144 Fun Facts About San Diego

The San Diego Zoo keeps the largest colony outside Australia of which animal?

Koalas arrived in 1925, when the children of Sydney sent two as a gift to the children of San Diego; the zoo now grows its own eucalyptus to feed the colony that followed.

Which county borders San Diego County to the northwest, along the Pacific coast?

Orange County sits between San Diego County and Los Angeles, so the coastal drive north to L.A. runs straight through it; Riverside County lies inland to the north and Imperial County to the east.

Which Cameron Crowe film follows a San Diego teenager sent on tour with a rock band by Rolling Stone?

Almost Famous is Crowe's own story: raised in San Diego, he was reviewing records for an underground paper there at 13 and writing for Rolling Stone while still in his teens.

After the 1972 Republican convention was pulled from San Diego, Mayor Pete Wilson coined which defiant slogan?

America's Finest City began as a proclamation: Wilson declared the convention week 'America's Finest City Week' after the event moved to Miami Beach, and the boast stuck.

Which president returned Mission San Diego de Alcalá to the Catholic Church?

Lincoln signed the proclamation in May 1862, in the thick of the Civil War, ending 16 years in which the US Army had occupied the old mission; by then its church was in ruins.

Which Coronado air station, where Glenn Curtiss trained the Navy's first pilot, is the 'Birthplace of Naval Aviation'?

North Island was an empty sand flat when Glenn Curtiss opened a flying school there in 1911 and invited the military to use it; a House committee resolution made the title official in 1963.

Which crooner helped found the Del Mar racetrack and greeted the first fans at its gate in 1937?

Bing Crosby co-founded the turf club behind the track north of San Diego; a year after it opened, Del Mar staged the Seabiscuit–Ligaroti match race before 20,000 people and a national radio audience.

Which historic San Diego district is known for Victorian architecture and nightlife?

The Gaslamp Quarter's 90-odd Victorian-era buildings had sunk into a strip of peep shows and adult bookshops before owners banded together in the 1970s to save it as a historic district.

Which sailing trophy did the San Diego Yacht Club defend off the city in 1988, 1992 and 1995?

The America's Cup came to San Diego in 1987 and stayed eight years: Dennis Conner kept it in 1988 with a catamaran, a second San Diego boat held it in 1992, and New Zealand sailed off with it in 1995.

Which beach community lies at the foot of Point Loma, south of the San Diego River?

Ocean Beach, at the foot of Point Loma, guards its independent streak: residents have fought chain stores since the 1970s, and its Dog Beach lets dogs run off-leash around the clock.

Why is San Diego called the 'Birthplace of California'?

California's first European settlement took root on Presidio Hill in 1769, when a Spanish expedition raised a fort and a mission above the bay; the chain of 21 missions spread north from there.

What is the predominant climate type in San Diego?

Mediterranean is the usual label for San Diego's warm, dry summers and mild temperatures all year, though the city gets so little rain that some classifications file it as semi-arid instead.

What former aircraft carrier is now a popular museum located on Navy Pier in San Diego?

The USS Midway was built for World War II but commissioned a week after it ended; it went on to serve in Vietnam and as a flagship in Operation Desert Storm before opening as a museum on Navy Pier.

Which explorer first claimed San Diego Bay for Spain in 1542, initially naming it San Miguel?

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing the San Salvador, entered the bay in 1542, claimed it for Spain and named it San Miguel; the name was replaced sixty years later.

Which famous ocean-research institution, part of UC San Diego, sits in the La Jolla neighbourhood?

Scripps Institution of Oceanography began in 1903 as a marine biology station working out of the Hotel del Coronado's boathouse; within a few years, with Scripps family money, it had settled in La Jolla.

Which unexpected filling distinguishes San Diego's California burrito?

French fries, tucked in with carne asada and cheese, went into the California burrito at a San Diego taco shop in the 1980s; several shops claim to have been first, and nobody is sure which was.

Which friar founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first California mission?

Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá in July 1769, the first link in the mission chain he pushed up the California coast; Pope Francis made him a saint in Washington, D.C., in 2015.

Which 1857 brick house, now a San Diego museum, is billed as America's most haunted?

The Whaley House stands on ground where 'Yankee Jim' Robinson was hanged for stealing a boat, and heavy footsteps said to be his are its best-known ghost story.

