Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/Archive

This page displays all the articles which appear in the "did you know..." section of the San Francisco Bay Area portal, as well as most of the DYK's which appeared on the front page of Wikipedia that are SFBA related. Instructions on how to add new articles to this list are here.

Bold items were selected as DYK for the main page, but were not chosen for this portal. others may only have appeared at this portals DYK section. some have appeared in both, sometimes with slightly different taglines (and in different months). generally, the main page tagline is featured here.

2004

The portal had not been created at this time. DYK's, which began in January 2004, are from the main page.

2004

... that Bodega Bay (pictured) in California was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds?
... that the music of the Pointer Sisters combined jazz, scat and be-bop?
... that American Zoetrope was originally housed in a warehouse in San Francisco in 1969?
... that California's Russian River (Pacific Ocean estuary pictured) is named for the Russian trappers who explored it in the early 19th century?
... that a pencil sharpener, frequently found in the San Francisco Bay Area, "is a device for sharpening a pencil's point by shaving the end of the pencil"? Well, all right, you probably did.

2005

January–June

... that Josiah Belden (pictured) was a member of the first party to use the California Trail, and the first mayor of San Jose?
... that Zentatsu Richard Baker was an influential American Zen priest who played a leading role in founding Tassajara, the first Buddhist training monastery outside of Asia?
... that Elmer Robinson was the 33rd mayor of San Francisco?
... the callsign of KFRC in San Francisco, California in the U.S. stood for "Known For Radio Clearness"? In fact, when the AM radio station signed on with 50 watts in 1924, it was heard as far away as New Zealand, far exceeding anyone's expectations.

July–December

... that the California Pacific Conference has school members that range from members of the California State University system to religious and liberal arts colleges?
... that "Herb Caen Way ..." in the Embarcadero was christened in this fashion in honor of Herb Caen (pictured) ... long-time San Francisco Chronicle columnist ... this due to his having created "three-dot journalism" ... the use of ellipses to separate his column's short items?
... that Ed Roberts became one of the founders of the disability rights movement when he lobbied for basic accommodations at the University of California, Berkeley?
... that Corry v. Stanford was a California court case that declared Stanford University's speech code illegal under the freedom of speech protections of the state's Leonard Law? (Seal of California pictured)

2006

January–May

San Francisco garter snake

... that Rattlesnake James, the last man to be hanged in California, was convicted of drowning his wife after a failed first attempt to kill her with rattlesnake venom?
... that the San Francisco garter snake (pictured) is an endangered species capable of digesting toxic newts but is not found in San Francisco?
... that Chuck Muncie was a star running back for The University of California, Berkeley during the 1970s, where he broke six school rushing records that stand to this day?
... that prehistoric inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area fished the bat ray in large numbers, while more recently it is mostly taken by oyster growers who mistakenly believe it feeds on their oysters?
... that the endangered subspecies California Clapper Rail (pictured), a chicken-sized bird that rarely flies, has chicks that can swim when they are just two hours old?
... that before Robert Louis Stevenson became a successful novelist with Treasure Island in 1883, he was a struggling author of travel narratives who published An Inland Voyage, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes and Silverado Squatters?

June–September

... that Sanborn Park (pictured) provided one of the first segments of the San Francisco Bay Area Ridge Trail, which is planned to encircle the Bay Area with a 500 mile long hiking trail?
... that Tom Campbell was a popular radio personality on KYA San Francisco who used to loan his personal phonograph, record collection and even his personal automobile to his listeners?
... that Hickman's potentilla (pictured) is a rare plant discovered by Alice Eastwood, who climbed six floors through a burning building in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake to save her specimens?
... that Humphrey the whale may be the most publicized Humpback whale in history, having twice wandered off his migration course into San Francisco Bay?
... that Sonoma Creek (pictured), a California-designated critical coastal watershed, drains the acclaimed Sonoma Valley Wine Country, and provides a home to many endangered species?

October–November

... that Hood Mountain in California has high canopy mixed oak forests, pygmy forests and expanses of rock outcrop, and also has a vulnerable plant species named for it?
... that the soldier in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy reunited with his family after six years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp?
... that Acanthomintha duttonii is an endangered wildflower that is found only in a six mile long strip on the San Francisco Peninsula?
... that artists of the Mission School, a San Francisco-based contemporary art movement, often make artworks from materials such as house paint, spray paint, correction fluid, ballpoint pens, and scrapboard?
... that Santa Rosa Creek (pictured) was the scene of an 1827 baptism of a Pomo maiden, which event led to the naming of the creek and also the city of Santa Rosa, California?
... that Sonoma Coast State Beach (pictured) is one of California's longest beaches and has rocks that have evidence of rubbing by mammoths 40,000 years ago?
... that Annadel State Park (pictured) is considered by some biologists to have some of the best preserved northern oak woodlands in western North America?

The portal was created at this time. Some of the DYK's below were selected ONLY for the portal, and not for the main page. Main page DYK's are bolded on this page.

December #1

... that a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (pictured) in Napa Valley won a blind taste test at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.
... that the Port of Oakland was the first major port on the West Coast to handle container ships.
... that craigslist was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark and, since 2004, has been partly owned by eBay.
... that colonies of the San Bruno elfin butterfly, an endangered species, are located on San Bruno Mountain and near the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

December #2

... that there are only two extant populations of the Tiburon Jewelflower (pictured), both on the Tiburon Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area?
... that the Yulupa Creek watershed has been designated as critical habitat for two California endangered species?
... that the Laguna de Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, has several endemic endangered species and is the second-largest freshwater wetland in Northern California?
... that Isaias W. Hellman, a co-founder of the University of Southern California, ran Wells Fargo Bank out of his house after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake leveled its headquarters?
... that Graham Creek in California was a seasonal hunting and gathering ground for prehistoric Pomo and Wappo people?
... that the Brush Creek confluence (pictured) with Santa Rosa Creek was the site of a Pomo village, the antecedent of modern Santa Rosa, California?

2007

January

... that the Palace of Fine Arts (pictured) in the Marina, which today houses the Exploratorium science museum, was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition?
... that KCBS has its roots in the experiments of Charles Herrold, who, using call letters FN, SJN, 6XF, 6XE, and KQW, made regular radio broadcasts from San Jose as early as 1909?
... that the National Ignition Facility (pictured) for inertial confinement fusion research will be housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory?
... that Sonoma County Airport is named after Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz and features Snoopy riding his sopwith camel as its logo?
... that the Carbonera Creek watershed in California has diverse plant communities including a rare assemblage known as Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forests?
... that the Suisun Shrew is a rare mammal species that survives only in a narrow marshland at the northern extremity of San Francisco Bay?

