Welcome To Los Angeles SAFeDATA

Los Angeles (IPA: /l?`sænd??l?s/) is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the US of America. Often abbreviated as L.A., it is rated an alpha world city having an estimated 2006 populus of 3.8 1,000,000. and spanning over 469.1 sq miles (1,214.9 square kilometers) in Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to nearly 13 1,000,000 people who hail from all over the globe and speak more than a hundred different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most thickly settled county in the US. Its inhabitants are sometimes known as "Angelenos."Los Angeles was founded in the year 1781 by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula). It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its independence from Spain. In 1848 at the end of the Mexican-US War, Los Angeles and California became part of the US. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850—5 months before California achieved statehood.Los Angeles is one of the world`s most prominent centers of culture, technology, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields. The city and its immediate vicinity lead the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, video games and recorded music — which forms the base of Los Angeles` international fame and global status.

The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños) and Chumash Native US tribes thousands of years ago. The first Europeans arrived in 1542 under JoÃ, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area as the City of God for the Spanish Empire but continued with his voyage and did not establish a settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later when Gaspar de Portola, together with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. Crespi noted that the site had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.

New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican-US War, when USs took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Later, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexican government formally ceded Alta California and other territories to the US.

Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was producing one-quarter of the world`s petroleum.

In the 1920s, the motion picture and aviation industries flocked to Los Angeles. In 1932, with populus surpassing one 1,000,000, the city hosted the Summer Olympics. This period also saw the arrival of exiles from the increasing pre-war tension in Europe, including Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Schoenberg, and Lion Feuchtwanger.

WW2 and the expansion of defense industries brought new growth and prosperity to the city. Thousands of African USs migrated from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to work in the enlargeing industries. The state also succumbed to war fears and transported most Japanese-US residents from Los Angeles and other cities to distant internment camps for the duration of the war.