Which Spanish explorer gave San Diego its name in 1602, honoring Saint Didacus of Alcalá?

Sebastián Vizcaíno anchored in the bay in November 1602 and renamed it San Diego after his flagship and the feast day of San Diego de Alcalá, Saint Didacus.

At the 2020 census, which Texas city ranked one place above San Diego?

San Antonio counted 1.43 million residents to San Diego's 1.39 million; twenty years earlier the order was the other way round, with San Diego seventh and San Antonio ninth.

Which San Diego–Tijuana border crossing is the busiest land crossing in the Western Hemisphere?

San Ysidro Port of Entry handles tens of millions of people a year but no trucks: since 1983 every freight truck has been sent a few miles east to the Otay Mesa crossing.

San Diego International Airport holds what distinction among US airports?

Busiest with a single runway: about 660 acres hemmed in three miles from downtown leave San Diego's airport one 9,400-foot strip for every takeoff and landing.

By what name was San Diego International Airport long known?

Lindbergh Field was the airport's name from its 1928 opening, honoring Charles Lindbergh, whose Spirit of St. Louis was built in San Diego; the San Diego International Airport name came later.

Which Spanish governor founded the Presidio of San Diego in 1769?

Gaspar de Portolá, governor of the Californias, founded the Presidio of San Diego in 1769; the fort on Presidio Hill was the first European settlement in present-day California.

Why did Mission San Diego move six miles inland from the presidio in 1774?

Better farmland and water: after a drought the friars moved up the San Diego River in 1774. A year later an uprising burned the new mission, which was rebuilt on the same spot.

Mission San Diego was the southern anchor of which historic California mission trail?

El Camino Real, the Royal Road, tied the 21 missions together from San Diego north to Sonoma; since 1906 cast-metal mission bells on shepherd's-crook posts have marked the route for travellers.

Which future governor of Mexican California lost San Diego's first election for alcalde to Juan María Osuna?

Pío Pico was governor by 1846, when American troops invaded; unable to raise an army, he fled south into Mexico, then came home two years later to live as a private citizen in Los Angeles.

Which 1840 memoir of the hide and tallow trade describes its author's months curing hides at San Diego?

Two Years Before the Mast was written by Richard Henry Dana, a Harvard student who shipped out as a common sailor after measles weakened his eyes; he spent months curing hides on the beach at Point Loma.

Which 1846 battle, fought in a valley now inside San Diego's city limits, was the bloodiest of the California campaign?

San Pasqual, December 6, 1846: Californio lancers cut up Kearny's trail-worn dragoons, who were then pinned on a hilltop until Kit Carson slipped out barefoot at night to fetch help from San Diego.

Which Californio commander led the lancers who mauled Kearny's dragoons near San Diego in December 1846?

Andrés Pico led the lancers against dragoons worn down by a 2,000-mile march; a month later he and John C. Frémont signed the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the fighting in California.

The first membership warehouse store, opened in San Diego in 1976, later merged into which retail giant?

Costco traces its start to Price Club, which Sol Price opened in old airplane hangars on Morena Boulevard in 1976; the two rivals merged in 1993, and the original store is still a Costco.

The 1850 William Heath Davis House, downtown San Diego's oldest structure, reached the city how?

Around Cape Horn, by ship: the prefabricated house was built on the East Coast for Davis's bayside New Town, a venture that failed so badly locals called the place Rabbitville, after its main residents.

Which San Diego County mountain town sprang up in a gold rush around 1870?

Julian boomed after gold was found in a creek around 1870; when the rush faded, the settlers who stayed turned to farming, and the town is now known for its apple orchards and apple pie.

Which developer's 'New Town' of the late 1860s became downtown San Diego?

Alonzo Horton bought the bayfront at auction in 1867 for about 30 cents an acre, built a wharf at the foot of 5th Avenue, and sold lots so fast that his New Town became downtown San Diego.

Which railroad gave San Diego its first transcontinental link in 1885?

The Santa Fe reached San Diego through a subsidiary, the California Southern, which met its main line at Barstow in November 1885; the city's domed Santa Fe Depot still carries the name.

Which labor union fought San Diego's 1912 free speech fight over 'Soapbox Row'?

The Industrial Workers of the World led the 1912 San Diego free speech fight after the city banned street speaking on 'Soapbox Row'; vigilantes beat Wobblies and abducted Emma Goldman's companion Ben Reitman.

