Cupertino owes its name and earliest mention in recorded history to the 1776 expedition led by the Spaniard, Don Juan Bautista de Anza, from Sonora, Mexico to the Port of San Francisco to found the presidio of St. Francis.

Leaving the majority of the party of men, women, and children in Monterey to rest from their travels, de Anza, his diarist and cartographer, Petrus Font, and 18 other men pressed on through the Santa Clara Valley in late March to their San Francisco destination.

With the expedition encamped in what is now Cupertino, Font christened the creek next to the encampment the Arroyo San Joseph Cupertino in honor of his patron, San Guiseppe (San Joseph) of Cupertino, Italy. The arroyo is now known as Stevens Creek.

Many of Cupertino's pioneer European settlers planted their land in grapes. Vineyards and wineries proliferated on Montebello Ridge, on the lower foothills, and on the flat lands below.
After 1906 a lot more than grape growing was going on in Cupertino. Orchards were thriving and new businesses were being started. In the late 1940's Cupertino was swept up in Santa Clara Valley's postwar population explosion. Concerned by unplanned development, higher taxes, and piecemeal annexation to adjacent cities, Cupertino's community leaders began a drive in 1954 for incorporation. Cupertino rancher Norman Nathanson, the Cupertino-Monta Vista Improvement Association, and the Fact Finding Committee played important roles in this movement.

Cupertino Community Services (CCS) is a nonprofit, charitable, community-based agency serving the needs of low-income West Valley residents. CCS prevents hunger by distributing more than 100,000 pounds of food each year to hundreds of our less fortunate neighbors. To prevent the eviction of families from their homes and the shut-off of utilities, CCS provides rental assistance and help with PG&E bills. As a Salvation Army Service Center, CCS provides vouchers for gasoline, prescription drugs and shoes. The CCS Holiday program coordinates the distribution of Thanksgiving, Spring, and Summer food baskets, and organizes an "Adopt-A-family" Program in December.

CCS also offers a continuum of care in housing services. The CCS Rotating Shelter Program is a collaboration with local religious congregations and volunteers that provide food and shelter to employable homeless men. CCS also helps men and women with children to temporarily rent low-income housing in the CCS Transitional Housing program. Through the CCS Affordable Housing Program, qualified families and individuals in the Cupertino community may obtain homes at below market rates.

But CCS cannot provide emergency assistance to the needy each year without community support. Generous donations of time, services and money are needed so that CCS can help our less fortunate neighbors. CCS is located in the Quinlan Community Center at 10185 N. Stelling Road, Cupertino. For more information, or to find out how you can help, call, (408) 255-8033 or send email CCS@CupertinoCommunityService.org.

Incorporation was approved in the September 27, 1955 election. Cupertino officially became Santa Clara County's 13th City on October 10, 1955. A major milestone in Cupertino's development was the creation by some of the city's largest landowners of VALLCO Business and Industrial Park in the early 1960's. Of the 25 property owners, 17 decided to pool their land to form VALLCO Park, six sold to Varian Associates, a thriving young electronics firm, founded by Russell Varian, and two opted for transplanting to farms elsewhere. The name VALLCO was derived from the names of the principal developers: Varian Associates and the Leonard, Lester, Craft, and Orlando families.

Text was take from Cupertino Chronicle.