She was launched on 22 September 1971 sponsored with a "near miss" of the champagne bottle by First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon, and commissioned on 16 February 1974 by The Honorable James E. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs).

California suffered minor stern damage on 6 June 1977 when high winds in Norfolk harbor broke her moorings and the cruiser drifted in into the frigate USS Thomas C. Hart (FF-1092).

In September 1983, the "Golden Grizzly" left Norfolk for the last time, steaming through the Panama Canal to its new homeport, Naval Air Station, Alameda, California.

In September and October 1989, California participated as an anti-air-warfare picket ship in PACEX 89, the largest combined sailing of U. S. and allied naval units since World War II.

In April 1990, California entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, for a three-year refueling complex overhaul, including two new D2G high endurance reactor cores in her engineering plant with adequate fuel capacity to power the ship for more than 20 years of normal operations, and the New Threat Upgrade Combat Systems Suite.

The timing of this overhaul would prove crucial to the ship's longevity, as it allowed the two California-class cruisers (California and South Carolina) to survive their successor CGNs.

[citation needed] In June 1994, California joined the USS Kitty Hawk battle group in the Western Pacific for the ship's first deployment in five years.

California exchanged personnel with the Republic of Korea Navy for a combined exercise and with the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force for ANNUALEX 06G and Keen Edge 95.

The cruiser also took part in a LINKEX exercise with United States forces in and near Korea, establishing the most extensive tactical data link ever in this region.

[citation needed] In May 1996, California left for the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Persian Gulf on a routine six-month deployment with the USS Carl Vinson Battle Group.

California received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for operations Southern Watch and Desert Strike for shared duties as Air Warfare Commander for the Carl Vinson Battle Group.

[citation needed] In January 1998, California deployed to the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea in support of Counterdrug Operations as the Air Warfare Commander for the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force (JIATF) East.

In 2005, he wrote the novel Bay of One Hundred Fires, an alternate history work of fiction in which USS California is overhauled and upgraded, and then plays a key role in fighting the armed forces of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, who had created a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.