The San Fernando Valley has a rich and interesting history: below are some of the highlights.
1769 - Gaspar de Portola stops for the night at village of native Tongva near present-day Encino. The Spanish name the area El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos.
1774 - Spaniard Juan Bautista de Anza travels from Sonora across El Valle de los Encinos.
1781 - Los Angeles founded beside the Rio Porciuncula as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.
1784 - Spain grants 36,000 acres as Rancho San Rafael to Corporal Jose Maria Verdugo. (Glendale and Burbank.)
1797 - The Franciscan monks established the San Fernando Mission Rey de Espana in the northern San Fernando Valley, 17th of 21 mission built by the Franciscans.
1806 - Mission San Fernando church completed.
1809 - Los Angeles and the Valley mission clash over water in L.A. River.
1810 - Construction begins on arched convento at mission.
1812 - Mission damaged in earthquake.
1822 - Spanish California becomes province of new empire of Mexico. Mission convento completed.
1829 - American scout Kit Carson visits Mission San Fernando.
1831 - Gov. Victoria injured and soldier killed in battle with rebels fought on the Valley floor with lances and pistols.
1833 - The Los Angeles Ayuntamiento sends Jose Antonio Carillo to Valley to defend pueblo's water rights.
1834 - Franciscans conduct final baptism at the mission, which comes under civilian control.
1837 - Forces led by Gov. Juan Alvarado briefly occupy Mission San Fernando.
1845 - After another military skirmish in the Valley, Pio Pico becomes Governor and leases the Valley to his brother, Andres Pico. Don Pio grants Rancho Encino and Rancho El Escorpion.
1846 - After U.S. declares war on Mexico, Pio Pico sells the Valley to Eulogio de Celis for $14,000, ostensibly to fight off the Americans.
1847 - Andres Pico surrenders California to Col. John Fremont at Rancho Cahuenga.
1850 - California admitted as 31st state in the union.
1851 - Vicente de Osa sells Rancho Providencia to Alexander Bell and David Alexander, first American landowners in Valley
1854 - First stagecoach leaves the Valley headed north through Newhall Pass.
1858 - Butterfield Overland Mail stage crosses Valley three times a week, stopping at Lopez Station in hills west of San Fernando.
1862 - Andres Pico transfers half-ownership of Valley to his brother, Pio Pico. President Abraham Lincoln retores church title to 170 acres around Mission San Fernando Rey.
1869 - Isaac Lankershim's San Fernando Farm Homestead Assn. buys half interest in Valley for $115,000
1871 - Lankershim receives southern half of partitioned Valley. Miguel Leonis of Calabasas finagles ownership of historic Rancho El Escorpion.
1872 - Eugene Garnier buys Rancho Encino and erects house of limestone beside de Osa adobe. Isaac Van Nuys builds first wood-frame house in Valley.
1873 - U.S. government confirms legal title to old Rancho ex-Mission San Fernando at 116,858.43 acres -- the largest private land parcel in old California.
1874 - Charles Maclay pays $117,500 for northern half of Valley and establishes town of San Fernando. Southern Pacific Railroad extends there from Los Angeles.
1875 - Settlement of Robert's Store opens on the Southern Pacific railroad, at today's Sun Valley. Andrew Glassel buys Rancho Tujunga.
1876 - Tunnel in Newhall Pass links Valley by railroad to north. Andres Pico dies.
1878 - Wildfire burns 18,000 acres of wheat and pasture during severe drought in Valley.
1880 - Population in "San Fernando township" covering most of Valley is 1,305.
1882 - Charles Maclay divides north half of Valley with his partners, George Porter and Benjamin Porter.
1883 - San Fernando Comet becomes first newspaper in Valley.
1884 - Major flooding on Valley floor.
1886 - Historic adobe at Rancho Cahuenga, site of 1847 surrender, collapses.
1887 - Towns of Pacoima, Monte Vista, Glendale and Burbank are settled. George Porter plants navel orange grove 2.5 miles long on land south of Mission San Fernando Rey.
1888 - Toluca and Chatsworth Park founded.
1891 - President Benjamin Harrison's train stops in San Fernando on April 24.
1894 - Telephone service reaches the Valley.
1895 - Citrus growers form San Fernando Fruit Growers co-op.
1896 - Toluca changes name to Lankershim. San Fernando High School opens.
1898 - First automobiles arrive in the Valley.
1901 - Southern Pacific Railroad's Coast Line opens across Valley from Burbank to Chatsworth.
1905 - Plans unveiled for an aqueduct between Owens Valley and San Fernando Valley.
1906 - Glendale incorporates as city.
1908 - Construction of aqueduct from Owens Valley begins.
1909 - Los Angeles subdividers, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis and Harry Chandler, pay $2.5 million for the 47,500 acre Lankershim ranch.
1910 - Population of Valley 3,300.
1911 - Van Nuys settled. Burbank and San Fernando officially incorporate.
1913 - William Mulholland's aqueduct brings Owens Valley water to the Valley. Freezing weather devastates Valley crops.
1914 - Universal City opens. Van Nuys floods and cut off Valley from Los Angeles.
1915 - The Valley votes to join Los Angeles.
1916 - Adohr Farms dairy opens at Ventura Boulevard and Lindley Avenue. The name comes from the owner's wife, Rhoda, spelled backward.
1918 - First National Studio opens in Burbank.
1919 - Edgar Rice Burroughs buys 1,000-acres from Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, names it Tarzana Ranch.
1920 - Chatsworth annexed to Los Angeles. Valley population 21,964.
