On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. At the time of...
All Stories
. Coontz took command of U.S. fleet in San Diego Harbor in 1923
One hundred years ago — with the flag flying at half-mast to honor the ing of President Harding —iral Robert E. Coontz took over command of the United States battle...
In 1890 John D. Spreckels acquired the San Diego Union
On Aug. 1, 1890 San Francisco financiers John D. and Adolph Spreckels purchased the San Diego Union newspaper from Col. John R. Berry and Andrew Pollock. Their ownership was not...
Amid protests, Valdez docks at NASSCO in 1989
On this day in 1989, the notorious oil tanker Exxon Valdez entered an Diego Bay without incident and docked at NASSCO for a $25 million repair job. The Valdez, built...
Barbie’s mother helped to shape modern American womanhood
Last weekend Warner Bros.' movie “Barbie” was a hit at the box office, raking in $155 million domestically. In 1991, Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie doll and Mattel co-founder,...
85 years ago Archie Price ended his life in poverty
On July 25, 1938, Archie Price, who had been on and off state relief rolls since 1933, ended his life in Balboa Park. He had previously informed the editor of...
‘Unbelievable!’ San Diegans react to 1969 moon landing
Fifty-four years ago Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. An estimated 650 million people watched on television,...
21 die in San Ysidro restaurant shooting in 1984
On July 18, 1984, an unemployed security guard armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol opened fire inside a crowded McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, killing 21 people before being...
Surrender of Santiago de Cuba effectively ended the Spanish-American War 125 years ago
The most pivotal battles of the Spanish–American War were fought in July, 1898, 125 years ago. Early in the month, as U.S. forces pounded the Spanish Navy at sea, on...
San Diego hosted Major League Baseball’s 49th All-Star Game in 1978
On July 11, 1978 San Diego Stadium played host to Major League Baseball's 49th All-Star Game. The Padres' Rollie Finders pitched two scoreless inning of relief and Dave Winfield singled...
A really big boom: 20-ton blast used to quarry stone in Mission Gorge in 1948
Seventy-five years ago today, on July 9, 1948, 20 tons of explosives were used to bring down a granite hill in Missing Gorge in what was then a record for...
Rescue of the sub Deep Quest off San Diego in ’69 had a happy ending
Unlike the recent search and rescue operation for the missing OceanGate submersible near the Titanic wreckage, a successful submarine rescue happened here nearly 54 years ago.In October of 1969 the...
Identification of Unknown Soldier in 1998 a reminder of the price of freedom
Twenty-five years ago, the remains of an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery were exhumed and identified...
What age would you rather be?
If could pick any age, how old would you be? A writer for the San Diego Union asked women writers this age-old question in 1923.From The San Diego Union, Monday,...
4.6 quake hit San Diego in 1983
Forty years ago an offshore quake shook people awake in San Diego on June 29, 1983, but caused no reported injuries and little damage. The quake struck at 1:09 a.m....
NTC was recommended for closure in 1993
Thirty years ago the Department of Defense's base-closing commission voted to shut down San Diego's 70-year-old Naval Training Center. From the time it opened in 1923, recruits came to NTC...
50 years ago John Dean took the stand in Watergate probe
Fifty years ago today, former White House Counsel John Dean began testifying in a televised hearing before the Senate Watergate Committee, saying he believed President Richard Nixon was personally involved...
Unitarians first met in San Diego in 1873
Unitarians first met in San Diego 150 years ago. They held a Sunday School on June 22, 1873 at Alonzo Horton's Hall, 6th and F, that marks the beginning of...
North County’s annual Juneteenth celebration drew thousands to downtown Oceanside in 1993
By 1993, the North San Diego NAA's annual Juneteenth celebration at Oceanside Pier bandshell had become one of the largest celebrations of African-American culture and history in San Diego County,...
Father’s Day began in 1910
Today is Father's Day. The idea for the enduring holiday originated with Sonora Louise Smart Dodd as a tribute to her father, a widowed Civil War veteran who raised six...
Vacation Village opened in 1962 as a ‘Utopia’ in Mission Bay
On June 16,1962 Vacation Village resort opened on in Mission Bay Park. Developed at a cost of $3 million by motion-picture producer Jack Skirball, Bob Golden of the M.H. Golden...
Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck, a La Jolla native who co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse and became one of the world's great film stars, died 20 years ago this week. His death on...
Political activism and voter registration a theme of San Diego’s 1988 Pride parade
35 years ago a crowd of about 15,000 spectators lined Sixth Avenue for San Diego's 14th annual Pride parade on June 10, 1988.From The San Diego Union, Sunday, June 12,...
Zoot Suit alarm spread from Los Angeles to San Diego 80 years ago
Eighty years ago this month, the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles led to brief unrest in San Diego.The so-called "riots" were a series of ethnically motivated attacks by military...
![[ORIGINAL CAPTION] American assault troops with full equipment move onto Omaha Beach behind heavy materiel including half-tracks and DUKWS. Smoke in the background is from Naval gunfire ing the landing. Normandy June 6, 1944 (National Archives Identifier 12003937)](/wp-content/s/migration/2023/06/06/00000188-8c94-dad3-a799-8dd754400000.jpg?w=135 "00000188-8c94-dad3-a799-8dd754400000")
Allied troops landed in in ‘wave after wave,’ on D-Day
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, , as American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines, beginning the liberation of German-occupied western Europe during World War...
Hale Telescope dedicated 75 years ago
Seventy-five years ago hundreds of astronomers and VIPs gathered at Palomar Mountain for the dedication of the the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. Named for astrophysicist George Ellery Hale,...
The Mothers of Invention made their San Diego debut in 1968
On June 1, 1968, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention — in their first local appearance — brought their biting social satire to Convention Hall in San Diego. Besides...
Reasons to Memorial Day have grown since 1868
In 1868, Union Gen. John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11, which called for a national day of remembrance on May 30 for Civil War dead. This was the...
Did a robot run amok at the 1935 exhibition?
Do robots pose a threat to humans? Alpha, a robot, that was exhibited in Balboa Park at the California Pacific International Exposition of 1935-1936 caused a little ruckus in his...
Tina Turner rocked San Diego
Tina Turner, whose musical career spanned over five decades, died on Wednesday at the age of 83. As part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the 1960s, Tina...
Nation of Israel was born 75 years ago
Israel declared itself a state 75 years ago, on May 14, 1948. The United States recognized the new Jewish nation the same day. Israel was established in part of the...
Speculation fueled San Diego’s 1873 real estate boom
In the spring of 1873 San Diego's real estate was booming. Work had began on the promised Texas & Pacific transcontinental rail line to San Diego. The city's population swelled...
1913 California law prohibited Asian immigrants from owning land
On May 19, 1913, California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from owning farm land, a measure targeting Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese farmers who...
Morse High dedicated in 1963
Sixty years ago, Morse High School at 60th Street and Skyline Drive was formally dedicated on May, 16, 1963. Named for the inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, the $2.37 million...
Cupenos’ Trail of Tears took place in 1903
On May 12, 1903, the Cupeño Indians were uprooted from their ancestral homes near what is now known as Warner Springs and marched three days 40 miles west to the...
The Beach Boys brought good vibrations to stadium show in 1983
In April 1983, Interior Secretary James Watts banned the Beach Boys from playing on the National Mall, because he said, rock bands attracted "the wrong element," to the annual Fourth...
1937 coronation of George VI marked by pageantry
Before the coronation ceremony of King Charles III, the last time a king was crowned in England was 86 years ago this month. On May 12, 1937 King George VI...
1933 San Clemente landslide damaged historic home and blocked rail traffic to San Diego
Ninety years ago, on May 5, 1933, a 200-foot cliff slid across the railway tracks in San Clemente, demolishing the home of San Clemente's first mayor, Thomas F. Murphine, and...
20-years later: ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech
Twenty years ago, President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat in Iraq in front of a banner reading, "mission accomplished," in a now-infamous speech on May 1,...
Runaway street car killed one and injured dozens in 1923
One of San Diego's worst transit accidents took place a century ago on Broadway in downtown. On April 29, 1923 the No. 211 car on the No. 7 line went...
