2018
- September
- The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholds a patent filed by the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University involving Crispr Cas-9 gene-editing, ruling that the patent didn’t infringe on another patent filed two years prior by the University of California, Berkeley, where the technique was first developed [1]
- The Global Climate Action Summit convenes in San Francisco, hosted by California governor Jerry Brown, who pledges to uphold state environmental guidelines despite moves by the United States to roll them back [2]
- San Francisco businessman and co-founder of Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, and his wife, Lynn Benioff, purchase Time magazine for $190 million [3]
- Psychologist and Palo Alto University statistics professor Christine Blasey Ford accuses Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982 [4]
2019
- January
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its recent roles in the California wildfires. (Reuters) (CBS News)
- February
- Oakland teachers go on strike. [5]
- Elected San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi dies at the age of 59.[6]
- Rainstorms cause the Russian River to flood, engulfing the town of Guerneville in the highest floodwaters in 25 years [7]
- March
- California governor Gavin Newsom declares a moratorium on the death penalty in California, and orders the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison, the state's only site for the administration of capital punishment, to be dismantled and closed [8]
- April
- East Bay congressperson Eric Swalwell announces his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2020 election [9]
- A Google, Inc offshoot company, Wing, becomes the first drone delivery service to receive Air Carrier Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).[10]
- June
- Oakland becomes the second city in the United States to decriminalize some entheogens, including "Magic Mushrooms" [11]