USA

Roseland is a borough located in Essex County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the borough had a total population of 5,298.

Passaic is a city located in Passaic County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 67,861. Located north of Newark on the Passaic River, it was first settled in 1678 by Dutch traders, as Acquackanonk. Industrial growth began in the 19th century, as Passaic became a textile and metalworking center. A famous strike in 1926 against reductions in wages involved the right of free assembly. The City of Passaic is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government.

Mayor Sammy Rivera was re-elected on May 10, 2005. The Passaic Public School System is led by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert H. Holster.

Passaic is the birthplace of Donald Fagen, Loretta Swit, Mitch Albom, The Shirelles, and Joe Piscopo. Passaic is a significant residential and institutional center of Orthodox Judaism, being home to numerous yeshivas as well as Orthodox synagogues, schools, a Hatzolah volunteer ambulance and other institutions.

Paterson is a city located in Passaic County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 149,222, making it New Jersey's third largest city. It is the county seat of Passaic County6. The City of Paterson is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government.

The Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson are the second-highest large-volume falls on the East Coast: only Niagara Falls are higher. Alexander Hamilton helped encourage the harnessing of the energy of the Great Falls to secure the independence from British manufacturers. In 1791, Hamilton helped found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures. Paterson, which was founded by the society, became the cradle of the industrial revolution in America. Paterson was named for William Paterson, New Jersey governor, statesman, and signer of the Constitution.

The industries developed in Paterson were powered by the 77-foot high Great Falls of the Passaic, and a system of water raceways that harnessed the power of the falls. The district originally included dozens of mill buildings and other manufacturing structures associated with the textile industry and later, the firearms, silk, and railroad locomotive manufacturing industries. In the latter half of the 1800's, silk production became the dominant industry and formed the basis of Paterson's most prosperous period, earning it the nickname "Silk City." Paterson was also the site of historic labor unrest that focused on anti-child labor legislation, and the six month long 1913 Paterson silk strike that demanded the eight-hour day and better working conditions, but was defeated by the employers with workers forced to return under pre-strike conditions.

Famous Patersonians
Garret A. Hobart, twenty-fourth Vice President of the United States
Lou Costello, of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello
Joe Clark, educator and former principal of Eastside High School, depicted by Morgan Freeman in the movie Lean on Me
Larry Doby, Hall of Fame baseball player who broke the color barrier in the American League
Frank Lautenberg, politician, currently represents New Jersey in the United States Senate
Allen Ginsberg, writer and Beat Generation poet
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, boxer, subject of the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the movie The Hurricane
Tim Thomas, pro basketball player, currently on the Chicago Bulls
Frederick Reines, awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for detection of the neutrino
Gaetano Bresci, weaver and anarchist, assassinated Italian king Umberto I
Bernie Wayne, songwriter, wrote "There She Is, Miss America"
J. Michael Straczynski, science-fiction writer, creator and writer for Babylon 5
Lawrence Barrett, actor, one of the leading American actors of the 19th century
Elizabeth Vargas, ABC news anchor
Maxine Jones, singer, member of En Vogue
Just Blaze, hip hop music producer
Patrick Warburton, actor, performs in movies and on television, famous for his roles in Seinfeld and Family Guy

Union City is a city located in Hudson County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 67,088.

Union City was incorporated in 1925 by merging West Hoboken and the town of Union, also known as Union Hill.

Palo Verde is a census-designated place located in Imperial County, California. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 236.

Marina del Rey is a census-designated place and seaside town located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 8,176.

The Fisherman's Village offers a good view of Marina del Rey's dominant feature, the largest man-made small boat harbor in the world with about 7000 pleasure boats and yachts. The marina is surrounded by many hotels, apartments, shops, and restaurants, as well as the USC Information Sciences Institute and ICANN, currently the closest thing the Internet has to a governing organization. There are also a large number of shopping centers lining the Pacific Coast Highway just to the east.

It is served by its own freeway, the 3-mile-long Marina Freeway (Highway 90) which links Marina del Rey directly to Interstate 405 and nearby Culver City. However, because the freeway ends at Highway 1 (Lincoln Blvd.) and does not go directly to the marina, the entire area has a reputation for traffic congestion. Caltrans has been working on a plan to extend the freeway, but the project is currently on hold for lack of funding.

