1713 Birth of Junipero Serra on Majorca, Spain.
1749 Father Serra is sent to Mexico as a missionary.
1769 Father Serra is made president of the Baja California missions.
1769 Sacred Expedition to Alta California. Serra goes along as religious leader.
1769 July 16. Establishment of San Diego de Alcalá.
1770 Father Serra sails up the coast to Monterey with Costansó and Fages.
1770 June 3. Establishment of San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (Carmel) at Monterey.
1771 Father Serra moves San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo to Carmel to prevent liasons between his female Indian converts and the soldiers at Monterey.
1771 July 14. Establishment of Mission San Antonio de Padua.
1771 September 1. Establishment of San Gabriel Arcángel.
1772 – 1773 Father Serra travels to Mexico City to denounce Fages and ask for more support for his missions.
1772 September 8. Establishment of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. The mission becomes a supply center for bear meat.
1774 San Diego de Alcalá moved to present site.
1775 Construction of first San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Chapel.
1775 San Gabriel Arcángel is moved to a new site five miles to the east of the original.
1775 Mission revolt at San Diego de Alcalá. The chapel and outbuildings are burned.
1776 Mission revolt at San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. The raiders destroy the log buildings by shooting flaming arrows into the thatched roofs.
1776 June 29. Establishment of San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) by the Arroyo de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows Creek).
1776 November 1. Establishment of San Juan Capistrano.
1777 January 12. Establishment of Santa Clara de Asís on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
1777 Construction of first chapel at San Juan Capistrano.
1779 Flooding of the Guadalupe River force the relocation of Santa Clara de Asís.
1780 Reconstruction of San Diego de Alcalá.
1782 – 1791 Construction of the present chapel at San Francisco de Asís.
1782 March 31. Establishment of San Buenaventura. It is the last of the missions to be founded by Father Serra.
1784 Death of Father Serra. He is buried at Carmel.
1784 Construction of new chapel at Santa Clara de Asís.
1786 December 4. Establishment of Santa Barbara.
1787 December 8. First establishment of La Purísima de Concepcíon.
1789 June 13. Establishment of San Luis Rey de Francia.
1791 August 28. Establishment of Santa Cruz.
1791 October 9. First establishment of Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1791 – 1805 Construction of San Gabriel Arcángel.
1792 – 1793 Construction of belfry at San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
1793 – 1797 Construction of present sandstone church at San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.
1793 December 14. Raiders from the village of Quiroste, near Point Año Nuevo, attack Mission Santa Cruz, wounding some of the guards and burning the guardhouse and lamb corral. It is the only attack ever made on a northern mission.
1794 January. Soldiers are dispatched to Santa Cruz from the San Francisco and Monterey presidios. Eight Indians are taken captive. The leaders are shackled and eventually sent to the San Diego Presidio where they die in 1798.
1794 Construction of chapel at Santa Barbara.
1794 Original chapel at San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo replaced by a larger structure.
1795 Completion of quandrangle at Santa Cruz.
1796 – 1806 Construction of quandrangle at San Juan Capistrano.
1797 June 11. Establishment of San José de Guadalupe.
1797 June 24. Establishment of San Juan Bautista.
1797 June 25. Establishment of San Miguel Arcángel.
1797 Completion of chapel at Nuestra Señora de Soledad. It will be washed out several times by floods of the Salinas River.
1797 Publication of Serra’s biography by his friend, Father Francisco Palóu.
1797 September 8. Establishment of San Fernando Rey de España.
1797 Establishment of Branciforte Pueblo near Santa Cruz. Tensions between the mission community and the settlers will mount through the years.
1798 Construction of chapel at San Juan Bautista.
1800 San Diego de Alcalá destroyed in an earthquake.
1802 Construction of first chapel at San Luis Rey de Francia.
1803 – 1812 Construction of present church at San Juan Bautista.
1804 September 17. Establishment of Santa Inés.
1805 Enlargement of chapel at Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1805 – 1809 Construction of quadrangle at San José de Guadalupe.
1806 Measles spreads through the northern missions
1806 Construction of the quadrangle at San Fernando Rey de España.
1809 Reconstruction of San Buenaventura following a fire.
1810 – 1813 Construction of quandrangle at ission San Antonio de Padua.
1810 Establishment of San Gabriel asistencia San Bernardino.
1811 – 1815 Prosperity allows the construction of the mission quadrangle at San Luis Rey de Francia, the largest of the missions.
1812 December 8. The Wrightwood Earthquake destroys everything at San Fernando Rey de España except the Convento.
1812 December 8. Forty Indians are killed in the collapse of the church at San Juan Capistrano.
1812 December 21. La Purísima de Concepcíon destroyed by earthquake and flood.
1812 December 21. Santa Inés destroyed in Santa Barbara earthquake.
1812 December 21. Adobe church at Santa Barbara destroyed by earthquake.
1812 December 21. San Buenaventura damaged in Santa Barbara earthquake.
1813 Construction of quadrangle at San Diego de Alcalá.
1813 – 1817 Reconstruction of Santa Inés.
1814 Governor Arrillaga buried at Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1815 – 1818 Reconstruction of La Purísima de Concepcíon.
1815 – 1833 Reconstruction of Santa Barbara, a sandstone edifice which will be called the “Jewel of the Missions”.
