Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257. In addition, Long Beach is the second largest city within Greater Los Angeles and a principal city of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area.

The city is a dominant maritime center of the United States and was recently named "Aquatic Capital of the Nation." It wields substantial influence critical to the global economy. The Port of Long Beach is the United States' second busiest container port and one of the world's largest shipping ports. The city also maintains a large oil industry with the substance being found both underground and offshore. Manufacturing sectors include those in aircraft, car parts, electronic and audiovisual equipment, and home furnishings. It is also home to headquarters for corporations including Epson America, Molina Healthcare, and SCAN Health Plan. Long Beach has grown with the development of high-technology and aerospace industries in the area.

Long Beach is located in Los Angeles County, about 20 mi south of downtown Los Angeles and 105 mi north of San Diego. Long Beach borders Orange County on its southeast edge and other Gateway Cities to the west and north.

History
Indigenous peoples have lived in coastal southern California for at least ten thousand years. Over the centuries, several successive cultures inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the time Spanish explorers arrived in the sixteenth century, the dominant group were the Tongva people. They had at least three major settlements within the present-day city boundaries. Tevaaxa'anga was an inland settlement near the Los Angeles River, while Ahwaanga and Povuu'nga were coastal villages. Along with other Tongva villages, they were forced to relocate in the mid-19th century due to missionization, political change, and a drastic drop in population from exposure to European diseases.

In 1784 the Spanish Empire's, King Carlos III granted Rancho Los Nietos to the Spanish soldier, Manuel Nieto. The Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos were divided from this territory. The boundary between the two ranchos ran through the center of Signal Hill on a southwest to northeast diagonal. A portion of western Long Beach was originally part of the Rancho San Pedro. Its boundaries were in dispute for years, due to flooding changing the Los Angeles River boundary, between the ranchos of Juan Jose Dominguez and Manuel Nieto.

In 1843 Jonathan Temple bought Rancho Los Cerritos, after arriving in California in 1827 from New England. He built what is now known as the "Los Cerritos Ranch House", an adobe which still stands and is a National Historic Landmark. Temple created a thriving cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Both Temple and his ranch house played important local roles in the Mexican-American War. On an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an abortive attempt to establish a colony (as part of Brigham Young's plan to establish a continuous chain of settlements from the Pacific to Salt Lake).