Santa Monica (Spanish for ‘Saint Monica’; Spanish: Santa Mónica) is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California’s South Coast. Santa Monica’s 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate Films, and The Recording Academy.

Santa Monica traces its records to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California. The rancho was forward-thinking sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who in 1875, along subsequent to his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and beforehand 20th centuries, with the launch of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.

The Tongva are Indigenous to the Santa Monica area. The village of Comicranga was conventional in the Santa Monica area. One of the village’s notable residents was Victoria Reid, who was the daughter of the chief of the village. During the Spanish period, she was taken to Mission San Gabriel from her parents at the age of six.

The first non-indigenous action to set foot in the area was the party of buccaneer Gaspar de Portolà, which camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769.