Historical Timeline of Los Angeles

From the ancient La Brea Tar Pits to the latest cultural attractions and world-class venues, read on for a timeline of the incredible history of Los Angeles.

Circa 38,000 BC - Los Angeles has been pulling in visitors for tens of thousands of years, as a future fossil is trapped inside what are now the La Brea Tar Pits.
Circa 8,000 BC - Chumash people settle the Los Angeles basin.
Circa 300 BC - The Tataviam (later Fernandeno) people inhabit what is now the San Fernando Valley.
Circa 500 AD - Tongva Indians settle in the Los Angeles basin. Some accounts say they displaced the Chumash. By the 16th century, the region’s main village will be called Yang-Na, near present-day Los Angeles City Hall.

1542 - Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo navigates the coast of California. He calls present-day San Pedro Bay the “Bay of Smokes.”
1602 - Sebastian Vizcaino of Spain explores the California coast and meets some of the locals.
1769 - Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola explores the area to open up a land route to the port of Monterey and establishes the first Spanish settlement in the area. The settlers name the local river Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula ("River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula").
1771 - Father Junipero Serra establishes the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, later moved to the present-day city of San Gabriel.

Sep. 4, 1781 - A group of 11 families comprising 44 Mexicans settles by the river. Felipe de Neve, Governor of Spanish California, names the settlement El Pueblo Sobre el Rio de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula.

1797 - Father Fermin Lasuen founds Mission San Fernando, named for King Ferdinand of Spain. It later becomes home to the largest adobe structure in California, 30,000 grape vines and 21,000 head of livestock.

1805 - The first American trading ship arrives at San Pedro Bay, south of the Pueblo.
1821 - Mexico achieves independence from Spain.
1841 - History of LA's first census shows a population of 141.
1842 - California’s first discovery of gold is made at Placerita Canyon, near Mission San Fernando, prompting LA’s first population boom.
1846 - Pio Pico is sworn in as governor of California, in Los Angeles. Out-of-towners begin to mispronounce his name (it’s PEE-koh).
1847 - Battle of Rio San Gabriel. The United States takes control of Los Angeles. Treaty of Cahuenga is signed in the pass between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico formally cedes California to the United States, and all residents are made U.S. citizens.
1849 - That other California Gold Rush. Settlers flood the state, creating great demand for beef from Los Angeles-area ranchos.
1850 - Los Angeles is incorporated as a municipality, and California becomes the 30th state in the union.

1852 - The Gilmore Adobe is built at the site of The Original Farmers Market, where it still stands. Originally called the Rancho La Brea Adobe, it eventually became the home of rancher-turned-oilman Arthur F. Gilmore, whose son Earl turned the Gilmore Oil Company into a legendary part of America's burgeoning car culture.

1854 - The first Jewish services in LA history are held.
1855 - LA's first schoolhouse opens.
1865 - The Civil War ends. African Americans begin heading to Los Angeles in significant numbers.
1865 - LA's first college, St. Vincent’s (now Loyola Marymount University), is established. Today L.A. County has more than 100 colleges and universities.

1866 - Los Angeles Town Square is established. It will later be renamed Pershing Square.

1868 - The famous nighttime view of Los Angeles begins with the arrival of streetlights.

1869 - Southern California’s first railroad is constructed, connecting Downtown Los Angeles with San Pedro Bay, 21 miles away.

1871 - First rail link established between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
1871 - Isaac Newton Van Nuys buys 60,000 acres of land in the southern San Fernando Valley.

1872 - The Los Angeles Library Association is established and by early 1873, a well-stocked reading room is opened under the first librarian, John Littlefield. Today, the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) system spans 72 libraries with a collection of more than 8 million books. 
1872 - The First African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church is established under the sponsorship of Biddy Mason - an African American nurse, real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist - and her son-in-law, Charles Owens.
1872 - Ventura County is established, ceded from a section of northwest Los Angeles County.

1873 - Hired by Southern Pacific rail baron Henry Huntington, journalist Charles Nordhoff writes the book California for Health, Pleasure and Residence. Today a street in the San Fernando Valley bears his name.
1873 - The city’s first synagogue is built.
1873 - The first trolley line in the city opens.
1873 - The seedless navel orange is introduced to California from Brazil.

1874 - Los Angeles gets its first streetcar. It’s horse-drawn. The first electric streetcars will debut in 1887.
1876 - Cathedral of Saint Vibiana opens.
1877 - Thanks to new refrigerated boxcar technology, California oranges cause a sensation in St. Louis. Agriculture begins to replace ranching as the mainstay of the local economy.
1878 - Los Angeles County Bar Association is established.

1880s - Citrus, wine grapes and other fruits and vegetables are grown in the Los Angeles area. The area of present-day Beverly Hills is largely bean fields, Hollywood is fig orchards.
1880s - Westlake Park is built, later renamed MacArthur Park after the World War II general.
1880 - Founding of the University of Southern California. Its sports teams are known as the Methodists or the Wesleyans until 1912, when a columnist wrote that they “fought like Trojans.” The name sticks.
1880 - The first Chinatown is established, centered on Alameda and Macy Streets (now Cesar Chavez Avenue). Today the area is the site of Union Station. 

1881 - The Los Angeles Times debuts as the Los Angeles Daily Times. The Times would later go on to become one of the most distinguished daily newspapers in the U.S. by the latter half of the 20th century, winning 45 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942.
1881 - The Southern Pacific Railroad links Los Angeles directly with the eastern United States for the first time.
1881 - Los Angeles has its first recorded snowfall.

1883 - Los Angeles gets its first conservatory of music.
1885 - The Santa Fe Railroad opens a second line linking Los Angeles with the rest of the nation.

1886 - Harvey Henderson Wilcox purchases 160 acres of land west of the Cahuenga Pass for a planned residential community. He names it Hollywood, after the estate of an acquaintance of his wife, Daeida.
1886 - The price of a train ticket between Kansas City and Los Angeles falls to one dollar, prompting another population boom.

1889 - USC and St. Vincent’s College play the first college football game in Los Angeles.

1890 - The official flag of Los Angeles is designed.
1890 - Los Angeles population: 50,000 (a new record in the history of LA).

