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Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/Archive

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This page displays all the articles which appear in the "did you know..." section of the San Francisco Bay Area portal, as well as most of the DYK's which appeared on the front page of Wikipedia that are SFBA related. Instructions on how to add new articles to this list are here.

  • Bold items were selected as DYK for the main page, but were not chosen for this portal. others may only have appeared at this portals DYK section. some have appeared in both, sometimes with slightly different taglines (and in different months). generally, the main page tagline is featured here.

2004

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  • The portal had not been created at this time. DYK's, which began in January 2004, are from the main page.




2005

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2006

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San Francisco garter snake
San Francisco garter snake










The portal was created at this time. Some of the DYK's below were selected ONLY for the portal, and not for the main page. Main page DYK's are bolded on this page.







2007

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No "Did You Know" articles added from March 2007 until November 2011. The following DYK's were placed on the main WP page during that time.

Syncaris pacifica
Syncaris pacifica













Union Iron Works Powerhouse
Union Iron Works Powerhouse
Lilium pardalinum pitkinense
Lilium pardalinum pitkinense













2008

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Cast and crew on the set of Korty's Farewell to Manzanar, Alameda County, 1976
Cast and crew on the set of Korty's Farewell to Manzanar, Alameda County, 1976








Hercules Station site, October 28, 2012
Hercules Station site, October 28, 2012










2009

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Warning sign, posted at Skeggs Point in the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, San Mateo County
Warning sign, posted at Skeggs Point in the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, San Mateo County










 • ... that Ina Coolbrith (pictured, right), the first woman granted honorary membership in the Bohemian Club, was also the first California Poet Laureate?
 • ... that the California-based donut shop Psycho Donuts has generated controversy for its mental health-themed products, such as the "Manic Malt" and "Bipolar"?
 • ... that Horace Barker was awarded the National Medal of Science for discovering the coenzyme of vitamin B12, which Barker had isolated from mud taken from San Francisco Bay?
 • ... that England-born American composer Wallace Arthur Sabin was the first dean of the San Francisco chapter of the American Guild of Organists? (painting of work presented at the Bohemian Grove pictured, left)
 • ... that the Cremation of Care ceremony (pictured, right) is performed on the first night of the Bohemian Club's annual summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove?

















Oakland City Hall
Oakland City Hall




2010

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2011

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Village Creek, maintained by Friends of Five Creeks
Village Creek, maintained by Friends of Five Creeks

 • ... that Joe Heitz of California wine producer Heitz Wine Cellars is considered the first in the U.S. to champion single vineyard designated wine?
 • ... that a critic said that landscapes by Rinaldo Cuneo (painting of the Embarcadero pictured, right) "are the very soul and essence of California materialized in line and color"?
 • ... that the Friends of Five Creeks helps restore creeks in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay including daylighting Marin Creek? (Village Creek pictured, left)
 • ... that California '49er Stephen William Shaw helped discover Humboldt Bay, painted over 200 portraits of San Francisco notables, and started growing grapes in Sonoma County?




Galilee, built in Benicia, California
Galilee, built in Benicia, California




Fusakichi Omori, pioneering Japanese seismologist
Fusakichi Omori








New DYK's began to be added to the revived portal starting with November's Robert D. San Souci. Again, highlighted DYK's were added to the main page, and regular text, only to this portal's DYK.

Hua Mulan
Hua Mulan




2012

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Edsel with "abused" customers in 1982.
Edsel with "abused" customers in 1982.











2013

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Brock Bond
Brock Bond
Sara Bard Field
Sara Bard Field

 • ... that the San Francisco Giants drafted Brock Bond (pictured, left) when they meant to draft Casey Bond (pictured, right)?
 • ... that A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, published in 2011 by Julia Scheeres, is a history of the Jonestown settlement, and subsequent massacre in 1978?
 • ... that The Bay Lights art installation uses 25,000 white LED lights, programmed to create a series of abstract patterns that ascend and descend the cables on the San Francisco Bay Bridge?
 • ... that Sara Bard Field (pictured) traveled by automobile from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in 1915 to deliver a petition with 500,000 signatures for women's suffrage to Woodrow Wilson?
 • ... that Zelma Long is considered to be one of the female pioneers of wine production in the U.S. state of California?
 • ... that Silver Oak Cellars has been cited as one of a dozen California wineries which "have reached cult status" for its Cabernet Sauvignon production?
 • ... that Berkeley, California, rapper Lil B's Rain in England is an ambient hip hop album without any beats or profanity?





