At midnight on 12/31/1914, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a Western Union telegraph key in Washington, D.C. which turned on the lights and touched off a display of fireworks to open the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Crowds surged across Cabrillo Bridge to see the exhibits and the park’s Spanish Colonial architecture. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).