The history of California begins thousands of years ago and includes important events like the California Gold Rush;[1] the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad;[1] the 1906 San Francisco earthquake;[2] the start of the American gay rights movement;[3] and the Silicon Valley high-tech boom.[4]
California was first a Spanish colony and then a part of Mexico. The United States began to control the area during the Mexican-American War. California became a U.S. state in 1850.[5]
Hollywood and Yosemite National Park are in California.[1] So are many historic sites, like 18th- to 19th century missions; Alcatraz Federal Prison; the Golden Gate Bridge; the first Chinatown in the country; and the Manzanar internment camp, where Japanese-Americans were interned during WWII.
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