Placentia

Town in Orange County, southern California, USA, 40 km/25 mi southeast of Los Angeles and adjacent to the southwest of Yorba Linda; population (1990) 41,300. Incorporated in 1926, it has developed from a farming community into a residential suburb with retail centres and some light industry.

Placentia

Port and town in Newfoundland, Canada, on the southwest arm of the Avalon Peninsula and the eastern shore of Placentia Bay, 103 km/64 mi southwest of St John; population (1991) 2,000. Fishing and tourism are the town's leading industries; the bay is a centre for humpback whale-watching. Originally a Basque fishing village, Placentia became Newfoundland's first and most important French settlement in the 1620s, serving as a fortified naval base until it was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

From the 1940s to the 1970s the naval station at nearby Argentia provided employment.