In 1784, the Spanish Crown deeded Rancho San Pedro (including present-day Torrance), a tract of over 75,000 acres (300 km2) in the province of Las Californias of New Spain, to soldier Juan José Domínguez.

[9][10] It was later divided in 1846, with Governor Pío Pico granting Rancho de los Palos Verdes to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda in the Alta California territory of independent Mexico.

[11][12] In the early 1900s, real estate developer Jared Sidney Torrance and other investors saw the value of creating a mixed industrial–residential community south of Los Angeles.

They purchased part of an old Spanish land grant and hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to design a planned community.

The original tract developed by the Olmstead Brothers consists of 109 city blocks divided into three sub-districts: residential, commercial, and industrial.

An urban wetland, the Madrona Marsh is a nature preserve on land once set for oil production and saved from development, with restoration projects enhancing the vital habitat for birds, wildlife, and native plants.

[27] The Sunset Western Garden Book places most of Torrance in Zone 22, part of a basin area in Greater Los Angeles where cold air can pool -- hence the surprisingly chilly record low temperatures for each calendar month at the airport, which has risk of frost over six months.

[22] Because of this, many Japanese restaurants and other cultural offerings are in the city, and Willy Blackmore of L.A. Weekly wrote that Torrance was "essentially Japan's 48th prefecture".

[22] In the pre-World War II period, the South Bay region was one of the few areas that allowed non-U.S. citizens to acquire property, so a Japanese presence came.

Toyota moved its operations to its Torrance campus in 1982 because of its proximity to the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles International Airport, and many other Japanese companies followed suit.

[42] Torrance is home to the U.S. headquarters of Japanese automaker American Honda Motor Company and its luxury vehicle division, Acura.

Robinson Helicopters are designed and built in Torrance as are Honeywell's Garrett turbochargers, used on automobile engines worldwide.

Pacific Sales, Pelican Products, Virco, and Rapiscan Systems are among the other companies based in Torrance.

In 2005, the east end of the original mall north of Carson Street was demolished to make way for a new open-air shopping center, opened in mid-September 2006.

This was followed in 2015 by the opening of an expanded northern Fashion Wing, with Nordstrom as the mall anchor and supplemented by luxury retailers such as Kate Spade, Hugo Boss, Uniqlo, Michael Kors, and Ben Bridge.

All Nippon Airways operates its United States headquarters, a customer relations and services office, in Torrance.

[53] It moved Toyota Motor Sales USA operations to Torrance in 1982, because of easy access to port facilities and the LAX airport.

Numerous other Japanese firms followed Toyota to Los Angeles, because of its location and its reputation as the national trend-setter.

[54] The Los Angeles South Bay area, as of 2014, has the largest concentration of Japanese companies in the United States.

In 2011, Torrance won the Tournament Volunteers' Trophy for best floral design of parade theme under 35 feet in length.

The original city charter was voted on and ratified by the qualified electors at an election held August 20, 1946, and filed with the Secretary of State January 7, 1947.

A third hospital, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, lies just outside the city limits (in unincorporated West Carson).

The Pacific Electric Torrance Shops were completed in 1918 and closed in 1955 two years after all passenger service was taken over by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.

BNSF operates on the former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Harbor Subdivision line originally built in the 1920s.

[89] In 1980 the Lycée Français de Los Angeles bought the 6.2-acre (2.5 ha) former Parkway School property, located in the Hollywood Riviera section of Torrance, from TUSD.

In November 1989 the Lycee sold the property for $2.65 million to Manhattan Holding Co. and scheduled to transfer the students to its West Los Angeles campuses.

[95] In 1980, Asahi Gakuen, a weekend Japanese-language education institution, began renting space in South Torrance High School.

Torrance CitiCABLE, shown on KNET 25.2, Spectrum 3, Frontier FiOS 31 is the government access channel.

Programming includes news, sports, entertainment, information, public affairs, and city council meetings.

In 1973, Torrance established a sister-city relationship with Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan, as part of the Sister Cities International program.