February #1

... that the former fur trading outpost of Fort Ross was the southernmost Russian installation in North America?
... that the Pentium chip (pictured) was so named because Intel was unable to trademark numbers such as 386, 486, 586?
... that Scott McKenzie's hippie anthem San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) was written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas to promote the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival?
... that BART and Amtrak share the Richmond rail station, connecting the Bay Area with Sacramento and the Central Valley?

February #2

... that the Port of Redwood City is the only deep-water port in southern San Francisco Bay?
... that the San Bruno Creek Trail provides a key link in the San Francisco Bay perimeter trail, but a two-mile detour inland is required?
... that the Krazy Kat cartoons printed in the San Francisco Examiner prompted a serious physical assault on Agnes Newton Keith?
... that the Seal Slough tidal channel in California hosts a thriving marshland habitat despite encroachment by a sewage treatment plant and two schools?

No "Did You Know" articles added from March 2007 until November 2011. The following DYK's were placed on the main WP page during that time.

March #1

Syncaris pacifica

... that Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young, owner of the Yung See San Fong House (pictured) in Los Gatos, California, didn't want it to be a bungalow, but a "bungahigh"?
... that Goat Rock Beach in Sonoma County, California has a number of sea stacks and offers viewing of marine natural arches?
... that the California Maritime Academy has named three of its four training ships Golden Bear since 1946?
... that the endangered Syncaris pacifica (pictured) uses variable translucency and color changing crypsis for underwater camouflage?
... that Bennett Valley is one of the newest additions to the list of American Viticulture Areas?

March #2

... that Fountaingrove Lake (pictured) in Santa Rosa, California, is a habitat for the threatened Western pond turtle, and is surrounded by a championship golf course?
... that Room 307, Gilman Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where the element plutonium was discovered, is a United States National Historic Landmark?
... that the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, was home to the short-lived U.S. Camel Corps?
...that Tolay Lake has yielded thousands of charmstones thrown into the lake by prehistoric peoples to invoke health and high crop yields?

March #3

... that the Downtown Historic District of San Jose, California, an area of just one square block, contains buildings of six different architectural styles?
... that the interior and exterior of the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe in Milpitas, California have not significantly changed in 150 years?
... that the Piner Creek watershed is home to a historic round barn (pictured), one of the early architectural features of Sonoma County, California?

April #1

... that the San Francisco Armory (pictured), a National Guard stronghold during the "Bloody Thursday" events of 1934, is now used as a BDSM porn studio?
... that Camillo Ynitia was the only Native American on the northern frontier of Alta California to secure a large land grant for his tribe?
... that in five years of operation during World War II, more than 747 vessels were built in the Richmond Shipyards (pictured) in Richmond, California—a feat not equaled anywhere else in the world, before or since?
... that the California Wine Country is known for its cuisine, recreation and history as much as viticulture?
... that the pyramid scheme Holiday Magic was investigated by the State of California, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission and shut down for fraud?

April #2

Union Iron Works Powerhouse

Lilium pardalinum pitkinense

... that the Alameda Works Shipyard (pictured) in Alameda, California, was one of the largest and best equipped shipyards in the United States?
... that the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park is the first national tribute to home front American women?
... that Nova Studios developed the "West Coast Look", a stylized and highly planned filmmaking style of gay pornography which dominated the genre through the 1980s?
... that the rare Pitkin Marsh lily (pictured) is limited today to three small colonies, due to cattle overgrazing of its habitat and the flower's popularity with humans?
... that although a response to the 1885 Endicott Board recommendations for the coastal defense of San Francisco, the batteries at Fort Miley were not completed until 1902?

May–June

... that Serranus Clinton Hastings served as chief justice of both the Iowa and California Supreme Courts?
... that The Geysers, a geothermal power field located north of San Francisco, California, (power plant pictured) is the largest geothermal development in the world?
... that in 1927, Oregon congressman Maurice E. Crumpacker drowned in San Francisco Bay after claiming he had been poisoned?
... that Californian politician Lou Papan received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1996?

July–September

... that Chinatown, San Francisco's waiter Edsel Ford Fong is fondly remembered for calling patrons "retarded" and "fat", slamming food on tables, groping female patrons, telling patrons to "sit down and shut up" and clearing tables before diners were finished?
... that two people died outside of San Francisco's Pier 26 during the 1934 Bloody Thursday Riots?
... that the stray dogs Bummer and Lazarus (pictured) were so popular with the people of San Francisco in the 1860s that they were given special exemption from the leash laws?

October–December

... that The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, a 1959 album by jazz band The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, reached the bestseller charts with 50,000 copies sold by May 1960?
... that as Burton Abbott was being executed in California's gas chamber in 1957, the governor was contacting the warden to stay the execution?
... that the book This Is Not The Life I Ordered, co-authored by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, has twice reached the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list?
... that former mayor of San Jose, California Ernie Renzel was called the "Father of San Jose International Airport" for his work in establishing the city's first airport?
... that Korean independence activist Jang In-hwan (pictured) used Arthur Schopenhauer's "patriotic insanity" defense when on trial for the murder of Japan lobbyist Durham Stevens, in San Francisco in 1908?

2008

January

... that when San Francisco–based photographer William Rulofson (pictured) fell to his death, he was heard to have exclaimed, "I am killed"?
... that the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway was San Francisco's first electric streetcar company?
... that the adobe house that is the centerpiece of the Alviso Adobe Community Park (pictured) in Pleasanton, California, was built in 1854 and continuously in use until 1969?
... that years after Adolph Spreckels shot M. H. de Young, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor (which he donated) and the De Young Museum merged to form the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco?
... that the city of San Francisco contributed a large proportion of the funds for constructing the extension of Junipero Serra Boulevard beyond the city limits?

February–March

Cast and crew on the set of Korty's Farewell to Manzanar, Alameda County, 1976

... that American film maker John Korty’s studio in Marin County inspired George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to establish studios in the San Francisco Bay Area? (cast from Korty's Farewell to Manzanar pictured)
... that California's four-lane Bayshore Highway, now a freeway, was built to high standards in the 1920s and '30s, but was called "Bloody Bayshore" because of the number of crashes?
... that Filipino jazz singer Katy de la Cruz was once a top-billed performer at the famed Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco?
... that the San Francisco-based electro-acoustic improvisation music ensemble Maybe Monday features a traditional Japanese musical instrument, the koto? (pictured)

April–June

... that film director Brett Simon taught film history, film theory and video production at the University of California, Berkeley while completing two degrees there?
... that Jack Christiansen and Bill Walsh are the only San Francisco 49ers head coaches in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
... that Malinda Cramer (pictured), a founder of the Church of Divine Science and an early influence in the New Thought movement, died in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake?
... that in 1928, the Mayo Beach Light tower was removed from its site on Cape Cod and re-erected in California as the Point Montara Light?
... that drag entertainer José Sarria (pictured) was the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States, garnering some 6,000 votes in his 1961 campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors?

