10 interesting facts about California
- California has been a state of the USA since September 9, 1850, it became the 31st state. It is also the only state whose name is still used in German in this country, in the USA it is called “California”. The abbreviation of the state is CA. The official nickname of California is “Golden State”.
- The origin of the name “California” is unclear. According to one theory, it comes from a novel published in 1510 by the Spaniard Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, which features an island full of gold called California, inhabited by beautiful Amazons and ruled by Queen Califia. When Hernán Cortés’ soldiers came to what is now California in 1535, they believed it was an island and named it after Montalvo’s book.
- The motto is Eureka (“I found out,” Greek) and it has existed since 1847.
- The population is 36,457,549, the area is 424,002km2 and therefore the population density is 85.98 inhabitants per square kilometer. This makes California by far the most populous state in the USA and the third largest in terms of area.
- Sacramento is the capital of California. As in so many US states, one of the smaller cities is thus the capital.
- The largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Fresno.
- The official animal of the state is the California brown bear and the bird of California is the crested quail. The official tree of the state is the coast redwood. Almond, walnut, pistachio and pecan are considered culinary symbols of the state.
- California is bordered by Oregon to the north and Nevada and Arizona to the east.
- There is no real Californian cuisine, it is of Spanish, Mexican, Pacific and Asian influences. Viticulture and therefore wine is very popular, the typical Californian grape variety is Zinfandel. Craft beer is also very popular, we have a selection of Californian beers here. By the way, California has official “state nuts”, these are almond, walnut, pistachio and pecan.
- By the way, official documents of the state of California are provided not only in English, but as of 2020 also in Chinese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese. This also shows how heterogeneous the population structure is and how strong the immigration from the Asian region is.
These 10 facts are a good start for any school presentation on California.
You find these 10 facts in German language here.
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