The following are given passages.
Passage 1:
Con-Test
Con-Test is the fifth album by FM, a progressive rock band from Toronto, Canada, released in 1985.

Background
In 1983, former group member Nash the Slash proposed a future double bill tour with FM, as the two artists seemed to share a common audience. FM's best known previous album was Black Noise which he made with them in 1977.  But they had not yet found a replacement for Ben Mink who had replaced Nash in 1977, and then left the group in 1983.  Nash resolved the problem by rejoining the band, although work on a new album, even in its demo phase, did not begin until May 1984.  Con-Test has the same band line-up as Black Noise.
FM's former record company, Passport Records, ceased operations in 1984.  Nash had been signed to Quality Records as a solo artist in 1983, and was about to release his solo album American Band-ages, which the proposed double bill tour was to promote.  He was able to use his association with Quality to get FM signed to the label as well.
The double bill concept was retained, with Nash playing a solo set as the opening act for most FM concerts from 1983 to 1989.
Former group member Ben Mink also appears on the album, albeit as a guitarist.

Title and artwork
The album was titled Con-Test after the group ran a contest to come up with something that "FM" might stand for, and its cover art featured fine print listing several hundred submissions including Fluent Monkeys, Flunk Math, Floyd Meddle, Fashion Magazine, Free Money, Forgiven Mistake, Facing Mecca, False Mammaries, and so on.  (One intriguing entry is "Framed Mulroney" which would appear to reference the scandals surrounding then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; however, these incidents did not occur until years later.)
Despite the absence of pictorial graphics, the cover art was credited to surrealist painter Robert Vanderhorst, who has frequently collaborated with Nash the Slash on multi-media presentations from 1978 to the 2000s.

Releases
The album was initially available on Quality Records in 1985 (catalogue number SV-2138), but the label ceased operations in 1986, after more than 35 years of business.  They had been Canada's biggest domestic label in the 1950s and 1960s.
MCA Records picked up the reissue rights for Con-Test, as well as Nash's American Band-ages in 1986, but the abrupt change in record labels led to a near-absence of promotion for both records.
Duke Street Records would release FM's next album, Tonight on vinyl and CD.  This was FM's first CD release.  The CD edition included five bonus tracks taken from Con-Test (tracks 1 to 4, and 6).  This acquisition of the rights to Con-Test led to a CD edition of the full album on Duke Street in 1987, but Duke Street did not reissue it on vinyl.

Track listing
All tracks composed by Cameron Hawkins, Martin Deller, and Nash the Slash—except where noted. All tracks arranged by FM and Michael Waite.

Side one"Just Like You" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 4:05
"We Hold On" – 4:35
"All of the Dreams" – 4:05
"Until the Night Is Over" – 3:50
"The Only Way to Win" – 3:46Side two"Why Don't You Take It" – 4:10
"Distant Early Warning" – 4:08
"Friends and Neighbours" – 4:33
"Stop!" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 5:00

Personnel
Nash the Slash – lead and background vocals, electric mandolin, electric violin, harmonica
Cameron Hawkins – lead and background vocals, synthesizers, bass guitar
Martin Deller – drums, electronic percussion

Guests
Ben Mink – electric guitars
Rob Yale – Fairlight C.M.I.
Glen Johansen and David Moses – background vocals on "Distant Early Warning"

Technical credits
Produced by Michael Waite for Eye to Ear Productions
Bed tracks recorded at Manta Sound, engineered by John Naslin assisted by Ron Searls and Mark Baldi
Overdubs recorded at Metal Works, engineered by Glen Johansen assisted by Noel Golden
Mixed at Manta Sound, engineered by John Naslin assisted by Mark Baldi and Mike Duncan
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York City
Robert Vanderhorst – cover art

Singles
"Just Like You" – 1985 (Canadian chart #38)
"All of the Dreams" – 1986 (Canadian chart #86)
"Why Don't You Take It" / "Just Like You" – MCA 52840, 1986 (issued with cover, Canadian chart #90)The latter record was also issued as a 12-inch single on MCA 23634 with alternate versions:

"Why Don't You Take It (Flight Mix)" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – total 6:27
"Intro (Taxi)" – 0:50
"The Tune (Take Off)" – 5:37
"Just Like You (Fun Mix)" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 7:06

Demo recordings
Demo versions of four songs for Con-Test appeared on FM's Lost in Space CD on Cut-throat Records in 2001, recorded at Cut-throat Studios in May 1984.  Cut-throat is Nash's own record company and studio.  These include a cover version of "It's My Life", a song by The Animals from 1965, that did not make it to the album.
In the liner notes, Nash the Slash heavily criticizes the production of the Con-Test versions, preferring the demos.  He states that he reluctantly took over the lead vocals from Hawkins on "Friends and Neighbours" between the demo and Con-Test versions, at the insistence of the producer (Waite), and characterizes the LP version of this song as "bastardized".
"The Only Way to Win" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 3:05
"Friends and Neighbours" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 4:03
"It's My Life" (Roger Atkins, Carl D'Errico) – 3:20
"Why Don't You Take It" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 4:42
Passage 2:
National Car Test
The National Car Test (Irish: An tSeirbhís Náisiúnta Tástála Carranna; abbreviated NCT) is a roadworthiness test, which all cars in Ireland must undergo. Following a tender process, the Road Safety Authority awarded the National Car Testing Service contract for the operation of the vehicle inspection service in the Republic of Ireland to Applus.

History
The National Car Test (the NCT) was introduced in 2000, since then all cars four years and older must undergo an NCT. The NCT due date is calculated by reference to the date of first registration of the car, with tests due every two years for cars younger than 10 years. Annual Testing was introduced in June 2011 and is now a legal requirement for vehicles that present for their 10th anniversary test and each subsequent test. Vehicles can be inspected up to 90 days in advance of the anniversary of the registration date. The waiting lists have proven to be long, with even the 'priority list' taking in excess of a month.