Which red-light district, home to San Diego's first Chinatown, fell to 1910s anti-vice campaigns?

The Stingaree is said to be named for the bay's stingrays: you could be stung as badly in its saloons as in the water. In a 1912 raid police arrested 138 women, and all but two promised to leave town.

Which San Diego adobe drew tourists for decades as the 'marriage place' of the novel heroine Ramona?

Casa de Estudillo was never named in Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 bestseller, but in 1887 the San Diego Union declared it 'Ramona's Marriage Place', and tourists arriving on the new railroads flocked to the old house.

Which San Diego company built the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927?

Ryan Airlines took the order in February 1927 and finished the Spirit of St. Louis in about 60 days; in May its pilot flew it from San Diego to New York with one stop, a record, on his way to Paris.

Consolidated Aircraft, which moved to San Diego in 1935, later became known by what name?

Convair grew out of Consolidated's 1943 merger with Vultee; its San Diego plants built B-24 bombers in World War II and later the Atlas boosters that carried John Glenn into orbit.

Japan's aborted 1945 plan to attack San Diego with plague-infected fleas was code-named what?

Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night called for submarine-launched aircraft to scatter plague-infected fleas over San Diego; drawn up with the army's germ-warfare Unit 731, it was never carried out.

The Marine 'code talkers' who trained in San Diego in 1942 built their code on which language?

Navajo was all but unwritten and little known outside the tribe, so the first 29 recruits could build a code on it: a submarine became an 'iron fish' and a fighter plane a 'hummingbird'.

What is the highest point within San Diego city limits?

Cowles Mountain, in Mission Trails Regional Park, is the highest point in the city; in 1931 some 500 San Diego State students painted a 400-foot 'S' on its side, which the military had covered up in 1942.

Which San Diego canyon preserve holds a waterfall and an 1820s adobe ranch house?

Los Peñasquitos Canyon, 'little cliffs' in Spanish, lay in the first Mexican land grant in San Diego County; city and county now keep seven miles of it wild, with suburbs along both rims.

'May Gray' and 'June Gloom' are San Diego's nicknames for which weather pattern?

The marine layer is a deck of low cloud that the cool Pacific pushes ashore in late spring; the coast sits gray and cool under it while it is sunny and hot a few miles inland.

San Diego gets only about 10 inches of rain a year, most of it in which season?

Winter storms between December and March bring most of the year's rain and the summers are nearly dry, which is why the city buys 70 to 90 percent of its water from hundreds of miles away.

Which climate record, begun in 1958, is still kept by scientists in La Jolla?

The Keeling Curve began when Charles David Keeling started measuring carbon dioxide on Hawaii's Mauna Loa in 1958; its steady climb is the longest continuous record of the gas in the atmosphere.

Which NBA team played in San Diego from 1978 to 1984 before moving up the coast to Los Angeles?

The Clippers arrived from Buffalo as the Braves and were renamed in a local contest for the sailing ships seen in San Diego Bay; they missed the playoffs in all six seasons before the move.

Which October 2003 wildfire near San Diego was then the largest in California's recorded history?

The Cedar Fire began when a lost hunter lit a signal fire in the Cleveland National Forest; Santa Ana winds drove it into San Diego's suburbs, where it killed 15 people and destroyed 2,820 buildings.

Which military aircraft was developed in the 1990s by San Diego's General Atomics?

The Predator drone first flew in 1994; its maker had begun in 1955 as a General Dynamics division set up in San Diego to find peaceful uses for atomic energy.

Which product is made by Taylor, an El Cajon company founded in 1974?

Guitars: Bob Taylor and his friend Kurt Listug were working in a small guitar shop when they bought it in 1974 and put Taylor's name on the instruments.

San Diego has been nicknamed the capital of which beverage in America?

San Diego calls itself the capital of craft beer in America, with well over 100 craft breweries in the county; San Diego Beer Week each November draws beer tourists.

Which marine mammals migrate past San Diego, with sightings peaking in mid-January?

Gray whales pass San Diego on a round trip of 10,000 miles or more between Arctic feeding grounds and the Mexican lagoons where they calve; southbound sightings peak in mid-January.

Which tuna firm was headquartered in San Diego when Chicken of the Sea left in 2018?

Bumble Bee Foods kept its headquarters in downtown San Diego, once the tuna-canning capital of the world, after rival Chicken of the Sea moved to El Segundo in 2018.