Marina del Rey lies in area code 310. Its ZIP Code is 90292.

San Diego is a city located in the southwestern corner of California, the extreme southwestern corner of the continental United States. It is the county seat of San Diego County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,223,400; as of 2005, the California Department of Finance estimated the city to have 1,305,736 residents. The city is the second-largest in California and the seventh-largest in the United States and is noted for its temperate climate and many beaches. It is also the home of many U.S. military facilities, including U.S. Navy ports, Marine Corps bases, and Coast Guard stations. It is the home port of the largest naval fleet in the world, including two Navy supercarriers (the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan) five amphibious assault ships, several Los Angeles-class submarines, and many smaller ships. One of the Marine Corps' two Recruit Depots is located here. San Diego is also known as the "birthplace of naval aviation," though Pensacola, Florida makes a rival claim.

Several Navy vessels have been named USS San Diego in honor of the city.

The area has long been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, sailing under the flag of Spain, in 1542. He named it San Miguel. The San Diego Bay and the area of present-day San Diego were given their current names by Sebastian Vizcaino when he was mapping the coastline of Alta California for Spain in 1602. The explorers camped near a Native American village called Nipaguay and celebrated Mass in honor of San Diego de Alcala (Saint Didacus of Alcalá). California was then part of the colony of New Spain.

In 1769, Gaspar de Portolà and his expedition founded a presidio (military post), and on July 16, Franciscan friars Junípero Serra, Juan Viscaino and Fernando Parron raised and blessed a cross, establishing the first mission in Upper California, Mission San Diego de Alcala. Colonists began arriving in 1774; the following year, the native people rebelled. They killed the priest and two others, and burned the mission. Father Serra organized the rebuilding and two years later a fire-proof adobe structure was built. By 1797 the mission had become the largest in California, with over 1,400 natives associated with it.

In 1821, Spain recognized Mexico's independence. The governor of Alta California and Baja California moved the capital to San Diego from Monterey. The mission was secularized in 1834 and 432 people petitioned Governor José Figueroa to form a town. Commandant Santiago Arguello endorsed it. Juan Maria Osuna was elected the first alcalde (mayor), winning over Pio Pico in the 13 ballots cast. However, the population of the town shrank to little over a hundred persons, and by the late 1830s it lost its township until the province of Alta California became part of the United States in 1850 following the Mexican defeat in the Mexican-American War. The village was designated the seat of the newly-established San Diego County and incorporated as a city.

In 1885, San Diego was linked to the rest of the nation by railroad. San Diego was reincorporated as a city in 1886.

Significant U.S. Naval presence began in 1907 with the establishment of the Navy Coaling Station.

San Diego hosted two World's Fairs, the Panama-California Exposition in 1915 and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935.

Since World War II, the military has played a leading role in the local economy. Following the end of the Cold War the military presence has diminished considerably. San Diego has since become a center of the emerging biotech industry and is home to telecommunications giant Qualcomm.

Largely because of their city's strong military presence, San Diegans have a reputation for being more politically conservative than residents of California's other coastal cities. This reputation may be more indicative of surrounding cities within the county of San Diego; notably, reports [1] show that as of 2005 registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, 39% to 34%, within the city itself.

Beginning in 2003, the public became aware of an ongoing pension fund scandal which has left the city with an estimated $1.4 billion pension fund gap. Despite mounting problems with city finances the incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy narrowly won re-election with a plurality of votes. Some controversy ensued during and after the election when, contrary the San Diego City Charter, current city councilmember Donna Frye was allowed to run as a write-in candidate one month before election day. While more may have intended to vote for her than Dick Murphy, many did not fill in the "bubble" next to her written name and thus these were not counted as legitimate votes.

With mounting pressure, Mayor Dick Murphy, in April 2005, announced his intent to resign by mid-July. A few days after his resignation two city councilmembers, Ralph Inzunza and deputy mayor Michael Zucchet, who was to take Murphy's place, were convicted for taking bribes in a scheme to get the city's "no touch" laws at strip clubs repealed. Both subsequently resigned.

