Happy Birthday, Los Angeles!

Originally named as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciuncula ("The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of the Small Portion") in 1781, it's name's been getting shorter ever since. LA was incorporated as the city of Los Angeles in California on April 4, 1850, it has grown to be the 2nd most populous city in the US (after NYC).

The town was founded by settlers from the Mission San Gabriel (in the heart of the beautiful San Gabriel Valley, about 10 minutes drive from Bahooka) on September 4th, 1781, and remained a small town supplying the surrounding Rancheras until after the US gained control of the region after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in 1847. The town grew slowly until the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1876 & oil was discovered in 1892, by 1923 LA was supplying 1/4 of the worlds petroleum & many of it's petroleum based products, especially tires (an early LA nickname was "Akron of the West") & filmstock. The first movie studio built in LA was the Nestor Studios built at Sunset & Gower in 1911, another 15 studios opened that same year, and in 1913 Cecil B. DeMille started filming his famous movie The Sqaw Man in a barn at the corner of Selma & Vine, ushering in the era of the Hollywood Epic.

Los Angeles has had it's share of troubles: the 1965 Watts Riots, the 1971 Sylmar & 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquakes, the 1992 Rodney King Riots and 1994 Northridge earthquake being some of the most noteable, but LA has overcome each problem & grown larger & stronger.

Other Historical Highlights for today are:

• 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
• 1885 - Arthur Murray, dancer, is Born (d. 1991)
• 1887 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna Medora Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
• 1898 - Agnes Ayres, silent film actress, starred with Rudolph Valentino in THE SHEIK, is Born (d. 1940)
• 1906 - Bea Benaderet, actress, is Born. She starred in the Jack Benny Program, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The Beverly Hillbillies & Pettycoat Junction, she was the orignal voice of Granny in the Warner Brothers' Tweety cartoons, as well as the original Betty Rubble and the voice of many WB cartoon characters. (d. 1968)
• 1964 - The Beatles occupy all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States.
• 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
• 1983 - Gloria Swanson, movie & stage actress, clothing designer, died. Her most famous role was as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (b. 1897)
  
• 1987 - C.L. Moore, science fiction writer, died (b. 1911)
• 1994 - Netscape Communications Corporation is founded (under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation") by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2005-04-04 09:54 ]

"Akron of the West" - My new favorite nickname for a city. I had always thought of Akron as "The Los Angeles of Ohio", though. Go figure.