Procedure
The NCT is available in 47 centres around the Republic of Ireland  and it tests various aspects of cars for safety, including tyres, brakes and shock absorbers. It also tests the exhaust fumes for compliance with EU emissions standards. Other safety features, such as the spare tyre, seat belts and lights are also checked.
As of 2012, the fee for the NCT is €55 for a full test, and €28 for a re-test that requires testing equipment (e.g. emission levels, aiming of headlights, etc.). Re-tests that do not require the use of test equipment (such as obscured registration plate, faulty windscreen wiper, etc.) are free of charge. However, if a confirmed appointment is cancelled with less than five working days' notice (Mon. - Fri., not including the day of the test or the day you contact NCTS), or failure to show up for the test, a €22.00 surcharge will be applied when the car is next brought in for testing. A similar surcharge of €11.50 will apply in the case of a re-test.
Upon successful completion of the test a valid NCT certificate is issued and this must be displayed on the front windscreen of the vehicle.
A driver without a valid NCT on their car will incur three penalty points and a fine of €60, if paid within the first 28 days, and €90 if paid within the following 28 days. Thereafter, if the fine is not paid, a court appearance becomes mandatory and if convicted, five penalty points and a fine will be imposed by the court. This system was introduced on December 8, 2014, where previously all offenders were immediately faced with a mandatory court appearance and five penalty points upon conviction, in addition to a fine. Enforcement is the responsibility of the Garda Síochána. Local authorities can (in theory) refuse to issue a tax disc to a vehicle not having an NCT certificate and insurance companies could (in theory) declare cover for an untested (or failed) vehicle invalid.
There are exemptions for certain categories of vehicles such as vintage cars (registered before 1980) and vehicles based permanently on some offshore Islands.
NCTS centres are run by Applus Car Testing Services, who are independent of the motor industry.
If applicants cannot get an NCT appointment within 28 days of applying for it, the test is undertaken free of charge. This is assuming that the applicant:

Has not declined another appointment more than twice at a centre of their choosing.
Has not previously accepted a booking outside of the 4 week period.

Statistics
In August 2017 the Irish Sunday Independent reported that the best performing car in 2016 tests was the Nissan Juke and the worst the Hyundai Trajet. The same article revealed the existence of a data visualisation of 2016 NCT results.

Similar tests
In Northern Ireland, motor vehicles are subject to the MOT test, which is the standard in the United Kingdom.

See also
Vehicle inspection (general overview of roadworthiness tests around the world)
MOT test (UK)
Shaken (Japan)
Warrant of Fitness (New Zealand)
Passage 3:
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group.

Pre-history
MCA Inc., a talent agency and television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 with the purchase of the New York-based US Decca Records (established in 1934), including Coral Records and Brunswick Records. MCA was forced to exit the talent agency business in order to complete the merger. As American Decca owned Universal Pictures, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal and made it into a top film studio, producing several hits. In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records and in 1967, purchased Kapp Records which was placed under Uni Records management.

History
The early years
In 1937, the owner of Decca, Edward R. Lewis, chose to split off the UK Decca company from the US company (keeping his US Decca holdings), fearing the financial damage that would arise for UK Companies if the emerging hostilities of Nazi Germany should lead to war – correctly foreseeing World War II. Lewis sold the remainder of his US Decca holdings when war did break out.  US-based Decca Records kept the rights to the Decca name in North and South America and parts of Asia including Japan. UK Decca owned the rights to the Decca name in the rest of the world. After the war, British Decca formed a new US subsidiary, London Records.
During this time, American Decca issued records outside North America on the Brunswick and Coral labels. In 1962, MCA acquired American Decca and became a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1967, Brunswick and Coral were replaced by the MCA label, which was used to release US Decca and Kapp label material outside North America. Initial activity as MCA Records was based in London and MCA Records UK was formally launched on February 16, 1968. Among the early artists on the MCA label, around 1971, were groups Wishbone Ash, Osibisa, Stackridge and Budgie, and solo artists Tony Christie, Mick Greenwood and Roy Young.Early MCA UK releases were distributed by Decca, but moved to EMI in 1974. As the US division of MCA Records was not established until 1972, the earliest UK MCA Records material was released in the US on either Kapp or Decca. MCA UK also issued American Brunswick material on the MCA label until 1972, two years after MCA lost control of Brunswick, after which American Brunswick material was issued in the UK on the revived Brunswick label. Uni label material was issued on the Uni label worldwide.

MCA Records formation in Canada and the United States
In 1970, MCA reorganized its Canadian record company Compo Company Ltd. into MCA Records (Canada). In April 1970, former Warner Bros. Records president Mike Maitland joined MCA and initially served as Decca's general manager. Maitland was unsuccessful in his attempt to consolidate Warner Bros. Records with co-owned Atlantic Records which led to his departure from Warner.
In April 1971, Maitland supervised the consolidation of the New York-based Decca and Kapp labels plus the California-based Uni label into MCA Records based in Universal City, California, with Maitland serving as president. The three labels maintained their identities for a short time, but were retired in favor of the MCA label in 1973. "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray became the final Decca pop label release in the U.S in 1973. Beginning the same year, the catalogs of Decca, Uni and Kapp were reissued in the US on the MCA label under the supervision of veteran Decca producer Milt Gabler.

Early success
The first MCA Records release in the US was former Uni artist Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" single in 1972, which appeared on a plain black and white label. 
Immediately following this, the US MCA label used a black with curved rainbow design until the late 1970s. This design was directly inspired by the US Decca label of the 1960s.
In December 1972, Neil Diamond, another Uni artist, reached  superstar status with his first MCA release, the live multi-platinum Hot August Night. Elton John's double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released in October 1973 and was number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart for eight straight weeks. The management of former Decca artists the Who had formed their own label Track Records in the UK, but were still under contract with MCA for US distribution. The Who's double album Quadrophenia was  released by Track/MCA also in October 1973. Quadrophenia peaked at number 2 as it was held back from the number 1 slot by Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Other successful artists on MCA, after the consolidation, included former Kapp artist Cher, and Uni artist Olivia Newton-John. MCA released the highly successful soundtrack album to the 1973 film The Sting. The soundtrack music was arranged and conducted by Marvin Hamlisch and won an Academy Award for Best Original Score (MCA issued many other soundtracks to films from Universal, along with some non-Universal films).
One of the most successful MCA artists in this era was the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, who would become one of the most popular in the Southern rock genre. The group was discovered by Al Kooper and initially released on his "Sounds of the South" label imprint of MCA. The song "Free Bird" became one of the most popular songs of all time on album-oriented rock radio stations. On Second Helping, the group recorded a song about their relationship with the label called, "Workin' for MCA". Street Survivors was released in October 1977, just prior to a tragic plane crash in which members of the group were either killed or severely injured. The original Street Survivors cover had a picture of the band members surrounded by flames, but this was quickly substituted for a design without flames. Though a latter version of the group enjoyed success, Lynyrd Skynyrd's streak of hits ended after the crash. Eventually, three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums reached the double platinum sales level and at least two others reached platinum or gold levels.
During the 1970s and 1980s, MCA profited from reissuing classic early rock and roll recordings made by artists who recorded for the numerous labels absorbed by MCA. One notable example was the 1954 Decca recording "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which was featured as the lead track of MCA's No. 1-charting American Graffiti soundtrack album, and as a single returned to the American top 40 that year, 20 years after it was recorded.