  • The next 5 sections of DYK's placed at the SFBA portal originally had longer descriptions, and not "taglines". The original longer descriptions have been re-edited to conform with DYK standards. The DYK's from the main page remain unchanged, and bolded as above.
Bridge to the Tom Lantos Tunnels at Devil's Slide
Bridge to the Tom Lantos Tunnels at Devil's Slide
Soutirage at Twomey Cellars
Soutirage at Twomey Cellars







Selden Connor Gile in his twenties
Selden Connor Gile in his twenties
The aircraft after the crash
The aircraft after the crash
John W. Dwinelle
John W. Dwinelle

 • ... that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (pictured, right) was a scheduled transpacific passenger flight from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, that crashed while attempting a landing at its destination, San Francisco International Airport, on July 6, 2013?
 • ... that the South San Francisco Hillside Sign (pictured, right) was created in the 1920s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
 • ... that A Boy and His Atom was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules viewed through a scanning tunneling microscope, magnifying them 100 million times?
 • ... that John Mason 'Jack’ Harker was a member of the original team that developed the first disk storage system?
 • ... that Selden Connor Gile (pictured, left) was the founder and leader of the Society of Six, a Bay Area group of artists known for their plein-air paintings?
 • ... that John W. Dwinelle (pictured, right) helped establish the University of California, the right of black children to attend public school, and San Francisco's claim to much of the land within its borders?




the statue Ashurbanipal in April 2011
the statue Ashurbanipal in April 2011
Liberty Head double eagle
Liberty Head double eagle

 • ... that critics complained that a bronze statue (pictured, left) of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal standing in San Francisco's Civic Center more closely resembled the Sumerian king Gilgamesh?
 • ... that the twenty-dollar Liberty Head double eagle (pictured, right) was minted after the California gold rush as the "most efficient way to coin a given quantity of gold bullion"?
 • ... that the Blue Wing Inn (pictured, right), started as a one-room hotel in Sonoma, California, in 1836, was also a saloon, a gambling hall, a stagecoach depot, a grocery store, a winery, a museum, and a retail center?
 • ... that Mike McCormick was the first San Francisco Giants pitcher to win the Cy Young Award?
 • ... that First Lady of California, Anne Gust has served as both an Executive Vice-President for Gap Inc. and on the board of directors for Jack in the Box?
 • ... that Bay Area Bike Share, the first large-scale bike sharing service deployed on the West Coast of the United States, opened to the public in five cities on August 29, 2013?




2014

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Issue no. 4
Issue no. 4

 • ... that as of November 2013, two "Google barges" were docked in Treasure Island, San Francisco?
 • ... that Isaac Friedlander (pictured, right) and his South Carolina-born wife Priscilla were known for their parties in which they brought a flavor of "Old South" culture to San Francisco?
 • ... that Circle Magazine (pictured, left) was published from 1944 to 1948 by George Leite, at his Berkeley, California bookstore, daliel's?





 • ... that San Francisco artists and craftspeople fought the police and city hall for years to bring about a Street Artists Program that lets them legally sell their work on the city's sidewalks?
 • ... that the Mokelumne Aqueduct, originally built in 1929, is the sole water supply system for over one million people in the San Francisco Bay Area?
 • ... that the Asian clam is causing trouble in San Francisco Bay?
 • ... that the Black Sea jellyfish has become established in the estuaries of the Petaluma and Napa Rivers flowing into San Francisco Bay?
 • ... that San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim (pictured, right) plays bass guitar, and her favorite song is by the Wu-Tang Clan?
 • ... that psychedelic rock concert poster artist Gary Grimshaw was sentenced to 15 days in jail and a $150 fine for flying a 15 cent kite with a dirty word written on it?




