South San Diego - History

History

Before the arrival of the Spanish explorers, area of South San Diego was largely inhabited by the Diegueño people. The Diegueño, also known as the Kumeyaay, traveled the region this is evidenced by the shallow depressions in boulders that were used for grinding acorn into meal, that are found throughout the area.

John J. Montgomery achieved the first controlled flight when he successfully flew his glider aircraft from "Wheeler Hill" in Otay Mesa on August 28, 1883. A monument to his historic flights is known as Silver Wing Park, located on Coronado Avenue, just east of Beyer Boulevard., The Interstate 5 freeway in this region was later named the John J. Montgomery Freeway in his honor.

In 1957, the area comprising South San Diego was annexed by San Diego from San Diego County.

On July 18, 1984, in an event known as the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre, James Oliver Huberty, a 41-year old former welder from Canton, Ohio, committed a mass-murder of 21 people inside of a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro. The McDonalds site was razed in 1985. The site is now home to a Southwestern College satellite campus.

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Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.
    Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)