Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Postwar San Francisco
Since World War II, San Francisco has seen both good times and bad.
Site of the founding of the United Nations in 1945, the city was home
to the Beats of the 1950s and the scene of “Love-ins” and “Be-ins” in the
Flower Power 1960s. At the same time, the Bay Area was the scene of
angry antiwar and civil rights demonstrations.
One of the wealthiest parts of the US, the
area was hit hard by AIDS, homelessness,
and a devastating earthquake in 1989.
1970s
Leader of the Oakland- based
Black Panthers, Huey Newton (on the
right) gains widespread sympathy
on college campuses during the
turbulent 1960s and 1970s
1969
Indians of All Tribes occupy
Alcatraz to publicize
Indian grievances
1969
San Francisco blues and soul
star Janis Joplin develops
alcoholism and drug problems. She
dies in 1970 from a heroin overdose
1978
Mayor George Moscone
is assassinated at City Hall by
former policeman Dan White,
who also kills
popular gay
politician
Harvey Milk
1950s
Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen
Ginsberg, and others strike chords of
dissatisfaction and creativity to initiate
the “Beat” movement and the “politics
of dissent” and free love
Neal Cassady and
Jack Kerouac
George Moscone
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1955
1970
1975
1980
1945
1950
1960
1965
August 15, 1945
Riotous
celebrations break
out across San
Francisco at the
end of World War II.
Thousands of
troops return to
the US through the
Golden Gate
1965
Ground is
broken for the
Dragon Gateway
on Grant Avenue
1973
Transamerica
Pyramid is
completed and
given mixed
reviews by San
Francisco critics
1954
The San
Francisco
International
Airport opens
at former Mills
Field airfield
1978
Apple
Computer,
which grows
into one of the
Bay Area's
largest
businesses,
designs and
produces its
first personal
computer
1958
The New York Giants
baseball team moves to
San Francisco, bringing
major league professional
sport to the West Coast
1967
First Be-in attracts
25,000 hippies and others to
Golden Gate Park for a day
of music. The Monterey Pop
Festival features such talents
as Jimi Hendrix, Otis
Redding and The Who
1951
Six years after the fighting stopped
between the US and Japan, the treaty ending
the war was signed in the San Francisco War
Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
Giant Willie Mays
