28 September: California

On this date in 1542 Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (also known by his Portuguese name Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho) landed at what is now called the San Diego Bay, becoming the first European to arrive in what will become the state of California. Here are ten things you might not know about California:

1. California's official state nickname is the Golden State. Others include The Land of Milk and Honey, The El Dorado State, The Grape State and the Grizzly Bear State. The latter was the official nickname once, until the bear population was wiped out. The grizzly bear is the state animal and appears on the Flag, despite the fact there have been no sightings of wild grizzlies since the 1920s. The bear on the flag is Monarch, a 1,200-lb. wild California grizzly bear captured in 1899. He lived at Woodward's Garden and then Golden Gate Park until his death in 1911.
2. Other state symbols are the state marine animal, the California Gray Whale; the state tree, California Redwood, state bird, California Valley Quail, state flower, Golden Poppy, motto Eureka (which means I have found it and alludes to the discovery of Gold). The capital city is Sacramento.
3. By area, California is the USA's third largest state, but it's the biggest in terms of population. More people live in California than in the whole of Canada, and one in eight Americans live in California.
4. It's also the USA's biggest economy and the largest producer of agricultural goods. Several places in California have declared themselves the world capital for a particular product: Fallbrook is the Avocado Capital of the World; Coachella Valley is the Date Capital of the world; Fresno is the Raisin Capital of the World. Castroville is the Artichoke Capital of the World (In 1947 Castroville's first Artichoke Queen was a girl called Norma Jean who later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe). There are more than 300,000 tons of Grapes grown in California annually and more than 17 million gallons of Wine is produced each year. More Turkeys are raised in California than in any other state in the United States, More sourdough Bread is produced in Oakland than any other city in the world. Sacramento has the world's largest Almond processing plant, doing twelve million pounds per day in high season. Not surprising then that if California was a country it would have the 7th largest economy in the world and Los Angeles is the fourth largest economy in the US all by itself.
5. California has 58 counties, including San Bernardino County, the largest county in the country, and Alpine County, which is the eighth smallest of the 58 but has no high school, ATMs, dentists, banks, or Traffic Lights. It is also the only county in the state that doesn't generate agricultural production.
6. California has the world's tallest flagpole (in the small town of Dorris), the tallest totem pole in the US (McKinleyville) and the world's tallest tree, Hyperion, whose location is a closely guarded secret. The tree with the largest trunk is in Sequoia National Park - it is 102 feet in circumference.
7. The highest and lowest points in the contiguous U.S. (ie any state that isn't Hawaii or Alaska) are both in California within 100 miles of each other. They are Mt. Whitney at 14,494 feet (4421m) and Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 282 feet (86m) below sea level.
8. In the middle of the state, a palm tree and a pine tree stand next to each other to signify the divide between Northern and Southern California.
9. California is the only state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
10. Wacky laws that exist in parts of California: it is illegal to molest a monarch butterfly, let off a nuclear bomb, wear cowboy boots unless you own two or more Cows, ride a bike in a swimming pool. keep anything other than a car in the garage, to curse on a mini-golf course, bathe two babies in the same bath at the same time (and it's illegal to have more than one bath in your house), wipe your car with used underwear, peel an Orange in a hotel room, or overtake a fire truck on a Bicycle. Ugly people are banned from walking down the street, and animals are not allowed to mate publicly near a tavern, church or school. Drivers are obliged to give way to ducks or peacocks.