TIMELINE
1847
Village of Yerba Buena is renamed as ‘San Francisco’.
1848
1/24/1848 – Discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California.
5/12/1848 – Samuel Brannan sparks Gold Rush with public announcement of gold discovery.
Population of San Francisco less than 1,000.
1849
Population of San Francisco ends the year over 25,000.
1852
3/18/1852 – Henry Wells, William Fargo and others sign articles of association creating Wells, Fargo & Co.
1855
12/31/1855 – Gold Rush ends, although more methodical mining continues.
1860
4/3/1860 – Pony Express is initiated.
Census shows population of San Francisco as 56,802.
1861
10/24/1861 – Pony Express announces its closure as the transcontinental telegraph reaches Salt Lake City.
1862
9/11/1862 – San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board (dealing in silver mining shares) opens.
1863
3/15/1863 – Confederate privateer J. M. CHAPMAN captured in San Francisco harbor.
8/17/1863 – Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah launched, conducted raids along Pacific coast until August 1865, four months after Civil War ended.
1864
7/5/1864 – The Bank of California opened for business.
7/21/1864- Major Earthquake in SF, immortalized by Mark Twain.
1865
10/8/1865 – Much of San Francisco was wrecked by an earthquake.
1866
4/16/1866 – A box of nitroglycerin being shipped via Wells, Fargo & Co. exploded and took out a full city block.
1867
7/18/1867 – Contracts let for construction of a sea wall in Yerba Buena Cove; the Embarcadero now runs on top of this wall.
1868
8/1/1868 – Smallpox epidemic in San Francisco; wards in new smallpox hospital filled to overflowing.
10/22/1868 – Major earthquake in San Francisco at 7:53 a.m.
1869
5/10/1869 – Transcontinental railroad completed; trip east goes from six months to six days.
1870
San Francisco was the country’s tenth largest city with a population of 149,473.
1871
1872
8/1872 – Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872 exposes corrupt practices in the building of the transcontinental railroad, involving highest levels of government.
10/1/1872 – Equine epidemic appears and spreads rapidly throughout the U.S. Because of the near-total dependence on horsepower to move commerce, as many as 20,000 businesses failed, a third of all railroads went bankrupt, and unemployment spiked to almost 15 percent.
1873
4/14/1873 – Equine epidemic (“Epizootic”) reaches San Francisco.
8/2/1873 – First test of the iconic San Francisco cable car system.
1874
11/5/1874 – Current San Francisco Mint (“Granite Lady”) opens at Fifth and Mission.
1875
1/8/1875 – Silver stock market collapses.
8/26/1875 – Bank of California shuts its doors due to bank run; reopens 10/2/1875.
8/27/1875 – William Ralston, founder of Bank of California, dies.
10/14/1875 – Palace Hotel opens.
(Posted January 2013)