1892 - Edward Doheny discovers oil at “Greasy Gulch,“ near Westlake Park. Soon oil is discovered all over the Los Angeles area.

1893 - Los Angeles gold-mining millionaire Lewis L. Bradbury commissions a five-story office building in Downtown LA. Renowned for its stunning skylit atrium and ornate ironwork, the Bradbury Building has appeared in numerous movies, most famously Blade Runner in 1982.

1896 - Colonel J. Griffith donates nearly five square miles of land near his ranch to the people of Los Angeles. Today, Griffith Park spans 4,210 acres of natural chapparal-covered terrain and landscaped parkland between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. It's one of the largest municipal parks with urban wilderness areas in the United States.

1897 – Five hundred oil wells are operating within Los Angeles. California is the third-largest oil-producing state in America.
1897 - A nine-mile wooden cycleway is built connecting Downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena along the riverbed the Arroyo Seco. The cycleway eventually fails, but the right of way remains.
1897 - The first automobile takes to the streets of Los Angeles.

1898 - Los Angeles gets a symphony orchestra, the fifth in the nation.

1899 - Hollywood Cemetery is founded on 100 acres. Known today as Hollywood Forever, the cemetery is the final resting place for numerous Hollywood luminaries as well as musicians Chris Cornell, Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone, and Scott Weiland.

1899 - First breakwater constructed at the Port of Los Angeles, on San Pedro Bay.
1900 - Early Japanese immigrants arrive in Los Angeles.
1900 - Los Angeles population: 102,479, which ranks it 36th in the nation.

1901 - Angels Flight, a funicular up Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles, opens.

1902 - The first Rose Bowl Game is played. Michigan defeats Stanford.

1903 - The Los Angeles Examiner (later the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner) is founded by William Randolph Hearst.

1904 - Los Angeles establishes the first Playground Department in the United States.

1903 - Fugetsu-Do opens in Little Tokyo. Now in its third generation of family ownership, the Japanese confectionary is the largest producer of traditional New Year’s mochi in the United States.

1905 - Tobacco magnate turned real estate developer Abbot Kinney carves out canals near the beach, naming the district the Venice of America. Six of those canals still exist.

1906 - The first fossils are excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits.

1907 - The Los Angeles Auto Show is founded. Today the LA Show is one of the most influential and best-attended auto shows globally and spans more than one million square feet.
1907 - The Southwest Museum of the American Indian opens. The museum is renowned for one of the most important collections of Native American art and artifacts in the United States, spanning 2,000 years.
 

1908 - Philippe The Original opens near Chinatown. Along with another Downtown LA restaurant, Cole's, Philippe's claims to have invented the French Dip roast beef sandwich.

1909 - Los Angeles becomes the first large city in the nation to adopt zoning laws to distinguish between commercial and residential properties.

1910 – D.W. Griffith becomes the first director to shoot film in Los Angeles. His acting company includes Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford.
1910 - Residents of the municipality of Hollywood vote to join the City of Los Angeles, partially to have access to LA's water rights.
1910 - The Los Angeles International Air Meet, one of the world's earliest airshows and the first major airshow in the U.S., is held at Dominguez Field.
1910 - Los Angeles population: 319,198 - 17th in the nation.

1911 - The first Hollywood production company, Nestor Film Company opens in an abandoned tavern. Soon, neighbors erect signs reading, “No dogs, no actors.”
1911-1912 – An 8,500-foot breakwater is completed at the Port of Los Angeles, and shipping channels are widened.

1912 - The area around First Street and Central Avenue becomes the gateway to a famous African American corridor along Central Avenue, which swells in population in the 1920s.
1912 - LA's first gas station opens.

1913 - Cecil B. de Mille shoots the first Hollywood movie, Squaw Man.

1913 - The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opens. It remains the largest museum of its kind in the western United States.

1913 - After a saga of cinematic proportions, the Los Angeles Aqueduct is completed, carrying water from the Owens Valley, about 230 miles north of the city. At the opening ceremony, engineer William Mulholland proclaims “There it is. Take it.”
1913 - LA's first children’s and family camps are established, for recreation in the mountains.
1913 - Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick becomes the first woman to parachute from an airplane, over Griffith Park. She later demonstrates parachuting techniques for the U.S. military.

1914 - The LA subdivision of Beverly Hills is incorporated as an independent city. From here on out, it’s all swimming pools, movie stars, Beverly Hills Cop and 90210.

1915 - Large parts of the San Fernando Valley are annexed to the city of Los Angeles. Further annexations will continue through 1965.
1915 - Carl Laemmle opens Universal Film Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest motion picture production facility, near the Cahuenga Pass. He charges the public 25 cents to watch films being shot, including a boxed lunch.
1915 - Direct steamship service begins between Los Angeles and Japan.
1915 - There are 55,000 cars on the streets of Los Angeles.

1916 - The Jesse L. Lasky Company, a Hollywood film production house, merges with Adolph Zukor’s New York-based Famous Players to distribute films under Paramount Pictures’ star-ringed mountaintop.

1917 - Grand Central Market opens in Downtown LA. The 30,000 square-foot food emporium and retail marketplace continues its mission to celebrate the myriad cuisines and cultures of Los Angeles.

1917 - Frank Lloyd Wright, named by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time," designs the Hollyhock House for heiress Aline Barnsdall on a hill in East Hollywood in what is now Barnsdall Art Park. The home, featuring Mayan and Spanish Revival architecture, is later named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019, becoming the first location in Los Angeles to earn such a designation.

1917 - The first Forest Lawn Cemetery opens.

1918 - Brothers Sam, Jack, Harry and Albert Warner, immigrants from Poland via Pennsylvania, open Warner Bros. Studios on Sunset Boulevard. It would wind up as one of the world's most famous movie studios, producing household names in film like Harry Potter and Batman.

1919 - Musso & Frank Grill opens in Hollywood and becomes a favorite of Golden Age Hollywood celebrities.

