sanctuary cities, after a Trump Administration executive order is issued that will require cities to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement orders, or face cuts to federal spending, more than $1 billion in the Bay Area alone
- Pacific Gas and Electric is ordered by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to publicly advertise its guilt in violating pipeline safety laws, and obstruction of justice, in the 2010 San Bruno explosion (fires that night pictured), pay $3 million in fines, and make its employees perform 10,000 hours of community service, including at least 2,000 hours by high-level officials
- Google, Inc. recalls all staff travelling overseas who may be affected by President Trump's executive order suspending all entry of citizens from certain Middle Eastern nations, out of concern they may be barred from re-entry to the US
- Protesters of the executive order suspending entry of certain foreign nationals are joined at San Francisco International Airport by Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of Alphabet, who states "I'm here because I'm a refugee", while the airport issues a statement in support of the protesters, saying "We share <nowiki>their</nowiki> concerns deeply, as our highest obligation is to the millions of people from around the world whom we serve. Although Customs and Border Protection services are strictly federal and operate outside the jurisdiction of all U.S. airports, including SFO, we have requested a full briefing from this agency to ensure our customers remain the top priority. We are also making supplies available to travelers affected by this Executive Order, as well as to the members of the public who have so bravely taken a stand against this action by speaking publicly in our facilities." (protesters pictured)
- San Francisco becomes the first city to sue the Trump Administration over his executive order to deny federal funds to sanctuary cities, joining 2 states that have sued
- February
- The University of California, Berkeley cancels a talk by inflammatory speaker and Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, and puts the campus on lockdown, due to massive protests, violence, property destruction and fire-setting https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/01/berkeley-cancels-speech-by-breitbrart-writer-milo-amid-intense-protests/
- Berkeley mayor Jesse ArreguÃÂn receives thousands of hateful, racist, abusive and threatening messages, including death threats, following his criticism of Milo Yiannopoulos' attempted talk at UC Berkeley, initially describing him as a white nationalist, then apologizing and changing the description to "alt-rightist"
- Thousands attend a protest at Civic Center, San Francisco to protest the immigration/travel ban on seven majority-Muslim nations (US Representative Mike Honda, pictured at event), one of a number of nationwide protests against the ban
- In San Francisco, three judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reject the US Government argument that a stay of the executive order barring nationals from seven majority-Muslim nations should be lifted, stating that any argument limiting or dismissing the courts ability to serve as a check on Executive Branch power "runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy"
- Historically strong Pineapple Express storms bring flooding and mudslides to the Bay Area, destroying homes and closing numerous roads, including State Route 17, State Route 35, State Route 37, Interstate 80, State Route 12, State Route 1, State Route 84, State Route 9, and State Route 152 (storm systems pictured)
- California Governor Jerry Brown requests a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration from President Donald Trump, following a series of storms that hit California, including the Bay Area
- The Kunal Patel San Francisco Open has its first tournament, at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center, part of the ATP Challenger Tour
- The United States Patent Office rules that the Broad Institute's patent claims on the CRISPR gene manipulation technology are valid for Eukaryotic cells (plants and animals), ruling against claims made by the University of California, Berkeley, and granting UC Berkeley a patent limited to its use on Prokaryotic cells (bacteria)
- Thousands gather at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, to stand together in protest against Donald Trump and spell out the word "Resist !!", with overflow crowds creating an underline
- A Day without Immigrants, modeled on the Great American Boycott of 2006, protesting the Trump Administration immigration policy, has businesses across the Bay Area closing in solidarity with the nationwide day of action
- San Francisco is ranked third in traffic congestion of all major US cities, according to the traffic and driver analytics company INRIX (Third Street congestion pictured)
- More than 200 residents are rescued by boat, in the Rocksprings neighborhood of San Jose, due to flooding at Coyote Creek from storm water released at Anderson Lake (dam and spillway pictured) Over 14,000 households are subject to mandatory evacuation due to widespread flooding that exceeds the 100-year flood zone