1815 Establishment of San Luis Rey asistencia San Antonio de Pala.
1816 Reconstruction of San Buenaventura.
1816 – 1821 Construction of mission quandrangle at San Miguel Arcángel. The chapel is decorated with trompe l’oeil murals by Estévan Munras and his Indian assistants.
1817 December 14. Establishment of San Rafael Arcángel. The missions originally serves as a sanitorium for San Francisco de Asís where natives made ill by new diseases brought by settlers and soldiers can recuperate or die. It later serves as a monastery.
1818 Branciforte settlers sack Santa Cruz during the temporary abandonment of the mission because of a threatened raid by the pirate Bouchard.
1818 Establishment of San Diego de Alcalá asistencia San Ysabel.
1818 Thomas Doak decorates the interior of San Juan Bautista.
1818 – 1819 Construction of new chapel at Santa Clara de Asís.
1823 July 4. Establishment of San Francisco Solano, last of the missions.
1824 La Purísima de Concepcíon mission revolt. Santa Inés is also affected.
1825 Construction of final adobe chapel at Santa Clara de Asís.
1832 Construction of new chapel at Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1834 Secularization of missions.
1836 Santa Clara de Asís returned to the Catholic Church.
1840 Construction of parish church at San Francisco Solano.
1842 Discovery of gold at Placerita Canyon, part of the lands owned by San Fernando Rey de España.
1842 Mexican President Santa Anna sequesters the Pious Fund, the endowment established for the financing of mission activities in Baja and Alta California. Santa Anna promises to give the interest to the Church.
1848 Interest payments from the Pious Fund cease with the American invasion of California.
1851 Transfer of Santa Clara de Asís by the Franciscans to the Jesuits, when it becomes the center of the new University of Santa Clara.
1851 Mormon settlers use San Bernardino asistencia as a headquarters.
1857 January 9. Bells at San Gabriel Arcángel thrown to ground by the massive Fort Tejon earthquake.
1862 San Buenaventura and San Diego de Alcalá returned to the Catholic Church.
1865 Construction of belfry at San Juan Bautista.
1868 October 21. San José de Guadalupe destroyed in the Hayward Earthquake.
1870 San Rafael Arcángel is razed.
1875 – 1876 An international arbitration commission examines the question of the Pious Fund and rules that the Archdiocese of San Francisco is entitled to half the interest accumulated since 1848. The amount comes to $43,000 in Mexican gold.
1879 – 1930 Restoration of San Fernando Rey de España.
1884 Father Casanova erringly restores San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.
1890 After fulfilling its obligations to the Archdiocese of San Francisco up to the year 1869, Mexico refuses to make further interest payments on the Pious Fund.
1893 Reconstruction of San Luis Rey de Francia, now used as a seminary, begins.
1901 Renovation of San Miguel Arcángel.
1902 The Hague Tribunal arranges for Mexico to pay a single lump sum to the Archdiocese of San Francisco as its share of the Pious Fund. ($1,427,682 in Mexican pesos.)
1903 San Antonio de Pala returned to the Catholic Church.
1904 Restoration of Santa Inés begins.
1906 April 18-21. The Great Earthquake and Fire fails to damage San Francisco de Asís. The church, called a fire-trap worthy of demolition, marks the point at which fire fighters stop the further spread of the blaze. The Church decides not to raze the “old firetrap”.
1906 April 18. The Great Earthquake severely damages San Juan Bautista.
1911 – 1913 Restoration of San Francisco Solano for inclusion in a State Historic Park.
1912 First production of John McGroarty’s The Mission Play in San Gabriel.
1912 Annual payments against the Pious Fund debt to the Archdiocese of San Francisco cease with the begining of the Mexican Revolution.
1913 First publication of Father Francisco Palóu.’s biography of Father Serra in English.
1916 Construction of basilica at San Francisco de Asís.
1916 Reconstruction of San José de Guadalupe.
1917 Restoration of San Francisco de Asís by William Polk.
1918 April 21. San Juan Capistrano damaged in San Jacinto earthquake.
1924 Reconstruction of asistencia San Ysabel.
1925 June 29. Santa Barbara church damaged in earthquake.
1926 Santa Clara de Asís destroyed by a fire.
1928 Further renovation of San Miguel Arcángel.
1929 Reconstruction of Santa Clara de Asís.
1929 Restoration of San Buenaventura.
1929 Remodeling of belfry at San Juan Bautista.
1931 Restoration of San Diego de Alcalá.
1931 Reconstruction of Santa Cruz.
1932 Father Serra’s birthplace in Majorca, Spain, becomes the property of the City of San Francisco.
1933 Reconstruction of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa begins.
1935 – 1941 Reconstruction of La Purísima de Concepcíon
1935 San Juan Bautista State Historic Park established.
1936 Proper restoration of San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.
1949 San Rafael Arcángel rebuilt.
1950 Further reconstruction of San José de Guadalupe.
1950 Restoration of Santa Barbara facade.
1954 Reconstruction of Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1956 – 1958 Construction of St. Anthony’s Seminary at Santa Barbara.
1958 Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo features scenes at Missions Dolores and San Juan Bautista.
1963 Restoration of residence wing at Nuestra Señora de Soledad.
1967 Mexico’s Pious Fund debt is settled with the payment of $719,546 to the Archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
1989 October 18. Santa Cruz is damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake.
2000 Insect damage threatens the wood statuary and frame of Mission Dolores.