Qualcomm's first big product, OmniTRACS, was a satellite messaging system built for which industry?

Long-haul trucking fleets used OmniTRACS from 1988 to reach drivers who had been pulling off the road to phone dispatchers; its profits paid for the CDMA research that took Qualcomm into mobile phones.

Who led the founding of Qualcomm in 1985?

Irwin Jacobs left a professorship at UC San Diego to build his first company, Linkabit, then started Qualcomm in 1985 with six colleagues from it; the name is short for 'quality communications'.

Which DNA-sequencing company was founded in San Diego in 1998?

Illumina, founded in San Diego in 1998, held about 70 percent of the market for genome sequencers by 2014, as the cost of reading a human genome fell from hundreds of millions of dollars to under $1,500 by late 2015.

Which San Diego neighborhood has long served as the city's gay village?

Hillcrest became the city's gay village in the 1970s, when gay and lesbian residents and businesses moved into an ageing neighbourhood; a giant rainbow flag has flown over it since 2012.

Which Chargers running back scored a record 31 touchdowns in the 2006 NFL season?

LaDainian Tomlinson was the league's MVP that year; the Chargers had drafted him fifth in 2001 after passing up the chance to take quarterback Michael Vick.

Which Balboa Park stage produces about 15 plays and musicals a year and has launched Tony winners?

The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, opened for the park's second world's fair, stages about 15 productions a year and premiered Broadway hits such as Into the Woods and The Full Monty.

What is the flagship historic ship of the Maritime Museum of San Diego?

The Star of India, launched in 1863, sailed around the world 21 times in her working life; restored in the 1960s, she is still taken to sea under sail by a volunteer crew.

The Maritime Museum's 1863 flagship ended its career hauling which cargo from Alaska?

Salmon filled her hold each autumn from 1902: the Alaska Packers' Association sent the old emigrant ship, launched as Euterpe, north with fishermen and cannery hands every spring until 1923.

Which fast-food chain was founded in San Diego in 1951 with a drive-through intercom?

Jack in the Box began in San Diego in 1951, when Robert O. Peterson opened a drive-through with a two-way intercom topped by a clown head, and grew into a national chain.

Which team did the San Diego Chargers rout 51–10 for their only AFL title?

The Boston Patriots were buried at Balboa Stadium in January 1964 as the Chargers' fullback ran for 206 yards and caught passes for 123 more; it was the only title of the team's 56 seasons in the city.

Which NBA team got its name in San Diego before moving away in 1971?

The Rockets were named in a 1967 contest for San Diego's missile industry; when the team moved to Houston four years later, the name suited the home of NASA's Johnson Space Center even better.

Which owner moved the Chargers from San Diego to Los Angeles in 2017?

Dean Spanos announced the move in January 2017, two months after fewer than 44 percent of San Diego voters backed a hotel-tax plan for a new downtown stadium.

After years as the Buick Invitational, the Torrey Pines tour stop became what in 2010?

The Farmers Insurance Open was the name from 2010 through 2026; the tournament began in 1952 as the San Diego Open, and Sentry Insurance takes over the title in 2027.

Who birdied the final two holes at Torrey Pines to win the 2021 U.S. Open?

Jon Rahm beat Louis Oosthuizen by a shot to become the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open, on the course where he had claimed his first PGA Tour title four years earlier.

Torrey Pines Golf Course stands on the site of Camp Callan, where World War II recruits trained in what?

Anti-aircraft gunnery was the camp's focus from 1942, taught in a 13-week course on the mesa's gun ranges; the Army declared it surplus in 1945, and the city opened the golf course on part of the site in 1957.

Whom did Tiger Woods defeat in a 19-hole playoff to win the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines?

Rocco Mediate took Tiger Woods through an 18-hole Monday playoff and lost on the first extra hole; Woods, hobbled by a damaged left knee, had surgery days later and missed the rest of the season.

Snapdragon Stadium opened in 2022 on the Mission Valley site of which demolished stadium?

Qualcomm Stadium, long home to the Chargers and Padres, came down in 2020–21; its replacement is named for Snapdragon, Qualcomm's mobile-chip brand, so a Qualcomm brand is back on the old stadium's site.

Which Mexican winger, nicknamed 'Chucky', became San Diego FC's first designated player in 2024?