All About Harry Belafonte
The late Union entertainment columnist Don Freeman first saw Harry Belafonte perform in 1952 on a bill with comedian Henny Youngman at the Thunderbird hotel in Las Vegas.Belafonte, the activist...
Mama cat adopts baby chick in depression-era San Diego; goes ‘viral’
Before viral pet videos were a thing, heartwarming pet stories still made the news. The tale of Ginger the mother cat—named for stage star Ginger Rogers—and her adopted chick made...
The Spanish American War began 125 years ago
April 21, 1898 marks the beginning of the Spanish-American War. President William McKinley ordered a naval blockade of Cuba 125 years ago as diplomatic relations between the United States and...
Infamous video of the police assault of Rodney King key to 1993 civil verdict
Thirty years ago this week, a federal jury convicted two Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King's civil rights when arresting him after a high-speed chase early March 3,...
Napalm train had no place to go in 1998
In April 1998 a rail car full of napalm, which had been stored at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station near Camp Pendleton since the Vietnam War, was left in limbo...
The NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt first came to San Diego in 1988
A massive memorial AIDS quilt, sponsored by the San Francisco Names Project, was displayed April 12 and 13, 1988 in Golden Hall at San Diego's Civic Center downtown as part...
A carrier flight deck became a chilly concert hall on San Diego Bay 80 years ago
On April 10, 1953, Conductor Werner Janssen led the San Diego Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert aboard the carrier Kearsarge, anchored at North Island.From the Evening Tribune, Saturday, April 11,...
PSA smiles vanished from San Diego 35 years ago
Thirty-five years ago, the last flight of Pacific Southwest Airlines departed from San Diego. The 39-year-old local airline became part of USAir Group in a $400 million takeover.From The San...
San Diego drank itself dry on News Beer’s Day 90 years ago
On April 7, 1933 licensed beer halls reopened downtown after 13 years of prohibition and San Diegans turned out to celebrate. From The San Diego Union, Saturday, April 8, 1933:Far...
Martin Luther King slaying shocked nation 55 years ago
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was fatally shot while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., 55 years ago today. In San Diego flags were lowered...
First San Diego Crew Classic was launched in April 1973
The two-day 2023 San Diego Crew Classic concludes on Sunday, April 2. Fifty years ago this week, the first Crew Classic rowing regatta took place on Mission Bay on April...
City turned out for the opening of Pacific Coast league baseball in 1936
On March 31 1936, the Padres of the Pacific Coast baseball league opened their first home season with a 6-2 victory over Seattle before a packed house at Lane Field..The...
Hiring Steve Fisher beginning of new era for Aztecs basketball
Twenty-four years ago, Steve Fisher, who coached the University of Michigan to the NCAA Championship in 1989, was named head basketball coach at San Diego State University.In his first SDSU...
‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!’ filmed here in 1977
Forty-six years ago giant mutant tomatoes met their demise at San Diego Stadium during the March 26, 1977 filming of the finale of a low-budget horror spoof called "Attack of...
Sixty-five years ago, Elvis Presley was drafted into the Army
It was front page news on March 24, 1958, when Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army at the draft board in Memphis, Tenn., before boarding a bus for...
20 years ago 6 local Marines became the nation’s first fatalities in the war against Iraq
Twenty years ago, the United States launched an invasion of Iraq, beginning an eight-year conflict that resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. service and hundreds of thousands...
Hundreds of riders participated in San Diego’s first big sociability bicycle run in 1921
On this day in 1921, Fred St. Onge, author of "The Art of Bicycle Riding," led hundreds of riders in a bicycle parade from the San Diego Public Library to...
Oldest human-made object still in orbit around Earth was launched 65 years ago
On March 17, 1958, the Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, was sent into space on Jan. 31, 1958, some...
Devastating earthquake struck Long Beach 90 years ago
Ninety years ago, a deadly earthquake struck Southern California on March 10, 1933. Named the Long Beach earthquake after the city that was hardest hit, the magnitude 6.4 quake killed...
Marching bands and dignitaries graced Fleet Center dedication 50 years ago
On March 10, 1973, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center — now called the Fleet Science Center — was officially dedicated in Balboa Park. The museum was...
