July 7, 1846 On this day in 1846, seven weeks after the U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico, Commodore John Drake Sloat ordered the ships USS Savannah and the sloops of war Cyane and Levant of the Pacific Squadron Navy fleet to enter Monterey Bay and to send troops ashore. The troops landed, seized control of the Custom House and Presidio in Monterey, raised the U.S. flag, and claimed California for the United States. The U.S. troops that landed in Monterey (the capital of Alta California) did not meet any resistance from Mexican soldiers. Two days later, Captain John Berrien Montgomery of the USS Portsmouth seized Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) and soon after the Bear Flag was lowered over Sonoma and replaced by the U.S. flag thus ending the short-lived (just over 3 weeks old) Bear Flag Republic. Following the seizure of Monterey, a period of American occupation began as part of the Mexican-American War in California. The Mexican-American War ended on February 2, 1848 when the...