Expansion and struggles
In 1977, MCA president Sidney Sheinberg set up the Infinity Records division, based in New York City with Ron Alexenberg as CEO. Alexenberg had been with the Epic division of CBS Records, now Sony Music Entertainment. The intention was to give MCA a stronger presence on the East Coast. The only big hit the Infinity label had was "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes, a #1 single at the end of 1979. Infinity also had some success with Hot Chocolate, Spyro Gyra, New England and TKO. But MCA pulled the plug on Infinity after it failed to sell most of the 1 million advance copies of an album featuring Pope John Paul II in October 1979. Infinity was fully absorbed by the parent company in 1980.
In 1979, Bob Siner replaced Maitland as MCA Records president. Shortly afterwards, MCA acquired ABC Records along with its subsidiaries Paramount, Dunhill, Impulse!, Westminster, and Dot. ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when they purchased Gulf+Western's record labels and Famous Music Corp. Thus, MCA now controlled material once owned by Paramount Pictures, the music released by Paramount's record labels, and the pre-1950 films by Paramount as well.
Also included in this deal were recordings controlled by ABC, including albums by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers which were originally released by Shelter Records. Petty was furious about the reassignment of his contract and refused to record for MCA. This led to a series of lawsuits, which resulted in his bankruptcy in 1980. Petty and other ABC/Shelter artists eventually had their contracts transferred to the Backstreet Records label, which was distributed by MCA. ABC Records' independent distributors sued ABC and MCA for $1.3 million in damages for being stuck with unsold ABC recordings they could not return to MCA. The better selling ABC Records catalog albums were reissued on the MCA label.MCA distribution in Europe and Asia moved to CBS in 1979, while releases in the 1980s were self-distributed, or through WEA. Distribution moved to  BMG during the 1990s.

The 1980s
The combined effects of the Infinity Records failure, the purchase of ABC, rising vinyl costs and a major slump in record sales produced tremendous losses for the company between 1979 and 1982. It was not until the mid-1980s that the record labels returned to significant profitability. In late 1980, MCA received negative publicity when it attempted to raise the list price of new releases by top selling artists from $8.98 to $9.98. This policy, known as "superstar pricing", ultimately failed. The Xanadu soundtrack album and Gaucho, by former ABC act Steely Dan, were the first releases with the higher list price. Backstreet artist Tom Petty succeeded in his campaign to force MCA to drop prices back to $8.98 for the release of his album Hard Promises, in May 1981.MCA had a distribution deal with the independent label Unicorn Records, which in turn signed an agreement with another rising independent label, SST Records to manufacture and distribute Black Flag's first album Damaged. Reportedly, MCA executive Al Bergman heard an advance copy of the album and refused to let MCA Distributing Inc. handle it, claiming that it was "an anti-parent record." The members of Black Flag found themselves covering the MCA Distributing logo on the first 25,000 copies with a sticker reading "As a parent... I found it an anti-parent record." SST Records partner Joe Carducci later claimed that Bergman's comments were actually a red herring for MCA to cut ties with Unicorn, which had not produced any successful releases; the fact that MCA would, not soon afterward, directly commission a new recording of "TV Party" from Black Flag and SST Records for the  Repo Man soundtrack seems to bear this out. Unicorn would later go out of business after going bankrupt, partially the result of a lawsuit between themselves and Black Flag.

Recovery, further expansion and MCA Music Entertainment Group
Irving Azoff became the head of MCA Records in 1983. Azoff is known as an experienced music industry veteran who received credit amongst MCA management and staff for saving the company from bankruptcy.
In 1983, rock musician Frank Zappa negotiated a distribution agreement for his Barking Pumpkin label with MCA. As the records were being manufactured, a woman in the quality control department objected to the lyrics of Zappa's album Thing-Fish. After this MCA cancelled the Zappa contract. At about the same time, Zappa publicly argued with members of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) over censorship and warning stickers for albums with potentially offensive content. The experience with MCA prompted Zappa to create a satirical "WARNING/GUARANTEE" sticker of his own. Thing-Fish was released with Zappa's sticker in December 1984 under a new agreement with Capitol/EMI. Despite the conflict with Zappa, MCA later became the biggest label to oppose the PMRC and the use of warning stickers. In October 1985, Azoff said "Never will you find a sticker on one of our records."In the 1980s, MCA became commonly known as "Music Cemetery of America" due to a huge surplus of unprofitable records sitting unsold in MCA warehouses. A number of MCA associates, including Azoff and Zappa, disparaged the company in this way.Starting in 1984, William Knoedelseder wrote a series of articles for the Los Angeles Times about the connections between organized crime and MCA. Knoedelseder told the story of mobster Sal Pisello and the corrupt deals he arranged with MCA for the liquidation sales of unsold cut-out recordings that had been deleted from the MCA catalog. The story was later adapted into the book Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia, which was published in 1993.
The Chess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugar Hill Records in 1985. Motown Records was bought in 1988. In the late 1980s, MCA formed Mechanic Records as a sub-label for releasing heavy metal music. Bands signed to Mechanic included Voivod, Dream Theater, Bang Tango, and Trixter. Another sub-label, called The Futurist Label, was created to release progressive rock and death metal albums.MCA created a new holding company in 1989 called MCA Music Entertainment Group, headed by Al Teller, former President of United Artists Records, and Co-Chairman of Turf Classics, a concert production company, run by Producer Richard Flanzer. The same year the MCA Inc. parent company was purchased by the Matsushita group.
Azoff resigned from MCA in 1989 to form his own record label, Giant Records, now defunct.  Richard Palmese was named president of MCA Records after Azoff in 1990.

The 1990s
GRP Records and Geffen Records were acquired in 1990. Unlike most of MCA's previous acquisitions, GRP (which began managing MCA's jazz holdings) and Geffen (which became a second mainstream subsidiary) labels kept their identities. MCA sold Motown Records to PolyGram in 1993.

Universal Music Group
In 1995, Seagram Company Ltd. acquired 80% of MCA.  In November of that year, Teller was fired and replaced by former Warner Music Group head Doug Morris. Palmese left MCA a week later. Afterwards, Jay Boberg was named as the new president of MCA. On December 9, 1996, the new owners dropped the MCA name; the company became Universal Studios, Inc. and its music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group (UMG), headed by Morris.
In 1997, MCA Records adopted a new logo that featured the parent company's former full name. Many younger people had been unaware of what MCA had stood for in the past, hence the new logo. In conjunction with the new logo, the first MCA Records website was launched.
On May 21, 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram (owner of British Decca) from Philips and merged it with Universal Music Group. Unlike several labels under PolyGram and UMG, who faced closure and job cuts of employees, MCA was the only label that was not affected by the merger. When Seagram's drinks business was bought by France-based Pernod Ricard, its media holdings (including Universal) were sold to Vivendi which became Vivendi Universal which was later renamed back to Vivendi SA after selling most of the entertainment division (which included Universal Pictures) to General Electric. Morris continued to head the combined company, still called Universal Music Group.