- Richmond is the first city in the United States to pass a resolution calling on the United States Congress to investigate, and if necessary, impeach, President Donald Trump, for violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution in his international business relations
- Santa Clara County is the first county in the nation to file a motion requesting that a Federal judge halt implementation of the Trump Administration's executive order withholding federal funding for sanctuary cities
- The Jewish Anti-Defamation League offices in San Francisco receive two consecutive bomb threats, as do other Bay Area Jewish community centers, part of a widespread wave of over 100 threats and criminal actions directed against the US Jewish community in 2017
- March
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, from California's 12th congressional district in San Francisco, and other senior Democratic congressional leaders, call on United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, following reports that he had lied under oath to Congress about phone contacts he had had with Russian officials prior to taking his post, and during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, for who he campaigned
- Violence at a Berkeley March 4 Trump rally results in injuries to 7, and the arrests of 10 people https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-03-04/the-latest-2-arrested-at-pro-trump-rally-in-tennessee
- The Warm Springs / South Fremont Bay Area Rapid Transit station (pictured) begins operating in Fremont
- Berkeley is the first city in the US to declare they will refuse to conduct business with companies that are involved with the US/Mexico border wall proposed by President Trump, and will move to divest from those companies that they have investments in
- The National Football League approves the Oakland Raiders move from Oakland to Las Vegas, Nevada, once a new stadium is constructed there, despite efforts by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to create financing for a new stadium complex in Oakland
- April
- A collection of the works of Arthur Szyk (work pictured), consisting of 450 paintings, drawings and sketches owned by Burlingame Rabbi Irvin Ungar, is purchased for $10.1 million by the University of California, Berkeley's Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, through a donation by Taube Philanthropies, the largest single monetary gift to acquire art in UC Berkeley history
- Santa Clara County and San Francisco ask U.S. District Judge William Orrick to block an executive order by President Donald Trump that threatens to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities and counties, arguing that it violates the Constitution and federal laws
- Suicide barriers begin to be installed under the Golden Gate Bridge after years of debate and delays.
- At least 21 people are arrested, and 7 hospitalized, at a clash between approximately 200 Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump demonstrators in Berkeley, at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, during which numerous fights broke out, with reports of the use of firecrackers and pepper spray
- Computer scientist Robert W. Taylor (pictured), who was integral in the development of the Internet, and who founded the Digital Equipment Corporation Systems Research Center in Palo Alto, dies at his home in Woodside
- Women's clothing retailer Bebe begins closing all 175 of its stores, to become an exclusively online retailer
- The area's first officially sanctioned "Weed Day" takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
- Tens of thousands turn out in San Francisco on Earth Day at the local March for Science, to protest federal budget cuts to science research, with MythBusters host Adam Savage saying "The enemy of science isn't politics or a party or an ideology or a law â it is bias, and bias is everywhere. Science is the rigorous elimination of bias. That is a good thing."
- In response to requests by Santa Clara County and San Francisco, U.S. District Judge William Orrick temporarily blocks Executive Order 13768, which had threatened to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities, writing "The statements of the President, his press secretary and the Attorney General belie the Government's argument in the briefing that the Order does not change the law. They have repeatedly indicated an intent to defund sanctuary jurisdictions in compliance with the Executive Order."..."The threat of the Order and the uncertainty it is causing impermissibly interferes with the Counties' ability to operate, to provide key services, to plan for the future, and to budget."
- May
- At least 80 leopard sharks wash up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay, possibly due to a fungal infection, with likely as many as 1,000 dying and sinking since early March
- June
- The Golden State Warriors become NBA champions over the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Kevin Durant earning the Bill Russell M.V.P. Award, with coach Steve Kerr joking, "We have very little talent, actually, it was most coaching"
- A gunman kills 3 people at a San Francisco UPS facility before killing himself
- July
- The Tesla Model 3 electric car begins production at the Fremont Tesla Factory (customers pictured)
- Air Canada Flight 759 narrowly misses a runway incursion at San Francisco International Airport that one retired pilot called "close to the greatest aviation disaster in history".