Hirving Lozano signed from PSV Eindhoven in June 2024, months before the club had played a match; San Diego FC kicked off in 2025 as Major League Soccer's 30th team.

Which tribe was a founding co-owner of San Diego FC?

The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation started the bid with a local developer and was later joined by billionaire Mohamed Mansour, making it the first Native American tribe with a stake in a US professional soccer club.

Which trophy did San Diego Wave FC win in 2023 for the league's best regular-season record?

The NWSL Shield went to San Diego Wave FC in 2023, only the club's second season, but the top seed then lost its home semifinal 1–0 to OL Reign; the Wave won the Challenge Cup in 2024.

Which NHL team moved its AHL affiliate to San Diego in 2015 as the Gulls?

The Anaheim Ducks bought an East Coast AHL franchise in 2015 and moved it to San Diego, one of five farm teams that NHL clubs shifted to California that year to keep their prospects close to home.

What is the nickname of San Diego State University's athletic teams?

The Aztecs name was picked by students in 1925, replacing press labels like 'Staters' and 'Professors' and the campus paper's attempt to make 'Wampus Cats' stick.

Which US president came to San Diego State in the early 1960s to receive its first honorary doctorate?

John F. Kennedy gave the commencement address to about 40,000 people, less than six months before his assassination; his honorary law degree was the first a California state college had awarded.

Which astronaut became a physics professor at UC San Diego in 1989?

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, left NASA in 1987 and joined UC San Diego two years later; she went on to co-found Sally Ride Science, which made science programs for schoolchildren.

Which Scripps director, campaigning for UC San Diego, took on La Jolla's housing discrimination against Jews?

Roger Revelle told La Jolla it could have a university or an anti-Semitic housing covenant, but not both; he also helped found a subdivision where Scripps professors shut out of La Jolla could live.

What is the nickname of UC San Diego's athletic teams?

The Tritons, whose mascot is King Triton, have fielded a football team just once: the 1968 squad lost all seven games and the program was dropped before the next season.

Which polio vaccine pioneer founded a La Jolla research institute in 1960?

Jonas Salk was courted by San Diego's mayor, Charles Dail, himself a polio survivor, and the city gave him 27 acres on a La Jolla mesa for the institute; the March of Dimes helped fund it.

Which architect designed the La Jolla research institute famed for its travertine plaza and blackboard-lined walkways?

Louis Kahn planned meeting halls and living quarters as well, but only the laboratory blocks were built; he brought in Mexican architect Luis Barragán to help shape the bare court between them.

Which Hollywood star, born in La Jolla, co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse in 1947?

Gregory Peck, a La Jolla pharmacist's son, started the Playhouse with fellow film actors Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer as a summer-stock company that brought Hollywood names to the local stage.

Which La Jolla beach, sheltered by a 1930s seawall, has been taken over by harbor seals?

Children's Pool got its breakwater in the 1930s so youngsters could swim out of the surf, but harbor seals moved in during the 1990s and the city now closes the beach every winter for pupping season.

Which children's author settled in La Jolla after World War II and wrote most of his books there?

Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel, wrote The Cat in the Hat in La Jolla and died there in 1991; his widow Audrey later gave UC San Diego $20 million, and its main library now carries the couple's name.

Balboa Park is bigger than which of these famous American city parks?

Central Park covers 843 acres to Balboa Park's 1,200, and San Diego's park was once bigger still: the city set aside 1,400 acres in 1868, and freeways alone have since taken more than 100 of them.

Which carmaker built the round hall, now Balboa Park's Air & Space Museum, for San Diego's second world's fair?

Ford put up the pavilion to show off its cars, on a plan shaped like a figure 8 for its V8 engine; the aerospace museum moved in after a 1978 arson fire destroyed its previous home.

Which horticulturalist known as the 'Mother of Balboa Park' leased 30 acres there in 1892?

Kate Sessions leased 30 acres of City Park in 1892 for her nursery and in return planted trees across the park each year, earning the title 'Mother of Balboa Park'.

Who was the lead architect of Balboa Park's 1915 exposition buildings?

Bertram Goodhue's ornate Spanish Colonial Revival buildings were so widely seen and published that the style swept California and the Southwest; local architect Irving Gill had quit the project in 1911.

San Diego's 1915 world's fair celebrated the opening of what?

The 1915 Panama-California Exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, which San Diego hoped would make it the first U.S. port of call for ships arriving from the Atlantic.