MCA label phaseout
On January 16, 2003, Jay Boberg resigned from his position as president of MCA Records. Boberg's resignation arrived in the wake of slumping sales at MCA, which had seen the label's overall album market share decline to just 2.61% in 2002, down from 9% the previous year. His demise was hastened by the relative commercial failure of Shaggy's Lucky Day, released in October 2002, which MCA hoped would sell well enough to turn around their declining fortunes. Richard Nichols, manager of The Roots, felt that MCA had been attempting to spend lots of money on different projects, and subsequently many acts on MCA were "underfinanced" by the label, leading to poor sales. Rob Hitt of Midtown (who was signed to MCA through Drive-Thru Records) stated that MCA had lost a substantial amount of money that year from investing in several unsuccessful bands.Management of the label was subsequently handed over to the Interscope Geffen A&M umbrella label and Jimmy Iovine, although UMG chairman Doug Morris promised that MCA would continue to operate as a "full-service, free standing label". Craig Lambert, previously the vice president of the label, was named as the interim head of MCA, with a successor expected to be chosen within a few months. Following Boberg's resignation, it was rumoured that MCA could possibly be merged into Universal Records, something which would have given the latter, New York City-based label a stronger presence in the West Coast of the United States.On May 20, 2003, insider sources at Universal reporting to Billboard revealed that the MCA label was to be absorbed by sister UMG label Geffen Records by the end of the year. The reported reason behind the MCA brand phaseout was due to declining sales, as well as the MCA brand becoming "tarnished" by "a history of acquisitions and mergers". On June 9, 2003, MCA laid off 75 of their staff, equivalent to a third of their personnel, although no employees from Geffen were let go. Geffen's president, Jordan Schur, was named president of the newly merged entity, which continued under the Geffen branding. In the subsequent months, the MCA name was phased out entirely. The last album to be released under the MCA Records branding was Twisted Method's Escape from Cape Coma, which was released on July 15, 2003.Today Universal Music Enterprises manages MCA's rock, pop, and urban back catalogues (including those from ABC Records and Famous Music Group) in conjunction with Geffen – UME and Geffen have re-released various albums from MCA in the years since, as well as several compilations. Its country music label MCA Nashville Records is still in operation, and is one of the only businesses using the MCA trademark as of 2016 along with MCA Records France (imprint of Universal Music France). MCA's jazz catalogue is managed by Verve Records (through the Impulse! and GRP imprints, depending on whether the recording was acquired from ABC or not), while its classical music catalogue is managed by Deutsche Grammophon. MCA's musical theatre catalogue is managed by Decca Records on its Decca Broadway imprint.

Logos
Labels
MCA Records recording artists
Passage 4:
Ace Fu Records
Ace Fu Records is an independent record label founded in 1998 by Eric Speck. It is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The label went on indefinite hiatus in 2007.

Roster
Acid Mothers Temple
Annuals
An Albatross
Aqui
The Dears
Devotchka
Ex Models
Illinois
Kaiser Chiefs
Man Man
Michael Leviton
Oneida
Officer May
Parts & Labor
Pinback
Priestess
Runner and the Thermodynamics
Secret Machines
The Sucka MCs
Ted Leo
Tunng

See also
List of record labels

External links
Official site
Passage 5:
EmArcy Records
EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by the American Mercury Records. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company.During the 1950s and 1960s, musicians such as Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan recorded for EmArcy.Today, it is a European jazz label owned by Universal Music Group. The catalogue is managed by the Island Records subsidiary.

Discography
Mono 12" LP series (1954–c. 1958)
Passage 6:
Santa Monica, California
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 history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California. The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who in 1875, along with 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 early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.

History
Indigenous
The Tongva are Indigenous to the Santa Monica area. The village of Comicranga was established 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.

Spanish era
The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolá, which camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769.
There are two different accounts of how the city's name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), but her feast day is May 4. Another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety.

Mexican era
In 1839, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica to Francisco Sepúlveda II, of the Sepúlveda family of California. As the definitions of the rancho grant were not precise, the Sepúlveda family came into conflict with the neighboring Rancho Boca de Santa Mónica, owned by Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Márquez. A small Californio community grew up on Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, made up primarily of vaqueros working on the rancho and their families.

Post-conquest era
After the American conquest of California, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. U.S. government sovereignty in California began on February 2, 1848.
In the 1870s, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was an 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now part of the Santa Monica Hostel. By 1885, the town's first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel.Amusement piers became popular in the first decades of the 20th century and the extensive Pacific Electric Railway brought people to the city's beaches from across the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica and Venice. The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans, who were often well-disposed toward the Japanese but condescending to the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an integral economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community.
Donald Wills Douglas Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field (Santa Monica Airport) for the Douglas Aircraft Company. In 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles (44,342 km) in 175 days, and were greeted on their return September 23, 1924, by a crowd of 200,000. The Douglas Company (later McDonnell Douglas) kept facilities in the city until the 1970s.The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply. One report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt. In the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica (along with neighboring Los Angeles). The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall. The main Post Office and Barnum Hall (Santa Monica High School auditorium) were also among other WPA projects.

Modern era
Douglas's business grew with the onset of World War II, employing as many as 44,000 people in 1943. To defend against air attack, set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared elaborate camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield. The RAND Corporation began as a project of the Douglas Company in 1945, and spun off into an independent think tank on May 14, 1948. RAND acquired a 15-acre (61,000 m2) campus across the street from the Civic Center and is still there today.
The completion of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1958 eliminated Belmar, the first African American community in the city, and the Santa Monica Freeway in 1966 decimated the Pico neighborhood that had been a leading African American enclave on the Westside.
Beach volleyball is believed to have been developed by Duke Kahanamoku in Santa Monica during the 1920s.Santa Monica has two hospitals: Saint John's Health Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Its cemetery is Woodlawn Memorial.
Santa Monica has several local newspapers including Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica Mirror, and Santa Monica Star.

Geography
Santa Monica rests on a mostly flat slope that angles down toward Ocean Avenue and toward the south. High bluffs separate the north side of the city from the beaches. Santa Monica borders the L.A. neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south. To the west, Santa Monica has a 3-mile coastline fronting Santa Monica Bay, and to the east of the city are the L.A. communities of West Los Angeles and Brentwood.

Climate
Santa Monica has a coastal Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). It enjoys an average of 310 days of sunshine a year. It is in USDA plant hardiness zone 11a. Because of its location, nestled on the vast and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June, July and early August (caused by ocean temperature variations and currents). Like other inhabitants of the greater Los Angeles area, residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon: the "May Gray", the "June Gloom" and even "Fogust". Overcast skies are common on June mornings, but usually the strong sun burns the fog off by noon. In the late winter/early summer, daily fog is a phenomenon too. It happens suddenly and it may last some hours or past sunset time. Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool all day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles area enjoy sunny skies and warmer temperatures. At times, the sun can be shining east of 20th Street while the beach area is overcast. As a general rule, the beach temperature is from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 6 degrees Celsius) cooler than it is inland during summer days, and 5 to 10 degrees warmer during winter nights.
It is also in September that the highest temperatures tend to be reached. It is winter, however, when the hot, dry winds of the Santa Anas are most common. In contrast, temperatures exceeding 10 degrees below average are rare.