- August
- Bay Area rapper Keak Da Sneak is shot and critically injured in Richmond, in a targeted attack
- The Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco is ordered to close by the Trump Administration, in retaliation to Russia ordering staff reductions at the US Embassies there
- September
- San Francisco reaches a daytime temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, its highest recorded temperature since record keeping began in 1874.
- Hiking and mountain bike trails open to the peak of Mount Umunhum in San Mateo County, a spur of the Bay Area Ridge Trail
- October
- Fourteen large wildfires, including the Atlas and Tubbs Fires, spread over a 200-mile region north of San Francisco, in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, kill at least 10 people and destroy over 1,500 structures (smoke from fires pictured)
- November
- A rare mountain lion spotted in San Francisco is tranquilized and released into the wild, far south of the city
- The La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve, a 6,142-acre open space reserve in San Mateo County, California, part of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, opens to the public
- Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant, is found not guilty of murder for the 2015 shooting of Kathryn Steinle on a San Francisco pier, in a case that had touched off a national immigration debate. San Francisco pier shooting jury ends Day 5 without verdict - The Washington Post
- December
- A data breach at Stanford University reveals that the university secretly ranked fellowship applicants on their potential value to the university, rather than the university's publicly stated method of by need
- Silicon Valley software engineer Susan Fowler and San Francisco lobbyist Adama Iwu are featured, with other women, on the cover of Time's 2017 Person of the Year issue, this year given to "The Silence Breakers", people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment
- San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the city's first Asian-American mayor, dies from a heart attack, with San Francisco Board of Supervisors president London Breed (pictured) sworn in as acting mayor
- Senator Dianne Feinstein formally asks Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate the West County Detention Center, where multiple federal detainees have stated that they were not allowed to use restrooms. Feinstein wrote, "It has been reported that the conditions are so deplorable that detainees are requesting deportation over pursuing claims in immigration court"
- Buddy's Cannabis Shop, in San Jose, is the first California business to obtain a state Marijuana Micro-Business License, which, along with a city business license, will make it the first fully licensed recreational marijuana shop in California, when it becomes legal on 1 January 2018
- Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 25-year-old former marine, is arrested by the FBI on suspicion of planning a terror attack in the Pier 39 area of San Francisco over Christmas.
- January
- Starting January 1, with the Adult Use of Marijuana Act going into effect statewide, Harborside Health Center, Berkeley Patients Group, and many other Marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area begin retail sales of Marijuana to the general public https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-marijuana-sales-20180101-story.html (public performer on 2016 Independence Day pictured)
- Parks in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Muir Woods National Monument and Fort Point National Historic Site, experience partial or total closure, due to the January 2018 United States federal government shutdown
- More than 150,000 people attend 2018 Women's March protests across the Bay Area, adding the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements to the protests against President Donald Trump (San Francisco event pictured) Bay Area women take to the streets in second annual march
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors votes to replace acting mayor London Breed with an interim mayor, former supervisor Mark Farrell (pictured), amid accusations of racism Political Uproar as Mark Farrell Replaces London Breed as S.F. Mayor
- San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo resigns from the Federal Communications Commission Broadband Advisory Board, citing undue influence from telecommunications companies San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo quits FCC broadband advisory board
- San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announces his department will begin to retroactively apply Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which legalized the possession and recreational use of marijuana for adults ages 21 years or older, to misdemeanor and felony convictions dating back to 1975, recalling and re-sentencing up to 4,940 felony marijuana convictions and dismissing and sealing 3,038 misdemeanors
- February
- The Berkeley City Council declares Berkeley a "sanctuary city" for recreational cannabis sales, prohibiting the use of city resources to assist in enforcing federal marijuana laws or providing information on legal cannabis sales, the first city in California to do so
- Marin County is ranked worst among all California counties in racial disparity, according to Race Counts and Advancement Project California, with a spokesperson for the groups stating, "We were surprised, and were not expecting Marin to be the number-one county in terms of disparity...It's not that progressive counties have it all figured out"
- Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley announces that her office will review thousands of marijuana convictions, dating back to 1974, for possible dismissal under Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, guidelines, following closely after San Francisco announced a similar plan (above)
- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf alerts city residents to imminent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, earning criticism from some federal authorities. She responds, "I was sharing information in a way that was legal and was not obstructing justice, and it was an opportunity to ensure that people were aware of their rights."
