X-Nico

100 unusual facts about California


2012 May Day protests

Oakland, California – Protests were dispersed by police with the use of tear gas.

Acentrophryne

Fossils of the type species, A. longidens, have been found in Late Miocene strata of Rosedale.

AIDS Project Los Angeles

The Walk is now the largest HIV/AIDS fundraiser in Southern California.

Amy Elizabeth du Pont

She died on February 16, 1962 at age 81, following a stroke at her home in Montecito, California.

Aptos High School

Aptos High School is a comprehensive secondary school in Aptos, California, USA in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

APW/Vendetta Pro Unified Tag Team Championship

On January 5, 2013, The Suburban Commandos (T-Rent and D-Unit) defeated SU/KA and the defending Champiosn The Ballard Brothers in a Triangle Tag Team Match in Hayward, California to become the first team to win the Unified Tag Team Titles on an All Pro Wrestling Event.

Artemis Pebdani

She received her BFA in theatre from Southern Methodist University and is also an alum of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, California.

Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site

Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site is located within the Clear Creek Management Area near Fresno County eighteen miles northwest of Coalinga, California.

Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and Turntable

The structures now located at El Portal were originally built in Bagby, and were moved from that location in 1966 when the townsite was to be inundated by the filling of Lake McClure behind New Exchequer Dam.

Basque-Americans in California

Basque immigrants and explorers arrived in what is now California in the late 1500s and early 1600s.

Becky G

-- odd spelling supported by source, twitter account name, etc. --> Marie Gomez (born March 2, 1997), known better by her stage name Becky G, is a Mexican-American hip hop singer, rapper, songwriter and dancer from Inglewood, California.

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me

On April 30, 1966, two days after the publication of his book, Fariña attended a book-signing ceremony at a Carmel Valley Village bookstore, the Thunderbird (to be followed the next day by another at the Discovery Bookshop in San Francisco).

Benson Mates

Benson Mates (May 19, 1919, Portland, Oregon – May 14, 2009, Berkeley, California) was an American philosopher, noted for his work in logic, the history of philosophy, and skepticism.

Big Log

The video for the song was filmed on location in various areas around California and Nevada, including the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel in Death Valley Junction, California, the Calico Ghost Town in California, the Glass Pool Inn in Las Vegas, which was demolished in 2004, and in Crystal, Nye County, Nevada.

Bobby Quarry

Bobby Quarry was born in Lynwood, California on November 11, 1962, and is the last surviving brother of the four Quarry brothers, three of whom were noted boxers.

Brian C. Griffin

In January 2004, Griffin was appointed the President and member of the Board for Clean Energy Systems, a private Rancho Cordova, California based energy technology innovations firm.

California Genealogical Society and Library

The society's library is located in Oakland's historic Breuner Building at 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2.

California State Route 261

The freeway continues next to The Market Place, a mall in Irvine, before going through a toll plaza after the Irvine Boulevard interchange.

California State Route 49

Near the town of Mount Bullion, SR 49 passes by Mariposa-Yosemite Airport before turning northwest and going through Bear Valley and the intersection with CR J16.

Carl B. Koford

Carl Buckingham Koford (September 3, 1915 in Oakland, California – December 3, 1979 in Berkeley, California) was an American biologist who is known for his research work on the behavior of the California Condor.

Central-Alameda, Los Angeles

The 84.6% Latino, low-income, youthful Central-Alameda neighborhood of the South Los Angeles, California, region lies just south of Downtown and west of Huntington Park.

Charlie Shrem

Shrem spoke at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, California describing the potential for initial fights between Bitcoin companies and regulators and the need for close collaboration between them to develop standards of 'Knowing Your Customer' policies.

Christian Parenti

Parenti has taught at the New College of California and at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.

Clementine Deymann

In 1885 and in 1891 Father Clementine was elected definitor of the Franciscan province of the Sacred Heart; in 1886 he was made superior of the boys' orphanage at Watsonville, California.

Computer Economics

It was founded in 1979 by Bruno Bassi and is currently headquartered in Irvine, California, USA.

Deep Dark Canyon

The film was originally called Lawless and was shot on location in the rural town of Guerneville, California.

Derek Ernst

He attended Clovis East High School in Clovis, California and played college golf at UNLV, where he was a four-time All-American and was twice named Mountain West Conference player of the year.

Devin Del Do

Del Do grew up in Valencia, California, played for the West Valley Samba club team, and attended Hart High School where he was twice named to the All-Foothill League first team, and was his team's Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year as both a junior and senior.

