San Diego, California
1931-1959
January 5, 1931
Lemon Grove Grammar School principal Jerome Green, acting under instructions from school trustees, turns away Mexican children at the schoolhouse door. The landmark lawsuit resulting from the "Lemon Grove Incident" becomes the first successful school desegregation court decision in the history of the United States.
February, 1931
San Diego's State Teachers' College moves into the seven mission-style buildings of the present SDSU campus. In 1935, the Legislature removes the word "Teachers" from the name of the institution and, in 1960, the College becomes part of the newly created California State College system. It is renamed San Diego State University in 1971.
1932
Reuben H. Fleet moves Consolidated Aircraft (which becomes Convair) from Buffalo, New York. Fleet had organized the first U.S. Air Mail Service in 1918.
1933
The Natural History Museum opens in Balboa Park, designed by William Templeton Johnson.
1935
Consolidated Aircraft opens first plant along Pacific Highway to build 50 P-30 pursuit planes for Army. First PBY-1 is launched on test flight on San Diego bay in 1936 - Consair employment rises from 900 in 1935 to 3700.
May 28, 1935
California-Pacific International Exposition opens in Balboa Park. Chief architect Richard Requa has put Palisades buildings up in just a few months and completely remodeled the House of Hospitality.
1935
The Old Globe Theatre opens in Balboa Park (note the open air center).
1936
Bill Lane brings his Hollywood Stars baseball team to play in San Diego as the Pacific Coast League Padres. Lane field, at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive, is the home of the Padres from 1936-1957. Read stories told by PCL Padres in our Jornal of San Diego History. ~ Photo of Lane Field and San Diego harbor 1937. Hoover High School's Ted Williams plays ball with the Pacific Coast League Padres at Lane Field in 1936-37 before going on to win six American League batting titles for the Boston Red Sox.
1936
Construction of the Del Mar Fairgrounds begins as a Work Progress Authority project. Photo of Del Mar Fairgrounds.
June 24, 1937
Richard Archbold makes first transcontinental flight from San Diego to New York City in a seaplane built by Consair. The following year the Archbold expedition sets off from San Diego on a global survey of potential oceanic and continental air routes (pilots Steve Barinka, Russell Rogers). It arrives back in San Diego on July 6, 1939 as the first around-the-world seaplane flight at the equator.
1938
San Diego Civic Center (now the County Administration Center) opens, designed by architect Samuel Wood Hamill. Sculptor Donal Hord's monumental stone statue "Guardian of Water" still stands on the Harbor Drive side of the building. Read about Donal Hord and see his wonderful works of wood and stone.
March 12, 1938
Hitler occupies Austria.
Sept 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland and war breaks out in Europe.
1939
Naval Air Station, Miramar develops on the site of Camp Kearny. In 1939 the Navy took ownership of 423 acres of Camp Kearny and the field was commissioned Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Camp Kearny Feb. 20, 1943. By the end of the war, the base covered 1101 acres and all facilities were combined and commissioned as the Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar May 1, 1946. Expansion begins in 1951 to develop the base for jet aircraft and it is commissioned as United States Naval Air Station, Miramar on April 1, 1952. It becomes the Fighter Command for the Pacific Fleet in 1973, adding the "Top Gun" Flight School, and becomes the Airborne Early Warning Wing Command. In 1998, the Naval Air Station closes and it again becomes a Marine Corps Air Station. [courtesy of Prof. Steve Schoenherr]
1940
City of San Diego population is 203,341. San Diego County population is 289,348. Population table
December 7, 1941
Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor. San Diego Union headlines ~ Hear about local troop movements from our SDHS Oral History Archives. ~ Journal of San Diego History articles on San Diego and WWII, military, housing, Japanese relocation, Cavalry at Camp Lockett.
1941
Robert Oscar Peterson opens his first drive-in restaurant called Oscar's. (He later founds Jack In The Box in 1951.) Photo of photographer Charles Schneider setting up Oscar's ad photo.
1941
Construction begins on Linda Vista defense housing project. The biggest construction job in SD's history - McNeil and Zoss contract to build 3000 units in 300 days for $9,070,000. Photo of construction at Linda Vista defense housing project.
