San Francisco History web links

Alcatraz History
Barbary Coast Vigilance Committee
Black Bart
Butcher Town San Francisco on Islais Creek
First Atomic Bomb (Hiroshima) in San Francisco
California As I Saw It (1849-1900)
California Historical Society
San Francisco Cemeteries
Cliff House Historical Page
The Cliff House Project
EMPEROR NORTON
Golden Gate Railroad Museum
Gold Rush Chronicles
History of Golden Gate Park
San Francisco / History / Time / Place
Lola Montez
Mark Twain in San Francisco
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE
Pier 70 San Francisco
SF Museum Online
The Mexican Museum
Museum of City of San Francisco
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of San Francisco
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Information
The Story of Dogpatch
Notable Jailbirds of San Francisco
Sex, Vigilantism, and San Francisco in 1856
Women's History in San Francisco
Playland at the Beach
History of The Palace of Fine Arts
Seventy-five Years in San Francisco
San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Marriage Project
San Francisco Historical Society
Telegraph Hill History
Pier 70 History
Timeline of San Francisco History
Wagon Master Bill Roddy
Western Neighborhoods Project
San Francisco - The Early Years CD 1897 - 1916 (2-CD Set)
San Francisco Call
J.B.Monaco's Photograhic collection
Kenneth Rexroth San Francisco 1975

Legends of San Francisco
1914 Poem
by George W. Caldwell, M.D

The Seven Hills of San Francisco

Films,  Novels,  Sixties,
Guides,  History, 
Cookbooks   Photography

This monthly San Francisco Calendar is where I get to share my interest in our city's fascinating history.
And I hope that you
will enjoy revisiting the art and remembering the music from the dancehall concerts of the late 60's and early 70's. The posters are diplayed here for the enjoyment of those of us lucky to have been here and for those who wish they had been. ~ nicole, sfheart

Oct.1, 1855
Capt. Joseph L. Folsom's estate appraised at $2,005,000.14.

Oct. 1, 1964
Protest Rally Against UC Berkeley Policy .  Protest rally and manning of tables on Sproul steps. Arrest of Jack Weinberg,  a former graduate student in Mathematics, for operating a CORE table on Sproul steps; crowd of protestors, growing to 3000, blocks police car carrying Weinberg away. Protestors enter Sproul Hall, sit-in to demand discussion of eight suspensions;  clash briefly with police in effort to block early locking of Sproul Hall doors; protesters subsequently leave , voluntarily… [Diggers site]

October 1, 1966
Awareness Festival (Stewart Brand) at San Francisco State College

Oct. 2, 1964
Protest Rally Continues Against UC Berkeley. [Some 450 police assemble on campus to undertake removal of police car and Weinberg, still immobilized by seated crowd; University officials, including President Kerr, members of faculty and student leaders meet, agree to discuss differences. Police leave; demonstrators disperse. Weinberg booked, but released as University, in accordance with agreement, does not press charges. …[ Diggers site]

Oct. 2,1965
The Beatles concert in the Cow Palace that was so bad that the Pranksters had to leave halfway through.

October 3, 1851
Wells & Co., the bank owned by Thomas Wells, failed.

Oct. 4, 1851
Third Jenny Lind Theatre to occupy the same site on Kearny was opened. The other two theaters burned during fires this year.

Oct 4, 1967
Save Haight Ashbury
Medical Clnic Benefit
Straight Theatre

Oct. 4, 1970
Janis Joplin died of an overdose
"Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose."

Oct. 6, 1966
Love Pagent in the Panhandle of Golden GatePark. Big Brother, Wildflower, The Dead and the Electric Chamber Orkustra entertained. California Legislature outlaws sale and possession of LSD.

Oct 6, 1967
The Sons of Champlin
at Western Front Dance Academy SF
Artist: John Thompson

Oct. 6, 1967
Hippies blocked the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets to celebrate the "Death of Hip."

Another in the series of Digger pageants that played out on the streets of the Haight Ashbury and the City. This one occurred one year to the day from that of the Love Pageant Rally…diggers site

Oct 7, 1966 The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Jefferson Airplane Grateful Dead Winterland Artist: Wes Wilson	Oct 7, 1966 Jim Kweskin Jug Band Big Brother and the Holding Company Avalon Ballroom Artist: Stanley Mouse Alton Kelley

 

Oct 7, 2001
Anti-war demonstrations in SF drew some 1,000.

Oct. 8, 1846
Californios resisted American occupation and routed the forces of Capt. Gillespie of the U.S. Marines in the "Battle of the Old Woman's Gun" in Southern California. Los Angeles remained in rebel hands for three months.

