The Vacation Zone

The India Zone

Los Angeles California
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Los Angeles was founded in the year of 1781 by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula). It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its independence from Spain. In 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California became part of the United States. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850—five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world's most prominent centers of culture, technology, and international trade. It is home to world-renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields. The city and its immediate vicinity lead the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, and recorded music — which forms the base of Los Angeles' international fame and global status.

The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños) and Chumash Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The first Europeans arrived in 1542 under João Cabrilho, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area as the City of God for the Spanish Empire but continued with his voyage and did not establish a settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later when Gaspar de Portola, together with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. Crespi noted that the site had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.

In 1771, Franciscan friar Junipero Serra built the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel near Whittier Narrows, in what is now called San Gabriel Valley. In 1777, the new governor of California, Felipe de Neve, recommended to the viceroy of New Spain that the site recommended by Juan Crespi be developed into a pueblo. The town was founded on September 4, 1781 by a group of 44 settlers and was named "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula," ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula").These settlers were of Filipino, Native American, African, and Spanish ancestry, with two-thirds being mestizo or mulatto. A majority of the settlers had some African ancestry.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 Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles.

New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican-American War, when Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Later, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexican government formally ceded Alta California and other territories to the United States.

Downtown Los Angeles from the Santa Ana Freeway.Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was producing one-quarter of the world's petroleum.

By 1900, the population had grown to more than 100,000 people , which began to put pressure on the city's water supply. The 1913 completion of the Los Angeles aqueduct under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. In 1915, Los Angeles began annexation of dozens of neighboring communities without water supplies of their own.

In the 1920s, the motion picture and aviation industries flocked to Los Angeles. In 1932, with population surpassing one million, the city hosted the Summer Olympics. This period also saw the arrival of exiles from the increasing pre-war tension in Europe, including Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Schoenberg, and Lion Feuchtwanger.

World War II and the expansion of defense industries brought new growth and prosperity to the city. Thousands of African Americans migrated from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to work in the expanding industries. The state also succumbed to war fears and transported most Japanese-American residents from Los Angeles and other cities to distant internment camps for the duration of the war.

The post-war years saw an even greater boom as urban sprawl expanded the city into the San Fernando Valley.In 1969, Los Angeles became one of the birthplaces of the Internet, as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park.

As in other major cities, long-unresolved racial problems erupted in the 1960s and 1970s. Los Angeles grappled with the Watts riots in 1965, the high school walkout by Chicano students in 1968, and the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, as representative of racial strife within the city. Los Angeles was one of those who passed gay rights bils during the 1970s after years of pressure from prominent performing arts members, and the first one where AIDS was discovered and centered on during the 1980s. Also in the 1980s Los Angeles was the center of most of the heavy metal esp. hair metal bands.

In 1984, the city hosted the Summer Olympics for the second time. The rest of the 1980s was plagued by an increase in gang violence, when crack cocaine became wildly available, and police corruption. Racial tensions surfaced again in 1991 with the Rodney King controversy and the large-scale riots that followed the acquittal of his attackers. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook the city and caused 72 deaths.

Despite propositions by San Fernando Valley and Hollywood sections to secede from the city in 2002, residents voted down secession. The 2000s has seen a rise in urban redevelopment and gentrification in various parts of the city, most notably Echo Park and Downtown.