1869
- Meek Mansion (pictured) in the East Bay is completed
- The first Japanese immigrants arrive in San Francisco
- The California Theatre in San Francisco opens
- Frederick Marriott's unmanned, lighter-than-air craft the Hermes Avitor Jr. (replica pictured) takes to the air at the Shellmound Park racetrack in Emeryville, flying at about 5 miles per hour
- Laurentine Hamilton is charged with heresy and resigns from his ordination in the Presbyterian church, with most of his parishioners joining him in forming the First Independent Presbyterian Church in Oakland