SS City of Chester'
SS City of Chester'












Starting September 2014, topics chosen for the main DYK are not differentiated from those chosen only for the SFBA DYK.

Oakland Coliseum BART station, with AGT station in background
Oakland Coliseum BART station, with AGT station in background




Miss Major at San Francisco Pride Celebration in 2014
Miss Major at San Francisco Pride Celebration in 2014
Lou Grant in Milwaukee
Lou Grant in Milwaukee

 • ... that the trans woman activist Miss Major (pictured, right, in San Francisco) was meeting with her girlfriend at the Stonewall Inn during the police raid that precipitated the Stonewall riot?
 • ... that the 2000 Yountville earthquake caused an interruption of power to approximately 10,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers?
 • ... that African American artist Claude Clark helped curate the first national African American exhibition at the Oakland Museum in 1967?
 • ... that the TV character Lou Grant was named after Oakland Tribune cartoonist Lou Grant (pictured, right)?
 • ... that the Hall of Records (pictured, right) at the Napa County Courthouse Plaza was an early use, in 1916, of reinforced concrete as a building material?
 • ... that explorer and travelogue writer Albert S. Evans (pictured, left) famously feuded with Mark Twain when both were in San Francisco?
 • ... that The Owl Drug Company (business letter pictured) sponsored a minor-league baseball team and ran a beauty contest in which winners received a Hollywood screen test?

October 2014




PG&E General Office Building entrance
PG&E General Office Building entrance
Matson Building
Matson Building

 • ... that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building and Annex (pictured, left), is a Beaux-Arts building designed by the Bakewell & Brown architecture firm?
 • ... that the Matson Building (pictured, right), built in 1922-24, was the headquarters of the Matson Navigation Company, then the largest shipping and transportation company between the West Coast and Hawaii?
 • ... that Dr. Mervyn Silverman, as San Francisco Director of Health, on October 9, 1984, ordered 14 bathhouses and sex clubs to close immediately, saying they were '"fostering disease and death" by allowing indiscriminate sexual contacts that could spread AIDS?
 • ... that Gold Rush-era pioneer George Treat was the first person to import angora goats to California?
 • ... that Ecocity Builders, in 1994, removed the Codornices Creek water channel from its cement culvert along the Albany/Berkeley border and created a mile-long park?
 • ... that the landscape painter Willis E. Davis was informed over the phone of his daughter's elopement?

November 2014




Gladys Kathleen Parkin
Gladys Kathleen Parkin
Marcia Falk
Marcia Falk

 • ... that Gladys Kathleen Parkin (pictured, left) was the first woman in California to obtain a first-class government-issued radio license?
 • ... that United States v. Ju Toy was brought to the US Supreme Court when Ju Toy, an American-born person of Chinese ancestry, visited China, then returned to San Francisco, but was denied permission to land and was ordered to be deported by immigration officials?
 • ... that Jewish studies professor Marcia Falk (pictured, right) published The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible, a verse translation of the biblical Song of Songs, in 1977?
 • ... that the historical novel One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, chronicles a fictional visit by three sisters to Oakland in 1968, and their encounter with the Black Panther Party?
 • ... that Livermore's Carnegie Library started with just 250 books?

December 2014

2015

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Avaya Stadium
Avaya Stadium
  • ... that the Newby Island landfill is an island surrounded by a levee, which keeps its runoff from directly entering San Francisco Bay, and the water that drains from it is treated in the dump's own treatment plant?
  • ... that the 2012 groundbreaking ceremony for Avaya Stadium (pictured) had 6,256 participants, setting a new world record?

January 2015

John A. Stones California Songster
John A. Stones California Songster
Elizabeth Thacher Kent
Elizabeth Thacher Kent

 • ... that the 1985 Pacific Conference Games, held at Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, was the fifth and final Pacific Conference Games between Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States?
 • ... that California Gold Rush song collector John A. Stone composed Sweet Betsy from Pike? (songbook pictured)
 • ... that during the Cold War Fort Cronkhite was used to house soldiers of the nearby SF-88 Nike Missile launch site?
 • ... that Elizabeth Thacher Kent (pictured) helped create the Muir Woods National Monument by donating land to the government?
 • ... that Mountain View based Made In Space, Inc.'s 3D Zero-G Printer was the first manufacturing device in space?
 • ... that Marsh Creek State Park was named for John Marsh, the first non-Hispanic European to settle in what is now Contra Costa County?