1919 - The Los Angeles Philharmonic is founded and single-handedly financed by William Andrews Clark, Jr., a copper baron, arts enthusiast, and part-time violinist. Clark selected Walter Henry Rothwell, former assistant to Gustav Mahler, to be the LA Phil's first music director. The orchestra played its first concert at the Trinity Auditorium, just eleven days after its first rehearsal.
1919 - Founding of the Southern Branch of the University of California campus, later named University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
1919 - United Artists is founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.
1919 - The Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens opens in San Marino.

1920 - A wooden outdoor amphitheatre is built as the site of The Pilgrimage Play. In 1976, the Pilgrimage Theatre was renamed the John Anson Ford Theatre in honor of the late LA County Supervisor's significant support of the arts. Today, The Ford is dedicated to presenting a calendar of music and dance events that reflect the diverse communities of LA County.

1920 - Eighty percent of the world’s films are shot in California.
1921 - Welder Simon Rodia (recently arrived from Italy) begins work on what will become the Watts Towers.
1921 - Amelia Earhart begins her aeronautic career with flying lessons in Los Angeles.

1922 – The first concerts are held at the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater, now the summer home of the LA Phil and site of concerts by generations of artists, from global icons to local favorites.

1922 - The Tam O'Shanter is opened by Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp (they later founded Lawry's the Prime Rib). Walt Disney and his animators were regulars - his favorite table was #31, right by the fireplace and commemorated by a plaque.

1922 - Grauman's Egyptian Theatre opens with the world's first film premiere, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood.
1922 - LA's first radio stations, KFI, KHJ and KNX, begin broadcasting.
1922 - Rose Bowl Stadium is built in Pasadena. The stadium has hosted five Super Bowls, gold medal matches for two Summer Olympics, two FIFA World Cup Finals, superstar concerts and the annual Rose Bowl Game for which it’s named. In 2019, Sports Illustrated named Rose Bowl Stadium the Greatest Stadium in College Football History.
1922 - The first LA County Fair is held in Pomona. Today the Fair is one of the largest county fairs in North America and ranked in the Top 10 among all North American fairs and exhibitions.

1922 - Grauman's Egyptian Theatre opens with the world's first film premiere, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood.

1922 - LA's first radio stations, KFI, KHJ and KNX, begin broadcasting.

1922 - Rose Bowl Stadium is built in Pasadena. The home of the UCLA Bruins, the stadium has hosted five Super Bowls, gold medal matches for two Summer Olympics, two FIFA World Cup Finals, superstar concerts and the annual Rose Bowl Game for which it’s named. In 2019, Sports Illustrated named Rose Bowl Stadium the Greatest Stadium in College Football History.

1922 - The first LA County Fair is held in Pomona. Today the Fair is one of the largest county fairs in North America and ranked in the Top 10 among all North American fairs and exhibitions.

1923 - The Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel opens across from Pershing Square in Downtown LA. At the time of its grand opening, the Biltmore was the largest hotel west of Chicago. Now known as The Biltmore Los Angeles, the hotel has appeared in numerous movies and TV series, including Chinatown, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Mad Men and Bosch.

1923 - The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opens in Exposition Park. Since opening, the Coliseum has become one of the world’s greatest sports venues. It is the only facility in the world to host two Olympiads (X and XXIII), two Super Bowls (I and VII), one World Series (1959), a Papal Mass, and visits by three U.S. Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

1923 - Originally created in 1923 as an advertisement for a local real estate development called "Hollywoodland," the Hollywood Sign has become a world-famous icon of Los Angeles.

1923 - Robert Andrews Millikan of the California Institute of Technology, a world-renowned science and engineering institute that today marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address scientific questions, wins the first Nobel Prize for a Los Angeles-area institution. Thirty-seven more alumni and faculty of this Pasadena institute (so far) will follow in his footsteps to win Nobel Prizes including Linus Pauling and Richard Feynman.
1923 - Charismatic preacher Aimee Semple McPherson opens the Angelus Temple (seating 5,000) in Los Angeles’ Echo Park district. Her preaching incorporates speaking in tongues and demonstrations of faith healing.
1923 - A young cartoonist named Walt Disney arrives in Los Angeles with $40 in his pocket.
1923 – Bel-Air becomes a not-quite-gated community in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. It has been populated by movers and shakers ever since and become part of a centerpiece of some of the highest concentration of real estate wealth in the world. 

1924 - The Mulholland Highway (now Mulholland Drive) opens on the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills. It remains one of America’s most beautiful drives, bisecting a major urban area along a mountainous range.

1924 - The Original Pantry Cafe opens in Downtown LA. Most recently owned by former LA mayor Richard Riordan, the restaurant continues to serve hearty portions of classic diner fare.

1924 - Theatre magnate Marcus Loew amalgamates Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into what will become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Hollywood’s wunderkind, Irving Thalberg, is head of production.
1924 - CBC Film Sales Corporation is renamed Columbia Pictures Corporation. The lady with the torch will soon be introducing Frank Capra films.
1924 - Los Angeles gets its first opera company.
1924 - LA's population tops one million.

1925 - The Central Library opens in Downtown LA. The library's collection spans more than 10 million items, from popular fiction titles to rare genealogical publications, historic photographs and U.S. patents.
1925 - Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures merge to form Twentieth Century Fox. The next year, the studio acquires 300 acres of open land west of Beverly Hills for its production facilities.

1926 - Dubbed "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," the El Capitan Theatre begins presenting live performances. Now owned by The Walt Disney Company, the theatre hosts many of the studio's movie premieres.

1926 - A 2,400-plus mile stretch of road connecting Los Angeles and Chicago is designated as U.S. Highway 66. Roadside architecture and American popular music have never been the same since.
1926 - The Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión is founded and eventually becomes the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States.

1926 - Walt and Roy Disney move their animation studio to a new location on Hyperion Avenue in Los Feliz, and rename their company the Walt Disney Studio. During the Hyperion Studio era, Mickey Mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie (1928) and Disney released the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

1927 - Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (now TCL Chinese Theatre) opens. Over the years, impresario Sid Grauman and his successors will invite generations of celebrities to leave their signatures, handprints and footprints in freshly poured cement in the Forecourt of the Stars.

1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is established, with actor Douglas Fairbanks as president.