1941
San Diego Naval Air Station begins training pilots for U.S. Air Force (a total of 31,400 during World War II). Read Journal of San Diego History article "Women in Wartime".
1942
Navy acquires Rancho Santa Margarita for Camp Pendleton Marine base on 126,000 acres north of Oceanside. Photo of Marine maneuvers on beach at Camp Pendleton.
1943
Consolidated Aircraft merges with Vultee to become Convair. Photo of camouflaged plant, August 1945. ~ Photo of overhead camouflage netting being installed.
October 3, 1943
Hauser Creek fire in the Cleveland National Forest, leaves at least 9 firefighters dead (including 7 marines), 72 injuries and 10,000 acres burned.
1944
Navy begins emergency construction of aqueduct to bring Colorado River water to San Diego. San Diego County Water Authority is formed.
June 6, 1944
Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied western Europe begins in Normandy, France.
1945
Senate ratifies a treaty giving a portion of Colorado River water to Mexico.
1945
World War II ends. Photo of V-J Day downtown. San Diego soon experiences recession.
1945
San Diego voters approve 2 million dollar bond issue to begin development of Mission Bay. SDHS image of plans for Mission Bay.
1946
San Diego assumes responsibility to finance completion of San Diego Aqueduct. Voters approve $2 million water bonds and annexation of County Water Authority to Metropolitan Water District.
1946
George White Marston dies at age of 95.
1947
San Diego Aqueduct opens, bringing first Colorado River water to San Diego. Photo of Fire Hill Tunnel under construction, 1946.
1948
Palomar Observatory opens in June. Construction on the 200-inch mirror had begun in 1934. Read SDHS history on the Palomar Observatory.
1948
Sit-in at U.S. Grant Hotel to protest racial discrimination. SDHS Oral History on Grant sit-in by Dr. Jack Kimbrough.
1949
San Diego's last electric streetcar completes its run from Union Depot. "Fiesta Bahia" celebrates opening of Mission Bay Park.
1950
City of San Diego population is 333,865. San Diego County population is 556,808. Population table
1951
Passenger service on San Diego & Arizona Railway is discontinued.
1951
Jack in the Box gets its start. Robert O. Peterson opens first drive-through restaurant at 63rd Street and El Cajon Boulevard. Peterson had previously operated Oscars.
1952
California Western University is founded at site of Tingley's Theosophical Society on Point Loma.
1954
San Diego's new Public Library opens. Photo of library.
1954
University of San Diego is founded in Linda Vista. SDHS aerial photo of USD under construction.
1956
General Dynamics takes over Convair. Campus in San Diego's La Jolla area proposed for a University of California site.
1956
El Cortez Hotel adds the world's first outside glass hydraulic elevator, designed by C.J. Paderewski.
June 11, 1957
First test of USAF Atlas A missile is launched, built in San Diego by Convair. First successful test firing occurs on Dec 17, 1957 (on the 54th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight), the missile landing in the target area after a flight of some 500 miles. The first operational missile, the Atlas D, will serve for launching Mercury manned spacecraft into orbit. Atlas becomes the workhorse of the space program, launching John Glenn in Mercury 7 for the nation's first manned orbital flight in 1962.
1957
Minor League Padres begin playing at Westgate Park in Mission Valley. SDHS aerial photo of Westgate Park taken January, 1958.
1957
Theodore Seuss Geisel, long-time La Jolla resident writing as Dr. Seuss, publishes "The Cat in the Hat", changing the way American children learn to read. He had been given a 225-word list, with a challenge to develop a book which would improve children's literacy. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and two Academy Awards, Seuss was author and illustrator of 44 children's books.
1958
Interstate Highway 8 opens in February, following ancient Indian trails through Mission Valley.
1958
Construction begins on San Diego's second aqueduct.
1959
Billy Wilder's feature film Some Like it Hot is filmed at the Hotel Del Coronado, starring Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, and Tony Curtis.
1959
Architect Lloyd Ruocco founds what will become Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 environmental group.
