1. A state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes; Also called: Golden State.
2. Borough in Pennsylvania (USA); zip code 15419.
3. City in Kentucky (USA); zip code 41007.
4. City in Missouri (USA); zip code 65018.
5. Unincorporated community in Maryland (USA).
Pacific-coast state of the US; nicknamed the Golden State (originally because of its gold mines, more recently because of its orange groves and sunshine).
area 411,100 sq km/158,685 sq mi.
capital Sacramento.
cities Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San José, Fresno.
physical Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite and Sequoia national parks, Lake Tahoe, Mount Whitney (4,418 m/14,500 ft, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states); the Coast Range; Death Valley (86 m/282 ft below sea level, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere); Colorado and Mohave deserts; Monterey Peninsula; Salton Sea; the San Andreas fault; huge, offshore underwater volcanoes with tops 5 mi/8 km across.
features Yosemite Falls (739 m/2,425 ft), the highest waterfall in North America; redwood trees in several state parks, including Humboldt Redwoods state park, and the Avenue of the Giants; Joshua Tree national monument; Lava Beds national monument; Point Reyes national seashore; Point Lobos State Reserve, with sea lions; Big Sur, coastline S of Carmel; Anza-Borrego Desert state park; Spanish missions, including Carmel Mission (1770), Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1772), Mission San Luis Rey (1798), and La Purisma Concepcion Mission, Lompoc; gold rush towns, including Downieville; Marshall Gold Discovery state historic park; Fort Ross, established 1812 by the Russian–American Company; Hearst Castle, built by William Randolph Hearst (begun 1919); Monterey, with the Custom House (1827) and Cannery Row; J Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; California Institute of Technology (Caltech); University of California at Berkeley, center of student protest in the 1960s; University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); Stanfo.
rd University at Palo Alto; Hollywood, with Universal Studios, Sunset Strip, and Beverly Hills; San Diego Wild Animal Park; Napa Valley wine country; Orange County, with Disneyland; Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary at Long Beach; homes of celebrities at Malibu and Palm Beach; world-famous Chez Panisse restaurant at Berkeley.
products leading agricultural state with fruit (peaches, citrus, grapes in the valley of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers), nuts, wheat, vegetables, cotton, and rice, all mostly grown by irrigation, the water being carried by immense concrete-lined canals to the Central and Imperial valleys; beef cattle; timber; fish; oil; natural gas; aerospace technology; electronics (Silicon Valley); food processing; films and television programs; great reserves of energy (geothermal) in the hot water that lies beneath much of the state.
the most populous state of the US (69.9% white; 25.8% Hispanic; 9.6% Asian and Pacific islander, including many Vietnamese, 7.4% black; 0.8% Native American).
famous people Luther Burbank, Walt Disney, William Randolph Hearst, Jack London, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, John Steinbeck.
history colonized by Spain 1769; ceded to the US after the Mexican War 1848; became a state 1850. The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada Jan 1848 was followed by the gold rush 1849–56.
The completion of the first transcontinental railroad 1869 fostered economic development. The Los Angeles area flourished with the growth of the film industry after 1910, oil discoveries in the early 1920s, and the development of aircraft plants and shipyards during World War II. Some 100,000 Californians of Japanese ancestry were interned during the war. California became the nation's most populous state in 1962. Northern California benefited from the growth of the electronics industry from the 1970s in what came to be called Silicon Valley. The state's economy suffered during the early 1990s as the defense industries declined.
Devastating earthquakes occurred in the San Francisco Bay area 1989 and the San Fernando Valley–Los Angeles area 1994. Storms and floods Jan and March 1995 caused a total of 26 deaths and an estimated $3.3 billion in damage. Total costs from recent disasters, including the fires in the S of the state 1993, were estimated at $28.5 billion.