2015
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January
- Personal genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe announces a $60 million investment by Genentech for Parkinson's research [1]
- The Golden Gate Bridge closes to automobile traffic for the first time in its history, in order to install a mobile concrete median (pictured)
- Birds coated with an unidentified sticky grey substance are found along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, and are sent to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield for cleanup efforts [2]
- Ford Motor Company announces the creation of the Ford Research and Innovation Center, located in Palo Alto (logo pictured)
- The Tesoro refinery in Martinez closes due to a strike affecting nine refineries in the US [3]
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February
- The National Weather Service announces that due to the ongoing California drought, San Francisco received no January rainfall for the first time in 165 years. The Bay Area had the driest January on record. [4]
- The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center opens a new hospital in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco (construction pictured)
- President Barack Obama attends the White House Cybersecurity Summit at Stanford University [5]
- San Francisco resident Christie White, battling cancer, sues the state of California for the right to die at home, by physician assisted suicide [6]
- Shipowners at the Port of Oakland suspend the unloading of container and other cargo ships, due to a slowdown during contract negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union [7]
- The UCSF Medical Center receives a philanthropic donation of $100 million from Chuck Feeney, the largest gift by an individual in the history of the UC system. [8]
- Avaya Stadium, the new home of the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, stages its first Earthquakes soccer game
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March
- Scientists (pictured) at the Ames Research Center announce they have synthesized "... uracil, cytosine, and thymine, all three components of RNA and DNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space." [9]
- Patrick Willis, linebacker for eight years with the San Francisco 49ers, retires at age 30 due to a foot injury
- Prime Healthcare Services rejects an offer to purchase Daly City's Seton Medical Center and San Jose's O'Connor Hospital from the Daughters of Charity Health System
- The U.S. Geological Survey report, "Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast", estimates there is a 72 percent chance that a magnitude-6.7 or larger quake will strike the Bay Area before the year 2044 [10]
- The College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley unveils a 9' high 3D printed sculpture, entitled "Bloom", the first printed structure of its type. [11] [12] [13]
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration more than doubles the size of the Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuaries (underwater topography pictured)
- The San Francisco Police Department relocates its headquarters from the Hall of Justice to a new facility at Mission Bay (insignia pictured)
- Lawyer and Reddit executive Ellen Pao loses in a gender discrimination lawsuit against Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
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April
- The Brookings Institution reports that San Francisco has the wealthiest people, in the top 5% of its population, of any major U.S. city, and the fastest growing income inequality [14]
- Governor Jerry Brown imposes mandatory water rationing for the first time in state history, requiring all local water supply agencies, including the Alameda County, Marin, Sonoma and Santa Clara Valley Water Districts, reduce water use by 25%, due to the ongoing drought in California [15]
- Author and community activist Eddy Zheng is pardoned by governor Brown, for crimes he committed at age 16 [16]
- Apple, Inc. introduces the Apple Watch (pictured)
- Over 100 prominent Bay Area Catholics sign a full page advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle appealing to Pope Francis to replace Salvatore Cordileone as archbishop of the San Francisco Archdiocese, for fostering “an atmosphere of division and intolerance.” [17]
- The World War II era aircraft carrier USS Independence (pictured) is rediscovered near the Farallon Islands by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [18]
- Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo closes [19]
- The San Francisco-based Heald College system shuts down, when its parent company, Corinthian Colleges, goes out of business
- Tesla Motors announces the Powerwall, a battery system for home use
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May
- Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry (pictured) is awarded the 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player Award
- The San Mateo–Hayward Bridge closes to traffic, for the first time since opening in 1967, for resurfacing and maintenance [20] [21]
- San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón orders a review of at least 3,000 arrests over the last 10 years, in response to evidence that some San Francisco Police Department officers may have shown racial bias, based on their having sent racist and homophobic text messages [22]
- San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to ban chewing tobacco at sports venues, including AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants [23]
- The Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project dedicates its first project, a future solar farm at Hayward's former landfill site [24]
- Dead Gray Whales wash ashore at Half Moon Bay, then at Portuguese Beach in Sonoma County, with a Sperm Whale also washing ashore at Point Reyes National Seashore, the third, fourth and fifth dead whales found on Bay Area beaches (among eight in Northern California) in less than 2 months [25] [26] [27]
- Oakland based start-up Next Thing Co. raises over $1.5m in its Kickstarter campaign for its forthcoming $9 miniature computer, Chip [28]
- The population of San Jose is now officially over 1,000,000, making it the tenth largest city in the United States, according to the U.S. Census [29]
- Vandals damage an inflatable dam across Alameda Creek in Fremont, releasing 50 million gallons of drinking water into San Francisco Bay [30]
- The Solar Energy Research Center opens at the newly built Chu Hall at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley [31]
- The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association Playoffs, and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975
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June
- Surgeons at University of California, San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center successfully complete 18 surgeries in the nation's first nine-way, two-day kidney transplant chain in a single city [32] [33] [34]
- Six people are killed and eight are injured, some with life-threatening injuries, after a balcony collapses in Berkeley, near the campus of the University of California, Berkeley; five of the casualties are Irish students. (NBC News), (AP)
- The Golden State Warriors win the National Basketball Association Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, their first championship since 1975
- The surviving members of the Grateful Dead play the first concerts of their Fare Thee Well farewell tour, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dead, at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium
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July
- Former state senator Leland Yee pleads guilty to a federal racketeering charge, confessing to using his bids for secretary of state and Mayor of San Francisco to extort bribes [35]
- A gunman opens fire at Pier 14 in San Francisco's Embarcadero district, killing Kathryn Steinle. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Francisco Sanchez, is subsequently arrested and charged with murder.
- The Wragg Fire wildland fire (pictured) starts just off of California State Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Napa County
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August
- Alphabet, a holding company and conglomerate owning several companies owned by or sprung from Google, is founded
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September
- The Valley Fire encroaches into Napa and Sonoma Counties
- Tesla Motors begins shipping the Model X SUV (pictured) from its Fremont factory [36]
- UC Berkeley chemistry and materials science professor Peidong Yang is awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant [37]
- Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi releases the documentary San Francisco 2.0, chronicling the recent high tech takeover and gentrification of the City [38]
- The Golden State Warriors finalize the purchase of 12 acres of land in Mission Bay, San Francisco, to house a future stadium [39]
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November
- San Jose is the richest city in the United States, according to Bloomberg [40] [1]
- Topless stripper Carol Doda, an iconic Condor Club performer, dies in San Francisco (Condor Club ca 1973 pictured)
- Wang Hall, housing the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, opens at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [41]
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December
- Artificial intelligence laboratory OpenAI is founded in San Francisco
- Linux softward pioneer and Debian founder Ian Murdock (pictured) dies in San Francisco at age 42
- CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to visit a US port, comes to the Port of Oakland [42]
- ^ Mondalek, Alexandra (November 5, 2015). "This Is the Richest City in America". Money.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2022.