Which much larger California city also staged a world's fair in 1915, the same year as San Diego's?

San Francisco's fair was the bigger, better-funded one; San Diego, then a city of fewer than 40,000 people, built on a smaller scale but kept its fair running through 1916.

Which oddball attraction featured at Balboa Park's second world's fair?

The Zoro Garden Nudist Colony was billed as a camp of real nudists, though accounts differ on whether its residents were practising nudists or hired performers; its sunken garden is now a butterfly garden.

The Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park is the world's largest pipe organ of what kind?

Fully outdoor and facing open-air seating, the organ was a gift from brothers John D. and Adolph Spreckels for the 1915 fair, given so San Diegans could hear free concerts on its 5,000-plus pipes.

John D. Spreckels, San Diego's great benefactor, was the son of a magnate in which industry?

Sugar made his father, Claus Spreckels, extremely wealthy; John first sailed into San Diego on his yacht in 1887, liked the boom he saw, and moved his family there for good after the 1906 earthquake.

The San Diego Zoo began after a surgeon heard which animal roaring from an exhibit at the city's world's fair?

A lion's roar, heard as Dr. Harry Wegeforth drove past with his brother, made him say San Diego should have a zoo and that he would start one; a statue called Rex's Roar now stands at the entrance.

The first video ever uploaded to which website, 'Me at the zoo', was shot at the San Diego Zoo?

YouTube's first upload shows co-founder Jawed Karim in front of the elephants in April 2005, spending all of 19 seconds on how long their trunks are.

The San Diego Zoo was an early champion of what kind of animal exhibit?

Open-air, cage-less habitats were the founder's plan: he wanted the animals kept in by moats instead of bars, and the zoo's later designers took out fences and cages wherever they could.

Under what name did the San Diego Zoo Safari Park operate from 1972 to 2010?

San Diego Wild Animal Park won out over rejected names such as San Diego Safari Land and San Diego Wildlife Park before the 1972 opening; trustees swapped it for Safari Park in 2010.

Which household spray was invented in San Diego in 1953 to keep rust off Atlas missiles?

WD-40 stands for 'Water Displacement, 40th formula'; made to protect the missile's outer skin, it proved so handy around the house that it went on sale in San Diego shops in 1958.

What was the name of the first orca brought to a San Diego marine park in 1965?

Shamu was caught in Puget Sound in 1965 as a companion for a Seattle aquarium's orca, Namu, and her name is said to mean 'friend of Namu'; sold on to San Diego, she gave her name to the park's orca shows.

Which marine park chain began in San Diego in 1964 after its founders shelved plans for an underwater restaurant?

SeaWorld's four founders, all UCLA graduates, found the underwater restaurant unworkable and built a marine park instead; it opened in March 1964 as the first in the chain.

Legoland California in Carlsbad was the first Legoland to open outside which continent?

Europe was home ground: the first Legoland opened in 1968 beside the Lego factory in Billund, Denmark, and Windsor, England followed in 1996 before Carlsbad became the third park in 1999.

What is the historic wooden roller coaster at Belmont Park called?

The Giant Dipper opened on July 4, 1925 and was nearly lost: after the park failed, the city threatened to demolish the coaster in 1978 until local citizens banded together to save and restore it.

Belmont Park's indoor pool, the Plunge, opened in 1925 filled with what?

Salt water filled the Plunge when it opened as the Natatorium, billed as the largest pool of its kind; it was later drained and refilled with fresh water, which it still holds.

The Hotel del Coronado, opened in 1888, is one of America's largest buildings made of which material?

Wood had to be brought in, because San Diego had almost none: the all-wooden resort was framed in Douglas fir and sided in redwood, and remains one of the country's largest wooden structures.

Which 1959 Marilyn Monroe film used the Hotel del Coronado to represent a Florida resort?

Some Like It Hot cast the hotel as Miami's 'Seminole Ritz' because the Victorian resort still looked right for the film's 1920s setting; Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon shot there in 1958.

Which fantasy author wrote several of his books during long stays at the Hotel del Coronado?

L. Frank Baum wrote Oz books at the hotel and is said to have modeled the Emerald City on it, though others credit the 'White City' of Chicago's 1893 World's Fair.

Coronado is connected to the mainland by a sandy isthmus known as what?