July

Hercules Station site, October 28, 2012

... that after a painted garage door was destroyed, the Precita Eyes muralists salvaged it and merged it into a new one, said to be one of their most beautiful in San Francisco?
... that the San Francisco Bay Area will have a new direct rail to ferry connection when the Hercules intermodal rail station and WETA ferry terminal is constructed?
... that San Francisco indie rock band LoveLikeFire formed as a result of a Craigslist classified advertisement?
... that Thomas Kimmwood Peters was the only newsreel photographer to film the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906?
... that San Francisco's 1873 Pigtail Ordinance was deemed unconstitutional because it discriminated against Chinese immigrants?
... that Temple Sinai, a Reform synagogue in Oakland, California, grew out of Oakland's Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1875?
... that 29 percent of the population of Birds Landing, California can speak Spanish?

August–October

... that in 1993, police officer Bob Geary launched a successful ballot initiative in San Francisco, California to allow him to carry a ventriloquist's dummy on patrol?
... that agribusiness executive Daron Joffe used to teach horticulture and farming to incarcerated teenagers in the San Francisco area?
... that Halloween in the Castro (bus sign pictured), San Francisco's gay village, started as a children's costume contest in 1948 and was attended by 500,000 people in 2002?
... that former Major League Baseball pitcher Juan Marichal made ten Opening Day starts for the San Francisco Giants between 1962 and 1973?
... that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (pictured) studied economics at Harvard University for two years before moving to Palo Alto, California to work on Facebook full-time?

November–December

... that the tower located at 100 McAllister St (pictured) in San Francisco used to be a Methodist church, a hotel and an IRS office building before it was refurbished for residential use by students at UC Hastings?
... that veteran LGBT rights activist Hank Wilson started or co-founded at least ten LGBT organizations in the San Francisco area?
... that George Hardy, who headed the Service Employees International Union from 1971 to 1980, did his first union organizing among janitors in San Francisco?
... that when reporter George Crile compared San Francisco to Sodom and Gomorrah when interviewing Dianne Feinstein for the CBS documentary Gay Power, Gay Politics, she threw him out of her office?

2009

January

... that this year's Tour of California will cross the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time? (crossing pictured)
... that the Los Carneros AVA (pictured), located in both Napa and Sonoma counties, was the first wine region in California to be defined by its climate characteristics instead of political boundaries?
... that a Chardonnay from the Robert Young Vineyard in the Alexander Valley AVA was one of the first premium vineyard designated wines in California history?
... that the bottle label of California "cult wine" producer Harlan Estate was ten years in the making?

February

Warning sign, posted at Skeggs Point in the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, San Mateo County

... that although it was founded in 1924, Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California, did not hire its first rabbi until 1963?
... that the Bay Area Puma Project is the first major study of mountain lions living in the San Francisco Bay Area?
... that the Mechanics Bank (pictured) based in Richmond, California, declined a 60 million dollar government bailout?
... that to survive during Prohibition, some winemaking families in what is now California's Russian River Valley AVA converted to bootlegging operations that sold a water-based wine known as "jackass brandy"?
... that San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Billy Wilson has been described as "probably one of the most underrated players in NFL history"?

March–April

... that if its congestion pricing proposal is approved, San Francisco will be the first U.S. city to implement this method of reducing traffic congestion?
... that the latte is claimed to have been invented at Caffe Mediterraneum (pictured) in Berkeley, California?
... that restaurateur Pascal Rigo owns the oldest flour mill in San Francisco?
... that Bookpeople was an employee-owned book distributor that helped revolutionize independent publishing and bookselling?

May–June

... that on Floodplain, San Francisco-based string quartet the Kronos Quartet (pictured) plays instruments built by Walter Kitundu, including the beguèna maridhia, which is based on an Ethiopian 10-string lyre?
... that "A Supermarket in California" is a poem by Allen Ginsberg published in 1956 and dedicated to Walt Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass?
... that despite playing the position of wide receiver in American college football, LaShaun Ward was the third leading rusher for the University of California Golden Bears in 2001?
... that the organizers of San Francisco's Trans March rerouted the event through the city's Mission District to draw attention to violence against transgender people?
... that San Francisco Chronicle pop music critic Joel Selvin (pictured) was an early member of the rock and roll band Rock Bottom Remainders, made up of authors and journalists?

July

• ... that Ina Coolbrith (pictured, right), the first woman granted honorary membership in the Bohemian Club, was also the first California Poet Laureate?
• ... that the California-based donut shop Psycho Donuts has generated controversy for its mental health-themed products, such as the "Manic Malt" and "Bipolar"?
• ... that Horace Barker was awarded the National Medal of Science for discovering the coenzyme of vitamin B12, which Barker had isolated from mud taken from San Francisco Bay?
• ... that England-born American composer Wallace Arthur Sabin was the first dean of the San Francisco chapter of the American Guild of Organists? (painting of work presented at the Bohemian Grove pictured, left)
• ... that the Cremation of Care ceremony (pictured, right) is performed on the first night of the Bohemian Club's annual summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove?

August #1

... that The Californian (pictured), California's first newspaper, appeared first in August 1846 on large sheets of cigarette paper, with English on one side and Spanish on the other?
... that "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was one of the stories Mark Twain published in the San Francisco weekly literary newspaper The Californian?
... that Anton Roman's literary magazine The Californian, published in 1880, was a continuation of his earlier Overland Monthly?

August #2

... that journalist James F. Bowman (pictured) wrote a grandiose poetry review for The Californian newspaper, then published an anonymous review in the Dramatic Chronicle savaging his earlier review?
... that AltaRock Energy's demonstration project for generating renewable energy through geothermal power may increase the number of earthquakes in California?
... that the majority of Mexican land grant Rancho Las Putas was covered by Lake Berryessa in 1957?
... that the San Francisco Art Association used the expansive Palace of Fine Arts to show a small collection of public art, and lost money each year from 1915 to 1922?

August #3

... that the settlers who built Old St. Raymond's Church (pictured) in Dublin, California, were unable to afford a full-time priest, so one rode in monthly from Oakland to hold Mass?
... that the Mexican land grant Rancho Las Juntas was given to Irishman William Welch, who was listed as "Guillermo Welch" on official land documents?
... that Mexican land grant Rancho Los Medanos was called "New York of the Pacific" by the New York army colonel who bought it?
... that Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones were commissioned to take photographs of Monticello, California as it was being prepared for destruction?

September

... that Icehouse Wilson, a member of "Oakland's first World Champion Baseball team," had a career batting average of .000 in Major League Baseball?
... that the machinima-based music video Dance, Voldo, Dance was featured at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of an exhibit in 2006?
... that San Jose Mercury News West Magazine received awards for reporting on Japanese American internment, environmental policies of the Reagan administration, and effects of Proposition 13?
... that Rancho Cañada de Pogolimi, a fertile California ranch exceeding 8,780 acres (35.5 km²), was granted in 1844 to María Antonia Cazares, who was married at 14 and widowed at 17?
... that Triangle, the 1967 album by The Beau Brummels, was partially inspired by the Legion of Honor? (Terpsichore (1739), by Jean-Marc Nattier pictured)
... that the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve (map pictured) in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California contains an ancient seabed with fossils of various marine lifeforms, such as sand dollars and bivalves?

