Los Angeles Founded: A Spanish Settlement Begins
Forty-four settlers, recruited from the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa, established El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porciuncula on September 4, 1781. The group included people of Indigenous, African, and Spanish descent, reflecting the multiethnic reality of Spain's colonial frontier. Governor Felipe de Neve selected the site near the Porciuncula River (now the Los Angeles River) for its fertile soil and reliable water supply. The pueblo grew slowly, numbering just 315 residents by 1820. After American conquest in 1847, the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876, and the discovery of oil in the 1890s, the settlement exploded into the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, now home to over 13 million people.
September 4, 1781
245 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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