This Year in History

1868

South Hall (L) and North Hall (R) – the first two buildings on the UC Berkeley campus

 

1958

South Hall (L) and North Hall (R) – the first two buildings on the UC Berkeley campus

This Year in History - 1868

  • Governor Henry Haight signs into law the state’s Organic Act, which creates the University of California. In 1873, the university moved from its Oakland campus to Berkeley with an enrollment of 167 male and 22 female students.
  • The Sacramento Daily Union reports that that 1868 is the most prosperous in California history, with agriculture becoming the state’s leading industry as the state’s mining influence wanes.
  • A major earthquake strikes San Francisco, killing five people, injuring nearly two-dozen and causing $400,000 in damage.
  • Between June and December, a smallpox epidemic causes more than 960 California deaths, 80 percent of them in San Francisco.
  • California delivers its five electoral votes to Republican presidential hopeful Ulysses S. Grant, who captures the state by 520 voters over Democrat Horatio Seymour.