1542 – Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo landed in California

1602 – Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino names San Clemente Island for St. Clement, the                    third Pope.

1769 – Gaspar de Portola leads an expedition of Alta California for Spain scouting locations for                  missions and first Christian baptism in Alta California in Cristianitos Canyon.

1776 – Spanish missionary Father Junipero Serra establishes Mission San Juan Capistrano,                      builds El Camino Real as connector between the missions

1784 – King of Spain grants a 43,000 acre grazing permit to Juan José Dominguez in Souther                    California.

1812- The new mission church at San Juan Capistrano, destroyed by an earthquake. Forty Indian               converts killed when the 120’ bell tower falls.

1821 – Mexico gains independence from Spain

1821-1845 – 700 land grants formalized in So Cal, most to military, but some to men who                                   married into California families, including the Dominguez family

1833 – Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California passed by Mexican Congress –                     land taken from the Catholic Church by the Mexican government

1835 – Apprentice seaman Richard Henry Dana visits the Mission cove aboard the hide trading                   brig Pilgrim. 

1837 – Don John Forster, an English sea captain, becomes Mexican citizen, Catholic and marries Ysadora Ygnacia Pico, Pio Pico’s sister.

1838 – Battle of Las Flores 10 miles south of current San Clemente, Governor Alvarado victor

1845 – Pio Pico becomes governor of California, Juan Forster acquires over 100,000 acres, including Mission San Juan Capistrano, which he purchased for $710, and moves in with family

1846 – US war with Mexico, John C. Fremont’s battalion marches El Camino Real from San Diego through San Clemente, Felipe Carrillo granted 4,000 acre Rancho Los Desechos

1847 – Commodore Stockton battles through San Clemente and retakes Los Angeles, Juan Forster joining the battle and contributing livestock, aiding both sides

1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed ending the war Mexican-American War. California, Texas and the SW becoming part of the US. Pio Pico escapes to Mexico, then retreats to his largest Rancho Santa Margarita.

1850 – California becomes the 31st state in the United States.

1864 – Pio Pico signs over deed to rancho to pay gambling debts to Forster. Juan Forster now owns over 225,000 acres and Santa Catalina Island making him the 2nd largest land owner in California

1865 – President Lincoln returns most of the missions to the Catholic Church. Don Juan Forster                 gives son Marcus Las Flores land, forced to leave Mission San Juan Capistrano.

1860-70s – California drought, entry of land barons O’Neill and Irvine

1873 – Fence Law passed requiring ranchos to fence their property. Forster City founded and Juan Forster travels to Europe to recruit settlers, offer of 20 acres to each citizen. Built a wharf and post office, help pay his taxes, lawsuit between Pio Pico and Forster disputing Gov. Alvardo grant, court grants total land rights to Don Juan Forster

1874 – Ole Hanson born in a log cabin in Racine, Wisconsin.

1875 – Don Juan Forster hands over reigns of Forster City to son Marcus, lives in adobe mansion              which is now Camp Pendleton’s CO’s home (Rancho Santa Margarita), farming and                          grazing cattle and sheep

1882 – Don Juan Forster dies and his family sells lands to Charles Crocker of San Francisco,                    Forster City residents evicted and the city fades into oblivion

1883 – Crocker sells land to James L. Food and partner Richard O’Neill

1883 – Marcus Forster, son of John, purchased 3,000 acres of Los Desechos, (which includes San Clemente)  disputing the Carillo grant, Spanish adventurer Cornelio Echenique married into Forster family and received land as gift

1884 – Judge Richard Egan secured the name Dana Point  for the costal point.

1887-88 – Santa Fe RR completes the San Diego to San Juan Capistrano Line,  Sale of lots                            began at the short-lived San Juan by the Sea. (now Capo Beach)

1889 – Orange County created, split from Los Angeles by overwhelming public vote

1894 – Pio Pico dies in Los Angeles, the last Mexican Governor of California

1880-1920 – US government claims land, ownership disputes proliferate

1906 – Cornelio Echenique partnership with the Goldschmidts, build prohibition distillery

1920 – Goldschmidts and Echenique partnership severed as Prohibition begins

1920s – Rum-running became a  popular business off the coast of Rancho Los Desechos, Los                   Angeles elite use San Clemente as half way stop for trips to Mexico for gambling

1924 – H. Hamilton Cotton assembles syndicate to purchase 4,000 acres for $7 million, selects                 San Mateo Point for a vacation home.

1925 – Ole Hanson and Cotton join forces and announce the Spanish Village of San Clemente,                   sells first plots in December

1927 – Property went on sale at Dana Point, a master-planned community developed by Sidney                Woodruff and Harry Chandler. (project originally started in 1923)

1928 – San Clemente incorporates as a city. All public amenities given to new city by Ole Hanson               Organization.

1928 – Edward Doheny begins another master-planned community in Capistrano Beach, it                         included a section of the Palisades  and an elaborate beach club below.

1929 – El Camino Real paved/Hwy 1 through San Clemente

1929 – Stock market crashes!

1930s – City of San Clemente population declines by 70% to 250.

1937 – Capitol Company reinvests in San Clemente adding the Casino and Miramar Theater.

1939 - Storm takes down half of Pier (rebuilt)

1942 – FDR dedicates Camp Pendleton Marine Base

1950s – Trestles and Cotton’s becomes one of the best surf breaks in California

1960 – Interstate 5 completed through San Clemente replacing El Camino Real

1966 – Construction of Dana Point Harbor begins

1968 – Purchase of Cotton’s Point property by Richard Nixon 

            San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Unit I built

1969-1974 – Several heads of state visit La Casa Pacifica

1973 – Leonid Brezhnev visit and signing of Salt II Treaty

1974 – 1980 Nixons return to San Clemente after resignation

1983 - Another storm takes down the pier.

            Rebuilt in 1985.

2000 -The Ranchlands east of the freeway begin development, Forster Ranch and Talega

2012 – San Onofre shut down after premature wear found in generator tubes