October

Oakland City Hall

... that a 36-cell jail is located on the twelfth floor of the Oakland, California City Hall (pictured)?
... that Frank Kanning Mott was a messenger for Western Union, a telephone operator, a hardware business owner and a city councilman before he was elected mayor of Oakland, California in 1905?
... that the sculptor Emile Norman's largest and most famous work is a four-story high endomosaic window in the lobby of the Masonic Memorial Temple in San Francisco?
... that the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco houses one of the world's most comprehensive libraries of academic sexological and erotological resources?

2010

January–March

... that an early incarnation of Bimbo's 365 Club (pictured) in San Francisco included Dolfina, a nude woman who appeared to swim inside a large aquarium over the bar?
... that the Council on Religion and the Homosexual once held a fundraiser dance despite intimidation from San Francisco police?
... that William C. McInnes, one of the first Jesuits to study business administration, simultaneously served as the president of both Fairfield University and the University of San Francisco for four months?
... that eclectic and non-traditional Quartet San Francisco has been nominated five times for Grammy Awards, most recently for QSF Plays Brubeck, the first all-Dave Brubeck string quartet recording?
... that the Bolinas, California-based unconventional winemaker Sean Thackrey was previously an art dealer?

April–June

... that the 1878 constitution of San Francisco's Congregation Beth Israel prohibited members from praying out loud?
... that H. Brett Melendy was the first chairman of the history department of San José State University, California?
... that a new orchid species, Ornithidium donaldeedodii, was "discovered" when a mislabeled plant at the University of California Botanical Garden had its DNA analyzed?
... that California's first State House was originally a hotel in San Jose owned by businessman Pierre "Don Pedro" Sainsevain and his associates?
... that Medal of Honor recipient William R. Parnell (pictured) died in San Francisco, California on August 20, 1910, after falling from a street car?

July–September #1

... that Tropical Storm Ignacio of August 1997 caused unprecedented rainfall in San Francisco, California, which typically receives only a trace of precipitation during the month?
... that, seven years after California football coach Stub Allison's "nasty, opportunistic defense" helped win a national championship, he was fired for "shackl[ing] good material with a dull offense"?
... that Bolinas Ridge which runs parallel to California's San Andreas Fault has been the setting for numerous automobile television commercials?
... that Kent Island (pictured), a national wildlife sanctuary in California's Bolinas Lagoon, was once just hours from becoming the future site of a 1,500 boat marina?

July–September #2

... that George Malley, whose St. Ignatius High School football team was once compared to Notre Dame under Knute Rockne, resigned from the University of San Francisco with a losing record?
... that California cult wine producer Scarecrow is named for its founder's connection to The Wizard of Oz?
... that, in 1902, SS Doric brought over 33,000 pounds (15,000 kg) of opium to San Francisco, the largest such shipment to that date?
... that the Andrew Jackson (card pictured) was one of only two square-rigged ships to sail from New York City to San Francisco in under ninety days?

October–December #1

... that the discovery of chemical elements curium and americium (pictured) was first announced on a radio show for children in 1945?
... that The Waybacks, a four-piece band from San Francisco Bay, played covers from The Beatles' album Abbey Road at the 2010 MerleFest?
... that one of the Google driverless cars was able to drive itself down the narrow hairpin turns of San Francisco's Lombard Street?
... that it took 340 days of continuous experiments to prepare 22 milligrams of berkelium for the synthesis of 6 atoms of element 117, which took another 150 days?
... that the chemical element einsteinium was discovered in the debris of the Ivy Mike nuclear test (pictured) in 1952?

October–December #2

... that at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, every so often the sand recedes enough to allow the 19th century shipwreck of the King Philip clipper ship (pictured) to become visible?
... that San Francisco City Clinic is a specialty municipal sexual health center that opened in 1933 and serves people over the age of 12?
... that George Leslie Hunter's (pictured) early work was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake?
... that the first no-hitter by an Oakland Athletics pitcher after the Major League Baseball club relocated to Oakland, California, was a perfect game by Catfish Hunter in 1968?

2011

January–February

Village Creek, maintained by Friends of Five Creeks

• ... that Joe Heitz of California wine producer Heitz Wine Cellars is considered the first in the U.S. to champion single vineyard designated wine?
• ... that a critic said that landscapes by Rinaldo Cuneo (painting of the Embarcadero pictured, right) "are the very soul and essence of California materialized in line and color"?
• ... that the Friends of Five Creeks helps restore creeks in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay including daylighting Marin Creek? (Village Creek pictured, left)
• ... that California '49er Stephen William Shaw helped discover Humboldt Bay, painted over 200 portraits of San Francisco notables, and started growing grapes in Sonoma County?

March–April

Galilee, built in Benicia, California

... that the Galilee (pictured), a brigantine built by Matthew Turner in 1891, spent three years on charter to the Carnegie Institute of Washington as a magnetic observatory?
... that Sonoma wine producer Hanzell Vineyards was one of the first California wineries to produce barrel-aged Chardonnay?
... that California attorney Charles Stetson Wheeler built a temple to fishing at his hunting lodge on McCloud River?
... that Ralph Stackpole's 81-foot (25 m) statue Pacifica was at one time planned for permanent construction on an island in San Francisco Bay?
... that San Francisco fireboat Phoenix (pictured) pumped some 5.5 million gallons (20.8 ML) of seawater to help fight fires after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake?
... that former California State Assemblyman George W. Milias, a graduate of both San Jose State and Stanford, was President of the California Republican Assembly and state Republican Party Chairman?
... that saxophonist King Curtis was stabbed to death a week after releasing his album Live at Fillmore West?

May–June

Fusakichi Omori

... that seismologist Fusakichi Omori (pictured) of the Imperial University of Tokyo, who mapped the effects of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, later designed and donated the equipment to found the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory?
... that Flo Allen was "San Francisco's best loved artists' model" and modeled for 30 years?
... that in San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment did not protect the use of the word "Olympics", over the objections of the U.S. Olympic Committee?
... that, after the 1906 Earthquake, Sid Grauman (pictured), owner of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, showed movies in a tent with a sign that read "Nothing to fall on you but canvas if there is another quake"?
... that after being named the UCLA Bruins MVP in 2006 and 2007, San Francisco Giants rookie Brandon Crawford hit a grand slam in his first Major League Baseball game?
... that the Sausalito Record Plant served for a time as the residence for Rick James who slept in a conference room built with a waterbed floor?
... that University of California, Berkeley math professor Ian Agol has a twin brother who is a University of Washington astronomy professor?

