The Santa Clara Valley has been home to the Tamyen group of the Ohlone people since around 4,000 BC.

Eggo waffles were invented in San Jose, California, by Frank Dorsa, who developed a process by which waffles could be cooked, frozen, and packaged for consumers. In 1953, Dorsa, along with younger brothers Anthony and Sam, introduced Eggo frozen waffles as "Froffles" to supermarkets throughout the United States.

California was claimed as part of the Spanish Empire in 1542, when explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo charted the Californian coast. For nearly 200 years, the Californias were sparsely populated and largely ignored. Only in 1769 was Northern California finally surveyed by Spanish authorities, with the Portolá Expedition.

The 930-square foot Monopoly game board that opened in Discovery Meadow in 2002 is the only officially licensed life-sized board in the world, and San Jose's most famous Guinness Book of World Records attraction. Families can rent out the board to play for a $300 fee, which includes a game referee "specially trained to run a giant-sized Monopoly game."

San Jose was home to five distinct Chinatowns, but none survived past 1931. The first was established in 1866. Three were destroyed in fires, one in a flood, and the last during the city's redevelopment.

The indigenous Ohlone people used cinnabar for red pigment, and used it in trade. They introduced it to the Spanish, who recognized it as a source of mercury, or quicksilver, the metal used to extract gold from ore. This led to mining at what is known as the New Almaden Mine, just in time to supply the California Gold Rush.

Singer/guitarist Patrick Simmons has said the Doobie Brothers only intended to use the name for a few gigs until they came up with something better, but they never did. Active for five decades, the band would become known for hits such as "Black Water", "Listen to the Music", and "Jesus Is Just Alright". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 7, 2020.

After coursing through San Jose, the Guadalupe River empties into south San Francisco Bay at the Alviso Slough. It is the southernmost major U.S. river with a Chinook salmon run.

El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe was officially founded on November 29, 1777, the first town in the Spanish colony Nueva California.

When gun magnate William Winchester died in 1881, he left his widow $20 million and the curse of being haunted by the ghosts of all the people killed by his famous line of rifles. Sarah Winchester tried to outrun them at a psychic's behest, moving from New Haven, Conn., to San Jose, where she bought an old farmhouse and turned it into a rambling mansion. The Victorian-style home has 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, 13 bathrooms and nine kitchens--built, it is said, in an effort to protect its owner from the gun-slain spirits. Since her death in 1922, it is said that Sarah herself haunts the labyrinthine Winchester Mystery House.