58 Facts About California

California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast.

The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior.

California groups were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan.

The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government.

The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham.

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California's letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California.

California invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.

California convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other.

California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War .

In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances.

Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845.

California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.

Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66.

Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.

California was the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren.

California is the third-largest state in the United States in area, after Alaska and Texas.

California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska.

Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer.

Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast.

California's mountains produce rain shadows on the eastern side, creating extensive deserts.

The higher elevation deserts of eastern California have hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the Southern California mountains have hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters.

California is one of the ecologically richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities.

California is part of the Nearctic realm and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions.

Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat.

California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran Desert; upper Sonoran, transition ; and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations.

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Also, as of the same year, 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.

The center of population of California is located four miles west-southwest of the city of Shafter, Kern County.

California has historically been one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in six language families.

California continues to have a large Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders.

California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States.

Culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but, historically, many Hispanic Californio and Mexican influences.

California has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise.

California is the birthplace of several international music genres, including the Bakersfield sound, Bay Area thrash metal, g-funk, nu metal, stoner rock, surf music, West Coast hip hop, and West Coast jazz.

California has nineteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state.

California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others.

California is the only U S state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.

California is responsible for one seventh of the nation's gross domestic product .

California's economy is larger than Africa and Australia and is almost as large as South America.

Five largest sectors of employment in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality.

California's economy is dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for about one-quarter of the state's economy.

In 2008, California exported $144billion worth of goods, up from $134billion in 2007 and $127billion in 2006.

In 2010, California residents were ranked first among the states with the best average credit score of 754.

California has the third highest per capita spending on welfare among the states, as well as the highest spending on welfare at $6.

California is home to two major nuclear power plants: Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, the latter having been shut down in 2013.

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California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion.

The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California are the largest and second-largest seaports in the U S, respectively, by volume of container cargo handled; as of 2018, collectively they handle 31.

Water use and conservation in California is a politically divisive issue, as the state experiences periodic droughts and has to balance the demands of its large agricultural and urban sectors, especially in the arid southern portion of the state.

California has performed 13 executions since 1976, with the last being in 2006.

State of California sends 53 members to the House of Representatives, the nation's largest congressional state delegation.

Consequently, California has the largest number of electoral votes in national presidential elections, with 55.

California has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter.

California has experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.

California voters have rejected affirmative action on multiple occasions, most recently in November 2020.

Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Gavin Newsom; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered moderate Republicans and more centrist than the national party.

The Yes California movement attempted to organize an independence referendum via ballot initiative for 2019, which was then postponed.

From 1952 through 1988, California was a Republican leaning state, with the party carrying the state's electoral votes in nine of ten elections, with 1964 as the exception.

California has twinning arrangements with the region of Catalonia in Spainand with the Province of Alberta in Canada.