July–August

... that Jane Baker, a former cooking show host and community organizer, became the first female Mayor of San Mateo, California?
... that Indonesian sociologist Mely G. Tan participated in student protests at the University of California, Berkeley until warned that she could be deported?
... that the houseboat Vallejo (pictured), made an icon of Bay Area culture by artist Jean Varda and philosopher Alan Watts in the 1960s, originally served as a passenger ferry in Portland, Oregon in the 1870s?

New DYK's began to be added to the revived portal starting with November's Robert D. San Souci. Again, highlighted DYK's were added to the main page, and regular text, only to this portal's DYK.

September–December

Hua Mulan

... that Bay Area native Robert D. San Souci was a consultant to Disney Studios when he suggested that they turn the legend of Hua Mulan (pictured) into a film, released in 1998 as Mulan?
... that after moving into the Bethesda Home for Boys at age seven, current San Francisco 49er Demarcus Dobbs moved in with his high school football coach's family in 2005?
... that, in 1980, U.S. presidential candidate John Anderson wrote in the San Francisco Sentinel that, if elected, he would end federal government discrimination based on sexual orientation?
... that future California Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Cottle attended UC Berkeley for one day before transferring to Stanford, where he was a pre-medical student and captain of the football team?
... that the opening of San Francisco's Tiffany Building included a roast pig and a lion dance for good luck?

2012

January–March

... that Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland is the site of a memorial (pictured) to the victims of the Jonestown tragedy?
... that the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge (pictured) in Healdsburg, California, was the first steel bridge across the Russian River?
... that Save The Bay helped stop San Bruno Mountain from being destroyed to create landfill along 27 miles (43 km) of San Francisco Bay?
... that Elias Abraham Rosenberg, a peddler from San Francisco, became an adviser to King Kalākaua of Hawaii due to his purported ability to predict the future?
... that Bob Wasserman served as police chief, city councilman, and mayor of the city of Fremont, California?
... that Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, who later wrote The Art of Beowulf, was one of a group of University of California professors who at first refused on principle to sign the loyalty oath in 1949?

April–June

Edsel with "abused" customers in 1982.

... that hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant Sam Wo had the world's rudest waiter (pictured) and was closed in 2012 for rat feces after 100 years of operating in San Francisco's Chinatown?
... that California governor Henry Gage publicly denied there was a San Francisco plague of 1900–1904?
... that the City of Rio de Janeiro is located in San Francisco Bay?
... that a Roman Catholic priest got five Super Bowl rings with the 49ers?
... that protesters have occupied and started to farm a tract of land owned by the University of California, Berkeley?
... that Grafton Tyler Brown (pictured) was the first African American artist to document California and the Pacific Northwest?

July–September

... that the James Dalessandro's 2004 novel 1906 was based upon the 1998 screenplay he wrote about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake for a film by the same name?
... that California Hall (pictured) is one of the original "classical core" Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival buildings on the UC Berkeley campus?
... that the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum includes Miwok items?
... that botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon authored the legislation to make the golden poppy the state flower of California?
... that Terry Francois was the first African American member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors?
... that two men and a dog died during the 1909 Portola Road Race (pictured) in Oakland, California?
... that poet Ishmael Reed learned to play jazz piano at the Jazzschool beginning when he was 60?

October–December

... that over 100 sites in the San Francisco Bay Area (pictured: Winchester Mystery House) are reported to be haunted?
... that the works of Henry W. Cleaveland, a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, include the original Palace Hotel, San Francisco?
... that Downtown College Prep in San Jose was the first charter school in Santa Clara County, California?
... that Walt Downing, the seventh All-American center for Michigan, won a Super Bowl with the 1981 San Francisco 49ers?
... that San Francisco police supervised the controversial North American premiere of Al-Nakba at the Castro Theater?
... that San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty member Indre Viskontas (pictured) has performed research into the neurological basis of memory, reasoning, and self-identity?
... that congressman-elect Eric Swalwell served on the city council of College Park, Maryland, while a student at the University of Maryland, College Park?

2013

January–March

Brock Bond

Sara Bard Field

• ... that the San Francisco Giants drafted Brock Bond (pictured, left) when they meant to draft Casey Bond (pictured, right)?
• ... that A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, published in 2011 by Julia Scheeres, is a history of the Jonestown settlement, and subsequent massacre in 1978?
• ... that The Bay Lights art installation uses 25,000 white LED lights, programmed to create a series of abstract patterns that ascend and descend the cables on the San Francisco Bay Bridge?
• ... that Sara Bard Field (pictured) traveled by automobile from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in 1915 to deliver a petition with 500,000 signatures for women's suffrage to Woodrow Wilson?
• ... that Zelma Long is considered to be one of the female pioneers of wine production in the U.S. state of California?
• ... that Silver Oak Cellars has been cited as one of a dozen California wineries which "have reached cult status" for its Cabernet Sauvignon production?
• ... that Berkeley, California, rapper Lil B's Rain in England is an ambient hip hop album without any beats or profanity?

The next 5 sections of DYK's placed at the SFBA portal originally had longer descriptions, and not "taglines". The original longer descriptions have been re-edited to conform with DYK standards. The DYK's from the main page remain unchanged, and bolded as above.

April

Bridge to the Tom Lantos Tunnels at Devil's Slide

... that the Tom Lantos Tunnels are named after late Congressman Tom Lantos, who was instrumental in securing funding for the project?

Soutirage at Twomey Cellars

... that in 1999, winemaker Daniel Baron persuaded Cabernet Sauvignon producers Silver Oak Cellars to establish Twomey Cellars (pictured), to pursue Merlot production?

... that Live at Keystone, an album by Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, and Bill Vitt, was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California in 1973?
... that James L. Patton (pictured) is emeritus professor of integrative biology and curator of mammals at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley?
... that when Charles O'Rear took a photograph of a green, lush hillside near Napa Valley, he did not expect it to be "the most viewed image of the world"?
... that Berkeley law dean Frank C. Newman, whose work on international human rights law was prompted by a sabbatical year in Geneva, Switzerland, was appointed to the Supreme Court of California in 1977?

May–June 2013

... that the graffiti that has been removed from San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain includes slogans painted on it by its sculptor (pictured)?
... that Douce noir, which is known as Charbono (pictured) in California and Bonarda in Argentina, has been called both a "cult wine" and "the Rodney Dangerfield of wine"?
... that When the Game Stands Tall is an upcoming film about the De La Salle High School 151-game high school football winning streak?
... that in August 1975, almost the entire San Francisco Police Department staged a strike as the city refused a pay increase for them?
... that Gavin Arthur, grandson of United States President Chester A. Arthur, worked as an astrologer and sexologist in San Francisco in the 1960s?

