San Francisco
Spanish explorers created San Francisco in 1776. They called it "Yerba Buena", which is Spanish for "Good Herb", because a lot of mint grew there. After the Mexican-American War, the United States took over Yerba Buena. In 1848 its name was changed to "San Francisco". It became a city in 1850. San Francisco was a center of the Beat Generation in the 1950s and the Hippie movement in the 1960s. Today, it is a center of social and political liberalism.