The year 2026 in California involved the following events.
Incumbents Governor: Gavin Newsom (D) Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis (D) Chief Justice: Patricia Guerrero (D) Senate president pro tempore: Monique Limón (D) Speaker of the Assembly: Robert A. Rivas (D)
Events January January 1 – 2026 Rose Bowl: The Indiana Hoosiers defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide 38–3, advancing to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. January 2 – A federal appeals court rules that California's ban on open-carry in most parts of the state is unconstitutional. January 6 Representative Doug LaMalfa (CA-01) dies at age 65. The Department of Health and Human Services announces it is halting $10 billion in social service programs to California and four other Democratic states. For the first time since December 2000, no regions of California are listed as being in active drought by the United States Drought Monitor. January 9 – The 9th Astra Film Awards are held at the Sofitel Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, honoring movies released in 2025. Ryan Coogler's film Sinners wins six awards, including Best Picture – Drama. January 11 The 83rd Golden Globe Awards are held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. A U-Haul truck is driven into a crowd of protesters gathered to support Iranian anti-government protesters in Westwood, Los Angeles. Two people are injured. January 13 – The city council of San Jose votes to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using city property for federal operations. January 15 – Antoine Watson is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and assault in the killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee, who Watson shoved to the ground in San Francisco in 2021. He is acquitted of murder. January 23 – Governor Newsom announces the state of California will join the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. The announcement is made one day after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the WHO. January 29 – Journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon is arrested in Los Angeles in connection to a protest he had reported on at a Saint Paul, Minnesota church on January 18.
February February 1 – The 68th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. "Luther" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA wins Record of the Year, while Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny wins Album of the Year, the first Spanish language album to do so. February 5 – Three people are killed and six injured after a car crashes into a 99 Ranch Market in Westwood, Los Angeles. February 7 – A man is arrested and charged with intentionally driving his car through the front of a Safeway in Truckee, injuring four. February 8 – Super Bowl LX is played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, in which the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots. Bad Bunny is the halftime performer. February 9 At least 6,000 schoolteachers from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) go on strike. SFUSD closes all 120 of its schools and offers its 50,000 students independent study in response. A federal judge blocks a state law that would have banned federal law enforcement agents from wearing masks that obscure their faces, saying the law discriminates against the federal government because it did not apply to state officers. The judge leaves in place a part of the law requiring federal agents to have clear identification showing their agency and badge number. February 17 – An avalanche kills eight skiers in the Castle Peak area northwest of Lake Tahoe. February 24 – The Justice Department sues the University of California, Los Angeles, accusing it of not doing enough to prevent antisemetism. February 25 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation raids the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the home of its superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho. February 26 – The Los Angeles Metro launches the Ride the D t-shirts to commemorate the opening of Section 1 of the D Line subway extension. It is sold out by the following day.
March March 1 – The 32nd Actor Awards (previously the Screen Actors Guild Awards) are held at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles. March 5 – Two men are arrested for assaulting San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's bodyguards in the Tenderloin neighborhood. March 7 – In Downtown Oakland, two people are killed and five injured in a shooting at a bar at 3:30 a.m. The following afternoon, at least one person is detained in connection with the shooting. March 8 Nathan Martin wins the 2026 Los Angeles Marathon in the marathon's closest-ever finish, becoming the second consecutive American to win the event. A Florida woman is arrested in Beverly Hills for firing an AR-15 rifle at singer Rihanna's residence. Rihanna, her husband A$AP Rocky, their children, and Rihanna's mother are in the home, but are uninjured. The suspect is charged with attempted murder. March 9 – Republican Representative Kevin Kiley announces he is dropping his affiliation to the Republican Party and will register as an independent. March 15 – The 98th Academy Awards is held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. One Battle After Another wins six awards, including Best Picture. March 18 – The California Museum announces it will remove Cesar Chavez from the California Hall of Fame, following a report by The New York Times of accusations that Chavez sexually abused women and girls. March 20 – Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seizes over half a million ballots from a November referendum on redistricting. Bianco, a candidate for governor, says he is investigating a ballot count discrepancy. March 22 – The show "Bluey's Best Day Ever!", based on the television series Bluey, premieres at Fantasyland Theatre at Disneyland. March 25 – In a landmark case, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury finds Meta and YouTube liable for intentionally addicting young users and damaging their mental health. The lawsuit was also filed against Snap and TikTok, who both settled before trial. March 26 The California House of Representatives votes to rename Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day. The 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards are held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. March 28 - No Kings protests are held in several cities in California. In Los Angeles, police arrest 74 protesters for failure to disperse.