On July 26, 2005, city councilmember Donna Frye finished first in the special election to replace Dick Murphy with 43% of the vote, but was without the majority required to win outright. She will face the second place finisher, former San Diego police chief Jerry Sanders on a November 8, 2005 ballot. Districts Two and Eight will also vote on replacements for departed councilmembers Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza.

Cuisine
Owing to its privileged position on the Pacific Ocean and its warm Mediterranean-style climate, San Diego enjoys an abundance of quality produce and dining. With a myriad ethnic and cultural mix, San Diego is well known for its wide selection of cuisines. One can find excellent Mexican, Italian, Greek, Latin, Central and East Asian, Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander food throughout the city. The city's long history and close proximity to Mexico has endowed an endless array of Mexican cafes and restaurants. Regional homemade specialties, border fare and haute cuisine are all easily available.

San Diego's warm, dry climate and access to the sea have also made it a natural center for the production of fruit and vegetables. Long a center of the tuna industry, San Diego benefits from an abundant seafood supply.

Several of the finest choices of dining can be found in the Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, La Jolla and Old Town. The city's many immigrant and ethnic groups have heavily influenced local eating habits and tastes.

Local specialties include:

Mexican cuisine (including carne asada, burritos, fish tacos, enchiladas, and ceviche)
Woodfired, California-styled Pizza
Wide variety of salads made from fresh, local produce (including Caesar, Greek, Mixed, and Caprese Salads)
Southern Italian-styled pastas, panini, and pizzas
Varieties of shish kebabs, shashlyk, and Gyros
South Asian specialties including spring rolls and pho
Locally produced, artisan bread
Local Wines (San Pasqual Valley, Rancho Bernardo)
Locally produced (from the mountains near Julian) hard and sweet cider
Various fruits and vegetables (including avocados, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, eggplant, oranges, lemons, limes, strawberries, grapefruit, grapes, apples, pomegranates, persimmons, and melons)
Several chain restaurants have gotten their start in San Diego. These include Jack in the Box, Pat & Oscar's, Souplantation (March 1978), Rubio's, and Anthony's Fish Grotto. Rubio's fish tacos were also featured at the 1996 Republican National Convention.

San Diego is a major tourist destination, attracting visitors from all over the world. Among the many attractions are its beaches, climate, and deserts. Noted San Diego tourist attractions include:

Balboa Park *
Berkeley, ferry boat*
Gaslamp Quarter
La Casa de Estudillo *
Little Italy (see also Little Italy)
Mission Bay Park
Mission Beach Roller Coaster at Belmont Park
Mission San Diego de Alcala *
Mount Soledad in La Jolla
Old Mission Dam in Mission Trails Regional Park*
Old Town
Petco Park
Point Loma
Qualcomm Stadium
San Diego Aerospace Museum
San Diego Presidio*
San Diego Wild Animal Park
San Diego Zoo
Seaport Village
SeaWorld
Star of India, barque sailing ship *
Torrey Pines Golf Course
Torrey Pines State Reserve
USS Midway (CV-41), aircraft carrier museum
(* An asterisk designates National Historic Landmarks)
San Diego is about two hours south of Los Angeles and north adjacent to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Sports

San Diego has several sports venues. Jack Murphy Field at Qualcomm Stadium hosts football and soccer games. Baseball can be seen at Petco Park and Tony Gwynn Stadium. iPayOne Center, formerly the San Diego Sports Arena, hosts hockey, arena football, and basketball, which is also hosted at Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl. Jenny Craig Pavilion at the University of San Diego hosts basketball and volleyball games.

SDSU Aztecs (MWC) and the USD Toreros (WCC) are NCAA Division I teams. The UCSD Tritons (CCAA) are members of the NCAA Division II while the PLNU Sea Lions (GSAC) are members of the NAIA.

Military institutions
Naval Air Station North Island
Naval Amphibious Base Coronado (Both NAS North Island and NAB Coronado are consolidated into one base known as Naval Base Coronado)
Naval Station San Diego (Naval Station also has the nickname of Naval Station 32nd Street, due in part to its location at 32nd Street and Harbor Drive in San Diego)
Naval Base Point Loma - Submariners
US Marine Corps Recruit Depot
US Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar
US Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command)
Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation

Sister cities
San Diego has fifteen sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI): Alcala de Henares (Spain), Campinas (Brazil), Warsaw (Poland), Yantai (China), Yokohama (Japan), Taichung City (China), Jalalabad (Afghanistan), Cavite City (Philippines), Jeonju (South Korea), Edinburgh (Scotland, United Kingdom), Leon (Mexico), Perth (Australia), Tema (Ghana), Tijuana (Mexico), and Vladivostok (Russia).

