le cars in the world were installed in San Francisco, on Clay Street Hill; the steep terrain made horse buses impractical. They were the invention of engineer Andrew Smith Hallidie, 37.
3/4/1860. The first pony express arrived in Sacramento, California, 11 days after leaving St Joseph, Missouri. The run across 1,966 miles of empty prairie between St Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California; it included dangers from hostile Indians and flash floods in the mountains. The Pony Express ended on 24/10/1861 when the first trans-continental telegraph line was completed.
9/9/1850. California became the 31st State of the USA.
24/1/1848. Gold was discovered at Sutlers Mill in California, by James Marshall. This started the Gold Rush. In 1841 a prospector, Francisco Lopez, found gold traces in the roots of a freshly dug onion. Farmers, clerks, even church ministers, headed west, although some suspected that the US government fostered the Gold Rush to encourage population growth in the former Mexican territory. A major gold find was made by prospector J A Shutter, and by 1849 over 80,000 people had flooded into the area; in 1840 California had just 14,000 inhabitants. US Congress agreed to the issue of a US$20 ‘double eagle’. Many gambling houses sprang up in the area, along with bars and brothels. San Francisco grew from a small village to a town of 25,000 within a few months. Food prices rocketed; apples were $5 each, eggs $10 a dozen, and a small whisky sold for a pinch of gold dust.
7/7/1846. A US squadron under Commodore John D Sloat sailed into Monterrey Bay and formally claimed California for the USA, during the Mexican-US War. Pro Mexican revolts in California on 6/12/1846 were put down by US troops. On 13/1/1847 pro-Mexico fighters finally surrendered to the US in California, ending 25 years of Mexican rule,
4/11/1841, The first emigrant train for California reached Stanislaus River, having left Independence, Missouri on 1/5/1841.
3/11/1836. Rebels in California proclaimed their independence from Mexico.
8/1835, US President Jackson, seeking to ensure the US had a Pacific Coast presence and usage by the US Navy of San Francisco Bay, began to attempt to force Mexico to cede territory east of the Rio Grande, also north of 37 latitude, so as to give California to the US.
4/9/1781. In California, the Spanish founded a tiny village near San Gabriel. They called it Los Angeles.
29/6/1776, San Francisco (Spanish for "Saint Francis") was founded, when colonists from Spain established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named after St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away.
Appendix 6 – Florida
1/10/1971. Disneyworld opened in Florida.
23/5/1937, John D Rockefeller, American philanthropist and founder of the Standard Oil Company, died in Florida aged 97.
15/2/1933, The Italian immigrant and anarchist Guiseppe Zangara failed in an attempt to assassinate President Franklin D Roosevelt in Bayfront Park, Miami.
28/7/1896, The City of Miami was incorporated. It had been a small Indian trading post with two dwellings, a storehouse, and a small fort when the railway was built there in 1896. On incorporation it had a population of 260. By 1910 it had a population of 5,471; by 1920, 29,571.
1858, Only about 150 Seminole Indians remained in the remoter areas of Florida after a war on them (Second Seminole War) by Federal soldiers. Between 1835 and 1842, some 3,000 sldiers were killed, and only some 300 Seminoles escaped death or deportation. The Army returned again in 1855 in the Third Seminole War.
3/3/1845, Florida became the 27th State of the Union.
28/12/1835. Over 100 US troops were killed by Seminole Indians resisting attempts to drive them out of Florida.
25/12/1837, US troops routed Seminole Indians at Lake Okeechobee, Florida.
22/2/1819. The USA annexed all of Florida from Spain.
22/6/1564, The French settlement of Fort Caroline was founded in Florida.
8/4/1513. The Spaniard, Juan Ponce de Leon, claimed Florida, which he believed to be an island, for Spain. He called it Florida because of the abundance of wild flowers there and 