California is a state in the Western United States. With over 38.9 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest U.S. state by area, and the most populated subnational entity in North America. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; it has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., officially the City of Los Angeles, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California. With roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits as of 2020, Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind only New York; it is the commercial, financial and cultural center of the Southern California region. Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate and an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and it is the principal city of a sprawling metropolitan area.
San Diego is a city in the U.S. state of California located alongside the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. With a population of over 1.3 million residents, the city is the eighth-most populous in the United States and the second-most populous in California after Los Angeles. The city is located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border and is the seat of San Diego County, which has a population of nearly 3.3 million people as of 2021. San Diego is known for its mild year-round Mediterranean climate, extensive beaches and parks, its long association with the United States Navy, and its recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology development center.
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, the system is composed of its ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic abroad centers. The system is the state's land-grant university. Major publications generally rank most UC campuses as being among the best universities in the world. In 1900, UC was one of the founders of the Association of American Universities and since the 1970s seven of its campuses, in addition to Berkeley, have been admitted to the association. Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego are considered Public Ivies, making California the state with the most universities in the nation to hold the title. UC campuses have large numbers of distinguished faculty in almost every academic discipline, with UC faculty and researchers having won 71 Nobel Prizes as of 2021.
The University of California, Berkeley, is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. It was established in 1868 and is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley is one of the best universities in the world with the most top-ranked departments nationally and more companies founded by undergraduate alumni than any other university worldwide.
The University of Southern California is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert Maclay Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. The university is composed of one liberal arts school, the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and 22 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, enrolling roughly 21,000 undergraduate and 28,500 post-graduate students from all fifty U.S. states and more than 115 countries. It is a member of the Association of American Universities, which it joined in 1969.
Monterey is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both Spain (1804–1821) and Mexico (1822–1846). During this period, Monterey hosted California's first theater, public building, public library, publicly funded school, printing-press, and newspaper. It was originally the only port of entry for all taxable goods in California. In 1846, during the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, the United States Flag was raised over the Customs House. After Mexico ceded California to the U.S. at the end of the war, Monterey hosted California's first constitutional convention in 1849.
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous city in California, with 808,437 residents, and the 17th most populous city in the United States as of 2022. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF.
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2022 population of 971,233, it is the most populous city in both the Bay Area and the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area—which in 2022 had a population of 7.5 million and 9.0 million respectively—the third-most populous city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego, and the 12th-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 sq mi (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County and the main component of the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of around two million residents in 2018.
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles County, California, mostly within the city of Los Angeles. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood.
Anaheim is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most populous city in California, and the 55th-most populous city in the United States. Anaheim is the 2nd largest city in Orange County in terms of land area, and is known for being the home of the Disneyland Resort, the Anaheim Convention Center, and two major league sports teams: the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Fresno is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km2) and had a population of 542,107 as of the 2020 Census, making it the fifth-most populous city, in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation.
Lake Tahoe is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at 6,225 ft (1,897 m) above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America, and at 122,160,280 acre⋅ft (150.7 km3) it trails only the five Great Lakes as the largest by volume in the United States. Its depth is 1,645 ft (501 m), making it the second deepest in the United States after Crater Lake in Oregon.
Baja California, officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. It has an area of 70,113 km2 (27,071 sq mi) and comprises the northern half of the Baja California Peninsula, north of the 28th parallel, plus oceanic Guadalupe Island. The mainland portion of the state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean; on the east by Sonora, the U.S. state of Arizona, and the Gulf of California; on the north by the U.S. state of California; and on the south by Baja California Sur.
The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team has played its home games at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
Multiple theories regarding the origin of the name California, as well as the root language of the term, have been proposed, but most historians believe the name likely originated from a 16th-century novel, Las Sergas de Esplandián. The novel, popular at the time of the Spanish exploration of Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, describes a fictional island named California, ruled by Queen Calafia, east of the Indies. The author of the novel, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, also known as Ordóñez de Montalvo, is thought to have derived the term California from the Arabic Khalif and/or Khalifa, but he might also have been influenced by the term "Califerne" in the 11th-century epic French poem The Song of Roland.
Mahershala Ali is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century.