New magazines for women debuted 35 years ago
Two very different magazines for women hit the stands in the spring of 1988. "Sassy" revolutionized the teen magazine category with frank discussions and attitude. However, advertising revenue didn't keep...
Balboa Park museums were drafted into military service 80 years ago
On March 5, 1943 the Navy informed the San Diego Society of Natural History that it wished to take over the Natural History Museum for hospital use immediately. The Fine...
In 1893 Jose Gabriel was the first inmate to be executed at San Quentin
One hundred and thirty years ago a San Diegan became the first person in California to be executed by the state at San Quentin. On March 3, 1893, José Gabriel,...
1973 occupation of Wounded Knee galvanized the modern American Indian Movement
Fifty years ago Sioux protesters led by of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee — the site of the terrible 1890 massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S....
The queen’s 1983 visit to San Diego drew a crowd
On Feb. 26, 1983, Queen Elizabeth II stepped off the royal yacht Britannia at the Broadway Pier, becoming the first reigning British monarch to visit the U.S. West Coast.Britain’s longest-reigning...
Egg ‘poached’ to save condor 40 years ago
Forty years ago, a California condor egg was taken from a nest in the wild on Feb. 23, 1983, and airlifted in a heated case to the San Diego Zoo...
Chinese spy balloon sparks echos of Japanese balloon bombs during WWII.
In late 1944, the Japanese military began launching 9,000 unmanned bomb-carrying balloon across the Pacific to bombard the West Coast. Most of the balloon bombs fell harmlessly in the ocean,...
In 1958 interview 18-year-old Raquel had heart set on professional acting career
Actress Raquel Welch—formerly Raquel Tejada—who ed away Wednesday at age 82, knew growing up in La Jolla she wanted a professional acting career. She told the Evening Tribune in 1958...
San Diego Air & Space Museum opened 60 years ago
Sixty years ago this week, the San Diego AeroSpace Museum—renamed the San Diego Air & Space Museum in 2006—opened to the public in Balboa Park.The date for the opening, Feb....
Advice for Valentine’s parties from 1923
Red paper hearts, ribbons and Kewpie dolls were just the thing for Valentine's Day entertaining 100 years ago.From the Evening Tribune, Feb. 10, 1923:Many New Things Suggested For Entertaining at...
Rare Lincoln photograph came to light in San Diego in 1937
On Feb. 12, 1937 a striking, unique photograph of Abraham Lincoln was published for the first time on the front page of the Evening Tribune in San Diego.The photograph of...
War on ‘wild drivers’ waged in San Diego 100 years ago
Thirty-two people died as a result of car accidents in San Diego in 1922. In response, a new city safety commission urged citizens to report to the authorities all traffic...
The Nagano Olympic Games opened 25 years ago
The XVIII Winter Olympics opened in Nagano, Japan 25 years ago. Among the prime-time highlights from 16 days of competition were Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan finishing with gold and...
A view of La Mesa 125 years ago
Amid ments for California Fig Syrup and Hood's Sarsaparilla, a glowing 1898 profile of the community of La Mesa by a writer using the initials, "J.W." The City of La...
One S.D. researcher had front row seat to Halley’s comet in 1986
Sky-watchers this week have be vying for a glimpse of the 'green comet’ discovered by Palomar Observatory. In 1986, as Halley's Comet made its journey of once every 76 years...
ing the Columbia space shuttle disaster
Twenty years ago this week, San Diego-born astronaut William McCool and his six crew mates were killed when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.From...
Liza, Frank and Super Bowl XXII together in San Diego in ’88
Thirty-five years ago, two legends, Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli appeared together in a pair of concerts at the Sports Arena, which is now Pechanga Arena.The shows on Jan. 29...
San Diego’s last Super Bowl?
Twenty years ago this week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pummeled the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. It was the last of three Super Bowls...
Barriers against women in combat began falling in 2003
Ten years ago then Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ordered the services to lift the ban on women serving in combat jobs in the military. According to the Department of...
Looking back at Roe v. Wade decision on the 50th anniversary
On Jan. 22, 1973, by a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, struck down state laws that prohibited abortions early in a pregnancy. That...
The first January 20th Inauguration Day was in 1937
On Jan. 20, 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into office at the U.S. Capitol for a second presidential term.Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to be sworn in on...
