Cowboy legend Gene Autry attends the American League expansion meetings hoping to get the broadcasting rights for the new Los Angeles Angels, and winds up as team owner. Fred Haney, the first general manager, selects a number of useful players in the expansion draft, including Jim Fregosi, Dean Chance, Buck Rodgers, Ken McBride and Albie Pearson.

Settiing in at tiny Wrigley Field for their first season, the Angels beat the Orioles 7-2 in their first contest and wind up winning 70 games, still a record for a first-year expansion team.

The Angels move into Chavez Ravine/Dodger Stadium as tenants of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and then amaze the baseball world by grabbing the American League lead in midseason. The Angels ultimately finish in third place with 86 victories.

After changing their name to the California Angels a year earlier, the Angels move into their own park, Anaheim Stadium, in the Orange County city of Anaheim.

Nolan Ryan, who had arrived a year earlier in a lopsided trade with the Mets, pitches the first two of his record seven no hitters and strikes out 383 batters, the highest single-season total in the 20th century.

Led by American League MVP Don Baylor, the Angels win their first-ever division title, but lose the LCS to the Orioles in four games.

Gene Mauch's Angels win the AL West titie, then take a two-games-to-none lead in the best­ of-five LCS against the Brewers. Alas, California drops the final three games of the Series.

After winning another AL West title under Mauch, the Angels take a three-games-to-one lead in the LCS against the Red Sox and are one pitch away from the World Series. But Donnie Moore serves up a home run to Dave Henderson. The Angels eventually lose in seven games.

The Angels take a big lead into the final weeks of the season, but collapse and wind up in a playoff game with the Mariners, which they lose, 9-1.

A year after the Walt Disney company takes over as managing general partner of the team, the club is renamed the Anaheim Angels.

After being renovated in the 1970s to accommodate the NFL Rams, Anaheim Stadium is reconfigured for baseball and renamed Edison International Field of Anaheim.

After 99 regular-season wins and a wild-card berth, the Anaheim Angels, buoyed by a late-inning, six run comeback in Game 6, take the World Series by defeating San Francisco 4-1 in the seventh game on October 17.