February 2015

Stone fireplace at Live Oak Park
Stone fireplace at Live Oak Park
Eugene Tsui
Eugene Tsui
Third and Townsend Depot
Third and Townsend Depot

 • ... that Live Oak Park is one of Berkeley's oldest and most naturalistic public parks? (park fireplace pictured)
 • ... that Eugene Tsui's Ojo del Sol house is based upon the world's most indestructible living creature, the tardigrade? (architect pictured)
 • ... that Sutter Cinema's owner/manager Arlene Elster was the first, if not the only, woman to operate an adult theater?
 • ... that Sarah Althea Hill became a national celebrity when she sued millionaire senator William Sharon for divorce in 1883, claiming to have secretly married him three years earlier by private contract?
 • ... that the Third and Townsend Depot (pictured) was built in 1914 for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition?

March 2015

Crisis hotline sign at the Golden Gate Bridge
Crisis hotline sign at the Golden Gate Bridge
Robot assemblers at the Tesla Factory
Robot assemblers at the Tesla Factory
Panama–Pacific commemorative coins
Panama–Pacific commemorative coins

April 2015

Barn built by Nagasawa Kanaye
Barn built by Nagasawa Kanaye
  • ... that the 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake left sixteen people injured, and damage totaling $500,000, in the cities of Gilroy and Hollister?
  • ... that Nagasawa Kanaye, the first Japanese national to live permanently in the United States, was known as the "Wine King of California" in Japan? (barn built by Nagasawa Kanaye pictured)

May 2015

The Usermontu mummy
The Usermontu mummy
Tony Gemignani
Tony Gemignani
Panama-Pacific commemorative coin
Panama-Pacific commemorative coin

 • ... that the Usermontu mummy (pictured, left), at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, had an iron orthopedic screw placed inside his left knee at the time of his death?
 • ... that pizza chef Tony Gemignani (pictured, right) opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco's Little Italy in 2009, which was named "The Best Pizzeria in America" by Forbes magazine?
 • ... that the octagonal $50 piece of the Panama-Pacific commemorative coin issue (pictured, right) is the only U.S. coin that is not round?

June 2015

July 2015

San Francisco Ballet Building
San Francisco Ballet Building
California Hotel
California Hotel

 • ... that before The Jabberwock was a Berkeley folk music club, it was the jazz club Tsubo, where Wes Montgomery recorded his live album Full House on July 25, 1962?
 • ... that the San Francisco Ballet Building (pictured, right), designed by architect Beverly Willis, was “the first building in the United States to be designed and constructed exclusively for the use of a major ballet company”?
 • ... that Oakland's California Hotel (pictured, left), starting in 1953, was the only full service hotel in the East Bay that welcomed black people?
 • ... that El Tecolote, published in San Francisco, is the longest running bilingual newspaper in California that is printed in both English and Spanish?
 • ... that the Sir and Star hotel in Olema was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000 acre land grant from Mexico?
 • ... that after the San Francisco Fire of 1851, "Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts"?
 • ... that the Manhattan Project's calutrons used 14,700 short tons (13,300 t) of silver?

November 2015

2016

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My Wife's Lovers
My Wife's Lovers
installation, with '"Sawblade" (left) by Therese May
installation, with '"Sawblade" (left) by Therese May

January 2016

Lemon Drop coctails
Lemon Drop coctails
Zvezdelina Stankova
Zvezdelina Stankova

April 2016

Archetype, Napa restaurant designed and owned by Howard Backen
Archetype, Napa restaurant designed and owned by Howard Backen
Hulk of USS Independence (CVL-22) in San Francisco Bay in 1947
Hulk of USS Independence (CVL-22) in San Francisco Bay in 1947
SMART train
SMART train
John Adams
John Adams

