Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
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Father Junípero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, founds the first Catholic mission in California on the site of present-day San Diego. After Serra blessed his new outpost of Christianity in a high mass, the royal standard of Spain was unfurled over the mission, which he named San Diego de Alcala.
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