L.A.

The city of Los Angeles was founded on this date in 1781. The first permanent colonial settlement was given the rather prolix name of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Porciúncula. Translated, it means "the Town of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciúncula." The name refers to a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Assisi, Italy; it was also the name of what would eventually be called the Los Angeles River.
King Carlos III of Spain ordered Governor Felipe de Neve to build a presidio — a fortified military base — and a town on the Porciúncula River. The governor asked for volunteers to come up from Mexico; he hoped for 24 families, and he got 11; there were 52 settlers in all. De Neve gets credit for being one of the first modern city planners, because he drew up a plan for the pueblo before actually building it. Los Angeles was laid out in the Spanish tradition: a rectangular settlement consisting of a city plaza, a town house, a guardhouse, and a granary, all built in the Spanish architectural style. The volunteers who built the pueblo received small plots of land for the growing of crops and the raising of cattle. De Neve followed the New Spain colonialist agenda: subdue the locals, recruit a workforce, defend against other colonizing forces, and establish Catholic missions to convert the indigenous peoples. Los Angeles became part of Mexico in 1821, but was bought by the United States in 1848 as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
That little ranch town housing just over 50 souls is now the second most populous city in the country, with 3.8 million residents, called "Angelenos." It covers an area of almost 480 square miles, houses the "Entertainment Capital of the World" in Hollywood, and has the third largest gross metropolitan product (GMP) in the world.