In 1886 and 1887, a fierce rate war between the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads slashed passenger fares, triggering a wild land boom that drew a wave of opportunistic Midwestern speculators to the fledgling town of Long Beach.
On Jan. 5, 2024, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography released news of a large number of discarded World War II military munitions off the coast at Palos Verdes. This was standard practice at the time.
Wow! According to recent reports, Speedo’s parent company, Pentland Brands, plans to make its North American headquarters in Long Beach. It is a wise decision. Long Beach will be the focus of many Olympic aquatic events in 2028.
On May 24, 1913, 38 people died and 200 were injured in one of California’s earliest disasters. It occurred when the Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach collapsed during the first Empire Day celebration in the state.
In 1925, Long Beach had a problem that had been brewing for over ten years. What was the city to do with the colony of seals residing in Alamitos Bay? Fishing had been the main industry at the bay.
Southern California is known for its fabled addiction to cults and cultists. One reason given is that in the process of moving westward, the customs, practices and religious habits of people underwent important changes.
What were Thanksgiving celebrations like in Long Beach in years past? There were church services, school plays, turkey dinners and celebrations on the Long Beach Pike.
The Long Beach Board of Trade, which would later become the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, sprang into existence around 1891. It evolved out of the collapse of the land boom of 1887, when the railroads decided that time had come to step aside as advertising agents.
