Archaeological evidence suggests the San Francisco Bay area has been inhabited as early as 2700 BC. People of the
Ohlone language group probably occupied northern California from at least the year A.D. 500. Though
their territory had been
claimed by
Spain since the early 16th century, they had relatively little contact with Europeans until 1769, when as part of an effort to colonize
Alta California, an
exploration party led by Don
Gaspar de Portolá learned of the existence of
San Francisco Bay. Seven years later, in 1776, an expedition led by
Juan Bautista de Anza selected the site for the
Presidio of San Francisco, which
José Joaquín Moraga soon established. Later the same year,
Franciscan missionary
Francisco Palóu founded the
Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores). As part of the founding, the priests claimed the land south of the mission for 16 miles for raising crops and for
fodder for cattle and sheep. In 1778, the priests and soldiers marked out a trail to connect San Francisco to the rest of California. Upon independence from Spain, prominent Mexican citizens were granted land parcels to establish
large ranches, three of which covered areas now in Daly City and
Colma.
Rancho Laguna de la Merced was acres and covered the area around a lake of the
same name. A decade later, several families left as increases in the
fog density killed grain and potato crops. The few remaining families switched to dairy and cattle farming as a more profitable enterprise. The Daly City area served as a location where San Franciscans would cross over county lines to gamble and fight. As tensions built in approach to the
American Civil War, California was divided between pro-
slavery, and
Free Soil advocates. Two of the main figures in the debate were
US Senator David C. Broderick, a Free Soil advocate, and
David S. Terry, who was in favor of extension of slavery into California. Quarreling and political fighting between the two eventually led to a
duel in the Lake Merced area, at which Terry mortally wounded Broderick, who died three days later. The site of the duel is marked with two granite shafts where the men stood, and is designated as
California Historical Landmark number 19.
20th century , in front of a temporary tent shelter On the morning of April 18, 1906, a
major earthquake struck just off the coast of the Daly City area near
Mussel Rock. After the quake and subsequent fire destroyed many San Franciscans' homes, they left for temporary housing on the ranches of the area to the south, including the large one owned by
John Daly. Daly had come to the Bay Area in 1853, where he had worked on a dairy farm, and after several years, married his bosses' daughter and acquired at the Top of the Hill area. Over the years, Daly's business grew, as did his political clout. When a flood of refugees from the quake came, Daly and other local farmers donated milk and other food items. Daly later subdivided his property, from which several housing tracts emerged. The initial proposal also revealed rifts in the community among the various regions, including the area around the cemeteries, which were excluded from further plans of incorporation. On March 18, 1911, a special election was held, with incorporation narrowly succeeding by a vote of 132 to 130. It remained a relatively small community until the late 1940s, when developer
Henry Doelger established
Westlake, a major district of homes and businesses, including the Westlake Shopping Center. Beginning in the 1950s, Filipino Americans began to purchase homes east of Junipero Serra Boulevard, as they were barred from the Westlake development due to
racial covenants. On March 22, 1957, Daly City was again the epicenter of
an earthquake, this one a 5.3-
magnitude quake on the San Andreas Fault, which caused some structural damage in Westlake and closed
State Route 1 along the Westlake Palisades. In 1963, Daly City annexed the city of
Bayshore. The
Cow Palace, located in Bayshore and now within the city limits of Daly City, was the site of
the following year's Republican National Convention; it had also hosted the
1956 RNC. The
Daly City BART station opened on September 11, 1972, providing northern San Mateo County with rail service to downtown San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The line was extended south to Colma in 1996 and then to Millbrae and the
San Francisco International Airport in 2003. In October 1984,
Taiwanese American writer
Henry Liu was assassinated in his garage in Daly City, allegedly by
Kuomintang agents. The
Daly City History Museum, opened in March 2009, is located in the building that housed the John Daly Library, Daly City's first library. The museum houses exhibits related to Daly City's history, and maintains an archive of photos and documents. ==Geography==