1922 - Valley's first turf golf course opens at Hollywood Country Club, at Ventura Blvd. and Coldwater Canyon Ave.
1923 - Girard development, later Woodland Hills, opens. Lankershim annexed to city. Glendale Airport, the future Grand Central, opens.
1924 - Toluca Lake subdivision begins. Mulholland Highway dedicated through Santa Monica Mountains to Calabasas.
1925 - Tujunga incorporates as city. Homes in Stonehurst built mostly of boulders.
1926 - Dial telephone service reaches the Valley. Veterans hospital in Sylmar dedicated.
1927 - Lankershim changes name to North Hollywood, Mission Acres becomes Sepulveda. Mack Sennett's Studioland opens near Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards. First traffic light installed at Ventura and Lankershim.
1928 - St. Francis Dam break killing more than 400 people and marks the end William Mulholland's career. Metropolitan Field, the future Van Nuys Airport, opens.
1929 - Charles Lindbergh flies first trans-continental airline passengers from Grand Central Air Terminal. Zelzah takes name of North Los Angeles. Pacoima Dam becomes highest in country.
1930 - Community name of Tarzana approved by U.S. Post Office. Tunnel on Sepulveda Boulevard through Santa Monica Mountains completed. United Airport opens. Population of Valley is 51,000.
1931 - Dam built in Big Tujunga Canyon.
1932 - Howard Hughes founds Hughes Aircraft in Glendale.
1935 - Sepulveda Pass opens giving Valley Residents quicker access to the coast. William Mulholland dies.
1937 - Amelia Earhart of Toluca Lake vanishes in Pacific while attempting a round-the-world flight.
1938 - Flood covers the Valley prompting construction of Hansen Dam and Sepulveda Dam.
1939 - Mulholland Highway is renamed Mulholland Drive.
1940 - Walt Disney Studios moves into Burbank. Lockheed Air Terminal takes over United Airport. Valley population is 112,000.
1941 - Girard changes name to Woodland Hills.
1943 - Republic Pictures film San Fernando Valley starring Roy Rogers opens.
1944 - Bing Crosby tune "San Fernando Valley" tops U.S. charts.
1945 - San Fernando Valley population doubles to 176,000 during World War II.
1947 - Cahuenga Pass Freeway opens. Pierce College founded. Rocket testing begins in hills above Chatsworth.
1948 - General Motors plant opens near Panorama City.
1949 - Valley College opens.
1950 - Population reaches 402,538.
1952 - Ronald Reagan married Nancy Davis at the Little Brown Church located at 4418 Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City.
1954 - Hollywood Freeway reaches Valley. Anheuser-Busch brewery opens on Roscoe Boulevard.
1956 - San Fernando Valley State College opens its doors.
1959 - Valley Boy Ritchie Valens is killed in Iowa plane crash. Grand Central Airport closes. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev visits the Valley.
1960 - Ventura Freeway completed across the Valley. Population of Valley hits 840,000.
1961 - Sam Yorty of Studio City elected mayor of Los Angeles. City of Hidden Hills incorporates.
1964 - The Beatles visit Cinnamon Cinder club in Studio City.
1966 - Busch Gardens amusement park opens.
1967 - Lockheed Air Terminal renamed Hollywood-Burbank Airport.
1968 - Black students take over administration building at Valley State College to protest racist practices and to establish ethnic studies departments, leading to major changes at the school, now Cal State University Northridge.
1969 - Manson family flees Chatsworth after murders of actress Sharon Tate and others.
1971 - Sylmar earthquake on Feb. 9 causes 64 deaths and forces 80,000 to evacuate. Fire in Underground Sylmar water tunnel project kills 17.
1977 - Serial killer, nicknamed the Hillside Stranglers, causes mass fear in the San Fernando Valley.
1983 - Vicki Morgan, mistress of socialite Alfred Bloomingdale, murdered in Studio City.
1984 - Valley changes to telephone area code 818.
1985 -Previous North Hollywood resident Roger M. Mahony named first Archbishop of Los Angeles to be born in the city. He later becomes Cardinal Roger Mahony.
1989 - Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage opens at in Griffith Park.
1990 - Lockheed-Martin announces it plans to leave Burbank after more than 60 years.
1991 - Videotape of police beating Rodney King in Lake View Terrace is broadcast on television. Calabasas incorporates.
1992 - Riots erupt in Los Angeles and parts of the Valley after LAPD officers are acquitted in King beating. General Motors closes Van Nuys Plant.
1993 - Big Boy, on Riverside Drive, is declared a State Point of Historical Interest.
1994 - Northridge earthquake kills 57 and causes the most property damage of any U.S. disaster.
1995 - Country music landmark The Palomino closes.
1996 - Skirball Cultural Center and Museum opens at top of Sepulevda Pass. Rocketdyne is sold to Boeing Aircraft.
1997 - Armored North Hollywood bank robbers exchange gunfire with LAPD before dying in the street. Enis Cosby (27), son of Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles while changing a tire in a roadside robbery.
1999 - Petitions urging secession study trigger first official action on municipal break-up. Gunman attacks North Hills Jewish center and kills postman in Chatsworth.
2000 - Subway service reaches Valley for first time.
2001 - Bonnie Lee Blakely, wife of actor Robert Blake, was found murdered near Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City.
2004 - Britney Spears married Kevin Federline in a private house in the area of Studio City known as Colfax Meadows.
2002 - Los Angeles voters reject the San Fernando Valley separating from Los Angeles, though the Valley narrowly endorses secession.
2007 - Britney Spears got a tattoo in Body and Soul, a Sherman Oaks Tattoo parlor, after shaving her head in Tarzana.
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