1927 - The 13-story United Artists Building is built in Downtown LA and is home to the flagship movie theatre of United Artists. Today, the 1,600-seat United Theatre on Broadway is one of LA's top live music venues.

1928 - The first Academy Awards ceremony takes place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Wings, directed by William Wellman, wins Best Picture.

1928 - City Hall opens in Downtown LA. Just the facts, ma’am: the tower, with its distinctive pyramid-shaped roof, has appeared in everything from the opening credits of Dragnet to the Adventures of Superman 1950s series (as the Daily Planet building) to Prince's "Diamonds and Pearls" music video.
1928 - The first NAACP convention in the west takes place on Central Avenue.

1929 - University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) opens the first four buildings of its current campus in the Westwood district, including the Romanesque-style Royce Hall. UCLA would go on to become one of the world's premier research universities by the late 20th century. It's an international leader in medicine, law, business, engineering, the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences, producing 14 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni, researchers and faculty.

1929 - Ross-Loos Medical Group of Temple Street becomes the first comprehensive medical care organization in the United States, serving employees of the Department of Water and Power and their families. Today it would be better known as a health maintenance organization (HMO).

1930 - Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) opens. The fourth busiest airport in the world, LAX offers more than 700 daily nonstop flights to 100 domestic cities, and over 1,300 weekly nonstop flights to dozens of cities around the world.

1930 - The area of the original Pueblo of Los Angeles is renovated and opens as Olvera Street.
1930 - The Greek Theatre, named because it was meant to replicate a Greek amphitheater, opens in Griffith Park.
1930 - The RKO Pantages Theatre opens at Hollywood and Vine. Now known as the Hollywood Pantages, the restored theatre hosted the Oscars from 1950-1959 and today presents blockbuster Broadway productions.

1931 - Canter's opens at its original location in Boyle Heights. The 24-hour deli moved to the Fairfax District in 1948 and has since welcomed everyone from Marilyn Monroe to President Obama.

1932 - Los Angeles hosts the Games of the X Olympiad. Tenth Street is renamed Olympic Boulevard. An Olympic Village is built for the first time and becomes a model for future games. A victory podium was used for the first time at the Summer Games; and a mascot, a Scottish terrier named Smoky, is featured for the first time in Olympics history.

1933 - First publication of the African American newspaper the Los Angeles Sentinel.

1934 - The Original Farmers Market opens at the corner of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue.

1935 - The Griffith Observatory opens in Griffith Park. From its perch on a promontory, one can view both the skies above and the city below.

1938 - Lawry's The Prime Rib opens on La Cienega's Restaurant Row.

1939 - Union Station opens in Downtown LA. Its style combines Mission, Spanish Colonial and Streamline Moderne motifs, to dramatic effect. To make way for Union Station, Chinatown moves to its present location at the former Little Italy.

1939 - Raymond Chandler publishes The Big Sleep, the first of his detective novels set in Los Angeles.
1939 - MGM Studios takes viewers over the rainbow, with the release of The Wizard of Oz.
1939 - Pink's Hot Dogs is founded by Paul and Betty Pink as a pushcart near the corner of La Brea and Melrose. The family later opens their current location on La Brea in 1946.

1940 - The Hollywood Palladium opens with a dance featuring Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra and band vocalist Frank Sinatra.
1940 - The Arroyo Seco Parkway opens on the right-of-way between Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, becoming the nation’s first controlled limited access highway (aka a freeway). Today the LA area has 27 interconnecting freeways, and the East L.A. Interchange is the busiest in the world.

WWII - Shipbuilding becomes the primary business of the Port of Los Angeles, employing some 90,000 workers. One-third of U.S. warplanes are manufactured in Los Angeles, underscoring the region's dominance in manufacturing and aerospace for decades to come.

1942 - Los Angeles gives the world its first parking meter.

1944 - Bing Crosby’s recording of “San Fernando Valley” reaches No. 1 on the charts, no doubt prompting plenty of GIs to move here after the war.
1944 - Peak of ridership of the Pacific Electric Railway (red car) streetcars, with 109 million riders on more than 1,150 miles of track in four counties.

1946 - The Cleveland Rams football team moves to Los Angeles and become the Los Angeles Rams. Under executive Pete Rozelle (later commissioner of the National Football League), the Rams will become the first team to capitalize on television.

1947 - The telephone area code 213 is assigned to Los Angeles.

1948 - The first In-N-Out Burger opens in Baldwin Park.

1948 - The Rams become the first NFL team to have a logo on their helmets when halfback Fred Gehrke paints ram horns on the team's leather helmets.

1950 - The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine is founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in Pacific Palisades. The lush, 10-acre site includes the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial - a "wall-less temple" that features a thousand-year-old stone sarcophagus from China, which holds a portion of Gandhi's ashes in a brass and silver coffer.

1950 – Sunset Boulevard is released and instantly becomes one of the definitive films about Hollywood.
1950 - Los Angeles population: 1,970,358 surpasses Detroit as fourth in the nation.

1951 - The Wayfarers Chapel - aka “The Glass Church” - is built in Rancho Palos Verdes on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Architect Lloyd Wright, son of the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, conceived of Wayfarers Chapel as a “tree chapel” - a natural sanctuary set in the middle of a forest. The church is regarded as one of the foremost examples of Organic Architecture, which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world.

1953 - Completion of the “four-level” interchange, the first of its kind, connecting the Hollywood, Pasadena and Harbor Freeways.

1954 - Oil magnate J. Paul Getty first opens a museum of his collections to the public in Pacific Palisades. His Getty Center, perched atop Brentwood, along with the original museum in the Palisades, would collectively later be one of the richest museums in the world.

1954 - Simon Rodia completes the Watts Towers.

1955 - Walt Disney moves to Los Angeles’ ritzy Bel Air district and proclaims his new Disneyland Park in nearby Anaheim as the "Happiest Place on Earth."

1956 - The Capitol Records building in Hollywood, which evokes a stack of records, becomes the first circular office tower and an emblematic symbol to the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.

1956 - The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden opens to the public.

1957 - Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin of the Los Angeles-based toy company Wham-O create a durable plastic ring they call the Hula Hoop. It sells over 100 million in the next two years.