Ducey's Bass Lake Lodge

In 1941, Buddy Freeman constructed Freeman's Bass Lake Lodge on the north shore of Bass Lake, California about one mile west of the Pines Village.

El Capitan High School

El Capitan High School (commonly known as El Cap) is a public high school in Lakeside, California, United States, a census-designated place in San Diego, and serves students in grades nine through twelve.

Eric Hardgrave

Hardgrave played first base for Bullard High School in Fresno, California.

Evangelica

The "dissident bimonthly" Evangelica based in Napa, California was founded in reaction.

Fernley and Lassen Railway

In Flanigan, the Fernley & Lassen intersects the original Western Pacific Railroad, then continues on to Wendel, California.

Freddie Rodriguez

Prior to being elected to the state assembly, he was a Pomona city councilmember.

George S. Stuart

When Stuart moved to Ojai, California in 1959, he opened The Gallery of Historical Figures and began teaching workshops on figural construction, costuming and sculpting faces.

George Samuel Clason

George Samuel Clason ( November 7, 1874 – April 7, 1957 ), also known as George S. Clason, was born in Louisiana, Missouri, and died in Napa, California.

Gerald Heffernan

Gerald "Gerry" Joseph Heffernan (July 24, 1916 in Montreal, Quebec – January 16, 2007 in Moraga, California) was a professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League.

Gladys Waddingham

Gladys Waddingham (1900–1997), a Spanish teacher at Inglewood High School in Inglewood, California, for 45 years, was the author of many books about her adopted city.

Glen Alvelais

Glen Alvelais (born February 22, 1968 in Hayward, California) is a heavy metal lead guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gold Line Foothill Extension

"Phase 2B" is the project to extend the Gold Line corridor from the Phase 2A terminus in Azusa east to Montclair.

Granville Knight

He later moved to California to practice in the fields of allergies and nutrition.

H. Lee Sarokin

Just a few weeks before retiring from the bench, Sarokin purchased a house in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where he had chosen to live in retirement.

Horace Bristol

Bristol was born and raised in Whittier, California, and attended the Art Center of Los Angeles, originally majoring in architecture.

Islam in Peru

The Latin American Muslim Unity (LAMU) organization, based in Fresno, California, United States, has drawn up a proposal for the first Islamic orphanage in Peru, although it has not yet materialized.

J. Jon Bruno

From 1983 to 1986, he was associate at St. Paul's Church in Pomona, California.

Jack McCartan

His heroics helped the U.S. team defeat such powerful teams as Canada, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia and win the gold medal at Squaw Valley.

Jackson Temple

Jackson Temple (August 11, 1827–December 25, 1902) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California.

James Colley

Raised in Bakersfield, California, Colley found his musical inspiration in the works of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed.

Jennifer 8

At the invitation of an old friend and colleague, Freddy Ross, Berlin heads to rural northern California, for a job with the Eureka police force.

Jerry Birdwell

Jerry R. Birdwell was the former mayor of South Lake Tahoe, California and judge of Dallas County's 195th Judicial District Court.

Joan Buchanan

She ran in California's 15th district against Republican San Ramon Mayor H. Abram Wilson.

John C. Waugh

John Clinton Waugh (born October 12, 1929) in Biggs, California is an American journalist.

John L. Notter

He also served as chairman of American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, the developer of a major master-planned residential and commercial development north of Los Angeles in Westlake Village, California, which continues to serve as an example of master-planned communities throughout the country.

John William Gregg

John William Gregg (January 8, 1880, New Hampshire - 1969 Berkeley), was a 20th-century professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jon R. Cavaiani

Though initially classified 4F, due in part to a severe allergy to bee stings, Cavaiani joined the Army from Fresno, California, shortly before becoming a naturalized citizen in 1968.

KDUG

KDUG-LP, a low-power television station (channel 21) licensed to Hemet, California, United States

Kempster Blanchard Miller

His brother was businessman, rancher and citrus farmer Azariel Blanchard Miller (1878–1941), founder of the city of Fontana, California.

Kristin Hedstrom

She currently resides in Oakland, California where she is affiliated with the California Rowing Club.

La Palma Intercommunity Hospital

La Palma Intercommunity Hospital (LPH) is an 141 bed acute care facility in La Palma, California, USA.

Las Lomitas Elementary School District

The Las Lomitas Elementary School District is a public school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, primarily serving parts of the communities of Menlo Park, Atherton and Ladera, with its headquarters in Menlo Park.

