The Origin of California’s Great Seal

The state seal was approved during the constitutional convention convened September 4, 1849, one year prior to California’s 1850 admission as the 31st state.

Major Robert S. Garnett, a native of Virginia, was the designer. Twenty-seventh in his class at West Point and sent to California to deliver dispatches, Garnett became the academy’s commandant in 1852.    Read more »

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Brown the Elder & Brown the Younger

At a wide-ranging meeting with reporters to discuss his accomplishments in 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown “invoked” — his verb — his father, Gov. Pat Brown several times.

Discussing the role of the chief executive and the Legislature and how, in the interest of “comity” the governor sometimes signs bills with little impact or import merely to forge a better working relationship with lawmakers, Brown noted that his father was “very hesitant to veto” bills that had a “strong vote” in the Legislature.     Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Merriam!

Born December 22, 1865, Frank Finley Merriam – nicknamed “Marble Top” because of his bald pate – became California’s 28th governor on June 2, 1934.

At 68, the Long Beach Republican was the oldest man to become governor until the current occupant of the Capitol’s corner office began his third four-year turn in the wheelhouse at age 72.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Knight!

Goodwin Jess Knight, the tap-dancing 31st governor of the 31st state in the union, was born December 9, 1896 in Provo Utah.

The genial moderate Republican, who spoke fluent Spanish, had more in common with his successor, Democrat Pat Brown, than his GOP rival, Cold War ideologue U.S. Sen. William Knowland.    Read more »

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Former Chief Justice Roger Traynor, Tax Expert

Roger Traynor, chief justice of the California Supreme Court from 1964 to 1970, is one of the 10 2011 inductees to the California Museum’s Hall of Fame.

Traynor served on the state high court for 30 years, earning national respect.

A law and political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Traynor inaugurated Boalt Hall’s first course in taxation.    Read more »

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How Richard Nixon Became “Tricky Dick”

Former President Richard Nixon was famously labeled “Tricky Dick.”

According to one Internet site, the Yorba Linda native earned the nickname for his actions while president involving the Watergate break-in and subsequent investigations.

Others suggest it was coined by the John Kennedy campaign in 1960, which did incorporate the phrase as well as posters of a devious looking Nixon with the caption, “Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?”    Read more »

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A November 17 Capitol Housewarming — 211 Years Ago

From The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor:

On this date in 1800, the U. S. Congress met in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., for the first time. Construction had begun in 1793 but it soon fell behind schedule and went over budget. (Nothing new under the sun.)

The cost overruns caused planners in 1796 to elect to build only the Senate wing.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Burnett!

November 15, 2011 is the 204th anniversary of the birth of Peter Hardeman Burnett, the state of California’s first – albeit brief-tenured — governor.

A native of Tennessee, Burnett served as California’s governor from December 20, 1849 to January 9, 1851.

California became a state on September 9, 1850 although didn’t learn about until October 18 when the steamer Oregon sailed into San Francisco bay with a banner saying, “California is Now a State” tied to her rigging.    Read more »

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Felix Dies Natalis, Josiah

November 20 is the 156th anniversary of the birth of Josiah Royce, world famous philosopher and Grass Valley native.

He was the “leading American proponent of absolute idealism, the metaphysical view that all aspects of reality, including those we experience as disconnected or contradictory, are ultimately unified in the thought of a single all-encompassing consciousness,” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Olson!

November 7 is the 135th anniversary of the birth of Culbert Levy Olson, California’s 29th governor from 1939 to 1943.

A supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California, Olson advanced a progressive agenda including mandatory health insurance. The health insurance measure was rejected by the more centrist Legislature along with Olson’s proposals to raise taxes, regulate lobbyists and make the state’s prison system more humane.    Read more »

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