1958 - Television station KTLA becomes the first to use a news helicopter.
1958 - The former Brooklyn Dodgers play for the first time as the Los Angeles Dodgers, becoming the first Major League Baseball team west of Missouri.
1958 - USC establishes the first schools in the United States for Cinema-Television, Gerontology and Urban Planning & Development. The cinema-television department would later come to rank as the No.1 film school in the U.S., consistently producing Academy Award winners or nominees year after year.

1959 - Los Angeles-based toy company Mattel debuts Barbie on March 9, which makes her a Pisces.

1960 - The Minneapolis Lakers basketball team moves to LA and is renamed the Los Angeles Lakers. The franchise is one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, with 12 championships in LA and 17 overall. Legendary Lakers include Hall of Famers Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, and future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
1960 - The Hollywood Walk of Fame opens with a star dedicated to Joanne Woodward embedded in the sidewalk.
1960 - Los Angeles hosts the national convention of the Democratic Party. John F. Kennedy is nominated to run for president. In his acceptance speech at the LA Coliseum, Kennedy describes the "New Frontier" for the first time.
1960 - Los Angeles population: 2,479,015, surpassing Philadelphia as third in the nation. More than 6 million people live in Los Angeles County.

1961 - The space-age Theme Building, a prototypical example of Googie architecture of the future influenced by cars and jets, opens as the centerpiece of Los Angeles International Airport. It was thought that this building was influenced by the cartoon series, The Jetsons. But it may have been the other way around because the series didn't premiere on television until the 1962-63 season. Underscoring the historical significance, the Los Angeles City Council designated on Dec. 18, 1992 the Theme Building a City Cultural and Historical Monument.

1961 - Legendary bartender Ray Buhen opens Tiki-Ti. The beloved tiki bar is still owned and operated by Buhen's son and grandson.

1961 – Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, becomes the first film to break the $10 million mark in production budget, and Twentieth Century Fox sells off its backlot to pay for it, which today is known as Century City, now home to a gleaming array of office towers and hotels, as well as a glitzy shopping center.
1961 - The Chouinard Art Institute and Los Angeles Conservatory of Music merge to form California Institute of the Arts, the first degree-granting school for visual and performing arts in the United States. CalArts alumni include directors Tim Burton and Sofia Coppola, Pixar chief John Lasseter, and actors Don Cheadle, Ed Harris and David Hasselhoff.

1962 - Dodger Stadium opens in Chavez Ravine. Many aficionados still call it the most beautiful stadium in baseball.

1962 - At age 26, Zubin Mehta becomes the youngest Music Director of the LA Phil.
1962 - "Heeeeere’s Johnny!" Johnny Carson becomes the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show. First broadcast from New York, the show later moves to Los Angeles, and Carson becomes synonymous with the city, peppering his monologues with numerous LA-area references.

1963 - The Pacific Cinerama Dome opens with the premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
1963 - LA's oldest children's theater company, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater is founded in Downtown LA.

1964 - Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opens as the cornerstone of the Music Center of Los Angeles County. It is to serve as home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera and Music Center Dance, as well as several Oscar ceremonies.
1964 - The Whisky A Go Go opens on the Sunset Strip. It will host musical acts including The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Talking Heads, Oasis, Nirvana and Soundgarden.

1965 - The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens. Today LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, anchor of the Museum Corridor along Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile.

1965 - Edith Wyle and Bette Chase open The Egg and the Eye on Museum Row. The innovative gallery/restaurant transitions to the nonprofit Craft & Folk Art Museum in 1973 and is now known as the Craft Contemporary.
1965 - Dedication of Marina del Rey, the largest man-made pleasure boat harbor in the world. Located four miles north of LAX, it is home to more than 5,000 boat slips.
1965 - Restrictions are lifted on immigration from East Asia, setting the stage for the Los Angeles region decades later to have the largest Asian population in the United States, with the largest Korean, Thai and Filipino populations outside their respective countries.

1966 - The Los Angeles Zoo opens in Griffith Park.
1966 - The Beach Boys release Good Vibrations, a No. 1 hit in the United States and UK and widely considered one of the most influential pop songs ever written.

1967 - The first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game, aka Super Bowl I takes place at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The NFL champion Green Bay Packers defeat the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

1967 - A peaceful demonstration takes place at The Black Cat in Silver Lake. A plaque mounted on the exterior of bar declares it as "the site of the first documented LGBTQ civil rights demonstration in the nation." The demonstration that’s commemorated by the plaque stemmed from police raids that took place on New Year’s Eve 1967 at The Black Cat and other gay bars in the area.

1967 - The Mark Taper Forum opens at the Music Center. It will be instrumental in the launch of successful new plays including Angels in America.
1967 - The "Fabulous" Forum opens in Inglewood. The LA Kings play their first games here, as well as the "Showtime" era Lakers. The venue was renamed Kia Forum in 2022.
1967 - The Queen Mary is officially retired from service and sails to Long Beach, where she remains permanently moored as a tourist attraction, hotel and special events venue.

1968 - The Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center is founded by George Drury Smith. Beyond Baroque is regarded as one of the most successful and influential grassroots incubators of literary art in the country.

1969 - The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) is founded in Downtown LA. FIDM has grown to four campuses in California with a student body of 4,200 and nearly 70,000 graduates worldwide.
1969 - The Los Angeles LGBT Center is founded. Today the Center provides services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world, offering programs, services, and global advocacy that span four categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, Leadership and Advocacy.

1970 - The first permitted gay parade in the world takes place on Hollywood Boulevard.

1971 - The Los Angeles Convention Center opens in Downtown LA. The LACC was designed by architect Charles Luckman, who had previously partnered with William Pereira on LA landmarks such as CBS Television City and the master plan for LAX. Luckman's own firm designed the Theme Building at LAX and The Forum.

1971 - Magic Mountain opens in Santa Clarita. Now known as Six Flags Magic Mountain, the theme park is nicknamed the "Thrill Capital of the World" for its record-breaking 20 roller coasters.