Inglewood is a city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Southwest of downtown Los Angeles, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 112,580. It was incorporated on February 8, 1908.

Inglewood dates its history to the construction of the Centinela Adobe in 1834 by Ygnacio Machado. The arrival of the railroad to the area caused Inglewood to be established in 1888, carved out of the 25,000 acre (100 km²) Centinela Ranch which contained the Centinela Adobe. By 1908, it had a population of 1200. Between 1920 and 1925, it was the fastest growing city in the United States, and known for chinchilla production.

Inglewood has been home to the Hollywood Park Racetrack since 1938. The Great Western Forum was built in Inglewood in 1967 and served as the home for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Los Angeles Kings until they moved to Staples Center in 1999.

Fosters Freeze, the first fast-food chain in the California, was founded by George Foster in 1946 in Inglewood.

Inglewood Park Cemetery is the final resting place of local residents, including many famous persons.

Since the 1970's, the city has been a center of the region's African-American community. It was often considered a working to middle class black suburb. This has changed somewhat, however, as more Latinos have moved in.

Santa Monica is a coastal city located in western Los Angeles County, California, USA, by the Pacific Ocean, south of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, west of Westwood, Los Angeles, and north of Venice. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 84,084. Santa Monica is named for Saint Monica of Hippo, the patron saint of wives and abuse victims. In the skateboard and surfing communities Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood and adjacent parts of Venice are sometimes called Dogtown.

Because of its agreeable weather, Santa Monica was a famed resort town in the early 20th century. Now, the city has been subsumed into the welter of towns in the greater Los Angeles area, but is still considered a pleasant place to live. Santa Monica has experienced a tremendous economic boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its downtown core, significant job growth, and increased tourism.

Santa Monica is famous for its progressive politics, including local policies that favor renters, consumers, and homeless persons. Residents of the city are among the largest contributors in the nation to Democratic Party candidates. Because of its political leanings the city has been jocularly labeled The People's Republic of Santa Monica and "Soviet Monica". The city was well-known for its strict rent control ordinance, which had been enacted in 1978 and was partially-overriden by state law in 1999. Santa Monica is sometimes called the "Homeless Capital of the West" due to its tight housing market and homeless problem; satirist Harry Shearer calls it "The home of the homeless."

The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome (AKA carousel) is a National Historic Landmark. It sits on the world-famous Santa Monica Pier first built in 1909. The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once the largest ballroom in the US, and the source for many New Year's Eve national network broadcasts.

The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was an important music venue for several decades and hosted the Academy Awards in the 1960s. McCabe's Guitar Shop is still a leading acoustic performance space. The Cheetah was a famous nightclub. Bergamot Station is a city-owned art gallery compound which includes the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The city is also home to the Santa Monica Heritage Museum.

Santa Monica has been the site of many notable births and deaths due to its hospitals, St. Johns Hospital and the Santa Monica Medical Center. The municipal cemetery in Santa Monica is Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.

The oldest theater in the city is the 1912 Majestic, aka Mayfair Theatre, closed since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The Aero Theater (now operated by the American Cinematheque) and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and still show movies. The Santa Monica Promenade alone supports more than a dozen movie screens.

Palisades Park sits on the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking area to view the ocean. It features a camera obscura. For 48 years local churches and the Police Association assembled a twelve-stop, drive-through story of Christmas along the Palisades Park. The sheds were open to the street side, covered in chain link fencing. Inside were dioramas of the Holy Family made from donated store mannequins, many with inappropriately fashionable features or missing limbs thinly disguised by clothing or palm fronds. In 2001 the city decided to temporarily end the practice of allowing private groups to place displays in city parks, but in 2004 the Christmas displays returned.

Santa Monica is known for having a large population of British and Irish expatriates, which accounts for the numerous pubs in the city. Bars are as likely to show English Premiership games as they are American football games.