The rainy season is from late October through late March. Winter storms usually approach from the northwest and pass quickly through the Southland. There is very little rain during the rest of the year. Yearly rainfall totals are unpredictable as rainy years are occasionally followed by droughts. There has never been any snow or frost, but there has been hail.
Santa Monica usually enjoys cool breezes blowing in from the ocean, which tend to keep the air fresh and clean. Therefore, smog is less of a problem for Santa Monica than elsewhere around Los Angeles. However, from September through November, the Santa Ana winds sometimes blow from the east, bringing smoggy and hot inland air to the beaches.
The hottest temperature ever reported in Santa Monica was 100 °F (38 °C) on November 1, 1966, while the lowest is 33 °F (1 °C) on March 1, 1945, and again on March 21, 1952. The highest minimum temperature is 72 °F (22 °C) on October 24, 2007, and the lowest maximum temperature is 51 °F (11 °C) on 4 dates in February 2001 and again March 10, 2006. The snowiest months on record are January 1954 and March 1955, both with trace amounts. They are the only months to ever report snowfall. Many months have reported no rainfall at all. Conversely, the wettest month on record is January 1995 with a total of 17.82 inches (453 mm) of rainfall. The wettest year on record is 1998, with a total of 25.4 inches (650 mm) of rainfall; the driest is 1989, with a total of 4.04 inches (103 mm) of rainfall.

Environment
The city first proposed its Sustainable City Plan in 1992 and in 1994, was one of the first cities in the nation to formally adopt a comprehensive sustainability plan, setting waste reduction and water conservation policies for both public and private sector through its Office of Sustainability and the Environment. Eighty-two percent of the city's public works vehicles run on alternative fuels, including most of the municipal bus system, making it among the largest such fleets in the country. Santa Monica fleet vehicles and buses source their natural gas from Redeem, a Southern California-based supplier of renewable and sustainable natural gas obtained from non-fracked methane biogas generated from organic landfill waste.Santa Monica adopted a Community Energy Independence Initiative, with a goal of achieving complete energy independence by 2020 (vs. California's already ambitious 33% renewables goal). The city exceeded that aspiration when, in February 2019, it switched over to electricity from the Clean Power Alliance, with a citywide default of 100% renewably sourced energy.  That same year, the Santa Monica City Council adopted a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan aimed at achieving an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and reaching community-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner.
An urban runoff facility (SMURFF), the first of its kind in the US, catches and treats 3.5 million US gallons (13,000 m3) of water each week that would otherwise flow into the bay via storm-drains and sells it back to end-users within the city for reuse as gray-water, while bioswales throughout the city allow rainwater to percolate into and replenish the groundwater. The groundwater supply plays an important role in the city's Sustainable Water Master Plan, whereby Santa Monica has set a goal of attaining 100% water independence by 2020. The city has numerous programs designed to promote water conservation among residents, including a rebate for those who convert lawns to drought-tolerant gardens that require less water.
Santa Monica has also instituted a green building-code whereby merely constructing to code automatically renders a building equivalent to the US Green Building Council's LEED Silver standards. The city's Main Library is one of many LEED certified or LEED equivalent buildings in the city. It is built over a 200,000 gallon cistern that collects filtered stormwater from the roof. The water is used for landscape irrigation.
Since 2009, Santa Monica has been developing the Zero Waste Strategic Operations Plan by which the city will set a goal of diverting at least 95% of all waste away from landfills, and toward recycling and composting, by 2030. The plan includes a food waste composting program, which diverts 3 million pounds of restaurant food waste away from landfills annually. As of 2013, 77% of all solid waste produced citywide is diverted from landfills.Environmentally focused initiatives include curbside recycling, curbside composting bins (in addition to trash, yard-waste, and recycle bins), farmers' markets, community gardens, garden-share, an urban forest initiative, a hazardous materials home-collection service, and a green business certification.As in other coastal beach communities, coastal erosion due to coastal infrastructure and high human usage is an increasing challenge, and will become worse due to sea level rise. Starting in 2016, local environmental groups began dune and beach restoration projects.

Demographics
2020
The  2020 United States Census reported Santa Monica had a population of 93,076. This corresponds to density of 11,067.3 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 63,383 (68.1%) white, 8,602 (9.2%)  Asian, 3,776 (4.1%) Black or African American, 539 (0.6%) American Indian and Alaska Native, 123 (0.1%) Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 5,347 (5.7%) some other race, and 11,306 (12.1%) people were of two or more races.Including all responses for people of two or more races, 73,996 (79.5%) were white alone or in combination with one or more other races, 11,864 (12.7%) were Asian alone or in combination with one or more other races, 5,459 (5.9%) were Black or African American alone or in combination, 1,877 (2.0%) were American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination, 415 (0.4%) were Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander alone or in combination, and 11,619 (12.5%) were some other race alone or in combination with one or more other races.13,544 (14.6%) were  Hispanic or  Latino of any race. Of those, 2,729 (2.9% of the total population) were white alone, 153 (0.2%) were Black or African American alone, 410 (0.4%) were American Indian and Alaska Native alone, 136 (0.1%) were Asian alone, 14 (0.0%) were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, 4,542 (4.9%) were some other race alone, and 5,560 (6.0%) were two or more races.The census reported that Santa Monica had 52,389 housing units. Of those, 47,438 (90.5%) were occupied. 12,856 (27.1%) of the occupied units were owner-occupied and 34,582 (72.9%) were renter-occupied. Of the vacant units, 2,540 (4.8% of total) were for rent, 230 (0.4%) were rented but not occupied, 183 (0.3%) were for sale only, 205 (0.4%) were sold but not occupied, 693 (1.3%) were for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use, and 1,100 (2.1%) were otherwise vacant. 94.8% of households had a computer between 2017 and 2021, and 91.0% had broadband internet access.

