Today is the 233nd anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles by the Spanish governor of California. It was a small village of just 12 families, but was given the name “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.” The town had grown to some 6500 residents when the Mexican Revolution overthrew Spanish colonial rule in 1821. California was among the territories ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War, and became a state in1850, following the Gold Rush of the year before. At that time, the Los Angeles population was just over 1,600. Now, the city has a population of almost 3.9 million people, while Los Angeles County is home to over 10 million, almost twice that of the nation’s second most-populous county. Profile America is in its17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.