1972 - "Come on down!" The Price Is Right debuts with Bob Barker, who hosts the game show until his retirement in 2007.
1972 - The famed Memphis label Stax Records presents the Wattstax music festival at the Coliseum. Often dubbed the “Black Woodstock,” Wattstax features performances from the label’s roster of legendary music acts, including Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays and many more.
1972 - The South Bay Bike Trail is constructed, linking Pacific Palisades with Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey and other beach cities.

1973 - Tom Bradley becomes mayor of Los Angeles, the second African American mayor of a major United States city. He will serve as mayor for the next two decades and helps guide Los Angeles to become a world city.
1973 - Jewel’s Catch One opens in Arlington Heights on the border of Koreatown. Now called Catch One, the nightclub was the first exclusively gay and lesbian disco for African Americans in the country. During the club's 40-year run, owner Jewel-Thais Williams welcomed legends like Rick James, Madonna and the "Queen of Disco," Sylvester.

1974 - Artist Judy Baca begins painting the Great Wall of Los Angeles, working with hundreds of youth, artists and community members. Completed in 1978, the Great Wall stretches more than a half-mile and is one of the world's longest murals. Baca is currently working on an expansion that will bring the mural to a full mile.
1974 - The J. Paul Getty Museum moves to a recreated Roman villa on a hill overlooking the ocean in Pacific Palisades.
1974 - Chinatown is released. The Oscar-winning neo-noir features one of the greatest quotes in movie history: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

1975 - The George C. Page Museum opens adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits.
1975 – Jaws, a film by a young director named Steven Spielberg, inaugurates the age of the modern blockbuster. "Bruce," a 25-foot, 45 year-old fiberglass shark made from the original Jaws mold, was rescued from a Sun Valley junkyard, restored, and is now hanging at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
1975 - "The Wizard of Westwood," UCLA Coach John Wooden wins his 10th national championship in 12 years.

1976 - The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites opens in Downtown LA. The 35-story hotel features the rotating Bona Vista Lounge on the 34th floor and the award-winning LA Prime steakhouse on the 35th. Its glass elevators appeared in True Lies and In the Line of Fire.

1976 - To celebrate America's Bicentennial, the Great American Revolution opens at Magic Mountain - it's the world's first modern roller coaster to feature a vertical loop.

1977 - The California African American Museum is founded. The first African American museum of art, history, and culture fully supported by a state, CAAM began formal operations in 1981 and moved to its permanent home at Exposition Park in 1984. The new facility’s inaugural exhibition was The Black Olympians 1904-1984, timed to coincide with the '84 Summer Olympics.
1977 - Star Wars opens on May 25 and breaks box office records. Today "May the 4th" is celebrated as "Star Wars Day."

1978 - The Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area is established. At over 153,000 acres, it is the world’s largest urban national park.

1979 - The Museum of Contemporary Art is founded, with one of the most comprehensive collections of late 20th-century art in the United States, later helping to underscore LA's status as a global powerhouse in contemporary art. Its main gallery (1986) is on Grand Avenue, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Arata Isozaki. MOCA galleries also include the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo and MOCA West in West Hollywood.

1979 - The Laugh Factory opens on the Sunset Strip. Over the years, it will host every major North American standup comedian: Rodney Dangerfield, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Adam Sandler, Roseanne Barr and more.

1980 - Los Angeles population: 3,005,072, surpassing Chicago as second in the nation.

1982 - Wolfgang Puck, an internationally renowned celebrity chef on cooking and television shows, opens Spago on the Sunset Strip. Now located in Beverly Hills and still a celebrity favorite, Spago ushered in a new era of California Cuisine based on fresh ingredients and light sauces and helped elevate LA to a global culinary destination.

1982 - The NFL's Oakland Raiders move to Los Angeles.
1982 - Taking place in "Los Angeles - November 2019," Blade Runner is a box office disappointment but is later regarded as a sci-fi classic, setting the standard for artistic design and special effects, through its vision of a near future set in global super cities.
1982 – Fast Times at Ridgemont High, set at a fictional San Fernando Valley high school, makes stars of Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
1982 - Legendary musician Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon Unit record “Valley Girl.” Like, oh my God, it will become Zappa’s only top 40 hit.
1982 - OUTFEST comes out, the first gay and lesbian film festival in the country, and the longest continuously running film festival in Los Angeles.

1983 - Randy Newman releases “I Love L.A.,” which will become the city’s unofficial anthem. We love it!

1984 - Los Angeles becomes the only U.S. city to host the Summer Olympic Games twice. The Games of the XXIII Olympiad are widely considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics. Rafer Johnson becomes the first person of African descent to light the Olympic cauldron. John Williams composes the "Los Angeles Olympic Theme," later known as the "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" and heard on every Olympics TV broadcast.

1984 - LA becomes the first city in America with two telephone area codes, as the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys are designated as 818.
1984 - A new international terminal opens at LAX, named for Mayor Tom Bradley. Today, some 30 airlines operate out of this terminal.
1984 - The Mazda Miata is designed in Los Angeles. In addition to Mazda, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo and the "Big Three" U.S. automobile manufacturers all have design centers in LA.
1984 - The NBA's San Diego Clippers move to LA.

1986 - Running on Olympic fever, the first City of Los Angeles Marathon takes place. At nearly 11,000 runners it's the largest first-time marathon.

1987 - Pope John Paul II visits Los Angeles. His activities include meeting with communications industry leaders and celebrating two outdoor masses.
1987 - James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia is published, the first of his series of Los Angeles novels, which also includes L.A. Confidential.

1988 - Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson hits his legendary World Series home run, widely considered the greatest sports moment in L.A. history.
1988 - The Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum opens.

1990 - Nelson Mandela visits Los Angeles as part of a historic 12-day, 8-city tour of the U.S. Mandela stays at the Millennium Biltmore and addresses a crowd of 70,000 at the Coliseum: "We could not have left the United States without visiting the city which daily nourished the dreams of millions of people the world over."
1990 - The US Bank Tower opens. At 73 stories, it would be the tallest building on the West Coast for nearly three decades.
1990 - The Hammer Museum opens in Westwood.

1990 - When the Metro Blue Line connects Downtown to Long Beach, light-rail for commuters returns to the Los Angeles area.

