1781    Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.

1850    Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.

1910    Los Angeles Times bombing: A large bomb destroys the ''Los Angeles Times'' building in downtown Los Angeles, California, killing 21.

1915    D.W. Griffith's controversial film ''The Birth of a Nation'' premieres in Los Angeles.

1929    The first North American transcontinental air service begins between New York City and Los Angeles, California.

1932    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1936    Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.

1937    Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1949    First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.

1954    The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.

1957    Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.

1965    Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1968    U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies the next day.

1970    Genie, a 13-year-old feral child is found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life.

1971    A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.

1973    Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, California.

1974    Police in Los Angeles, California, raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1984    The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

1994    Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.