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San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California,[2] San Diego is known for its mild year-round climate, its natural deep-water harbor, and its long association with the U.S. Navy. The population was 1,301,617 at the 2010 census.[3]

Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission of San Diego, founded in 1769, were the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of newly independent Mexico, and in 1850, became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War and the admission of California to the union.

The city is the county seat of San Diego County and is the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos metropolitan area as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diego's main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, and manufacturing. The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology.

History

Main article: History of San Diego

Full length portrait of a man in his thirties wearing a long robe, woman and child visible behind him and dog to his left

Kumeyaay people lived in San Diego for more than 10,000 years before Europeans settled there.

Man in his twenties or thirties standing transfixed in front of a cross his height, five onlookers

Namesake of the city, Didacus of Alcalá: Saint Didacus in Ecstasy Before the Cross by Murillo (Musée des Augustins)

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

Oval, black and white shoulder-height portrait of a man in his forties or fifties, slightly balding wearing a suit

Namesake of Horton Plaza, Alonzo Horton developed "New Town" which became Downtown San Diego.