Oct. 8, 1855
Exempt firemen move to old quarters of the Monumental Fire Co. at 15 Brenham Place. The Exempt's old building on Jackson St. was demolished for the extension of Montgomery St. Death mask of David C. Broderick was displayed in the new quarters, and was a memento of Empire Co. No. 1 of which he was foreman.

Oct. 8, 1855
First edition of the new "Evening Bulletin" on sale, published by C.O.Geberding & Co.; Editor was James King of William, the former banker. There were 10 daily newspapers in San Francisco.

Oct. 8th, 1865
The City of San Francisco was visited by the heaviest Shocks ever felt in the vicinity by "the oldest Inhabitants."

October 8, 1865
It was just after noon,on a bright October day. I was coming down Third Street. The only objects in motion anywhere in sight in that thickly built and populous quarter were a man in a buggy behind me, and astreetcar wending slowly up the cross street. Otherwise, all was solitude and a Sabbath stillness...Mark Twain

Oct. 9, 1969
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young opened at Fillmore West.

Oct. 10, 1855
A mob in Columbia hanged John S. Barclay. The sheriff there tried to save the unfortunate man from the noose, but was repulsed.

Oct. 11, 1967
Benefit for the Haight-Ashbury Medical Clinic at the Fillmore Auditorium

Oct.12, 1856
Conrad Wiegand under the pseudonym "William Carroll" discussed Dr. William Andrew Scott, the Committee of Vigilance and the Church; a lecture delivered in Musical Hall. Dr. Scott was opposed to the vigilantes and was hanged in effigy for his views.

Oct.12, 1968
GI's and Vets marched for peace from Golden Gate Park to Civic Center.

Oct 12, 1997
A rock concert organized by Chet Helms was planned in Golden Gate Park to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the "Be-In." An estimated 10,000 people gathered for the concert.

October 13, 1849
State Constitution approved by convention in Monterey. The motto of California is to be "Eureka."

Oct 13, 1967 Kaleidoscope Lightnin' Hopkins Tour/Show: Environmental Dance Classes at the Straight Theatre	Oct 13, 1967 Buddy Guy Captain Beefheart Blue Cheer at Avalon Ballroom Artist: Jack Hatfield

 

Oct. 13, 1970
Angela Davis arrested on kidnapping, murder and conspiracy charges
" Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime."...Angela Davis

 

Oct. 14, 1965
Tour/Show:Chronicles of Hell
San Francisco Mime Troupe
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
David Meltzer

 

 

Oct 14, 1966
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jefferson Airplane
Big Mama Mae Thornton
Fillmore Auditorium
Artist: Wes Wilson

 

October 15, 1965
Kesey speaks at Vietnam Day Committee rally.

 

Oct 15, 1966 Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom Artist: Stanley Mouse Alton Kelley

Oct 15, 1966 Tour/Show:Happiness! Artist Liberation Front Free Fair Golden Gate Park Poster Artist Olson

 

Oct. 15, 1969
Peace Day: 500,000 protesters nationwide first Vietnam Moratorium

Oct 15, 2003
FCC officials raided San Francisco Liberation Radio, a low-power FM station, and confiscated its equipment.

0ctober 16, 1965
100,000 anti-war protesters nationwide in 80 cities

Oct 16, 1965
Tribute to Dr. Strange
Jefferson Airplane
The Charlatans
The Marbles
Great Society
Longshoreman's Hall
Artist:Ami Magill

This was the First Dance Concert ever held took place under the sponsorship of the Family Dog at the octagonal meeting hall of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union near Fishermen's Wharf. It was billed as "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," and featured the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, the Great Society, and ?the Marbles [who later metamorphized into the Loading Zone]. A light show was operated by Bill Ham. Reference/Source:(Charles Perry, The Haight Ashbury: A History

Oct 18, 1967
Straight Theater Conference
{The "Runaway Emergency Conference" was held at the Straight Theater in the Haight-Ashbury district. Sponsored by Huckleberry's, which provides temporary housing and referral services to runaway minors, and Happening House, the symposium, according to its press release, hoped to bring together "clergy, police, juvenile authorities, young people parents, professionals, and certain elements of the free community." The audience of 500 were startled when the Digger/Free City Collective (operating under the code name of agit-free) staged a kind of testimony happening. "Lights in the theater began to flash menacingly and runaways, wearing black hoods, came in to testify and some loud-mouth puppets joined the panel, and voices began to come out of the wall. The voices were young, taped in the street, and they spoke in revealing cliches. Their words were punctuated by the sounds of surf, heartbeats, and a baby crying." The substance of their remarks were how they were maltreated at home and why they ran away, and how they have found life on the streets of the H-A. "And while the panelists talked to the puppets and the voices spoke from the walls, 'instant newspaper' handbills were distributed in the audience. Some were about wildlfe,On leaving home, the young woodrat either takes up residence in a nearby abandoned home erected by another woodrat or starts building one of its own.' Another read: 'You are the information.' There were a dozen more. /"The climax of the symposium was a series of nude dances, accompanied by a rock group. Six members of the Jane Lapiner dance group -- three men and three women -- danced completely nude before the audience of five hundred. (The dances had been performed at the Straight Theatre for several weeks.) Suddenly someone shouted that the police were entering. The audience rose as one and rushed to the dance floor to cover the dancers while they dressed. The police were foiled. / "But not entirely. Dr. Leonard Wolf, forty-four, a San Francisco State College professor and director of Happening House, allegedly approached the police and claimed responsibility for the event. Police charged him with contributing to the delinquency of minors."…diggers site}

