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San Francisco was originally named "Yerba Buena" meaning Good Herb. In 1847, the name was changed to San Francisco after Saint Francis.
San Francisco has the 4th highest number of billionaire residents of any city in the world, due to its proximity to the Silicone Valley. More billionaires live in New York, Moscow and London.
In 1901, the city outlawed burials. Most of its cemeteries are in Colma, California, where the dead outnumber the living by over 1000 to 1.
The original United Nations Charter was drafted and ratified in San Francisco on June 26, 1945 after 2 months of voting on every individual part.
The Chinese Fortune Cookie was invented by a Japanese immigrant (Makoto Hagiwara) to San Francisco in 1914. The same man designed Golden Gate Park's famous Japanese Tea Garden.
In 1867, San Francisco instituted a law which banned ugly people from showing their faces in public. It is also illegal to beat a rug clean outside, walk an unleashed elephant down the street or wipe your windshield clean with used underwear.
San Francisco's cable cars are the only National Historical Monument that can move. They were built in 1873 and transport 9.7 million people around the city each year.
Denim jeans were invented in San Francisco for the Gold Rush miners.
San Francisco Bay is the world's largest landlocked harbour.
On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates.
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About the Author
Dr. Shahin Jamal
Dr. Jamal is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and an active staff physician at Vancouver Coastal Health. Her interests include diagnosis and prognosis of early inflammatory arthritis, and timely assessment and access to care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
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