Timeline

1769 - Spanish Crown decides to finance exploration and settlement in Alta California

April 11, 1769 - Ship San Antonia captained by Juan Perez arrives in San Diego

A few weeks after the arrival of the San Antonia the San Carlos captained by Vicente Vila arrives, many passengers sick with typhus

May 14, 1769 Captain Fernando de Rivera y Moncada arrives on foot accompanied by Father Juan Crespie and Christian Indians

July 1, 1769 group led by Captain Gaspar de Portola arrives with Father Junipero Serra as well as soldiers and 44 Christian Indians from Baja California

July 16, 1769 - Father Junipero Serra holds first mass with just 126 of the 219 people originally arriving in San Diego alive

September 1773 (approximately) - mission is moved six miles inland due to the lack of fresh water


November 4, 1775 - Kumeyaay revolt, burn down the Mission kill three people including Father Luis Jayme.

1776 - Father Serra returns to Mission San Diego to oversee it's rebuilding

1784 - Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen succeeds Father Serra as Father Presidente

1821 - Mexico gains independence and takes Alta California with it

1833 and 1834 - The Act for the Secularlization of the Missions of California in 1833 and The Decree of Confiscation of 1834 removed and gave power of the missions from the Franciscans to the Mexican government

1834 - Mission San Diego de Alcala is secularized

1848 - the Mission San Diego de Alcala is occupied by the U.S. Army until 1858

1862 - President Abraham Lincoln returned the mission and approximately 22 acres of lad back to Catholic Church after signing a proclamation.

1858 - from 1858 after the U.S. Army left the mission in disarray, until 1891, the mission remained abandoned.

1891 - Father Antonio Dominic Ubach and the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet move Saint Anthony's Industrial School for Indian Children to the mission grounds.

1907 - the school is moved

1931 - the mission was rebuilt

At present it is an active Catholic parish and is visited as a historical site.