Timeline of the San Francisco Bay Area

Wells High School building pictured, right) • The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance is formed in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government (1851 hanging pictured, left) • Congregation Emanu-El is chartered in San Francisco • A fire destroys large swaths of San Francisco • After opening a number of businesses in Peru and California, Italian chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli imports 200 pounds of cocoa beans and establishes D. Ghirardelli & Co in San Francisco (1864 advertisement pictured, left) • Henry Wells and William G. Fargo establish Wells, Fargo & Company in San Francisco, a joint-stock association with an initial capitalization of $300,000, to provide express and banking services (iconic stagecoach pictured, right) • The city of Santa Clara is incorporated in Santa Clara County (1910 postcard pictured, right) • Oakland is incorporated in Alameda County (1867 painting shown, right) • Francis K. Shattuck, George Blake, and two partners they met in the gold fields, William Hillegass and James Leonard, lay claim to four adjoining 160-acre (0.65 km2) strips of land north of Oakland • The California Academy of Natural Sciences (modern display pictured, left) is founded in San Francisco • Levi Strauss & Co. is established when Levi Strauss (pictured, right) arrives from Buttenheim, Bavaria, in San Francisco to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business • Alameda County is incorporated • Mare Island Naval Shipyard (pictured, left), the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean, is established in Vallejo, Solano County • The Mechanics' Institute Library and Chess Room is founded in San Francisco • The city of Alameda is incorporated in Alameda County (Alameda Works Shipyard pictured, right) • The first department store in San Francisco opens: Davidson & Lane, later renamed The White House.

• The first Portola Road Race (pictured, left) is run through Melrose in Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward, with at least 250,000 attending • Albany (Albany Hill pictured, right) is incorporated in Alameda County • Fort Ross State Historic Park is established in Sonoma County to protect Fort Ross, founded in 1812 as the southernmost point in the Russian colonization of the Americas

• Five unsolved murders of young women are committed in San Mateo County • Apple Inc. (pictured, left) is founded in Cupertino by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne • Napa Valley wineries Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena (pictured, right) place best in the red and white wine categories respectively, against their traditionally first ranked French competitors, in the wine tasting that becomes known as the Judgment of Paris • China Camp State Park is established in San Rafael • Fairfield-based candy company Herman Goelitz sells their first Jelly Bellies • Cyra McFadden's The Serial's first installments are published in the Pacific Sun alternative newsweekly • Dennis Richmond becomes the lead anchor at KTVU news in Oakland, an early African American news anchor in a major US television market • KPIX television in San Francisco debuts a locally produced magazine program called Evening: The MTWTF Show • The San Francisco Board of Supervisors election places Dianne Feinstein (pictured, left), Harvey Milk (pictured, far right) and Dan White on the board • Oracle Corporation is founded in Santa Clara • Victoria's Secret opens its first store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto • Members of the Joe Boys gang open fire at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown, in an assault on rival gang Wah Ching, leaving 5 people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom are gang members.

• Apple Computer introduces the Apple II • The first World Games are held in Santa Clara • Erhard Seminars Training in San Francisco dissolved • The Sonoma Valley AVA (winery directional sign pictured, left) is established • The Napa Valley AVA (historic marker pictured, right) is established • The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is established in coastal waters off the Golden Gate • Arthur Leonard Schawlow at Stanford University, along with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn, share the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with lasers • 14 year old Marcy Renee Conrad is murdered in Milpitas • Ceratitis capitata, known commonly as the "Mediterranean fruit fly", infests the Bay Area • A plane heading for Buchanan Field Airport loses control and crashes into the roof of Macys, killing the pilot and two passengers, and seriously injuring 84 Christmas shoppers at the Sun Valley Mall in Concord • Año Nuevo State Park is established at Año Nuevo Island (pictured, left) and points in San Mateo County • Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve (pictured, right) is established • NeXT is founded in Redwood City by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, after being forced out of Apple • The San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl for the second time • The Oakland and Berkeley Hills are hit by a firestorm (damage pictured, left) • Frank Jordan is elected mayor of San Francisco • Groundbreaking ceremonies take place at the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco (logo pictured, right) • San Francisco pornography and striptease club pioneer Jim Mitchell kills his brother and business partner Artie in Marin County • Apple Computer introduces the PowerBook line of subnotebook personal computers

• The 2013 America's Cup (Oracle Team USA yacht pictured) is held in San Francisco Bay • Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes while landing at San Francisco International Airport • An unofficial death certificate is issued for Jahi McMath by the Alameda County coroner • Andy Lopez is shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy • Warren Hall (pictured), at California State University, East Bay, is demolished by implosion • Graton Resort & Casino opens in Rohnert Park • The Russell City Energy Center goes online in Hayward • SFJAZZ Center (pictured) opens in San Francisco • The new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens • Ordinaire, a wine bar and shop serving natural wine, opens in Oakland • Solar Impulse begins a cross-US flight, taking off from Moffett Field in Mountain View • The Tom Lantos Tunnels (pictured), at Devil's Slide near Pacifica, open • Gilead Sciences' drug Sovaldi, for the treatment of hepatitis C, is approved by the FDA • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist Carl Haber is awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant" • San Francisco Bay is designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance • Cancer patient Miles Scott becomes Batkid for a day in San Francisco, turning it into Gotham City, with Mayor Ed Lee and others participating in the Make-A-Wish project