San Diego, where modern Californian history began, still retains much of its old spanish – Mexican atmosphere. Famous for its climate, it has attracted tourists and permanent residents from all over the country. It is California’s third largest city, being the site of important U.S. naval installations.
san Diego, the southwestern most city in the United States, is in southern California, on the Pacific Ocean, on the Mexican border. Los Angeles is 125 miles north, New York City 2,860 miles norteast and Miami 2,825 miles southeast. It was here the first European set foot on California – Juan Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain, in 1542. In 1769 the Spanish priest Father Junipero Serra established the first of his California missions here, calling it San Diego de Alcala.
In 1825 it became the Mexican capital of California; in 1846, after the outbreak of the Mexican War, American forces defeated the Mexicans at the Battle of San Pascual and General Fremont took the city, raising the american flag for the first time in California. San Diego was incorporated as a city in 1850 but lost its charter two years later when the community began to dwindle; in 1867 its population had shrunk to exactly 12 persons. With the building of the Santa Fe Railroad, however, the community began to revive and in 1872 was again chartered as a city. Today it is a major seaport and the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
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