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported Santa Monica had a population of 89,736. The population density was 10,662.6 inhabitants per square mile (4,116.9/km2). The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 69,663 (77.6%) White (70.1% Non-Hispanic White), 3,526 (3.9%) African American, 338 (0.4%) Native American, 8,053 (9.0%) Asian, 124 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 4,047 (4.5%) from other races, and 3,985 (4.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,716 persons (13.1%), with Mexican Americans, Spanish Americans, and Argentine Americans making up 64.2%, 6.4%, and 4.7% of the Hispanic population respectively.The Census reported 87,610 people (97.6% of the population) lived in households, 1,299 (1.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 827 (0.9%) were institutionalized.
There were 46,917 households, out of which 7,835 (16.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,092 (27.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,510 (7.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,327 (2.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,867 (6.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 416 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 22,716 households (48.4%) were made up of individuals, and 5,551 (11.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.87. There were 17,929 families (38.2% of all households); the average family size was 2.79.
The population was spread out, with 12,580 people (14.0%) under the age of 18, 6,442 people (7.2%) aged 18 to 24, 32,552 people (36.3%) aged 25 to 44, 24,746 people (27.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,416 people (15.0%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males.
There were 50,912 housing units at an average density of 6,049.5 per square mile (2,335.7/km2), of which 13,315 (28.4%) were owner-occupied, and 33,602 (71.6%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.1%. 30,067 people (33.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 57,543 people (64.1%) lived in rental housing units.
According to the 2010 United States Census, Santa Monica had a median household income of $73,649, with 11.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 84,084 people, 44,497 households, and 16,775 families in the city. The population density was 10,178.7 inhabitants per square mile (3,930.0 inhabitants/km2). There were 47,863 housing units at an average density of 5,794.0 per square mile (2,237.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 78.29% White, 7.25% Asian, 3.78% African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 5.97% from other races, and 4.13% from two or more races. 13.44% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 44,497 households, out of which 15.8% had children under the age of 18, 27.5% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 62.3% were non-families. 51.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average family size was 2.80.
The city of Santa Monica is consistently among the most educated cities in the United States, with 23.8 percent of all residents holding graduate degrees.The population was diverse in age, with 14.6% under 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 40.1% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.4% 65 years or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.3 males.
According to a 2009 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $71,095, and the median income for a family was $109,410. Males had a median income of $55,689 versus $42,948 for females. The per capita income for the city was $42,874. 10.4% of the population and 5.4% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 9.9% of those under the age of 18 and 10.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Crime
In 2006, crime in Santa Monica affected 4.41% of the population, slightly lower than the national average crime rate that year of 4.48%. The majority of this was property crime, which affected 3.74% of Santa Monica's population in 2006; this was higher than the rates for Los Angeles County (2.76%) and California (3.17%), but lower than the national average (3.91%). These per-capita crime rates are computed based on Santa Monica's full-time population of about 85,000. However, the Santa Monica Police Department has suggested the actual per-capita crime rate is much lower, as tourists, workers, and beachgoers can increase the city's daytime population to between 250,000 and 450,000 people.Hate crime has typically been minimal in Santa Monica, with only one reported incident in 2007. The city experienced a spike of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, but hate crime levels returned to their minimal 2000 levels by 2002.
Gang activityThe Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica (south of the Santa Monica Freeway) experiences some gang activity. The city estimates there are about 50 gang members based in Santa Monica, although some community organizers dispute this claim. Gang activity has been prevalent for decades in the Pico neighborhood.
In October 1998, alleged Culver City 13 gang member Omar Sevilla of Culver City was killed. A couple of hours after the shooting of Sevilla, German tourist Horst Fietze was killed. Several days later Juan Martin Campos, a Santa Monica city employee, was shot and killed. Police believe this was a retaliatory killing in response to Sevilla's killing. Less than 24 hours later, Javier Cruz was wounded in a drive-by shooting outside his home on 17th and Michigan.In 1998, there was a double homicide in the Westside Clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard. During the incident, Culver City gang members David "Puppet" Robles and Jesse "Psycho" Garcia entered the store masked and began opening fire, killing Anthony and Michael Juarez. Police say the incident was in retaliation for a shooting committed by the Santa Monica 13 gang days before the Juarez brothers were shot down.

Homeless population
In 2022, there were 826 homeless individuals in Santa Monica.

Economy
Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of many notable businesses, such as Beachbody, Fatburger, Hulu, Illumination, Otter Media, Lionsgate, Macerich, Miramax, CBS Media Ventures, the RAND Corporation, Saban Capital Group, The Recording Academy (which presents the annual Grammy Awards), TOMS Shoes, and Universal Music Group. Atlantic Aviation is at the Santa Monica Airport. The National Public Radio member station KCRW is on the Santa Monica College campus. VCA Animal Hospitals is just outside the eastern city limit.A number of game development studios are based in Santa Monica, making it a major location for the industry. These include:

Activision Blizzard (which includes Activision)
Cloud Imperium Games (Creators of Star Citizen)
Naughty Dog (Creators of Crash Bandicoot (1996–1999), Jak & Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises)
PUBG Corporation (North American station, developed Miramar map in PUBG)
Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, is just outside the eastern city limit.
TreyarchRecently, Santa Monica has emerged as the center of the Los Angeles region called Silicon Beach, and serves as the home of hundreds of venture capital funded startup companies.
Former Santa Monica businesses include Douglas Aircraft (now merged with Boeing), GeoCities (which in December 1996 was headquartered on the third floor of 1918 Main Street in Santa Monica), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and MySpace (now headquartered in Beverly Hills).

Top employers
According to the city's 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:

Arts and culture
The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome (carousel) is a National Historic Landmark. It sits on the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909. The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once the largest ballroom in the US and the source for many New Year's Eve national network broadcasts.
The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was an important music venue for several decades and hosted the Academy Awards in the 1960s. McCabe's Guitar Shop is a leading acoustic performance space as well as retail outlet. The Santa Monica Playhouse is a popular theater in the city.
Bergamot Station is a city-owned art gallery compound that includes the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The city is also home to the California Heritage Museum and the Angels Attic dollhouse and toy museum.

The New West Symphony is the resident orchestra of Barnum Hall. They are also resident orchestra of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.
Santa Monica hosts the annual Santa Monica Film Festival.The city's oldest movie theater is the Majestic. Opened in 1912 and also known as the Mayfair Theatre, it has been closed since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The Aero Theater (now operated by the American Cinematheque) and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and still show movies.
Notable restaurants have included Madame Wu's Garden, Batterfish, Stout Burgers and Beers, and The Misfit.

Shopping districts
Santa Monica has three main shopping districts: Montana Avenue on the north side, the Downtown District in the city's core, and Main Street on the south end. Each has its own unique feel and personality. Montana Avenue is a stretch of luxury boutique stores, restaurants, and small offices that generally features more upscale shopping. The Main Street district offers an eclectic mix of clothing, restaurants, and other specialty retail.
The Downtown District is the home of the Third Street Promenade, a major outdoor pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks between Wilshire Blvd. and Broadway. Third Street is closed to vehicles for those three blocks to allow people to stroll, congregate, shop and enjoy street performers.
The Santa Monica Place, featuring Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is at the Promenade's southern end. After a period of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a modern shopping, entertainment and dining complex with more outdoor space.

Public library system
The Santa Monica Public Library consists of a Main Library in the downtown area, plus four neighborhood branches: Fairview, Montana Avenue, Ocean Park, and Pico Boulevard.

