Pasadena

City in southwest California, USA, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains; part of Greater Los Angeles and 16 km/10 mi northeast of Los Angeles centre; population (1996 est) 134,100. Products include electronic equipment, precision instruments, plastics, and ceramics. It was founded by farmers from Indiana in 1874, and originally developed as a health resort.

On 1 January the East–West college football game is held in the 85,000-seat Rose Bowl stadium. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), founded in 1891, owns the Hale Observatories, which include the Mount Palomar telescope, and is also linked with the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. The collection of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery includes the Ellesmere Chaucer (1410), an illuminated copy of The Canterbury Tales, and Gainsborough's Blue Boy.

Rising to the east of the city, the San Gabriel Mountains are covered by the Angeles National Forest.