1960
Lemon Grove Grammar School principal Jerome Green, acting under instructions from school trustees, turns away Mexican children at the schoolhouse door. The landmark lawsuit resulting from the "Lemon Grove Incident" becomes the first successful school desegregation court decision in the history of the United States.
February, 1931
San Diego's State Teachers' College moves into the seven mission-style buildings of the present SDSU campus. In 1935, the Legislature removes the word "Teachers" from the name of the institution and, in 1960, the College becomes part of the newly created California State College system. It is renamed San Diego State University in 1971.
1932
Reuben H. Fleet moves Consolidated Aircraft (which becomes Convair) from Buffalo, New York. Fleet had organized the first U.S. Air Mail Service in 1918.
1933
The Natural History Museum opens in Balboa Park, designed by William Templeton Johnson.
1935
Consolidated Aircraft opens first plant along Pacific Highway to build 50 P-30 pursuit planes for Army. First PBY-1 is launched on test flight on San Diego bay in 1936 - Consair employment rises from 900 in 1935 to 3700.
May 28, 1935
California-Pacific International Exposition opens in Balboa Park. Chief architect Richard Requa has put Palisades buildings up in just a few months and completely remodeled the House of Hospitality.
1935
The Old Globe Theatre opens in Balboa Park (note the open air center).
1936
Bill Lane brings his Hollywood Stars baseball team to play in San Diego as the Pacific Coast League Padres. Lane field, at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive, is the home of the Padres from 1936-1957. Read stories told by PCL Padres in our Jornal of San Diego History. ~ Photo of Lane Field and San Diego harbor 1937. Hoover High School's Ted Williams plays ball with the Pacific Coast League Padres at Lane Field in 1936-37 before going on to win six American League batting titles for the Boston Red Sox.
1936
Construction of the Del Mar Fairgrounds begins as a Work Progress Authority project. Photo of Del Mar Fairgrounds.
June 24, 1937
Richard Archbold makes first transcontinental flight from San Diego to New York City in a seaplane built by Consair. The following year the Archbold expedition sets off from San Diego on a global survey of potential oceanic and continental air routes (pilots Steve Barinka, Russell Rogers). It arrives back in San Diego on July 6, 1939 as the first around-the-world seaplane flight at the equator.
1938
San Diego Civic Center (now the County Administration Center) opens, designed by architect Samuel Wood Hamill. Sculptor Donal Hord's monumental stone statue "Guardian of Water" still stands on the Harbor Drive side of the building. Read about Donal Hord and see his wonderful works of wood and stone.
March 12, 1938
Hitler occupies Austria.
Sept 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland and war breaks out in Europe.
1939
Naval Air Station, Miramar develops on the site of Camp Kearny. In 1939 the Navy took ownership of 423 acres of Camp Kearny and the field was commissioned Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Camp Kearny Feb. 20, 1943. By the end of the war, the base covered 1101 acres and all facilities were combined and commissioned as the Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar May 1, 1946. Expansion begins in 1951 to develop the base for jet aircraft and it is commissioned as United States Naval Air Station, Miramar on April 1, 1952. It becomes the Fighter Command for the Pacific Fleet in 1973, adding the "Top Gun" Flight School, and becomes the Airborne Early Warning Wing Command. In 1998, the Naval Air Station closes and it again becomes a Marine Corps Air Station. [courtesy of Prof. Steve Schoenherr]
1940
City of San Diego population is 203,341. San Diego County population is 289,348. Population table
December 7, 1941
Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor. San Diego Union headlines ~ Hear about local troop movements from our SDHS Oral History Archives. ~ Journal of San Diego History articles on San Diego and WWII, military, housing, Japanese relocation, Cavalry at Camp Lockett.
1941
Robert Oscar Peterson opens his first drive-in restaurant called Oscar's. (He later founds Jack In The Box in 1951.) Photo of photographer Charles Schneider setting up Oscar's ad photo.
1941
Construction begins on Linda Vista defense housing project. The biggest construction job in SD's history - McNeil and Zoss contract to build 3000 units in 300 days for $9,070,000. Photo of construction at Linda Vista defense housing project.