1992 - Esa-Pekka Salonen takes the baton as conductor of the LA Phil.
1992 - The Japanese American National Museum opens in Little Tokyo.
1992 - Jay Leno takes over as host of The Tonight Show. "Jaywalking" begins.

1993 - The Museum of Tolerance opens in West LA. Although focused on the Nazi Holocaust, it also examines general issues of tolerance and racism.

1994 - The Petersen Automotive Museum, one of the world's largest automotive museums, opens on Museum Row at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire. The museum now spans 100,000 square feet of exhibits, 25 galleries, and over 300 vehicles in its collection.

1994 - The eyes of the world are focused on LA as football great O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, following a spectacular slow-speed car chase. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” soon enters the American lexicon.
1994 - The FIFA World Cup is held at venues throughout the U.S. Brazil beats Italy 3-2 on penalties in the final match at Rose Bowl Stadium.

1996 - The Skirball Cultural Center opens in Brentwood as a museum of Jewish history and culture.

1996 - The first Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is held. Today more than 150,000 attend the weekend event, making it the largest festival of its kind in the country.
1996 - LA Galaxy begins play as one of eight charter members of Major League Soccer.
1996 - The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) is founded in Long Beach and serves the greater Los Angeles area. MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American and Latino art.

1997 - Perched on a hilltop above Brentwood, Getty Center opens with views of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier designed the buildings with a façade of travertine marble - the Central Garden by Robert Irwin draws equal praise.

1997 - Superman: The Escape opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Reaching speeds of 100 mph, it's the fastest roller coaster in the world and its 415-foot height is the world's tallest.

1998 - Hey man, The Big Lebowski is released and Jeff Bridges' The Dude becomes a pop culture icon.
1998 - The Riddler's Revenge opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain - at the time it's the tallest, fastest and longest stand-up coaster in the world.

1999 - STAPLES Center opens, the new home for pro basketball and hockey teams and the beginning of a renaissance in Downtown Los Angeles. (It was renamed Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day, 2021)

1999 - The Go for Broke monument is dedicated in Little Tokyo. "Go for Broke" was the motto of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in the history of American warfare. Members of the 442nd received over 18,000 awards in less than two years, including 21 Medals of Honor.
1999 - The United States beats China in the FIFA Women's World Cup Final at Rose Bowl Stadium. Brandi Chastain celebrating her winning penalty kick has since become an iconic image of women’s athletics in the U.S. Twenty years to the day, Chastain was immortalized with a bronze statue that was unveiled outside Rose Bowl Stadium on July 10, 2019.

2000 - A section of East Hollywood is designated as America’s first and only Thai Town. So many ethnic Thais live in Los Angeles (roughly 80,000), that the city is sometimes referred to as Thailand’s 77th province.

2001 - The Kodak Theatre opens as the new venue for the Academy Awards ceremony (it was renamed the Dolby Theatre in 2012). Hollywood & Highland, a retail and entertainment center that also has an eye toward Hollywood history, opens next door.
2001 - Amoeba Music opens on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Occupying an entire city block, the massive store features the biggest, broadest, and most diverse collection of music and movies ever housed under one roof.

2002 - The 11-story Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels opens in Downtown LA, replacing St. Vibiana’s as the main center of worship for the archdiocese. The contemporary design by a Spanish Pritzker Prize-winning architect, José Rafael Moneo, has virtually no right angles and a plaza that evokes Old World cathedrals.

2003 - Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Los Angeles-based Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry and the home of the acclaimed Los Angeles Philharmonic, opens in Downtown LA and instantly becomes an iconic architectural emblem for the city.
2003 - Home Depot Center opens in Carson. Now known as Dignity Health Sports Park, the multi-use sports complex is located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills and features a soccer stadium (home pitch of the LA Galaxy), tennis stadium, track and field facility, and a world-class velodrome, the VELO Sports Center.

2005 - Antonio Villaraigosa becomes mayor of Los Angeles, the city’s first mayor of Hispanic descent since 1872. After his election, Newsweek features him on the cover with the headline “Latino Power.”

2006 - Following years of renovations, the Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades reopens as the Getty Villa, housing the foundation’s significant collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities.

2006 - The Griffith Observatory reopens after extensive renovations, including the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, named for the actor who played Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek series.
2006 - Six Flags Magic Mountain opens its 17th roller coaster, Tatsu - it's the tallest, fastest and longest flying coaster in the world.  
2006 - The city population is 3,976,071 and Los Angeles County is 10,245,572 - by far the nation’s largest county.

2008 - L.A. LIVE opens in Downtown LA.

2008 - The GRAMMY Museum opens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards. The museum educates visitors about the history and cultural significance of American music through exciting exhibitions, innovative programming, and cutting-edge interactives.
2008 - The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), one of the largest collections of contemporary art in the world, opens at LACMA.

2009 - Gustavo Dudamel succeeds Esa-Pekka Salonen as Music Director of the LA Phil.
2009 - Madame Tussauds opens in Hollywood and the Annenberg Space for Photography opens in Century City.

2010 - Angels Flight reopens, connecting the historic and financial districts of Bunker Hill.
2010 - The first CicLAvia takes place. Inspired by Bogotá’s weekly ciclovía, CicLAvia temporarily closes streets to car traffic and opens them for Angelenos to use as a public park. More than 1.6 million people have experienced CicLAvia, making it the biggest open streets event in the U.S.

2011 - La Plaza de Cultura y Artes opens across from the Olvera Street marketplace; and Dinosaur Hall opens at the Natural History Museum.

2012 - The Space Shuttle Endeavour goes on public display at the California Science Center.

2012 - Transformers: The Ride-3D launches at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2012 - Battleship IOWA celebrates its grand opening as a floating museum. The "Battleship of Presidents" is permanently docked at Berth 87 at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.
2012 - The Los Angeles Kings win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

2013 - Eric Garcetti becomes LA's first elected Jewish mayor and its youngest in more than a century.
2013 - The Natural History Museum celebrates its centennial.
2013 - Other cultural milestones include the Hollywood Sign (90th anniversary), Fowler Museum (50th) and Walt Disney Concert Hall (10th anniversary).