July

Selden Connor Gile in his twenties

The aircraft after the crash

John W. Dwinelle

• ... that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (pictured, right) was a scheduled transpacific passenger flight from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, that crashed while attempting a landing at its destination, San Francisco International Airport, on July 6, 2013?
• ... that the South San Francisco Hillside Sign (pictured, right) was created in the 1920s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
• ... that A Boy and His Atom was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules viewed through a scanning tunneling microscope, magnifying them 100 million times?
• ... that John Mason 'Jack’ Harker was a member of the original team that developed the first disk storage system?
• ... that Selden Connor Gile (pictured, left) was the founder and leader of the Society of Six, a Bay Area group of artists known for their plein-air paintings?
• ... that John W. Dwinelle (pictured, right) helped establish the University of California, the right of black children to attend public school, and San Francisco's claim to much of the land within its borders?

August–October

the statue Ashurbanipal in April 2011

Liberty Head double eagle

• ... that critics complained that a bronze statue (pictured, left) of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal standing in San Francisco's Civic Center more closely resembled the Sumerian king Gilgamesh?
• ... that the twenty-dollar Liberty Head double eagle (pictured, right) was minted after the California gold rush as the "most efficient way to coin a given quantity of gold bullion"?
• ... that the Blue Wing Inn (pictured, right), started as a one-room hotel in Sonoma, California, in 1836, was also a saloon, a gambling hall, a stagecoach depot, a grocery store, a winery, a museum, and a retail center?
• ... that Mike McCormick was the first San Francisco Giants pitcher to win the Cy Young Award?
• ... that First Lady of California, Anne Gust has served as both an Executive Vice-President for Gap Inc. and on the board of directors for Jack in the Box?
• ... that Bay Area Bike Share, the first large-scale bike sharing service deployed on the West Coast of the United States, opened to the public in five cities on August 29, 2013?

2014

January–March #1

Issue no. 4

• ... that as of November 2013, two "Google barges" were docked in Treasure Island, San Francisco?
• ... that Isaac Friedlander (pictured, right) and his South Carolina-born wife Priscilla were known for their parties in which they brought a flavor of "Old South" culture to San Francisco?
• ... that Circle Magazine (pictured, left) was published from 1944 to 1948 by George Leite, at his Berkeley, California bookstore, daliel's?

January–March #2

• ... that San Francisco artists and craftspeople fought the police and city hall for years to bring about a Street Artists Program that lets them legally sell their work on the city's sidewalks?
• ... that the Mokelumne Aqueduct, originally built in 1929, is the sole water supply system for over one million people in the San Francisco Bay Area?
• ... that the Asian clam is causing trouble in San Francisco Bay?
• ... that the Black Sea jellyfish has become established in the estuaries of the Petaluma and Napa Rivers flowing into San Francisco Bay?
• ... that San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim (pictured, right) plays bass guitar, and her favorite song is by the Wu-Tang Clan?
• ... that psychedelic rock concert poster artist Gary Grimshaw was sentenced to 15 days in jail and a $150 fine for flying a 15 cent kite with a dirty word written on it?

June

SS City of Chester'

... that the SS City of Chester's (pictured) Chinese crew's efforts to help during its 1888 shipwreck, reduced anti-Chinese xenophobia?
... that the Oceanic Society ran its first whale watching trip to the Farallon Islands in 1975 aboard a former Coast Guard Cutter?

... that Silicon Valley's creator, Mike Judge, once worked at a Silicon Valley startup company with about 40 employees?
... that muralist Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (pictured) became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and taught at Stanford for two decades, but returned to the Soviet Union after the death of his wife?

July

... that golfer Lucy Li set records as the youngest U.S. Women's Amateur Championship qualifier at age 10 in 2013 and the youngest U.S. Women's Open Championship qualifier at age 11 in 2014?
... that The Cruise of the Dazzler (pictured), written by Jack London in 1902, accurately describes oyster pirating?
... that the Sonoma Barracks (pictured) were the headquarters for the short-lived insurrection later known as the Bear Flag Revolt?

August

... that the inner part of Stanford University's Main Quad (pictured) is surrounded by twelve buildings, numbered 1 through 110?
... that Fremont based Oorja Fuel Cells (logo pictured) is considered one of the four major players in the North American fuel cell market?
... that Drakes Bay Oyster Company (pictured) is one of the largest shellfish operations in California, producing upwards of 8 million oysters a year?
... that Bonnie Bergin has trained dogs to do everything from read basic words to identify diseased plants in Napa's vineyards?
... that the California Diamond Jubilee half dollar (pictured) depicts a man panning for gold, but itself contains only silver and copper?
... that neptunium is found in at least three allotropes‍—‌one orthorhombic, one tetragonal, and one body-centered cubic?

Starting September 2014, topics chosen for the main DYK are not differentiated from those chosen only for the SFBA DYK.

September

Oakland Coliseum BART station, with AGT station in background

... that San Francisco-based photographer Edmund Shea worked as a printer of photographs for artists including Imogen Cunningham?
... that at the 2014 US Open, CiCi Bellis (pictured) became the youngest American to win a match at the US Open since Mary Joe Fernandez at the 1986 US Open?
... that Stanford University mathematics professor Maryam Mirzakhani "considers not just one billiard table, but the universe of all possible billiard tables."?
... that the bar at Hotel Durant serves a bloody mary with house-made tomato juice topped off with a splash of Guinness?
... that Pirates Press can create vinyl records in colors "from orange marble to translucent red; solid white to half-purple and half-green; even glitter and glow-in-the-dark."?
... that the Petrified Forest (pictured) in Sonoma County has the largest petrified trees in the world?
... that the BART to Oakland International Airport Automated Guideway Transit (pictured) will not utilize existing BART rolling stock, and will not be physically connected with existing BART tracks, but will have its own fleet of cable-drawn automated guideway transit vehicles?
... that I Remember Mama centers around a Norwegian immigrant family in the Castro District in the early 1900s?

October

Miss Major at San Francisco Pride Celebration in 2014

Lou Grant in Milwaukee

• ... that the trans woman activist Miss Major (pictured, right, in San Francisco) was meeting with her girlfriend at the Stonewall Inn during the police raid that precipitated the Stonewall riot?
• ... that the 2000 Yountville earthquake caused an interruption of power to approximately 10,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers?
• ... that African American artist Claude Clark helped curate the first national African American exhibition at the Oakland Museum in 1967?
• ... that the TV character Lou Grant was named after Oakland Tribune cartoonist Lou Grant (pictured, right)?
• ... that the Hall of Records (pictured, right) at the Napa County Courthouse Plaza was an early use, in 1916, of reinforced concrete as a building material?
• ... that explorer and travelogue writer Albert S. Evans (pictured, left) famously feuded with Mark Twain when both were in San Francisco?
• ... that The Owl Drug Company (business letter pictured) sponsored a minor-league baseball team and ran a beauty contest in which winners received a Hollywood screen test?