Sports
The men's and women's marathon ran through parts of Santa Monica during the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Santa Monica Track Club has many prominent track athletes, including many Olympic gold medalists. Santa Monica is the home to Southern California Aquatics, which was founded by Olympic swimmer Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair. Santa Monica is also home to the Santa Monica Rugby Club, a semi-professional team that competes in the Pacific Rugby Premiership, the highest-level rugby union club competition in the United States.
During the 2028 Summer Olympics, Santa Monica will host beach volleyball and surfing.

Parks and recreation
Palisades Park stretches out along the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking area to view the ocean. It includes public art, a totem pole, camera obscura, benches, picnic areas, pétanque courts, and restrooms.
Tongva Park occupies 6 acres between Ocean Avenue and Main Street, just south of Colorado Avenue. The park includes an overlook, amphitheater, playground, garden, fountains, picnic areas, and restrooms.
The Santa Monica Stairs, a long, steep staircase that leads from north of San Vicente down into Santa Monica Canyon, is a popular spot for outdoor workouts. Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the wealthy neighborhood of multimillion-dollar properties.Ishihara Park opened to the public in 2017 and acts as a buffer between the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the surrounding residential community.

Government
Local government
Santa Monica is governed by the Santa Monica City Council, a Council-Manager governing body with seven members elected at-large. The mayor is Gleam Davis, and the Mayor Pro Tempore is Lana Negrete. The other five council members are Phil Brock, Christine Parra, Oscar de la Torre, Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis.

Representation
In the California State Legislature, Santa Monica is in the  26th Senate District, represented by Democrat María Elena Durazo, and in the  50th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Eloise Reyes.In the United States House of Representatives, Santa Monica is in California's  36th congressional district, represented by Democrat Ted Lieu.

Education
Public schools
The Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District provides public education at the elementary and secondary levels. In addition to the traditional model of early education school houses, SMASH (Santa Monica Alternative School House) is "a K–8 public school of choice with team teachers and multi-aged classrooms". The district maintains eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools in Santa Monica.

Private schools
Private schools in the city include Crossroads School and Saint Monica Catholic High School.
Asahi Gakuen, a weekend Japanese supplementary school system, operates its Santa Monica campus (サンタモニカ校･高等部 Santamonika-kō kōtōbu) at Webster Middle in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles. All high school classes in the Asahi Gakuen system are held at the Santa Monica campus.

Post-secondary
Santa Monica College is a community college founded in 1929. Many SMC graduates transfer to the University of California system. It occupies 35 acres (14 hectares) and enrolls 30,000 students annually. The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, associated with the RAND Corporation, is the U.S.'s largest producer of public policy PhDs. The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles is also in Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Airport.
Universities and colleges within a 22-mile (35 km) radius from Santa Monica include Santa Monica College, Antioch University Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Mount St. Mary's University, Pepperdine University, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, West Los Angeles College, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Occidental College (Oxy), Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, and Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine.

Infrastructure
Transportation
Bicycles
Santa Monica has a bike action plan and launched a bicycle sharing system in November 2015. The city is traversed by the Marvin Braude Bike Trail. Santa Monica has received the Bicycle Friendly Community Award (Bronze in 2009, Silver in 2013) by the League of American Bicyclists. Local bicycle advocacy organizations include Santa Monica Spoke, a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Santa Monica is thought to be one of the leaders for bicycle infrastructure and programming in Los Angeles County although cycling infrastructure in Los Angeles County in general remains very poor compared to other major cities.The city implemented a 5-year and 20-year Bike Action Plan with a goal of attaining 14 to 35% bicycle transportation mode share by 2030 through the installation of enhanced bicycle infrastructure throughout the city.  In 2023, Santa Monica scored near the 90th percentile of cities surveyed in the PeopleForBikes City Ratings, which measures the quality of a city’s bike network.In terms of number of bicycle accidents, Santa Monica ranks as one of the worst (#2) out of 102 California cities with population 50,000–100,000, a ranking consistent with the city's composite ranking.
In 2007 and 2008, local police cracked down on Santa Monica Critical Mass rides that had become controversial, putting a damper on the tradition.

Highways
The Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10) begins in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean and heads east. The Santa Monica Freeway between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles has the distinction of being one of the busiest highways in all of North America. After traversing the Greater Los Angeles area, I-10 crosses seven more states, terminating at Jacksonville, Florida. In Santa Monica, there is a road sign designating this route as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway. State Route 2 (Santa Monica Boulevard) begins in Santa Monica, barely grazing State Route 1 at Lincoln Boulevard, and continues northeast across Los Angeles County, through the Angeles National Forest, crossing the San Gabriel Mountains as the Angeles Crest Highway, ending in Wrightwood. Santa Monica is also the western terminus of Historic U.S. Route 66. Close to the eastern boundary of Santa Monica, Sepulveda Boulevard reaches from Long Beach at the south, to the northern end of the San Fernando Valley. Just east of Santa Monica is Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, a major north–south route in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Motorized vehicles
Santa Monica has purchased the first ZeroTruck all-electric medium-duty truck. The vehicle will be equipped with a Scelzi utility body, it is based on the Isuzu N series chassis, a UQM PowerPhase 100 advanced electric motor and is the only US built electric truck offered for sale in the United States in 2009.

Bus
The city of Santa Monica runs its own bus service, the Big Blue Bus, which also serves much of West Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A Big Blue Bus was featured prominently in the action movie Speed.
The city of Santa Monica is also served by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) bus lines. Metro also complements Big Blue service, as when Big Blue routes are not operational overnight, Metro buses make many Big Blue Bus stops, in addition to MTA stops.

Light rail
Design and construction on the 6.6-mile extension (10.6 km) of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica started in September 2011, with service beginning on May 20, 2016. Santa Monica Metro stations include Downtown Santa Monica, 17th Street/SMC, and 26th Street/Bergamot. Travel time between Downtown Santa Monica station and 7th Street/Metro Center station in Downtown Los Angeles is approximately 46 minutes, while the travel time between the downtown Santa Monica station and the terminal Atlantic station in East Los Angeles is approximately 1 hour and 9 minutes.
Historical aspects of the Expo line route are noteworthy. It uses the former Los Angeles region's electric interurban Pacific Electric Railway's right-of-way that ran from the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles to Santa Monica. This route was called the Santa Monica Air Line and provided electric-powered freight and passenger service between Los Angeles and Santa Monica beginning in the 1920s. Passenger service was discontinued in 1953, but diesel-powered freight deliveries to warehouses along the route continued until March 11, 1988. The abandonment of the line spurred future transportation considerations and concerns within the community, and the entire right-of-way was purchased from Southern Pacific by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The line was built in 1875 as the steam-powered Los Angeles and Independence Railroad to bring mining ore to ships in Santa Monica harbor and as a passenger excursion train to the beach.