2014 - Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem opens at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2014 - Cultural milestones include the Music Center's 50th anniversary and the opening of The Broad contemporary art museum in Downtown LA.
2014 - Bosch debuts on Amazon Prime. Based on the bestselling crime novels by Michael Connelly, the series features numerous LA landmarks throughout its seven-season run.

2015 - Fast & Furious: Supercharged and The Simpsons Ride open at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2015 - Los Angeles hosts the Special Olympics World Games, the largest sports and humanitarian event in the world.

2016 - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2016 - The Metro Expo Line connects Downtown LA and the Santa Monica Pier.
2016 - The Rams return to Los Angeles after a 22-year hiatus.

2017 - The Dodgers unveil a statue of Jackie Robinson. Sculpted by Branly Cadet, the 800-pound monument depicts Robinson stealing home during his rookie season. Located at Centerfield Plaza, the eight-foot bronze sculpture was commissioned to mark the 70th anniversary of Robinson breaking the MLB color barrier.

2017 - The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approves the motion to rename 3.5 miles of Rodeo Road at the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex in South LA as Obama Boulevard.
2017 - Grand Central Market celebrates its centennial and Angels Flight reopens.
2017 - Released in 2016, La La Land wins a record seven Golden Globes and six Oscars, including Best Actress (Emma Stone) and the youngest Best Director winner, Damien Chazelle.

2018 - The Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrates its centennial season.

2018 - Banc of California Stadium (now BMO Stadium), home of the Los Angeles Football Club and Angel City FC, opens at Exposition Park. It's LA's first new open-air stadium since Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. 
2018 - Bradley Cooper's remake of A Star is Born features the showstopper "Shallow," the duet with Lady Gaga and Cooper that wins the Oscar for Best Original Song.
2018 - The Venice Pride Lifeguard Tower is dedicated to Bill Rosendahl, the first openly gay man elected to the L.A. City Council.

2019 - Jurassic World: The Ride opens at Universal Studios Hollywood.

2019 - UCLA, Musso & Frank Grill and The Huntington Library celebrate their centennials.
2019 - The Los Angeles LGBT Center celebrates "50 Years of Queer," the Petersen Automotive Museum celebrates its 25th anniversary, and STAPLES Center celebrates its 20th anniversary.
2019 - Quentin Tarantino's "love letter to LA," Once Upon a Time in Hollywood opens to critical acclaim. It would later land 10 Oscar nominations, winning for Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt) and Best Production Design.

2020 - SoFi Stadium opens in Inglewood. The state-of-the-art stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The 3.1 million square-foot stadium is the largest in the NFL, as well as the first indoor-outdoor stadium to be constructed.

2020 - The Lakers win their 17th franchise NBA title, and 16 days later the Dodgers win their 7th World Series. To date, it's the shortest timespan for two championships in the same city.
2020 - LAX, Olvera Street, The Greek Theatre and the Hollywood Pantages celebrate their 90th anniversaries.
2020 - Designed in partnership with West Coast Customs, West Coast Racers opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain as the world's first launch version of a racing roller coaster.

2021 - The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opens on Museum Row in the Miracle Mile. The museum houses more than 13 million objects in a 300,000 square-foot campus designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano.

2021 - Based on the hit animated films, The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash opens at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2021 - The Los Angeles Convention Center and Six Flags Magic Mountain celebrate their 50th anniversaries.

2022 - Karen Bass becomes the first woman and second black mayor of Los Angeles.
2022 - The Hollywood Bowl, Tam O'Shanter, Rose Bowl Stadium and the L.A. County Fair celebrate their centennials. The Getty Center celebrates its 25th anniversary.
2022 - SoFi Stadium hosts Super Bowl LVI, the eighth time that Los Angeles has hosted the Big Game. It was a Super Sunday for LA - the hometown Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20, and the epic halftime show featured Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg.
2022 - The beloved Tail o' the Pup hot dog stand reopens on Historic Route 66.
2022 - LA Pride returns to its roots with its world-famous parade, which stepped off at the historic intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
2022 - Boasting more roller coasters than any other theme park in the world, Six Flags Magic Mountain opens Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage, the world's longest and tallest single-rail roller coaster.
2022 - Eight months after the Rams Super Bowl victory, LAFC win their first MLS Cup. LA becomes the first city to celebrate NBA, MLB, NFL, and MLS championships within a two-year span.

2023 - SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™ opens at Universal Studios Hollywood, featuring the groundbreaking Mario Kart™ ride.

2023 - The Hollywood Sign, LA Coliseum, Biltmore Los Angeles, Warner Bros. and El Cholo celebrate their centennials.
2023 - More LA milestones include Dine LA (15th anniversary), Fugetsu-Do (120th), Natural History Museum (110th), Bob Baker Marionette Theatre (60th), Catch One (50th) and Walt Disney Concert Hall (20th).
2023 - LeBron James breaks former Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA scoring record with his 38,388th point - a fadeaway jumper in front of the home crowd.
2023 - The Egyptian Theatre reopens after a two-year renovation and restoration.
2023 - The world's first art amusement park, Luna Luna is reborn in Downtown LA's warehouse district.
2023 - Vidiots celebrates its grand opening at the historic Eagle Theatre in Eagle Rock.
2023 - Shohei Ohtani signs a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers.

2024 - Intuit Dome opens in Inglewood. The $2-billion state-of-the-art arena is the home of the Los Angeles Clippers. At nearly a full acre, the Halo Board is the largest-ever double-sided halo display in an arena setting.

2024 - Mulholland Drive and The Original Pantry Cafe celebrate their centennials.
2024 - More LA milestones include Little Tokyo (140th anniversary), UCLA (95th), The Original Farmers Market (90th), Cielito Lindo (90th), NORMS (75th), the 1984 Summer Olympics (40th), Petersen Automotive Museum (30th) and Crypto.com Arena (25th).
2024 - Los Angeles hosts U.S. Travel’s IPW, the leading international inbound travel trade show.
2024 - Crypto.com Arena hosts the NCAA West Regional and unveils two Kobe Bryant statues.