October 2014

November

PG&E General Office Building entrance

Matson Building

• ... that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building and Annex (pictured, left), is a Beaux-Arts building designed by the Bakewell & Brown architecture firm?
• ... that the Matson Building (pictured, right), built in 1922-24, was the headquarters of the Matson Navigation Company, then the largest shipping and transportation company between the West Coast and Hawaii?
• ... that Dr. Mervyn Silverman, as San Francisco Director of Health, on October 9, 1984, ordered 14 bathhouses and sex clubs to close immediately, saying they were '"fostering disease and death" by allowing indiscriminate sexual contacts that could spread AIDS?
• ... that Gold Rush-era pioneer George Treat was the first person to import angora goats to California?
• ... that Ecocity Builders, in 1994, removed the Codornices Creek water channel from its cement culvert along the Albany/Berkeley border and created a mile-long park?
• ... that the landscape painter Willis E. Davis was informed over the phone of his daughter's elopement?

November 2014

December

Gladys Kathleen Parkin

Marcia Falk

• ... that Gladys Kathleen Parkin (pictured, left) was the first woman in California to obtain a first-class government-issued radio license?
• ... that United States v. Ju Toy was brought to the US Supreme Court when Ju Toy, an American-born person of Chinese ancestry, visited China, then returned to San Francisco, but was denied permission to land and was ordered to be deported by immigration officials?
• ... that Jewish studies professor Marcia Falk (pictured, right) published The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible, a verse translation of the biblical Song of Songs, in 1977?
• ... that the historical novel One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, chronicles a fictional visit by three sisters to Oakland in 1968, and their encounter with the Black Panther Party?
• ... that Livermore's Carnegie Library started with just 250 books?

December 2014

2015

January

Avaya Stadium

... that the Newby Island landfill is an island surrounded by a levee, which keeps its runoff from directly entering San Francisco Bay, and the water that drains from it is treated in the dump's own treatment plant?
... that the 2012 groundbreaking ceremony for Avaya Stadium (pictured) had 6,256 participants, setting a new world record?

January 2015

February

John A. Stones California Songster

Elizabeth Thacher Kent

• ... that the 1985 Pacific Conference Games, held at Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, was the fifth and final Pacific Conference Games between Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States?
• ... that California Gold Rush song collector John A. Stone composed Sweet Betsy from Pike? (songbook pictured)
• ... that during the Cold War Fort Cronkhite was used to house soldiers of the nearby SF-88 Nike Missile launch site?
• ... that Elizabeth Thacher Kent (pictured) helped create the Muir Woods National Monument by donating land to the government?
• ... that Mountain View based Made In Space, Inc.'s 3D Zero-G Printer was the first manufacturing device in space?
• ... that Marsh Creek State Park was named for John Marsh, the first non-Hispanic European to settle in what is now Contra Costa County?

February 2015

March

Stone fireplace at Live Oak Park

Eugene Tsui

Third and Townsend Depot

• ... that Live Oak Park is one of Berkeley's oldest and most naturalistic public parks? (park fireplace pictured)
• ... that Eugene Tsui's Ojo del Sol house is based upon the world's most indestructible living creature, the tardigrade? (architect pictured)
• ... that Sutter Cinema's owner/manager Arlene Elster was the first, if not the only, woman to operate an adult theater?
• ... that Sarah Althea Hill became a national celebrity when she sued millionaire senator William Sharon for divorce in 1883, claiming to have secretly married him three years earlier by private contract?
• ... that the Third and Townsend Depot (pictured) was built in 1914 for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition?

March 2015

April

Crisis hotline sign at the Golden Gate Bridge

Robot assemblers at the Tesla Factory

Panama–Pacific commemorative coins

... that more than 1,400 people have committed suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge since it was built in 1937? (crisis hotline sign pictured)
... that actress Mai Tai Sing once waitressed at the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco?
... that during the 1950 U.S. Navy secret experiment Operation Sea-Spray, Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii bacteria were sprayed over the Bay Area?
... that landscape architect Mai Kitazawa Arbegast (pictured) played a key role in the gift of Blake Garden to UC Berkeley?
... that the Oakland Municipal Garage and Repair Shop was established in 1913 for the maintenance and repair of all municipal automobiles?
... that the Tesla Model S manufacturing process (pictured) at the Fremont Tesla Factory uses more than 160 specialist robots?
... that the octagonal $50 piece of the Panama-Pacific commemorative coin issue (pictured) is the only U.S. coin that is not round?

April 2015

May

Barn built by Nagasawa Kanaye

... that the 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake left sixteen people injured, and damage totaling $500,000, in the cities of Gilroy and Hollister?
... that Nagasawa Kanaye, the first Japanese national to live permanently in the United States, was known as the "Wine King of California" in Japan? (barn built by Nagasawa Kanaye pictured)

May 2015

June

The Usermontu mummy

Tony Gemignani

Panama-Pacific commemorative coin

• ... that the Usermontu mummy (pictured, left), at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, had an iron orthopedic screw placed inside his left knee at the time of his death?
• ... that pizza chef Tony Gemignani (pictured, right) opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco's Little Italy in 2009, which was named "The Best Pizzeria in America" by Forbes magazine?
• ... that the octagonal $50 piece of the Panama-Pacific commemorative coin issue (pictured, right) is the only U.S. coin that is not round?

June 2015

July

... that a cruffin is a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin, popularized by Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco?
... that herpetologist Joseph Richard Slevin is commemorated in the scientific names of over a dozen species or subspecies of animals and plants?
... that UC Hastings College of Law professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss (pictured) has called for examination of the possible legal liabilities which should be faced by parents who opt for non-vaccination, including those who obtain legal exemptions?
... that the Rio Vista Bridge (pictured) won an American Institute of Steel Construction class IV (movable bridges) prize bridge award in 1960?
... that San Francisco music studio Golden State Recorders recorded the Grateful Dead's Birth of the Dead in 1965, which was not released until 2003?
... that U.C. Berkeley professor Richard M. Eakin gave lectures dressed as Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, and other famous scientists, one of whom he knew personally?
... that biologist Robert C. Stebbins once dosed Galápagos lava lizards with radiation and tracked them with a Geiger counter?

July 2015

November

San Francisco Ballet Building

California Hotel

• ... that before The Jabberwock was a Berkeley folk music club, it was the jazz club Tsubo, where Wes Montgomery recorded his live album Full House on July 25, 1962?
• ... that the San Francisco Ballet Building (pictured, right), designed by architect Beverly Willis, was “the first building in the United States to be designed and constructed exclusively for the use of a major ballet company”?
• ... that Oakland's California Hotel (pictured, left), starting in 1953, was the only full service hotel in the East Bay that welcomed black people?
• ... that El Tecolote, published in San Francisco, is the longest running bilingual newspaper in California that is printed in both English and Spanish?
• ... that the Sir and Star hotel in Olema was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000 acre land grant from Mexico?
• ... that after the San Francisco Fire of 1851, "Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts"?
• ... that the Manhattan Project's calutrons used 14,700 short tons (13,300 t) of silver?

