MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – On this day, July 9, 1846, the United States took San Francisco away from Mexico.
Europeans didn’t come across the San Francisco Bay until 1769, although they had sailed by it before in earlier centuries.
When Spanish explorers found the bay that year, they immediately recognized its strategic value.
In 1776, the Spanish built a military post on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and quickly founded the Mission of San Francisco De Asis nearby.
When the U.S. attempted to buy the bay in 1835, the Mexicans did not want to sell.
More than ten years later, U.S. Captain John Montgomery sailed his warship into the Bay, anchoring just off the settlement while the two countries were at war.
Montgomery led a party of Marines and sailors ashore, where they were met with no resistance, and claimed the settlement for the United States.
They raised the American flag in the central plaza.
The following year, the area was officially named San Francisco.
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