The Bell X-1 aircraft, which broke the sound barrier on 26 September 1947 in Palmdale, California.
No one really knows why the area was called Palmdale, but local folklore says that the name comes from settlers who arrived in the Midwest in April 1886 who, although they had never seen a palm tree, they mistook a Joshua tree for it, another theory is that it is named after the death of Dr. John Palma, an important man in the area at the time (ish).
In December 1953, the US Air Force’s Space Launch System (SLS) was used in the first mission of the space shuttle program, from Palmdale, California.
But most settlers were unfamiliar with agriculture in a desert climate, and when drought years occurred, most left the settlement. The high desert in which Palmdale is located make the temperatures cool down somewhat at night, but similar weather patterns are seen in Los Angeles Basin. The days in Palmdale are warm and sunny, it has an altitude of about 3500 meters and a steep, west-facing slope.
When we saw the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, it sparked protests in Palmdale and prompted state officials and the FBI to join the investigation into the incident. The Los Angeles based community activists who helped organise the Palmdale protests after the death said “This is a city that has a history of racial tensions and conflict”.
News in recent years reflects these tensions, and the city’s history as a hotbed of black violence in the surrounding Valley has fuelled speculation about the killing.
The area has had a “history of tension and conflict” in the region since at least the late 1970s and early 1980s, David Brown, a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Public Health and a former member of the Black Panther Party of California’s (BPA) community organising committee, said in an interview with the LA Times.
The Vasquez Rocks take their name from a group of antelopes called Tiburcio (Vasquez), which escaped capture by the authorities in 1873 and 1874 by hiding in the rock formations. Author Frank Stephens wrote: “I saw more than two dozen antelopes in Perris by 1877”.
Something Complicated 
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