The Silver Strand, a seven-mile ribbon of sand, joins Coronado to Imperial Beach, which makes Coronado a 'tied island' rather than a true one.

What name won Coronado's 1886 public naming contest before being overturned?

Miramar won the 1886 contest run by the peninsula's owners, but the public disliked it, so they borrowed 'Coronado' from the Mexican islands offshore instead.

Why does the Coronado Bridge cross San Diego Bay in a long curve?

To climb high enough for ships, 200 feet at mid-span, the bridge needed extra length to keep its grade reasonable, and the designers found that length by bending the route into a curve.

Which 1986 Tom Cruise film shot its piano sing-along at a San Diego bar, Kansas City Barbeque?

Top Gun filmed Goose and Maverick's 'Great Balls of Fire' sing-along there in July 1985, and the restaurant has billed itself as the 'Top Gun Bar' on the strength of it.

Which site beneath the Coronado Bridge holds one of the largest collections of outdoor murals in the US?

Chicano Park was born in 1970, when Barrio Logan residents occupied the land under the new bridge; artists then covered its concrete pillars with murals, and the park is now a National Historic Landmark.

In 1970, Barrio Logan residents occupied land beneath the Coronado Bridge to stop construction of what?

A Highway Patrol station was going up on land the city had promised as a park, so residents formed human chains around the bulldozers and held the site for twelve days until the city agreed to the park.

Which San Diego County peak is home to the 200-inch Hale Telescope, for decades the world's largest?

Palomar Mountain's Hale Telescope was the world's largest from 1949 until 1976; George Ellery Hale, the astronomer who proposed it in 1928, died before it was finished.

Why was the Old Point Loma Lighthouse shut down in 1891?

Fog and low cloud hid it: the lamp sat more than 400 feet above the sea, the highest of any American lighthouse of its day, so a replacement was built lower down, nearer the shore.

What does 'Loma' mean in the name Point Loma?

Hill is what loma means in Spanish: the peninsula was charted as Punta de la Loma, 'Hill Point', for the long ridge that stands between the open ocean and San Diego Bay.

Naval Base San Diego is the world's second-largest surface ship base after which one?

Norfolk, Virginia hosts the world's largest naval station; San Diego's base, begun in 1922 as a destroyer repair yard, grew into the main home port of the Pacific Fleet.

Marine recruits from which part of the country train at MCRD San Diego?

Recruits from west of the Mississippi River report to San Diego and easterners to Parris Island, South Carolina; until 2021 that split applied to men only, because every woman recruit trained at Parris Island.

Which future general, namesake of a big Marine base, was MCRD San Diego's first commanding officer?

Joseph Henry Pendleton had long pushed for a Marine base in the West, and the San Diego depot only became a reality through his perseverance; Camp Pendleton, built in 1942, took his name.

Which San Diego-born skateboarder landed the first documented '900' at the 1999 X Games?

Tony Hawk missed ten times before landing the two-and-a-half-turn spin on his eleventh try, after regulation time had run out; the announcers simply let him keep going.

Where did the Pacific Fleet's main base move from California in 1940?

Pearl Harbor became the fleet's base on Roosevelt's order in 1940, a move meant to deter Japan; Admiral James Richardson protested that the ships would be a ready target there and was relieved of command in early 1941.

Which pop-punk band formed in the San Diego suburb of Poway in 1992?

Blink-182 started out as plain Blink; the trio added the number rather than fight a legal battle with an Irish band that already had the name.

Which Baja dish did Ralph Rubio bring home to San Diego in 1983, starting a restaurant chain?

Fish tacos won Rubio over at a local stand in San Felipe on a college spring break; the San Diego restaurant he opened in 1983 grew into the Rubio's chain and made the dish famous north of the border.

When Petco Park opened in 2004, which historic warehouse was built into its left-field corner?

The Western Metal Supply Co. building was kept and built into the ballpark rather than cleared, and the edge of its southeast corner now serves as the left-field foul pole.

Which Red Sox legend, a San Diego native, turned professional with the minor-league Padres in 1936?

Ted Williams, a star at the city's Hoover High, signed with his hometown club and helped the Padres win their league pennant in 1937 before Boston came calling.

The Padres' name, Spanish for 'fathers', honors which religious order?

The Franciscans founded San Diego's mission, having taken over Spain's California mission work after the Jesuits were expelled; the club's mascot is the Swinging Friar.