The Santa Monica Rugby Club is the 2005 Division 1 National Champion of their sport.

Notable people born in Santa Monica

Dwight Evans
Miguel Ferrer
Bonnie Franklin
Anjelica Huston
Lorenzo Lamas
Lorna Luft
Christina Ricci
Bobby Sherman
Shirley Temple
Suzanne Vega
Sara Gilbert
Randy Rhoads

Long Beach is a city located in southern Los Angeles County, California, on the Pacific coast. The Port of Long Beach is one of the busiest sea ports in the world.

Its location is 33°47' North, 118°10' West, about 20 miles (30 km) south of downtown Los Angeles. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 170.6 km² (65.9 mi²). 130.6 km² (50.4 mi²) of it is land and 40.0 km² (15.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 23.42% water. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 461,522. It is the fifth largest city in California and the second largest in Los Angeles County. Long Beach is also the largest U.S. city that is not a county seat. While some consider Long Beach the largest suburb in the United States, it has very few characteristics of a suburb, apart from its location, and most consider it a central city.

According to the 2000 US Census, Long Beach is the most ethnically diverse large city in the United States. For example, Long Beach has the largest population of Cambodians outside of Cambodia, and the area along Anaheim St. is sometimes called "Cambodia Town". There are also sizable populations of Blacks, Mexicans, Salvadorians and other Central Americans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and other Asians [1]. There is a small population of Pacific Islanders in Long Beach and the surrounding communities, especially Samoans. There is also significant population of gays and lesbians, with many gay-owned businesses along Broadway, 2nd Street and 4th Street between downtown and Belmont Shore.

The R.M.S. Queen Mary has been located in Long Beach since her retirement and now serves as a hotel and tourist attraction. The Aquarium of the Pacific, a world-class research facility, is a popular tourist destination. The Long Beach Grand Prix, an annual Champ Car race, takes place on city streets near the Convention Center and is one of the largest Grand Prix events in the world. Long Beach is the site of a large community college; California State University, Long Beach; the headquarters of the California State University system; and a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Signal Hill is an incorporated city surrounded entirely by Long Beach.

The area was originally occupied by the Tongva people who lived in a rancheria named Tibahangna. Along with other Tongva villages, it disappeared in the mid-1800s.

The Rancho los Cerritos was divided from the larger Rancho Los Nietos, which had been granted by the King of Spain to a mulatto soldier, Manuel Nieto. Rancho Los Cerritos was bought 1843 by John Temple, a Yankee who had come to California in 1827. Soon after he built what is now known as the "Los Cerritos Ranch House" an adobe which still stands and is a National Historic Landmark. Temple created a thriving cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Both Temple and his ranch house played important local roles in the Mexican American War.

Meanwhile, on an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an abortive attempt to establish a colony (as part of Brigham Young's plan to establish a continuous chain of settlements from the Pacific to Salt Lake).

Jotham Bixby, the "Father of Long Beach", purchased the Rancho Los Cerritos in 1866 and converted it to sheep ranching. In the 1870s Bixby sold an average of 200,000 pounds of wool annually. In 1880, Bixby sold 4,000 acres (16 km²) of the Rancho los Cerritos to William E. Willmore, who subdivided it in hopes of creating a farm community, Willmore City. He failed and was bought out by the "Long Beach Land and Water Company." They changed the name of the community to "Long Beach", which was incorporated as a city in 1888. When Bixby died in 1916 the remaining 3,500 acres (14 km²) of Rancho los Cerritos was subdivided into the neighborhoods of Bixby Knolls, California Heights, North Long Beach and part of the city of Signal Hill.

The town grew as a seaside resort (The Pike was one of the most famous beachside amusement parks on the West coast from 1910 until the 1960's) and then as an oil, Navy, and port town. The town was once referred to as "Iowa by the sea".

The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that caused significant damage to the city and surrounding areas. Most of the damage occurred in unreinforced masonry buildings, especially schools. 120 people died in this earthquake.

Long Beach used to have a sizable Japanese-American population mostly working in the fish canneries on Terminal Island and small truck farms in the area, but with intermarriage and other factors, it is now less than 1% of the population of Long Beach. There is still a Japanese Community Center and a Japanese Buddhist Church in Long Beach.

