California facts and facts about californias.
47 facts on this shelf
In 1990 in California alone, wind power offset the emission of more than 2.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and 15 million pounds of other pollutants - the same amount of air quality provided by more than 150 million trees.
It is claimed that 13 ancient crystal skulls have been found with mysterious properties.
The Mitchell-Hedges family loaned the skull to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for extensive study in 1970. Art restorer Frank Dorland oversaw the testing at the Santa Clara, California, computer equipment manufacturer, a leading facility for crystal research. The HP examinations yielded some startling results.
Researchers found that the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. Modern crystal sculptors always take into account the axis, or orientation of the crystal's molecular symmetry, because if they carve "against the grain," the piece is bound to shatter -- even with the use of lasers and other high-tech cutting methods.
To compound the strangeness, HP could find no microscopic scratches on the crystal which would indicate it had been carved with metal instruments. Dorland's best hypothesis for the skull's construction is that it was roughly hewn out with diamonds, and then the detail work was meticulously done with a gentle solution of silicon sand and water. The exhausting job -- assuming it could possibly be done in this way -- would have required man-hours adding up to 300 years to complete.
Note: 5/08, crystal skulls find themselves in the lates Indiana Jones movie!
Reno, Nevada is west of Los Angeles, California.
Death Valley in California holds the record for the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth: 134°F (56.7°C), measured at Furnace Creek in 1913.
The Ragdoll was developed in the 1960s in Riverside, California, by breeder Ann Baker. Its foundation cat was a white longhaired cat named Josephine.
OR-7 was a gray wolf from Oregon that traveled more than 1,000 miles and became the first wild wolf known in California since 1924 when he crossed the state line in 2011.
California's state flag features a grizzly bear, even though grizzlies were wiped out in the state, with the last confirmed sighting in the 1920s.
Lionel Sternberger of Pasadena, California, is often credited with inventing the cheeseburger in the 1920s by adding a slice of cheese to a hamburger.
The California roll was created in North America, not Japan. Chef Hidekazu Tojo in Vancouver claims to have invented it in the 1970s, though Los Angeles chefs also claim it.
Glen Bell opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California, in 1962.
Fish tacos come from Baja California in Mexico, especially coastal towns like Ensenada.
The Corolla was built alongside GM cars at the NUMMI joint-venture plant in Fremont, California, which later became Tesla's factory.
The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is named after the Rubicon Trail, a famously tough off-road trail in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
Tesla builds the Model Y in Fremont, California; Austin, Texas; Shanghai, China; and near Berlin, Germany.
The Centennial Light, a bulb in a fire station in Livermore, California, has been burning almost continuously since 1901.
California is the most populous US state, with about 39 million people.
If California were its own country, its economy would rank among the five largest in the world.
Death Valley, California, recorded a temperature of 134°F in 1913, the hottest air temperature ever measured on Earth.
California has both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous US. Mount Whitney and Badwater Basin in Death Valley are less than 100 miles apart.
The California Gold Rush started in 1848 when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, bringing about 300,000 people to California.
The tallest known tree in the world is a coast redwood in California named Hyperion, which stands about 380 feet tall.
California grows about 80% of the world's almonds.
California's flag comes from the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, when American settlers briefly declared the "California Republic."
California became a state in 1850 without ever being an official US territory.
The Hollywood sign originally said "HOLLYWOODLAND" when it was built in 1923 to advertise a housing development.
Texas is the second-largest US state by both area and population, behind Alaska in area and California in population.
The fountain in the "Friends" opening credits isn't in New York. It's on the Warner Bros. Ranch lot in Burbank, California.
Central Perk, the coffee shop from "Friends," was a set on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.
Outdoor scenes for "M*A*S*H" were filmed at a ranch in what is now Malibu Creek State Park, and a wildfire burned the set in 1982.
All navel oranges are clones from a single mutated tree in Brazil, and one of the original parent trees planted in Riverside, California, in 1873 is still alive.
California grows about 90% of the strawberries in the US.
All Hass avocados descend from a single tree planted by Rudolph Hass in La Habra, California, in 1926.
San Jose, California, is named after Saint Joseph.
The swallows are said to return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California on Saint Joseph's Day.
San Francisco is named after Saint Francis of Assisi.
A sea otter known as Otter 841 became famous in 2023 for stealing surfboards in Santa Cruz, California.
Baby carrots were invented in 1986 by California farmer Mike Yurosek, who cut and shaped imperfect carrots.
Holtville, California, calls itself the Carrot Capital of the World.
California grows about 90% of the broccoli in the US.
California's Salinas Valley is called the "Salad Bowl of the World."
Gilroy, California, calls itself the Garlic Capital of the World.
The Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, began in 1890.
Most Easter lily bulbs sold in the US are grown in a small area on the California-Oregon border.
The Shasta daisy was created by plant breeder Luther Burbank.
Some of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes are kept at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, California.
The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937 and had the longest main span of any suspension bridge in the world until 1964.
The Centennial Light, a bulb in a firehouse in Livermore, California, has been burning almost continuously since 1901.