LOS ANGELES, CA – California turned 170 years old yesterday. It’s the 31st state to be admitted into the Union of a then-budding United States.

As someone who just celebrated his birthday, I can tell you some facts. It doesn’t get any easier getting older, but you are quicker to tire. With every year that passes, regrets turn into irrelevant memories. Less parties, more parties of people forgetting your birthday until the day after. Needless to say, not everybody likes to celebrate their birthday.

However, California deserves a bigger celebration than we gave.

Yesterday, the Golden State turned 170 years old. It’s been that long since it first joined the USA on September 9th, 1850.

California was first discovered by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s. As negotiated in the treaty, we were but a territory after the Mexican-American War. You already know about the gold rush kicking off in 1848 from Sutter’s Mill. Frontierland and all that jazz. Nowadays, we’re the third largest behind Texas and Alaska, boasting a population of 39.78 million.

But the Land of Milk and Honey is probably most well-known for it’s beautiful cities and farmland alike.

California has some of the biggest movers and shakers when it comes to the many metropoles in the United States. Hollywood promises creatives a gig in television and movies, San Francisco offers families contemporary Americana. Fresno is well-known for it’s leading fruit exchange. Napa Valley is more of a drunken paradise. Yosemite is a natural wonder to behold.

Under preferred circumstances, I’m certain the state would’ve led grander celebrations. After all, we’re only thirty years shy of a bicentennial.

Alas, Corona Virus, police brutality and Kobe Bryant’s death have parlayed normalcy. Also, the Bobcat fires aren’t helping much. As I write this, the sky grows more yellow and ashy from the contaminated air.

Still, I know California will lead the USA’s comeback from 2020. Here are some fun facts to keep us until then.

California Fun Facts

• Mount Whitney is the highest point in the continental US. 14,494-feet high. Seems more exciting to make that Summit, since you can’t see your city from Mount Everest.
• Death Valley is the lowest point in the continent US. 282-feet below sea level. Unless if you count most movie producers’ wallets.
• The Fortune Cookie was refined here. What good luck we have!
• We’re the only state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Here’s looking at you, 2028 Olympics.
• Fallbrook, California is the “Avocado Capital of the World.”
• General Sherman is the largest tree in the world. It sits at a comfortable 275 feet in Sequoia National Park.

If nothing else, enjoy this tourism video on the California lifestyle we all dream about but few get to actually experience. (1 out of 8 Americans actually.)