November 2015

2016

January

My Wife's Lovers

installation, with '"Sawblade" (left) by Therese May

... that Ubiquitous Energy's transparent photovoltaic panels absorb ultraviolet and near infrared light while transmitting visible light, converting windows on buildings into solar power generators?
... that Rose Gaffney, who successfully opposed construction of the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant, was called the "Mother of Ecology" by the Los Angeles Times?
... that the 6 ft×8.5 ft, 227 pound painting My Wife's Lovers (pictured) survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, while the salon it was in did not?
... that quilter Therese May had a piece commissioned for the San Jose Convention Center in 1993? (other work by May pictured)
... that a unanimous vote by San Francisco's board of supervisors changed the address of San Francisco City Hall to 1 Carlton B. Goodlett Place, in honor of journalist and civil rights leader Carlton Benjamin Goodlett?

January 2016

April

Lemon Drop coctails

Zvezdelina Stankova

... that the Lemon Drop cocktail (example pictured) was invented sometime in the 1970s at Henry Africa's, a fern bar in San Francisco?
... that in 1997 the Linguistic Society of America passed a resolution supporting the Oakland Unified School District board's decision to teach some students using African American Vernacular English?
... that Zvezdelina Stankova (pictured) brought ideas from her Bulgarian mathematical education to California by founding the Berkeley Math Circle?
... that conservationist Caroline Sealy Livermore was able to ensure protection for Angel Island and have it declared a state park, with the highest mountain on Angel Island subsequently named Mount Livermore?

April 2016

June

Archetype, Napa restaurant designed and owned by Howard Backen

Hulk of USS Independence (CVL-22) in San Francisco Bay in 1947

SMART train

John Adams

... that David A. Shirley was the first chemist to become the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory?
... that architect Howard Backen is credited with being a large influence on the architectural aesthetic of Napa? (Backen designed restaurant pictured)
... that the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard unsuccessfully tried to decontaminate the aircraft carrier USS Independence, (pictured) then packed the ship full of nuclear waste and scuttled it near the Farallon Islands in 1951?
... that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeffrey F. Rosen stated that "the punishment does not fit the crime" in the sentencing of Brock Turner by judge Aaron Persky to six months of jail and three years of probation?
... that the unfinished Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit fleet will consist of nine two-car Nippon Sharyo DMU trainsets? (set pictured)
... that Girls of the Golden West, an opera based on the letters of California Gold Rush writer Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, with music by John Adams (pictured) and a libretto by Peter Sellars, was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera, jointly with Dallas Opera, the Dutch National Opera (De Nationale Opera) and Teatro La Fenice, Venice?
... that on the 1999 passing of University of California, Berkeley historian Woodrow Borah, it was said “[There] disappears the last great figure in the generation that presided over the vast expansion of the Latin American scholarly field in the United States during the years following World War II.”

June 2016

September

Million Dollar Backfield

Y.A Tittle

Hugh McElhenny

John Henry Johnson

Joe Perry

• ... that the San Francisco 49ers Million Dollar Backfield is the only full-house backfield to have all four of its members enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Illustration from work by Portnoy

• ... that Peg's Place, after a 1979 assault by off-duty members of the San Francisco vice squad, drew national attention to other incidents of anti-gay violence and police harassment of the LGBT community?
• ... that Maud's in the Haight-Ashbury was patronized in the late 1960's by Janis Joplin, who would visit with her female lover Jae Whitaker?
• ... that UC Berkeley microbiologist Daniel A. Portnoy made the seminal discovery that Listeria monocytogenes spreads from one cell to another by exploiting a host cell system of actin polymerization? (process pictured)

September 2016

November

El Cid Campeador

Kimpton Sir Francis Drake Hotel rooftop

"Cheese Cake" by Sheana Davis

• ... that Charlotte L. Brown was one of the first African Americans to legally challenge racial segregation in the United States, when she filed a lawsuit against a streetcar company in San Francisco in the 1860's, after she was forcibly removed from a segregated streetcar?
• ... that Bay Area restaurateur Juanita Musson often argued with and insulted her staff and customers, and was involved in a number of physical altercations, but was despite this still well-liked?
• ... that a copy of El Cid Campeador, a sculpture of El Cid by artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, is displayed at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco? (sculpture pictured)
• ... that in 1969, artist Alfred Young helped create a public environmental art piece, using a non-toxic yellow dye to spell out the word "OIL" in large capital letters in the San Francisco Bay? (artist's sketch of later work pictured)
• ... that San Francisco columnist Herb Caen dubbed the Persian Room at San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel “The Snake Pit” because, he wrote, “You never heard such hissing or saw such writhing"? (rooftop pictured)
• ... that cheesemaker and restaurateur Sheana Davis produces her cheeses at a cooperative in Berkeley, and provides them to the French Laundry and Kendall-Jackson? (Cheese "Cake" by Davis pictured)

November 2016

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/78

Emiko Omori and Victor Wong

Tim Stearns

The Oceanic, 1871

Ghost Ship warehouse interior

• ... that filmmaker Emiko Omori (pictured, left, with Victor Wong) began her career in 1968 at KQED, becoming one of the first camerawomen to work in news documentaries?
• ... that Fisher Creek is tributary to the largest freshwater wetland in Santa Clara County, Laguna Seca, a seasonal lake important to groundwater recharge and migratory birds?
• ... that San Francisco based architect Jack Hillmer is known for his meticulously hand-crafted Modernist homes built from redwood, and was an exponent of what Lewis Mumford called the "Bay Region style"?
• ... that Stanford University Department of Biology chairman Tim Stearns (pictured), together with his wife, medical researcher Susan Cleveland, tend a fruit tree orchard at their home in Redwood City?
• ... that the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company's flagship, the Oceanic (pictured), set a Pacific crossing record of 16 days and 10 hours, 8 days less than the ships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company?
• ... that the building consumed in the 2016 Oakland warehouse fire had at least ten complaints filed on it since 1998? (interior damage pictured)
• ... that after Agnes Fay Morgan conducted a nutritional study with foxes, she presented her data wearing a stole made from the fur of her subjects?

May 2017

2020

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/79 (current)

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/80 (forthcoming)

• ... that United Airlines Flight 863

• ... that Bayview Park, San Francisco

• ... that William Smith (ship captain)

• ... that Chase Center (San Francisco)

• ... that Belle Cora (Arabella Ryan)

• ... that Fran Herndon

• ... that Yerba Buena Tunnel

• ... that Oakland Railroad Company

• ... that Gertrude Partington Albright

• ... that X-100 (house)

• ... that General Frisbie (steamship)

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/81 (forthcoming)

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/81