Los Angeles

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542. The city was founded on September 4, 1781, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on the village of Yaanga. It became a part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and became part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California. Los Angeles has a diverse economy with a broad range of industries. Despite a decline in film production, it is the oldest and one of the largest hubs of film and television production. It has one of the busiest container ports in the Americas. Despite an exodus of commerce, Downtown Los Angeles is evolving as a cultural center with the world's largest showcase of architecture designed by Frank Gehry. In 2024, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of over $1.295 trillion, making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after New York and Tokyo. Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and will host the games for a third time in 2028.

In Their Own Story

On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers known as 'Los Pobladores' founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'. The original name of the settlement is disputed; the Guinness Book of World Records rendered it as 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula'; other sources have shortened or alternate versions of the longer name. The local English pronunciation of the name of the city has varied over time. A 1953 article in the journal of the American Name Society asserts that the pronunciation lawss AN-jəl-əs was established following the 1850 incorporation of the city and that since the 1880s the pronunciation lohss ANG-gəl-əs emerged from a trend in California to give places Spanish, or Spanish-sounding, names and pronunciations. In 1908, librarian Charles Fletcher Lummis, who argued for the name's pronunciation with a hard g, reported that there were at least 12 pronunciation variants. In the early 1900s, the Los Angeles Times advocated for pronouncing it Loce AHNG-hayl-ais, approximating Spanish [los ˈaŋxeles], by printing the respelling under its masthead for several years. This did not find favor. Since the 1930s, has been most common. In 1934, the United States Board on Geographic Names decreed that this pronunciation be used by the federal government. This was also endorsed in 1952 by a 'jury' appointed by Mayor Fletcher Bowron to devise an official pronunciation.

Reader's Guide

The settlement of Indigenous Californians in the modern Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley was dominated by the Tongva (now also known as the Gabrieleño since the era of Spanish colonization). The historic center of Tongva power in the region was the settlement of Yaanga (Tongva: Iyáangẚ), meaning 'place of the poison oak', which would eventually become the site where the Spanish founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles. Iyáangẚ has also been translated as 'the valley of smoke'. In 1542, maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the present-day area of southern California for the Spanish Empire during an official military expedition northward along the Pacific coast from New Spain. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers known as 'Los Pobladores' founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. The present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or (New Spain) settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African, indigenous, and European ancestry. There was even one Asian Filipino from Manila (Antonio Miranda Rodríguez) who was reassigned to nearby Santa Barbara which was a fortress that needed his gun-smithing skills more. The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, after which the pueblo existed within the Mexican Republic. During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles the regional capital of Alta California. By this time, the new republic introduced more secularization acts within the Los Angeles region. In 1846, during the Mexican–American War, marines from the United States occupied the pueblo. This resulted in the siege of Los Angeles, where 150 Mexican militias fought the occupiers, who eventually surrendered. Mexican rule ended following the American Conquest of California, part of the larger Mexican-American War. Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. The Mexican Cession was formalized in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which ceded Los Angeles and the rest of Alta California to the United States. Railroads arrived with the completion of the Southern Pacific line from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, and by 1923, the discoveries helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000, putting pressure on the city's water supply. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, ensured the continued growth of the city. Because of clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent cities and communities felt compelled to join Los Angeles. Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones. The new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were prohibited. The proscriptions included barns, lumber yards, and any industrial land use employing machine-powered equipment. These laws were enforced against industrial properties after the fact. These prohibitions were in addition to existing activities that were already regulated as nuisances. These included explosives warehousing, gas works, oil drilling, slaughterhouses, and tanneries. Although the council designated seven industrial zones, exemptions granted between 1908 and 1915 permitted industrial development within designated residential areas. There are two differences between the 1908 Residence District Ordinance and later zoning laws in the United States. First, the 1908 laws did not establish a comprehensive zoning map as the 1916 New York City Zoning Ordinance did. Second, the residential zones did not distinguish types of housing; they treated apartments, hotels, and detached single-family housing equally. In 1910, Hollywood merged into Los Angeles, with 10 movie companies already operating in the city at the time. By 1921, more than 80 percent of the world's film industry was concentrated in L.A. The money generated by the industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression. By 1930, the population surpassed one million. In 1932, the city hosted the Summer Olympics. During the Second World War, Los Angeles became a major center of wartime manufacturing, such as shipbuilding and aircraft. Calship built hundreds of Liberty Ships and Vic

Did You Know?

• Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind New York City, with an estimated 3.87 million residents as of 2025.
• The city was founded on September 4, 1781, by a group of 44 settlers known as 'Los Pobladores' under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve.
• Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States on September 14, 1908.
• By 1921, more than 80 percent of the world's film industry was concentrated in Los Angeles.
• The Los Angeles metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of over $1.295 trillion in 2024, making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after New York and Tokyo.