Battle of Backbone Mountain

The White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of the lenient sentencing of Dan White, for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and of Harvey Milk, a member of the city's Board of Supervisors who was the first openly gay elected official in the United States. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 (the night before what would have been Milk's 49th birthday) in San Francisco. Earlier that day, White had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, the lightest possible conviction for his actions. That White was not convicted of first-degree murder (of which he was originally charged) had so outraged the city's gay community that it set off the most violent reaction by gays since the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City (which is credited as the beginning of the modern gay-rights movement in the United States).

The gay community of San Francisco had a longstanding conflict with the San Francisco Police Department. White's status as a former police officer intensified the community's anger at the SFPD. Initial demonstrations took place as a peaceful march through the Castro district of San Francisco. After the crowd arrived at the San Francisco City Hall, violence began. The events caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property damage to City Hall and the surrounding area, as well as injuries to police officers and rioters. (more...)

Ronald Paul "Ron" Fedkiw (/ˈfɛdkoʊ/; born February 27, 1968) is a full professor in the Stanford University department of computer science and a leading researcher in the field of computer graphics, focusing on topics relating to physically based simulation of natural phenomena and level sets. His techniques have been employed in over twenty motion pictures. He has earned recognition at the 80th Academy Awards as well as from the National Academy for Science.

His Oscar was awarded for developing techniques that enabled many technically sophisticated adaptations including the visual effects in 21st century movies in the Star Wars, Harry Potter, Terminator, and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. Fedkiw has designed a platform that has been used to create many of the movie world's most advanced special effects since it was first used on the T-X character in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Although he has won an Oscar for his work, he does not design the visual effects that use his technique. Instead, he has developed a system that other award-winning technicians and engineers have used to create visual effects for some of the world's most expensive and highest-grossing movies. (more...)

Dogtown (originally named Woodville) is an unincorporated community in the rural West Marin region of coastal Marin County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area's North Bay. It lies at an elevation of 187 feet (57 m). With a population of 30, the town is located beside the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore, in the Olema Valley west of the Bolinas Ridge mountain range. (more...)

• The Alameda County Infirmary is established (Fairmont Hospital pictured)
• literary newspaper The Californian begins publishing in San Francisco, with Bret Harte as editor, and Mark Twain as a writer
• The Bank of California (pictured) is founded in San Francisco by William Chapman Ralston
• The Napa Valley Railroad Company is founded by Samuel Brannan to shuttle tourists between ferry boats docked in Vallejo to the resort town of Calistoga
• The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad completes its 49.5-mile (80 km) route from San Francisco to San Jose along the San Francisco Peninsula, becoming the first railroad to link the two cities

• ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
• ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
• ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

• ... that Sanborn Park (pictured) provided one of the first segments of the San Francisco Bay Area Ridge Trail, which is planned to encircle the Bay Area with a 500 mile long hiking trail?
• ... that Tom Campbell was a popular radio personality on KYA San Francisco who used to loan his personal phonograph, record collection and even his personal automobile to his listeners?
• ... that Hickman's potentilla (pictured) is a rare plant discovered by Alice Eastwood, who climbed six floors through a burning building in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to save her specimens?
• ... that Humphrey the whale may be the most publicized Humpback whale in history, having twice wandered off his migration course into San Francisco Bay?
• ... that Sonoma Creek (pictured), a California-designated critical coastal watershed, drains the acclaimed Sonoma Valley Wine Country, and provides a home to many endangered species?

June - September 2006

The Gilroy Garlic Festival was one of the largest food festivals in the United States, held annually in Gilroy, "The Garlic Capital of the World", on the last full weekend in July. The festival was famous for delicacies such as garlic ice cream (pictured). The nonprofit festival was founded in 1979.

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