Which Padres legend, nicknamed 'Mr. Padre', won eight National League batting titles?

Tony Gwynn spent all 20 of his seasons in San Diego and tied Honus Wagner's league record of eight batting titles; in 1994 he was hitting .394 when a players' strike ended the season.

Which two teams beat the Padres in the 1984 and 1998 World Series?

The Detroit Tigers won in five games in 1984, after the Padres had rallied from two games down to beat the Cubs for the pennant, and the New York Yankees swept them in 1998.

Which fast-food tycoon bought the Padres in 1974 to stop the team moving to Washington?

Ray Kroc, the man who built McDonald's, seized the stadium microphone during the 1974 home opener and apologised to fans for 'stupid ballplaying'; he owned the club until his death in 1984.

In which hotel's basement was the first San Diego Comic-Con held in August 1970?

The U.S. Grant Hotel hosted about 300 fans that August; the convention spent much of the 1970s at the El Cortez and kept outgrowing its homes until it settled in the convention center in 1991.

Which comic-industry honors, likened to the Oscars, are presented at San Diego Comic-Con?

The Eisner Awards, named for cartoonist Will Eisner, were created in 1988 after the Kirby Awards were discontinued, as were the rival Harvey Awards; the ceremony has been held at Comic-Con since 1991.

Where did the San Diego Trolley's first line run from downtown when it opened in 1981?

The Mexican border was the end of the line: the Trolley reused an old freight railroad to get there in 1981, and its success helped set off a light rail revival across the United States.

Which Old West lawman ran gambling halls in boomtown San Diego in the 1880s?

Wyatt Earp came for the land boom, speculated in real estate and ran gambling halls offering faro, poker and keno; he also refereed boxing matches in the town.

Which stretch of freeway through Balboa Park is San Diego's oldest, dating to 1948?

State Route 163 was cut through a canyon in Balboa Park in 1948 as San Diego County's first freeway; freeways now cover 111 acres of land once set aside for the park.

Which river's water began flowing to San Diego through a Navy-built aqueduct in 1947?

Colorado River water reached San Diego in November 1947 through a pipeline President Roosevelt had ordered the Navy to build, arriving just in time to head off a serious water shortage.

Which 2004 comedy made the sign-off 'Stay classy, San Diego' a catchphrase?

Anchorman's Ron Burgundy signs off his newscasts with the line; the film is set at a 1970s San Diego TV station but was mostly shot in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach.

Which religious group's US Army battalion reached San Diego in 1847 after marching some 2,000 miles from Iowa?

Mormons, about 500 volunteers, made the march without fighting a single battle against an enemy; their one fight on the way was with a herd of wild bulls.

Which desert park covering one-fifth of San Diego County is California's largest state park?

Anza-Borrego pairs Juan Bautista de Anza, the Spanish officer who opened an overland route to California in the 1770s, with borrego, a Spanish word for sheep.

Which downtown neighborhood, centered on India Street, began as a tuna fishermen's community?

Little Italy was home to the families, many from Sicily and the Italian Riviera, who ran San Diego's tuna fleet from the 19th century into the 1970s, when the industry faded; India Street is still its main drag.

Which fault forms the sharp escarpment on Mount Soledad's northern and eastern slopes?

The Rose Canyon Fault runs from San Diego Bay north through downtown and La Jolla before heading offshore, shaping Mount Soledad's steep north and east faces; so close to the city, a large earthquake on it could be very destructive.

The San Diego Museum of Art's ornate entrance borrows from the facade of which Spanish university?

Salamanca's university facade was the model: the architects wanted the gallery to sit well beside the park's Spanish-style exposition buildings, so they went straight to Renaissance Spain for its carved ornament.

Tijuana is the most populous city of which Mexican state?

Baja California's capital is Mexicali, but Tijuana, pressed against the border opposite San Diego, is its most populous city and the westernmost city in Mexico.

The Cross Border Xpress footbridge, opened in 2015, lets travelers walk from San Diego straight into what?

Tijuana's airport sits right against the border, so a terminal on the San Diego side now connects to it by a pedestrian bridge that only passengers holding boarding passes may cross.

Which elite force puts its trainees through 'Hell Week' on the beaches of Coronado?

Navy SEALs candidates train at Coronado's Naval Amphibious Base, where Hell Week means five and a half days of continuous drills on about four hours of sleep in all.