Los Angeles has long been associated with celebrities; rumor has it that you’ll probably see someone famous around every block. But there has to be more to the city than that! And there is; there are things about the infamous City of Angels that many people had no idea about. And it’s why this article was created: so you can talk about more than just Angelina Jolie or where the popular celebrity hotspots are. Here are the things you probably didn’t know about LA.

Twenty20/eric_urquhart
- LA’s first name, when translated from Spanish to English, was ridiculously long and meant, “The town of our lady queen of the angels on the Porciuncula River.”
- The city sits on top of the country’s third-largest oil field.
- The Santa Monica Pier was first designed to protect a sewage pipe that unloaded into the ocean.
- The iconic and super luxurious Beverly Hills used to be a lima bean ranch.
- Los Angeles is the only city to have hosted the Summer Olympics twice.
- In 1969, Los Angeles gave birth, so to speak, to the internet.
- It’s illegal to drive over 2000 sheep down the city’s most famous street, Hollywood Boulevard.
- It’s also illegal to lick a toad in Los Angeles.
- If your dog mates within 500 yards of a church, you could be fined $500 or face six months in prison.
- The Hollywood sign was longer before and read “Hollywoodland.

Twenty20/manonrinsma
- in the late nineties, Los Angeles fell victim to one of the most widespread cases involving documented police corruption in the history of the country.
- Los Angeles used to be part of Mexico before it was taken during the Mexican-American War in 1848.
- Rumor has it that there are more cars than people in Los Angeles, and that’s why parking is such a huge hassle.
- It is one of the most diverse cities in the country, with over 200 languages.
- Los Angeles only became the home of the film industry after movie makers moved from New Jersey to get away from patents.
- During World War II, it was a center for the production of ships and aircrafts.
- After New York City, Los Angeles has the largest (city) population in the United States.
- There are hidden tunnels below downtown LA.
- Goats are responsible for keeping the Getty Museum’s lawns looking good.
- There are over sixty people in Los Angeles legally named ‘Jesus Christ.’