- March
- A man with a rifle enters the Veterans Home of California Yountville, the largest veterans home in the United States, holds employees hostage, and is found dead, along with 3 hostages
- May
- Two studies conclude that the housing crisis in the Bay Area and California is reaching emergency proportions, with one study estimating that two counties alone, Santa Clara and Alameda, will need more than 50,000 new homes to meet the demand for affordable housing for lower-income residents, while homelessness increased by 36% in Alameda County from 2016-2017
- The father of some of the ten children that were removed from a home in Fairfield, where they were living in conditions of severe neglect and abuse, is arrested and booked on seven counts of torture and nine counts of felony child abuse
- A nine-story electronic sculpture, "Day for Night", created by artist Jim Campbell, that features low resolution, abstract videos of San Francisco, debuts at the top of Salesforce Tower
- June
- San Francisco voters pass an ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco products, due in part to concerns that candy-flavored products may lure teenagers into nicotine addiction
- Santa Clara County voters remove Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Aaron Persky, who came to national attention in 2016 when he sentenced a Stanford University student to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman
- London Breed (pictured) is elected Mayor of San Francisco in a special election, defeating close rival Mark Leno
- Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former president and COO Ramesh Balwani are indicted on charges of wire fraud, accused of carrying out a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors, doctors and patients. Theranos announced that Holmes would resign as CEO, but retain her position as chairwoman of the board
- Hanabiko "Koko", a female western lowland gorilla born at the San Francisco Zoo, who was known for having learned a large number of hand signs from a modified version of American Sign Language. dies at her home in Woodside, California
- July
- The West County Detention Center severs ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and will no longer incarcerate undocumented migrants at the Contra Costa County facility.
- Nia Wilson, an African American woman, is killed while exiting MacArthur BART station, when a white male attacked her and one of her two sisters with her, with strong suspicions that this was a racially motivated hate crime
- Ron Dellums (pictured), former East Bay US Representative and mayor of Oakland, known for his fiery anti-Vietnam War oratory and progressive politics, dies at his home in Washington, D.C.
- August
- Apple Inc becomes the first company in history to reach $1,000,000,000,000 in value
- The Salesforce Transit Center opens in San Francisco, initially as a hub for bus lines including MUNI and AC Transit, and eventually nearly a dozen other transit agencies, including BART and Caltrain
- A study by the California Association of Realtors shows that only about 1 in 5 Bay Area residents can afford the median purchase price for a home, with state home affordability rates at a 10 year low
- A jury in San Francisco awards 46-year-old former school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson US$289m in damages against Monsanto, after alleging that it had spent decades hiding the cancer-causing dangers of its Roundup herbicides.
- September
- The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholds a patent filed by the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University involving Crispr Cas-9 gene-editing, ruling that the patent didn't infringe on another patent filed two years prior by the University of California, Berkeley, where the technique was first developed
- The Global Climate Action Summit convenes in San Francisco, hosted by California governor Jerry Brown, who pledges to uphold state environmental guidelines despite moves by the United States to roll them back
- San Francisco businessman and co-founder of Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, and his wife, Lynn Benioff, purchase Time magazine for $190 million Time Magazine Sold to Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff for $190 Million
- Psychologist and Palo Alto University statistics professor Christine Blasey Ford accuses Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982
See also
Cities in California
References