Five Things I Didn't Know about Los Angeles

1.   Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States (New York City is the largest). In 2010, its population was approaching four million. It's the largest city in California and about 342 miles south of San Francisco. Since 1995, it has had no NFL team (but wants at least one). 


 2.  In 1781, the group of twenty-two adult settlers (with twenty-two children and four soldiers) who founded and named "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River were known as "Los Pobladores." Half of the adult settlers were women. The adults were a multi-ethnic group as well as varying in age: one was a Spaniard born in Spain, one a Spaniard born in "New Spain," nine were American Indians, two were African, one had both Spanish and Indian heritage, and were both Spanish and African in their ethnicity.

3.   After oil was discovered in the city (and surrounding area) in 1892, California became the country's largest oil producer. By 1923, about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output came from the state.

4.  Downtown Los Angeles averages just over fifteen inches of precipitation, mostly rain, each year, and almost all of that falls during the winter and spring On most days, the difference between the high and low temperature in any location is over 30 degrees Fahrenheit (16 Celsius). Due to the diversity in habitats, including beaches, wetlands and mountains, Los Angeles is rich in native plant species.

5.  When Hollywood merged into Los Angeles, in 1910, there were already ten movie companies operating in the city at the time. Eleven years later, more than 80 percent of the world's film industry was located there. Because of the money generated by the industry, the economic effects of the Great Depression were lessened in the area. Even now, the city has more artists, writers, filmmakers, actors and dancers living there than in any other city at any time in history. One in six residents works in a creative industry.

-- Mindy