The Ohlone live in the Bay Area including what is now Oakland for thousands of years before the Spanish arrive, but the Mission era and statehood devastates the native population, reducing it to a tiny fraction of the former levels.

Today their descendants are working to rediscover their past culture.

From 1775 to 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza leads an expedition of soldiers, priests, and colonists from New Spain into “Alta California”. Some of the members of the expedition are Afro-Latinos from Mexico, seeking a better life.

On August 3, 1820, Luís María Peralta is granted 44,800 acres of the East Bay by the Spanish Crown in recognition of his forty years of military service.

On January 24, 1848, gold is discovered at Sutter’s Mill near Placerville, CA. Thousands of people come to California from all over the world seeking wealth.

On September 5, 1850, California becomes a U.S. state.

The Town of Oakland is incorporated on May 4, 1852, based on the efforts of Horace Carpentier. Prior to passage of the bill creating the town, the area was a village known as “Contra Costa” (meaning the ‘other coast’).

On April 4, 1854, Horace Carpentier is elected Oakland’s first mayor by more votes than there are voters.

In 1855, the Contra Costa Academy started by Rev. Henry Durant becomes the College of California.

Most of the dangerous and back-breaking work of pushing the first transcontinental railroad through the western mountains is relegated to poorly paid Chinese workers. Many executives of the railroad fully expect to ship the workers to China when the work is done.

The Oakland Library Association is a subscription-based library started March 5, 1868.

Ina Coolbrith becomes the first librarian.

Following the passage of the Organic Act of March 23, 1868, the University of California is formed. The College of California becomes the College of Letters and Science. The university moves to Berkeley a few years later.

On October 21, 1868, a powerful earthquake strikes on the Hayward Fault. The East Bay is sparsely populated, but the quake kills 30 people.

On November 8, 1869, months after the “Golden Spike” ceremony in Utah, the first transcontinental train arrives in Oakland.

“The Last Spike” painted by Thomas Hill captures the Utah ceremony with the golden spike provided by David Hewes.

In 1870, Antonio María Peralta, one of the four sons of Luís María Peralta, builds an Italianate-style house for his family. This replaces an adobe home destroyed in the 1868 earthquake.

Today the home is the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park.

On March 18, 1870, Lake Merritt becomes the first official wildlife refuge in the U.S.

In 1872, Oakland and Brooklyn schools are desegregated, through the efforts of Isaac and Elizabeth Flood.

In 1872, voters in Brooklyn approve its annexation by Oakland.

The Oakland Tribune is first published on February 21, 1874.

On May 6, 1882, president Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law. The law prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers, and those Chinese already here had to register or risk deportation. The law wasn’t full repealed until 1943.

In 1883, Anthony Chabot, the “Water King”, donates for an observatory in downtown.

On June 1, 1884, Johnny Heinold opens Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon.

A young Jack London studies there, and later Johnny loans him tuition money for college.

On January 14, 1896, Hugh Dimond dies. Namesake of the Dimond district, he made his money in real estate and liquor.

On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco Earthquake strikes, devastating the city. Thousands of people flee east to Oakland, doubling the population in a matter of days.

In 1908, Captain William Shorey, known by his crews as the “Black Ahab”, retires from whaling.

On September 21, 1909, Feng Ru is the first person to pilot an airplane on the West Coast, flying over Oakland and Piedmont.

On November 16, 1909, Oakland annexes Elmhurst, Fruitvale, Melrose, Fitchburg and Claremont, in its last and largest annexation.

On March 13, 1914, the new city hall building opens to the public. Called “Mott’s Wedding Cake” by the press, the building was the tallest west of the Mississippi when constructed, and the tallest in Oakland until 1960.

On September 6, 1914, the Baby Hospital opens, thanks in large part to the efforts of Miss Mabel Weed and Bertha Wright. It is now known as Children’s Hospital.

At least 170 soldiers from Oakland lose their lives in WWI. The city decides to honor them by naming Gold Star streets after them.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic kills millions worldwide, including more than 1,400 people in Oakland.

On May 12, 1931, Wilhelmine Yoakum becomes the first woman elected to Oakland city council. Unfortunately it was more than 15 years until the next woman was elected, and more than 25 years after that in 1977 for the third, Mary Moore.

On December 5, 1933, the day after Prohibition ends, Slim Jenkins opens his club.

Segregation through a practice known as redlining begins with the National Housing Act of 1934, but many areas of Oakland already had existing covenants and guidelines to keep blacks and other people of color from living in those neighborhoods.

In December 1940, Henry J. Kaiser opens his first Richmond shipyard to build ships for the British government.

After the U.S. entered WWII, Kaiser expanded to 4 shipyards in Richmond, and another 3 in the Pacific northwest.

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor is bombed, drawing the U.S. into WWII.

February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 is signed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, ordering the removal of over 100,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Families are uprooted from their homes, schools, and businesses, including Frank Ogawa.

Not everyone goes along with Executive Order 9066 quietly. Fred Korematsu goes into hiding, but is eventually arrested. He appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but loses. Many years later, it found that the solicitor general of the U.S. had suppressed FBI data that showed Japanese Americans were not a risk, and Korematsu’s conviction was formally vacated.

Between 1940 and 1945, the combination of wartime industries and staging for war in the Pacific causes the population of the Bay Area to boom. In Oakland, it grows from 302,163 to 405,301, more than a 25% increase. The black population of Oakland grows even faster, by more than 400%.

In November 1946, 425 mostly women workers at Kahn’s and Hasting’s department stores go on strike for wage equality. Officials bring in police and strike breakers to try to end the strike, but instead the strikers are joined by other unions and eventually 130,000 strikers shut down the city for more than two days.

In 1950, Children’s Fairyland opens. Walt Disney visits to gather ideas for his own theme park which would open 5 years later.

On April 20, 1958, the last Key System train crosses the Bay Bridge. A few years later, the last bus was sold to AC Transit.

The first comic strip with a diverse ethnic makeup of children appears in a newspaper on February 15, 1965. Morrie Turner’s “Wee Pals” is initially in 5 papers; following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it appeared in over 100.

In October 1966, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton form the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Initially focusing on police misconduct against black people, they soon added social programs, including the first ever “free breakfast for schoolchildren” program.

Frank Ogawa was appointed to Oakland city council in 1966 to fill a vacant seat, and was subsequently re-elected multiple times. He was the first Japanese-American on the city council, and served from 1966-1994, the longest tenure of any council member.

In 1967, not long after Frank Ogawa’s appointment to fill a vacant city council seat, Dr. Raymond Eng is elected to city council, becoming the first Chinese-American on council.

On September 11, 1972, service begins on BART.

Under quirky owner Charlie Finley, the Oakland A’s win 3 consecutive World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

In 1979, Robert Maynard becomes editor of the Oakland Tribune, becoming the first black editor of a major U.S. newspaper.

On October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake strikes. Sixty seven people are killed, including 42 when the Cypress Structure in West Oakland collapses.

On October 19, 1991, Oakland firefighters battle a 5-acre brush fire. The next day the fire explodes, spread by high winds. The Oakland firestorm kills 25 people including a firefighter and a police officer, and destroys nearly 3,000 buildings.

On January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant is killed by a BART police officer, shot in the back while laying face down. The shooting is captured on video and quickly spreads, leading to a national uproar and ongoing protests in Oakland.

Growing out of the protests following Oscar Grant’s killing and protesting police brutality, Occupy Oakland begins September 11, 2011 with an occupation of the plaza in front of City Hall.