 

Oct. 20, 1923
Beat poet & anarchist Philip Whalen born in Portland, Oregon.

Oct 21, 1966 The Daily Flash Country Joe & the Fish at the Avalon Ballroom Artist: Stanley Mouse Alton Kelley	Oct 21, 1966 Grateful Dead, Lightnin' Hopkins,The Loading Zone at Fillmore Auditorium Artist: Wes Wilson Herb Greene

Oct. 21,1967
Allen Cohen and Micheal Bowen met with Jerry Rubin, Max Scheer and other Berkeley activists, and shared their ideas about directing magical and conscious energy towards the Pentagon in order to overcome its impregnability as both the symbol and seat of evil. They had developed this magical concept to exorcise the Pentagon from the writings of Lewis Mumford and the visions of Charlie Brown, the peyote shaman. The idea was realized in the March on Washington in October.35,000 Demonstrate, 647 arrested

{Anti-war demonstrators in Washington, D.C., organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, stage a siege of the Pentagon. Some protesters, including Berkeley Vietnam Day Committee founder Jerry Rubin, attempt to levitate the building… diggers site)

Oct. 21,1932

Michael McClure, beat poet, born in Marysville, Kansas.
"When a man does not admit that he is an animal, he is less than an animal. Not more but less."

 

 

Oct. 23,1927
Surrealist poet Philip Lamantia born in born in San Francisco, California. Expelled from a junior high school for “intellectual delinquency,”

 

October 23, 1966
The Yardbirds and Country Joe and the Fish at the Fillmore.

Oct. 24, 1965
Family Dog Dance at Longshoremen's Hall -Charlitans and Lovin' Spoonful played.

October 24, 1968
The Airplane opened at the Fillmore West ballroom.

Oct. 25, 1849
Meeting held in Portsmouth Square for the purpose of organizing the Democratic Party in California.

Oct 25, 2003
Some 5-15 thousand people demonstrated in SF calling for US withdrawal from Iraq.

October 26, 1850
Reports from SacramentoCity say 57,000 miners are at work in the gold fields.

Oct 26, 2002
An estimated 40-80 thousand people marched down market Street to protest the Bush policy threatening war on Iraq.

October 27, 1966
New weekly newspaper, "The Guardian,"debuted. Edited and published by Bruce Brugman.

Oct 28, 1966 Quicksilver Messenger Service & The Sons of Champlin @Avalon Ballroom Artist: Victor Moscoso	Oct 28, 1966 Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band at Fillmore Auditorium Artist: Wes Wilson

October 29, 1849
Rowe's Olympic Circus and the Ethiopian >Serenaders opened today. The circus was situated in the block bounded by Kearny, Clay, Montgomery and Sacramento streets. Admission $3.

October 29, 1850
Grand celebration ball given by the citizens of San Francisco in honor of the admission of California into the Union. Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson was Grand Marshal. Elizabeth Maria Wills sang an ode written for the celebration.

Oct 29, 1959
  First performance of the R.G.Davis Mime Studio and Troupe.
The Troupe performs "Mime and Words" at the San Francisco Art Institute. … Diggers site

Oct 29, 1997
Anton LaVey (67), founder of the Church of Satan, died. His daughter, Karla LaVey, and companion, Blanche Barton, promised to carry on his work. A major suit developed over the disposition of his property at 6114 California St.

Oct. 30, 1850
Jenny Lind Theatre opened above Tom Maguire's Parker House on the plaza.

October 30, 1967
Benefit at the Fillmore for KPFA radio station,Pink Floyd and the Sopwith Camel performed.

Oct. 31, 1850
City Hospital, owned by Dr. Peter Smith, was destroyed by fire. There were nearly 150 sick and helpless patients there, but they were rescued. Loss was $40,000. His claims against the city for services to the indigent later totalled $64,431. He sued and forced the city to sell real estate. It took years to settle to clouded titles to these lands.

October 31, 1966
Bob McKendrick presented "Dance of Death" costume ball at California Hall. The Dead and Mimi Fariñia entertained

Oct 31,1998
The Zeum Art Center in Yerba Buena Center opened.