Airport and ports
The city owns and operates a general aviation airport, Santa Monica Airport, which has been the site of several important aviation achievements. Commercial flights are available for residents at LAX, a few miles south of Santa Monica.
Like other cities in Los Angeles County, Santa Monica is dependent upon the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles for international ship cargo. In the 1890s, Santa Monica was once in competition with Wilmington, California, and San Pedro for recognition as the "Port of Los Angeles" (see History of Santa Monica, California).

Other
Since the mid-1980s, various proposals have been made to extend the Purple Line subway to Santa Monica under Wilshire Boulevard. There are no current plans to complete the "subway to the sea," an estimated $5 billion project.In August 2018, Santa Monica issued permits to Bird, Lime, Lyft, and Jump Bikes to operate dockless scooter-sharing systems in the city. As of April 2023, Lyft, Spin, Veo, and Wheels are licensed to provide micro-mobility transportation in city.

Emergency services
Two major hospitals are within the Santa Monica city limits, UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica and Saint John's Health Center. Four fire stations provide medical and fire response, staffed with six Paramedic Engines, a Truck company, a Hazardous Materials team and an Urban Search & Rescue team. Santa Monica Fire Department has its own Dispatch Center. Ambulance transportation is provided by McCormick Ambulance Services.Law enforcement services are provided by the Santa Monica Police Department
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica. The Department's West Area Health Office is in the Simms/Mann Center.

Internet services
Santa Monica has a municipal wireless network which provides several free city Wi-Fi hotspots distributed around the city.

In popular culture
Film and television
Hundreds of moving pictures have been shot or set in part in Santa Monica.

Films
One of the oldest exterior shots in Santa Monica is Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage (1929) which shows much of 2nd Street. The comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) included several scenes shot in Santa Monica, including those along the California Incline, which led to the movie's treasure spot, "The Big W". The Sylvester Stallone film Rocky III (1982) shows Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed training to fight Clubber Lang by running on the Santa Monica Beach, and Stallone's Demolition Man (1993) includes Santa Monica settings. In Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), the theft of Pee-wee's bike occurs on the Third Street Promenade. Henry Jaglom's indie Someone to Love (1987), the last film in which Orson Welles appeared, takes place in Santa Monica's venerable Mayfair Theatre. Heathers (1988) used Santa Monica's John Adams Middle School for many exterior shots. The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) is set entirely in Santa Monica, particularly the Palisades Park area, and features a radio station that resembles KCRW at Santa Monica College. 17 Again (2009) was shot at Samohi. Other films that show significant exterior shots of Santa Monica include Fletch (1985), Species (1995), Get Shorty (1995), and Ocean's Eleven (2001). Richard Rossi's biopic Aimee Semple McPherson opens and closes at the beach in Santa Monica. Iron Man features the Santa Monica pier and surrounding communities as Tony Stark tests his experimental flight suit.
The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) and the related dramatic film Lords of Dogtown (2005) are both about the influential skateboarding culture of Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood in the 1970s.
Santa Monica (and in particular the Santa Monica Airport) was featured in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012 (2009). A magnitude 10.9 earthquake destroys the airport and the surrounding area as a group of survivors escape in a personal plane. The Santa Monica Pier and the whole city sinks into the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake.

Television
A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including Baywatch, Goliath, Pacific Blue (1996-2000), Private Practice (2007-2013), and Three's Company (1977-1984). The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale that includes the infamous "sun sign", was in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard.

Literature
Horace McCoy's 1935 novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is set at a dance marathon held in a ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier.
Raymond Chandler's most famous character, private detective Philip Marlowe, frequently has a portion of his adventures in a place called "Bay City", which is modeled on Depression-era Santa Monica. In Marlowe's world, Bay City is "a wide-open town", where gambling and other crimes thrive due to a massively corrupt and ineffective police force.
Tennessee Williams lived (while working at MGM Studios) in a hotel on Ocean Avenue in the 1940s. At that location he wrote the play The Glass Menagerie (that premiered in 1944). His short story "The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" (1954) is set near Santa Monica Beach and mentions the clock visible in much of the city, high up on The Broadway Building, on Broadway near Second Street.

Music
Notable locationsThe band Linkin Park is named in homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park (now called Christine Emerson Reed Park).
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is based in Santa Monica on Olympic Boulevard.
Universal Music Group is based in Santa Monica. Several of its labels, such as A&M Records, Aftermath Entertainment (started by Dr. Dre), G-Unit Records (created by 50 Cent & Sha Money XL), Geffen Records, Interscope (started by Jimmy Iovine), and Shady Records, are based in Santa Monica, CA.

Works
The folk Australian duo Angus and Julia Stone has a single titled "Santa Monica Dream" on its album Down the Way.
The ska/reggae band Bedouin Soundclash has a song called "Santa Monica".
The band Everclear released a song titled "Santa Monica" in 1995, which became their first mainstream hit.
The British singer-songwriter Noel Harrison released a song and album titled Santa Monica Pier (1968).
In 1948, bandleader Kay Kyser released a 78 record of the novelty song "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica (Down at the Pier in Santa Monica)".
One of the few songs musical satirist Tom Lehrer has recorded since the 1970s is a tribute to the holidays of the Jewish calendar called "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica".
Richard Rossi released a song called "Santa Monica," celebrating the Santa Monica Pier, on his album Seasons of My Heart.
The band Savage Garden released a song titled "Santa Monica" from its album Savage Garden (1997).
The modern rock band Theory of a Deadman's song "Santa Monica" is a first-person account of a girl leaving her significant other to start a new life in Santa Monica.
French Rapper Moha La Squale released the song "Santa Monica" in 2019.

Notable people
Sister cities
Mazatlán, Mexico
 Hamm, Germany
 Fujinomiya, Japan

See also
2013 Santa Monica shootings
Aragon Ballroom (Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California)
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, co-founder and benefactress of Santa Monica
List of cities and towns in California
List of City of Santa Monica Designated Historic Landmarks
List of people from Santa Monica, California
List of public art in Santa Monica, California
Muscle Beach
Passage 7:
The Right Stuff Records
The Right Stuff Records is an American reissue record label that was part of EMI, which is now owned by Universal Music Group and is based out of Santa Monica, California.
The label primarily released classic rock and R&B repertoire which included greatest hits collections, anthologies, boxed sets and compilations. The Right Stuff's repertoire was sourced from the various labels owned by EMI Records and also leased-in labels such as Dick Griffey's SOLAR (the Sound of Los Angeles Records), the post-1976 Philadelphia International Records, Hi Records, Tabu Records and Salsoul Records. The label also owned Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter Records and the New  York-based Laurie Records. The label also created many joint venture projects with outside brands such as Harley-Davidson, Hot Rod Magazine, Shape Magazine, and others. The label was started by former EMI and Capitol Records executive Tom Cartwright.

Selected artists on reissues

Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: When did the explorer reach the headquarters location of the group Con-Test's record label is part of?



Answer: August 3, 1769