Lawrence Plaza

It is also the name of a small shopping plaza in Santa Clara, California serving the Korean community with a grocery store, bakery, coffee shop, and a food court; this article describes the shopping centre in Toronto.

Leah Rosenfeld

She spent the rest of her life in Mariposa, California, where she was interviewed by railroad historian Shirley Burman and photographed by railroad photographer Richard Steinheimer in 1987.

Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies

The other reason was that the ending of Larry 3 was very definitive and somehow metafictional, since it showed Larry and Patti coming to the Sierra studios to make games based on their adventures, as well as living happily in a mountain cabin in Coarsegold.

Liv Jagge-Christiansen

She participated at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley and at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, competing in downhill, slalom and giant slalom.

Margie Wright

Wright has become a popular figure in the Fresno community and was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

María Ruiz de Burton

Soon after the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, Ruiz de Burton, her mother, and her brother moved the Monterey and became American citizens.

Marian Bergeson

A resident of Newport Beach, California, Bergeson and her husband, Garth, have four children (Nancy, Garth Jr., Julie, and James) and eleven grandchildren.

Mary Lanier

Lanier died on May 23, 2002, in Ojai, California; her cause of death is unknown, but some sources say natural causes.

Mason Aguirre

He turned pro at fifteen and his parents moved their family to Mammoth Lakes, California to pursue his snowboarding career.

Melvin Anthony

Melvin Anthony grew up in the lower-middle-class neighborhoods of Sacramento and San Bernardino, California.

Merrill B. Twining

He had retired from active duty with the Marine Corps on October 31, 1959 and died May 11, 1996 in Fallbrook, California.

Metasonix

Metasonix is an American audio equipment manufacturer, founded by Eric Barbour in 1998 and located in Lakeport, California.

Millspaugh

Millspaugh, California, unincorporated community in Inyo County, California

Nevada–Texas–Utah Retort

In 1925, the NTU Company built a test plant at Sherman Cut near Casmalia, California.

Northrop XFT

After the 3A and its test pilot, Lieutenant Frank Scare, disappeared without trace on a flight over the Pacific Ocean off California on 30 July 1935, Northrop abandoned the 3A project and sold its blueprints to Chance Vought Aviation.

Novella Carpenter

In March 2011, the City of Oakland told Carpenter she would have to close her Ghost Town Farm because she was selling excess produce without a permit.

Odostomia pratoma

The type specimen was found in the Pacific Ocean off Santa Rosa Island, California

Paleteros

In San Jose, California an individual is fined $278 every time they are caught selling paletas without a permit.

Panama hake

The Panama hake (Merluccius angustimanus) is a merluccid hake of the genus Merluccius, found off the west coast of the Americas from Del Mar, California, to Ensenada de Tumaco, Colombia.

Paul Horcher

Horcher came in third behind then GOP Assemblyman Dick Mountjoy and then Diamond Bar city councilman Gary Miller, with the mud between Mountjoy and Miller being especially nasty.

Penn Valley

Penn Valley, California, a census-designated place in Nevada County, California

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) is a public school district that serves Placentia, Yorba Linda and parts of Anaheim, Brea, and Fullerton located in Orange County, California.

Ramaytush people

– 1823 Pomponio, of Half Moon Bay led raids against Mission Dolores, taking livestock and horses.

Redway

Redway, California, USA, a census-designated place located in Humboldt County

Rich Manning

He played collegiately at both Syracuse University and the University of Washington, after having attended Center High School in Antelope, California.

Ritchie Coliseum

Terrapins pugilists Ben Alperstein and Tom Birmingham went on to compete in the national intercollegiate championship in Sacramento, California.

Robert Charles Wilson

Apart from another short period in the early 1970s spent in Whittier, California, he has lived most of his life in Canada, and in 2007 he became a Canadian citizen.

San Mateo Union High School District

The district consists of seven public high schools, one alternative high school (a "college high school"), and one adult School in San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, and San Mateo.

Savanna School District

Savanna School District is an elementary school district in Anaheim, California that also serves a small portion of Buena Park, Cypress and Stanton.

Spring Valley, California

Valley Springs, California, in Calaveras County, formerly called Spring Valley

St. Helena Hospital Clearlake

The hospital owns and operates three outpatient family health centers in Clearlake, Middletown and Kelseyville.

Sun Valley Charter High School

Sun Valley Charter High School was a small charter high school in Ramona, California, chartered by the Ramona Unified School District.