1941
San Diego Naval Air Station begins training pilots for U.S. Air Force (a total of 31,400 during World War II). Read Journal of San Diego History article "Women in Wartime".
1942
Navy acquires Rancho Santa Margarita for Camp Pendleton Marine base on 126,000 acres north of Oceanside. Photo of Marine maneuvers on beach at Camp Pendleton.
1943
Consolidated Aircraft merges with Vultee to become Convair. Photo of camouflaged plant, August 1945. ~ Photo of overhead camouflage netting being installed.
October 3, 1943
Hauser Creek fire in the Cleveland National Forest, leaves at least 9 firefighters dead (including 7 marines), 72 injuries and 10,000 acres burned.
1944
Navy begins emergency construction of aqueduct to bring Colorado River water to San Diego. San Diego County Water Authority is formed.
June 6, 1944
Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied western Europe begins in Normandy, France.
1945
Senate ratifies a treaty giving a portion of Colorado River water to Mexico.
1945
World War II ends. Photo of V-J Day downtown. San Diego soon experiences recession.
1945
San Diego voters approve 2 million dollar bond issue to begin development of Mission Bay. SDHS image of plans for Mission Bay.
1946
San Diego assumes responsibility to finance completion of San Diego Aqueduct. Voters approve $2 million water bonds and annexation of County Water Authority to Metropolitan Water District.
1946
George White Marston dies at age of 95.
1947
San Diego Aqueduct opens, bringing first Colorado River water to San Diego. Photo of Fire Hill Tunnel under construction, 1946.
1948
Palomar Observatory opens in June. Construction on the 200-inch mirror had begun in 1934. Read SDHS history on the Palomar Observatory.
1948
Sit-in at U.S. Grant Hotel to protest racial discrimination. SDHS Oral History on Grant sit-in by Dr. Jack Kimbrough.
1949
San Diego's last electric streetcar completes its run from Union Depot. "Fiesta Bahia" celebrates opening of Mission Bay Park.
1950
City of San Diego population is 333,865. San Diego County population is 556,808. Population table
1951
Passenger service on San Diego & Arizona Railway is discontinued.
1951
Jack in the Box gets its start. Robert O. Peterson opens first drive-through restaurant at 63rd Street and El Cajon Boulevard. Peterson had previously operated Oscars.
1952
California Western University is founded at site of Tingley's Theosophical Society on Point Loma.
1954
San Diego's new Public Library opens. Photo of library.
1954
University of San Diego is founded in Linda Vista. SDHS aerial photo of USD under construction.
1956
General Dynamics takes over Convair. Campus in San Diego's La Jolla area proposed for a University of California site.
1956
El Cortez Hotel adds the world's first outside glass hydraulic elevator, designed by C.J. Paderewski.
June 11, 1957
First test of USAF Atlas A missile is launched, built in San Diego by Convair. First successful test firing occurs on Dec 17, 1957 (on the 54th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight), the missile landing in the target area after a flight of some 500 miles. The first operational missile, the Atlas D, will serve for launching Mercury manned spacecraft into orbit. Atlas becomes the workhorse of the space program, launching John Glenn in Mercury 7 for the nation's first manned orbital flight in 1962.
1957
Minor League Padres begin playing at Westgate Park in Mission Valley. SDHS aerial photo of Westgate Park taken January, 1958.
1957
Theodore Seuss Geisel, long-time La Jolla resident writing as Dr. Seuss, publishes "The Cat in the Hat", changing the way American children learn to read. He had been given a 225-word list, with a challenge to develop a book which would improve children's literacy. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and two Academy Awards, Seuss was author and illustrator of 44 children's books.
1958
Interstate Highway 8 opens in February, following ancient Indian trails through Mission Valley.
1958
Construction begins on San Diego's second aqueduct.
1959
Billy Wilder's feature film Some Like it Hot is filmed at the Hotel Del Coronado, starring Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, and Tony Curtis.
1959
Architect Lloyd Ruocco founds what will become Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 environmental group.
1960