June 2016

Million Dollar Backfield
Y.A Tittle
Hugh McElhenny
John Henry Johnson
Joe Perry

 • ... that the San Francisco 49ers Million Dollar Backfield is the only full-house backfield to have all four of its members enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Illustration from work by Portnoy
Illustration from work by Portnoy

 • ... that Peg's Place, after a 1979 assault by off-duty members of the San Francisco vice squad, drew national attention to other incidents of anti-gay violence and police harassment of the LGBT community?
 • ... that Maud's in the Haight-Ashbury was patronized in the late 1960's by Janis Joplin, who would visit with her female lover Jae Whitaker?
 • ... that UC Berkeley microbiologist Daniel A. Portnoy made the seminal discovery that Listeria monocytogenes spreads from one cell to another by exploiting a host cell system of actin polymerization? (process pictured)


September 2016

El Cid Campeador
El Cid Campeador
Kimpton Sir Francis Drake Hotel rooftop
Kimpton Sir Francis Drake Hotel rooftop
"Cheese Cake" by Sheana Davis
"Cheese Cake" by Sheana Davis

 • ... that Charlotte L. Brown was one of the first African Americans to legally challenge racial segregation in the United States, when she filed a lawsuit against a streetcar company in San Francisco in the 1860's, after she was forcibly removed from a segregated streetcar?
 • ... that Bay Area restaurateur Juanita Musson often argued with and insulted her staff and customers, and was involved in a number of physical altercations, but was despite this still well-liked?
 • ... that a copy of El Cid Campeador, a sculpture of El Cid by artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, is displayed at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco? (sculpture pictured)
 • ... that in 1969, artist Alfred Young helped create a public environmental art piece, using a non-toxic yellow dye to spell out the word "OIL" in large capital letters in the San Francisco Bay? (artist's sketch of later work pictured)
 • ... that San Francisco columnist Herb Caen dubbed the Persian Room at San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel “The Snake Pit” because, he wrote, “You never heard such hissing or saw such writhing"? (rooftop pictured)
 • ... that cheesemaker and restaurateur Sheana Davis produces her cheeses at a cooperative in Berkeley, and provides them to the French Laundry and Kendall-Jackson? (Cheese "Cake" by Davis pictured)

November 2016

Emiko Omori and Victor Wong
Emiko Omori and Victor Wong
Tim Stearns
Tim Stearns
The Oceanic, 1871
The Oceanic, 1871
Ghost Ship warehouse interior
Ghost Ship warehouse interior

 • ... that filmmaker Emiko Omori (pictured, left, with Victor Wong) began her career in 1968 at KQED, becoming one of the first camerawomen to work in news documentaries?
 • ... that Fisher Creek is tributary to the largest freshwater wetland in Santa Clara County, Laguna Seca, a seasonal lake important to groundwater recharge and migratory birds?
 • ... that San Francisco based architect Jack Hillmer is known for his meticulously hand-crafted Modernist homes built from redwood, and was an exponent of what Lewis Mumford called the "Bay Region style"?
 • ... that Stanford University Department of Biology chairman Tim Stearns (pictured), together with his wife, medical researcher Susan Cleveland, tend a fruit tree orchard at their home in Redwood City?
 • ... that the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company's flagship, the Oceanic (pictured), set a Pacific crossing record of 16 days and 10 hours, 8 days less than the ships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company?
 • ... that the building consumed in the 2016 Oakland warehouse fire had at least ten complaints filed on it since 1998? (interior damage pictured)
 • ... that after Agnes Fay Morgan conducted a nutritional study with foxes, she presented her data wearing a stole made from the fur of her subjects?


May 2017

2020

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San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

 • ... that United Airlines Flight 863

 • ... that Bayview Park, San Francisco

 • ... that William Smith (ship captain)

 • ... that Chase Center (San Francisco)

 • ... that Belle Cora (Arabella Ryan)

 • ... that Fran Herndon

 • ... that Yerba Buena Tunnel

 • ... that Oakland Railroad Company

 • ... that Gertrude Partington Albright

 • ... that X-100 (house)

 • ... that General Frisbie (steamship)

Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Did you know/81