Superfrog Triathlon

SUPERFROG is a half-Ironman distance triathlon held annually and based on the Silver Strand State Beach, Coronado, California.

The Touch of Satan

The film was shot in 1970 in the Santa Ynez, California area and featured early work by movie makeup artist Joe Blasco.

Tomales Presbyterian Church and Cemetery

Tomales Presbyterian Church and Cemetery is a historic Presbyterian church at 11 Church Street in Tomales, California.

Triage tag

The example Triage Tag shown in this article is the All Risk(R) Triage Tag manufactured by Disaster Management Systems (DMS) located in Pomona, California.

Type 92 Battalion Gun

Two guns are preserved on display in a small park on Main Street of Lakeport, California.

U.S. Route 95 in California

Upon entering San Bernardino County, US 95 turns away from the Colorado River, heading northwest towards Vidal Junction, the junction with SR 62 in the Vidal Valley.

Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad

The Vaca Valley Railroad was incorporated on April 12, 1869 to run a branch from the mainline of the California Pacific Railroad (later Southern Pacific Railroad's mainline between Sacramento and Oakland, CA) at Elmira to Rumsey.

Wrestling at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman +100 kg

The Men's Greco-Roman +100 kg at the 1984 Summer Olympics as part of the wrestling program were held at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California.


Amanda Aday

She attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center, a summer theatre/dance camp in the Catskill Mountains in New York, from 1990 through 1996, and then graduated from the prestigious Idyllwild Arts Academy in California.

Angelo Buono, Jr.

The presiding judge, Ronald M. George (future Chief Justice of California), denied the motion to dismiss.

Baseball's Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories

It is the first feature dramatic film on Clemente's life and was written and directed by California filmmaker and Pittsburgh native Richard Rossi and stars two-time Olympian high-jumper Jamie Nieto in the title role of Roberto Clemente and Marilinda Rivera as his wife Vera Clemente.

California Cycleway

The inventor and promotor of the cycleway was Pasadena resident Horace Dobbins, who attracted ex-California governor Henry Harrison Markham to join him in the venture.

California Gull

Seriously threatened birds that share the same South Bay habitat include the Snowy Plover and California Least Tern, while less-threatened birds including Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, Forster's Terns, and Caspian Terns are also preyed upon by the abnormally large flocks of California Gulls.

California State Lottery

Make Me a Millionaire, the California Lottery's second TV game show, debuted on January 17, 2009 for an initial four-year run with host Mark L. Walberg and co-presenter Liz Hernandez.

California State Route 20

Its west end is at SR 1 in Fort Bragg, from where it heads east past Clear Lake, Colusa, Yuba City, Marysville, and Nevada City to I-80 near Emigrant Gap, where eastbound traffic can continue on other routes to Lake Tahoe or Nevada.

Carl E. Walz

The Expedition 4 crew returned to Earth aboard STS-111, with Endeavour landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 19, 2002.

Clark Natwick

Clark Natwick competed in several road racing events; he won Mt. Hamilton Road Race racing with Greg LeMond

Cleome platycarpa

It is native to the western United States from northeastern California to Idaho, including the Modoc Plateau, where it grows on clay and volcanic soils in the sagebrush.

Clunker

A Cruiser bicycle built during the mid Seventies, in Marin county, California.

Cornelius Herman Muller

In addition to his teaching duties during his years at UCSB, Muller conducted numerous research studies, funded partly by four National Science Foundation grants, on allelopathic mechanisms in California plant communities and systematics and evolution of the species Quercus.

Daniel Siebert

In 2002, Siebert wrote a letter to the United States Congress in which he objected to bill H.R. 5607 introduced by Rep. Joe Baca (D-California) which sought to place Salvia divinorum in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

David Epel

David Epel is a researcher at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California.

Douce

Douce noir, French wine grape that is also known as Charbono in California and Bonarda in Argentina

Eldad

Eldad Tarmu (1960, Los Angeles, California), a vibraphonist and composer

Frankie Jaxon

In 1941 he retired from show business and worked at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He was transferred to Los Angeles, California.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929) was an American Unitarian minister who served congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and California and who wrote many significant hymns.

Health maintenance organization

Within a year, the Los Angeles Fire Department signed up, then the Los Angeles Police Department, then the Southern California Telephone Company (now AT&T Inc.), and more.

Hubbs' beaked whale

Carl Leavitt Hubbs, a noted American ichthyologist, published a description of a whale found alive in the surf near his office at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, in 1945.