San Diego dancer’s 1923 death still a mystery
Fritzie Mann's mysterious death was reported on the front page of The San Diego Union on Jan. 17, 1923. Sensational details would follow. Mann's body had been clad only in...
Vista, San Marcos, voted on city status 60 years ago
Residents of Vista and San Marcos voted to become cities 60 years ago today, on Jan. 15, 1963. From the Evening Tribune, Friday, Jan. 18, 1963:Tale of Two cities Told...
Greek heir to throne visited San Diego in 1959
Constantine, the last king of Greece, who died Jan. 10 in Athens, once visited San Diego. In 1959, then-Crown Prince Constantine spent three days touring local military installations and the...
Historic Balboa theatre reopened in S.D. in 2008
Fifteen years ago, Mayor Jerry Sanders delivered his third State of the City address from the stage of the newly restored Balboa Theatre. Closed and decaying for decades, the historic...
Balboa Park tent city ousted 30 years ago
Thirty years ago this week the city evicted more than 100 residents of of an encampment in Balboa Park after agreeing to provide temporary overnight shelter beds in Balboa Park's...
San Diego banned AIDS discrimination 35 years ago
In January 1988, County Board of Supervisors adopted a wide-ranging proposal banning discrimination in against anyone who has HIV/AIDS. The City Council approved a similar anti-discrimination measure the following month....
First U.S. Senator from S.D. took office in 1983
Forty years ago, Pete Wilson was sworn in as the junior U.S. senator from California one day after delivering an emotional Farewell after 11 years as San Diego's mayor.Wilson was...
The San Diego Union’s 1923 annual edition praised city’s ‘perpetual sunshine’
For more than 50 years, The San Diego Union published a special annual edition on the first day of the new year.Sections of the annual edition were packed with facts...
The Year in Pictures: 1922
One longstanding newspaper custom is to provide readers in December with a brief summary of prominent events or big stories of the year that has ed. Last Sunday, the Union-Tribune...
Newspaper offers glimpse of life in San Diego 125 years ago
When front page newspaper headlines frequently capture world events and national news of the day, the local news items offer a more intimate picture of life in San Diego.From The...
The Welton files: Circus clowns, a Russian ballerina and a mystery
Fifty-five years ago, Union writer Welton Jones used his journalistic skills to help to solve a mystery involving circus clowns and the missing grave of a Russian ballerina.Jones, the former...
Pueblo crew released by North Korea Dec. 23, 1968
On Dec. 23, 1968 Commander Lloyd M. “Pete” Bucher, captain of the USS Pueblo, and 81 other surviving crew of the U.S. intelligence ship, were released by North Korea...
San Diego’s Poinsettia Bowl in 1952 was wild and wet
On Dec. 20, 1952 military teams from Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., and San Diego's Naval Training Center faced off in the first annual Poinsettia Bowl football game...
‘Down like gangbusters,’ 50 years ago splashdown of Apollo 17 marked end of an era
NASA's Artemis 1 unmanned Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles southwest of San Diego on Dec. 11, after traveling more than 1.4 million miles on...
Snow fell in San Diego 55 years ago
On Dec. 13, 1967, a powerful storm brought snow to downtown San Diego for the first time since 1949. Snow regularly falls in the mountains in San Diego county and...
San Diego Aqueduct dedication 75 years ago marked new era in region’s quest for water
Seventy-five years ago, on Dec. 11 1947, the 71-mile San Diego Aqueduct was dedicated and put into operation, bringing water from the Colorado River to San Diego.By 1949, 85 percent...
1987 treaty marked new era between the US and Russia
Thirty-five years ago, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — who died earlier this year — met in Washington D.C. and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The...
Race restrictions in Golden Hill block outlawed 75 years ago
Seventy-five years ago, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled on Dec. 3, 1947 against restrictive racial covenants in the Golden Hill area.The ruling invalidated restrictions forbidding the use of...
The Evening Tribune first hit street back in 1895
On Monday, Dec. 2, 1895, the first Evening Tribune newspaper was published by Thomas Dykes Beasley and Frederick Ernest Augustus Kimball.The first edition was four pages long. The first item...