April April 2 – A 4.6 magnitude earthquake strikes northern California, with the epicenter being a mile away from Boulder Creek. April 5 – The UCLA Bruins beat the South Carolina Gamecocks 79–51 to win the 2026 NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game, their first title. April 7 A six-alarm fire is set at a Kimberly-Clark warehouse in Ontario, causing the roof to collapse. A suspect is detained on arson; videos posted by the suspect on Facebook show him setting items on fire while complaining about being paid low wages. ICE agents shoot a man in Patterson. April 10 A man is arrested for allegedly setting several fires at Nordstrom Rack and True Religion stores in the Ontario Mills shopping center. Police say the arson is unrelated to the warehouse fire from three days prior. A man is arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Democrats ask congressman Eric Swalwell to drop out of the governor's race after four women accuse him of sexual assault and harassment. April 10–19 – Coachella 2026 in Indio. April 12 Eric Swalwell suspends his gubernatorial campaign following sexual assault allegations. Two people are arrested for allegedly shooting at Sam Altman's home. The shooting is not believed to be related to the Molotov attack a few days prior. April 13 – Eric Swalwell announces he will resign from congress. April 15 – Demolition of Westminster Mall begins to make way for the Bolsa Pacific redevelopment. April 16 – Musician D4vd, legal name David Burke, is arrested in connection to the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl whose remains were found in a Tesla car owned by Burke in 2025. April 20 – The pre-service testing of SkyLink begins at the Los Angeles International Airport. April 28 – The cities of San Francisco and Oakland settle a lawsuit filed by the former over Oakland naming their airport the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. As part of the settlement, Oakland is allowed to call the airport the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, but the words "San Francisco Bay" must be used instead of just "San Francisco", the words "San Francisco Bay" cannot be highlighted in any way, and the airport cannot have the word "international" in its name, despite offering international flights. April 30 – Police arrest several protesters during a May Day demonstration at San Francisco International Airport. The arrested include Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor Connie Chan, State Senator Josh Becker, and former Supervisor Jane Kim.
May May 3 – The Los Angeles Times reports that the last California-bound oil tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz before the 2026 crisis is offloading at the Port of Long Beach. May 4 – The OCTA announces that the OC Streetcar will not be in service as usual by August 2026, pushing the approximate date to March 2027. May 6 – Google asks the Environmental Protection Agency to approve a plan to release mosquitos carrying Wolbachia into California to reduce the population of mosquitos that carry dengue, Zika and chikungunya as a form of biological pest control. May 8 The Los Angeles Metro D Line is extended west from Koreatown to Beverly Hills with three new stations, marking the first time a Los Angeles Metro subway system being extended since 2000. General Motors agrees to pay $12.75 million for selling data of motorists to data brokers without their consent. It is the largest ever payment for violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act. May 11 – Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang pleads guilty to acting as a foreign agent for the People's Republic of China and resigns. May 13 – The Trump Administration withholds $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding to California over fraud allegations. May 15 An Orange County judge bans Kars4Kids ads in the state of California, ruling that the charity's ads were misleading donators about what their donations were funding. The Santa Rosa Island Fire begins. May 16 – A driver crashes into multiple pedestrians in Oakland, killing three people. May 18 Three people are killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the largest mosque in San Diego. The two shooters, aged 17 and 18, die by suicide in a vehicle nearby. A fast moving wildfire in the Simi Valley area destroys a home and results in an evacuation order for over 29,000 residents. The DOJ criminally charge a Los Angeles woman for paying people to register to vote, including homeless people on Skid Row. She faces up to five years in federal prison for the offense and has entered a guilty plea. May 19 – The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) announces an expansion team in San Jose. May 21 – The possibility of an explosion of a leaking chemical tank of methyl methacrylate in Garden Grove triggers a mass evacuation. May 27 Newsom signs SB73 into law, limiting law enforcement access to state ballots, voter lists, rosters or certified voting technology. The law takes effect immediately. Newsom vows to impose a 100% tax on state recipients of Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.
June June 1 – Over 1,000 people dressed as Marilyn Monroe gather in Palm Springs, breaking a Guinness World Record, in celebration of what would have been Monroe's 100th birthday. June 2 – Primaries are held. Los Angeles mayoral election: Incumbent mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman advance to the run-off. California gubernatorial election: Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton advance to the run-off.