Human trafficking in the United States

Slavery is found throughout California, but major hubs are centered around Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Jacques Vallée

Jacques Fabrice Vallée (born September 24, 1939 in Pontoise, Val-d'Oise, France) is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California.

Jonas H. Ingram

In August 1952, he suffered a heart attack while serving as the superintendent of summer schools at Culver Academies, then was stricken again with another attack on September 9, while at the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego, California.

Journal of Historical Review

The Journal of Historical Review is a non-peer reviewed serial, periodical, or journal published by the Institute for Historical Review in Torrance, California.

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

Both these pueblos and missions were on the California side of the Colorado River near the mouth of the Gila River but were administered by the Arizona authorities.

KBQR

KQSL, a television station (channel 8) in Fort Bragg, California, United States known as KBQR from October 2010 through May 2011

KDOC

KDOC-TV, independent television station licensed to Anaheim, California

KEFC

KEFC-LP, a low-power radio station (100.5 FM) licensed to Turlock, California, United States

Kellyn Tate

She later played professional softball for the Orlando Wahoos (1998), Akron Racers (1999-2000), WPSL All-Stars (2001), and California Sunbirds (2004).

KLRS

KCAI, a radio station (89.7 FM) licensed to serve Lodi, California, United States, which held the call sign KLRS from 2007 to 2012

KPOP

KTNQ, a radio station (1020 AM) licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, which formerly used the call sign KPOP

MacLafferty

James H. MacLafferty (1871-1937), a U.S. Representative from California

Mark Kersey

Mark Kersey (born c. 1976) is a member of the San Diego City Council representing District 5 in San Diego, California.

Mayacamas

Mayacamas Mountains or Mayacmas Mountains, in Napa Valley, California

Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles

Nichols Canyon was named after John G. Nichols who served as mayor of Los Angeles, California between 1852 and 1853 and again from 1856 to 1859.

NWEAMO

New West Electronic Arts & Music Organization (NWEAMO), founded by composer Joseph Waters in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in 1998, is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego, California that produces the annual international festival of electro-acoustic music.

Oswald Hope Robertson

Robertson was born in Woolwich in south-east London, but at the age of one-and-a-half he emigrated with his parents to California, settling in the San Joaquin Valley.

R. N. Baskin

In route for California, Baskin visited the Little Cottonwood mining district with Thomas Hearst and saw possibilities in the minerals of Utah Territory and decided to stay.

Randy California

Randy California drowned in the ocean while rescuing his 12-year-old son from a rip current near the home of his mother, Bernice Pearl, at Molokai, Hawaii.

Richmond–San Rafael Bridge

The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge (officially, the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge) is the northernmost of the east–west crossings of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA, connecting Richmond on the east to San Rafael on the west end.

Robert F. Fisher

Robert F. Fisher, (February 18, 1879 Plymouth, England - July 20, 1969 Carlotta, California) served in the California legislature and during the Spanish-American War he served in the United States Army.

SAPIEN Technologies, Inc.

Group Telein wrote the software in Turbo Pascal, eventually moving their operations from their individual residences to an office in downtown Berkeley, California.

Sedco Hills, California

The name Sedco Hills has become the informal name of that section of the Temescal Mountains east of Sedco Hills, west of Cottonwood Canyon Creek and south of the San Jacinto River.

Times Building

Los Angeles Times Building, the building at 1st and Spring Streets in Los Angeles, California that has housed The Los Angeles Times since 1935

Tunisian Community Center

In their support for the Tunisian Revolution's aims toward freedom and democracy, the TCC has written to the US Senator of California Barbara Boxer, requesting to freeze the overthrown President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's assets.

Warren H. Carroll

During 1967-1972 he served on the staff of California State Senator, later U.S. Congressman, John G. Schmitz.

Watsonville Riots

In September 4, 2011, California apologized to Filipinos and Filipino Americans in an Assembly resolution authored by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas.

William G. Sebold

William G. Sebold (Wilhelm Georg Debrowski; 10 March 1899 in Mülheim, Germany – February 1970 in Walnut Creek, California) was a German spy in the United States during World War II, who became a double agent for the FBI.

Zorro's Fighting Legion

The story takes a few liberties with Zorro's official timeline: it takes place in Mexico instead of Alta California; Zorro wears a masquerade mask, rather than the traditional bandana; the characters Don Alejandro Vega (Don Diego's father) and Bernardo are absent; and Zorro's horse, Tornado, was changed to white (much like Kaiketsu Zorro).