June 29

On June 29, 2007, Apple releases the first iPhone at $499 and $599, and San Francisco's Stockton Street Apple Store becomes a pilgrimage site. Hundreds of devotees camp overnight in sleeping bags, trading stories and speculation about the device that will reshape mobile computing. The launch marks the moment San Francisco's tech industry shifts from server rooms and venture capital into the hands of consumers worldwide.

On June 29, 1776, Father Francisco Palou led the inaugural Mass at Mission San Francisco de Asís, known as Mission Dolores, just days before American independence was declared on the East Coast. Built to convert local Ohlone people and anchor Spanish colonial expansion, the adobe chapel still stands in San Francisco's Mission District—the city's oldest surviving building. Its thick walls, hand-forged nails, and simple wooden interior survive earthquakes, fires, and two centuries of urban transformation.

In 1776, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza founds Mission Dolores (formally Mission San Francisco de Asís) in what is now San Francisco's Castro District. The mission becomes the spiritual and administrative center of Spanish colonial settlement in the region, converting Native Americans and establishing the foundations of European culture in the Bay Area. Mission Dolores survives earthquakes and fires to become San Francisco's oldest surviving structure.

Under an arbor (enramada) built by Moraga's soldiers, Father Palóu celebrated the first Mass at Mission San Francisco on June 29, 1776—the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. This ceremony marked the spiritual founding of the mission, which would anchor San Francisco's colonial settlement and eventually grow into the city itself. The humble structure foreshadowed the grand mission church that would rise on the same site.

On June 29, 1776, Franciscan friars established Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) in the San Francisco peninsula, planting the religious and civic seeds of what would become the modern city. Historians have long disputed whether this date marks San Francisco's true founding, given competing claims from the 1769 Spanish expedition and the 1835 pueblo establishment. Regardless of the calendar argument, the mission's founding was the pivotal moment that drew permanent European settlement to the fog-wrapped bay.

On June 29, 1776, Father Francisco Palóu presided over the first Catholic Mass in San Francisco, celebrated at an open-air chapel (enramada) along the shores of Laguna Dolores. This ceremony, ordered by Commander Moraga, marked the spiritual founding of the settlement that would become San Francisco. The lagoon has since vanished, but Palóu's Mass established the religious anchor for the Spanish colonial outpost.

On June 29, 1776, Fray Francisco Palóu conducts the first Catholic Mass in San Francisco, held under a rustic arbor (enramada) constructed by Gaspar de Moraga's soldiers. The ceremony takes place at the future site of Mission Dolores, on the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. This sacred gathering marks the spiritual founding of San Francisco and launches six decades of Franciscan presence that would shape the city's religious, cultural, and demographic identity.

On June 29, 1776, Spanish settlers gathered at la Laguna de los Dolores (Lake of Sorrows) to celebrate mass, marking the founding of San Francisco. This ceremony established the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the Presidio, planting Spain's claim on the bay and launching a settlement that would grow into one of the world's great cities. The event occurred just three days after the Declaration of Independence was signed across the continent.