Irving Simpson8 May 2011History 141California: A History Power Point

General George S. PattonChapter 9

• George S. Patton was born in San Gabriel Township, California, what today is San Marino, in 1885

• He is a third generation Californian• As a child, he was enthralled by the stories of

his father’s friend, Confederate Coronel John S. Mosby

• Patton dreamed of becoming a general himself

• Patton’s relatives were distinguished Southern California residents

– Father was Los Angeles District Attorney and the first mayor of San Marino

– Grandfather was fur trapper in Alta California, second mayor of Los Angeles, and namesake of Mt. Wilson

• Patton commanded one of the first tank brigades during WW I, ending the War as a coronel

• After illustrious WW II campaigns, Patton returned home to a victory parade in Los Angeles, June 1945

• Patton donated an original copy of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, that he had smuggled home, to the Huntington Library in his hometown of San Marino

• He died in a freak road accident in Germany, December 1945

General Patton in a 1945 Los Angeles parade

Japanese InternmentChapter 9

• Ethnic Japanese in California experienced blatant prejudice in first half of the 20th century

• 1905 - anti-miscegenation law prohibited marriages between Caucasians and Mongolians (Japanese)

• 1924 - Oriental Exclusion Law prevented Japanese from becoming citizens

• Of 112,000 ethnic Japanese on the west coast, 80,000 were U.S. born citizens

• Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded”

• The entire west coast was determined to an “exclusion zone”

• Executive Order 9102, issued March 18, 1942, created the Civilian War Relocation Authority

• In four months, 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans were confined in camps

• 100% of the west coast ethnic Japanese were interred, except for a few men in the military

• The exclusion order was rescinded on January 2, 1945

• Manzanar Relocation Center was named a National Historic Site in 1992

Manzanar War Recolation Center

DisneylandChapter 9

• During the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s Southern California grew dramatically

• Hotels, resorts, and expositions represented an important component of Southern California growth and presented an utopian statement about the region

• Walt Disney was inspired by visits to amusement parks with his children

• Disney’s father told stories of working at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and the famous Midway, Ferris Wheel, and attractions

• Disney tried to build and amusement park in Burbank near the studio but lacked adequate acreage

• Disneyland located to Orange County, to an area identified by a consultant as an area of high growth and potential

• Conceptually, Disneyland reconciled suburbia as an extension of idealized small-town life and values

• Growth is good and wholesome family life is compatible with a with a technological future

• Disney mythologized the past and made it fun

Pelton WheelChapter 10

• Lester Pelton – Ohio born mechanic, carpenter, and millwright

• Came to California with the Gold Rush

• The greatest mechanical invention to come out of the California mining period of the mid-1800’s

• Product of intuitive, practical experimentation, not academic study

• Pelton was watching a misaligned water wheel that spun faster than ones in proper order

• Rather than moving with the weight of the water, the wheel is impelled by the momentum of the water striking the wheel

• Obtained first patent in 1880 for a highly efficient water turbine

• Inspiration for the spinning turbines used in hydroelectric power generation

Stanford UniversityChapter 10

TelescopesChapter 10

• Wealthy astronomy enthusiast, James Lick, died in 1876 and left funds to build an observatory

• A 36 inch telescope (largest in the world at the time) was established, in 1887, on Mt. Hamilton in Santa Clara County for the benefit of the University of California

• In 1892, an astronomer discovers the fifth moon of Jupiter at the Lick Observatory

• George Ellery Hale, a young, wealthy astronomer, visits the Lick Observatory in 1890

• Hale establishes Mt. Wilson Observatory, above Pasadena, first with a 60 inch telescope (1908) and then a 100 inch telescope (1917)

• Palomar Observatory, a 200 inch telescope, built by Hale was the world’s most important telescope from 1949 to 1992

• Hale reforms Throop Polytechnic as California Institute of Technology

• Edwin Powell Hubble, working at Mt. Wilson and Cal Tech, makes discoveries about the expansion of the universe

Hooker telescope, Mt. Wilson Observatory

Early Film in CaliforniaChapter 11

William SaroyanChapter 11

• Born in 1908 in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants

• Father died when Saroyan was three• He and his siblings were placed in an

orphanage in Oakland• Returned to Fresno after five years, reunited

with family• Decided to become a writer after his mother

showed him some of his father’s writing• Much of his writing was drawn from his

childhood experiences growing up in the San Joaquin Valley in the Armenian-American community

• Started publishing in newspapers and magazines in the 1930’s

• Made his breakthrough with the story 'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze' (1934) about a struggling writer making his way through Depression-era society

• Wrote many stories, novels, and plays including an international bestseller

• Won a Pulitzer prize and Academy Award• Died in 1981• Half his ashes are in Fresno and half in

ArmeniaWilliam Saroyan, 1940

Group f/64Chapter11