The early silent film industry in Long Beach
One of the places where the film industry started in Southern California was in Long Beach. Balboa Amusement Producing Company, also known as Balboa Studios, was located at Sixth Street and Alamitos Avenue, and they used 11 acres (45,000 m²) on Signal Hill for outdoor locations. Silent movie stars who lived in Long Beach included Fatty Arbuckle and Theda Bara. The 1917 film Cleopatra, starring Theda Bara, was filmied at the Dominguez Slough just west of Long Beach, and Moses parted the Red Sea for Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 Black & White version of "The Ten Commandments" on the flat seashore of Seal Beach, southeast of Long Beach.

Sports
The Long Beach Grand Prix in April is the single largest event in Long Beach. It started in 1975 as a Formula 5000 race on the streets of downtown, and became a Formula One the following year. Since 1984 it has been a Champ Car event. During the same week as the Grand Prix, there are also Trans-Am, and Toyota Atlantic races, plus an Historic Grand Prix features pre-1990 cars, and the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race.

Long Beach is home to the Long Beach Ice Dogs minor-league (ECHL) hockey team. The Ice Dogs play their home games at the Long Beach Sports Arena. The city is also home to a minor league baseball team called the Long Beach Armada who play in the independent Golden Baseball League. The minor league basketball team nicknamed the Long Beach Jam play in the American Basketball Association (ABA).

The Southern California Summer Pro League is a showcase for current and prospective NBA basketball players, including recent draft picks, current NBA players working on their skills and conditioning, and international professionals hoping to become NBA players. The league plays at the Pyramid (a pyramid-shaped gym) on the Long Beach State campus during July.

Since its inception in August 1964, the Congressional Cup has grown into one of the major international sailing events. Now held in April, it is the only grade 1 match race regatta held in the United States. The one-on-one race format is the same as the America's Cup, and many of the winners of the Congressional Cup have gone on to win the America's Cup as well.

In July, there is the annual Catalina Ski Race, which starts from Long Beach Harbor and goes to Catalina Island and back to complete a 100 km (62 mile) circuit. This race has been held annually since 1948 and features skiers from around the world.

During the two Olympics held in Los Angeles, Long Beach has hosted a number of the competitions, including rowing events in the Marine Stadium, sailing events off the coast of Long Beach, volleyball in the Long Beach Sports Arena, and archery at El Dorado Regional Park. For the 1984 Summer Olympics, Long Beach hosted yachting, volleyball, fencing and archery competitions. For the 1932 Summer Olympics, Long Beach hosted the rowing competition. The Belmont Plaza Pool hosted U.S. Olympic swimming trials in 1968, 1976, and 2004.

Blair Field in Long Beach, besides hosting numerous American Legion baseball, Connie Mack baseball, high school, junior college, college, minor league and major league spring training exhibition baseball games, has also been host of six MTV Rock & Jock softball games, and has been the filming location for numerous film, TV and commercial productions.

Long Beach is the childhood home of tennis legend Billie Jean King and eight-time National League batting champion and longtime San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn.

2004 Summer Olympics gold medal winning beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor graduated from California State University, Long Beach (where she won a national championship and several other awards), and currently resides in Long Beach.

Famous people born in Long Beach
James Blaylock: fantasy/science fiction author
Jeff Burroughs: Baseball player, 1974 American League MVP and Little League World Series Championship coach
Bobby Burgess: one the original Mouseketeers
Nicolas Cage: actor
Eva LaRue Callahan: soap opera actress
Percy Daggs III: UPN's Veronica Mars
William E. Dannemeyer: Orange County politician
Zack de la Rocha rapper
Bo Derek: actress
Daz Dillinger: rapper
Nate Dogg: rapper
Snoop Dogg: rapper
John Dykstra: 1978 Visual Effects Oscar Winner (for Star Wars)
Warren G.: rapper
Spike Jones: bandleader and comedian
Sally Kellerman: actress
Billie Jean King: tennis player
William Joseph Levada, current Pro-Prefect, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Roman Catholic Church
Dan Lungren: Republican politician
Willie McGinest: USC and New England Patriots linebacker - Long Beach Poly HS
Michelle Phillips: singer and actress
Sheldon Rampton: editor of PR Watch
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen: actress
Anthony Zerbe: actor