As powerful institutions tend to be, the Church of Scientology is rather defensive about facts regarding the early life of of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Some are beyond dispute, however: Hubbard served in the Navy during WW II, with command of two small vessels, but due to questionable decisions he was both times relieved of command and judged unfit for further similar duties. Following the war, Hubbard moved to Pasadena and became involved with the founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratories in some occult practices. That, combined with his flair for the fantastical – Hubbard wrote several science-fiction stories on and off for a good part of his post-military life – might have served as the foundation for his Dianetics book and the religion that emerged based on it.

On this day, February 18, in 1954, the Church of Scientology of California was opened by an early member of the religion, Burton Farber. It was technically not the first branch of the Church to open: an earlier one opened in New Jersey in 1953, but Hubbard, and therefore the Church, insisted that the California one is the first official institution.

Of all the controversies swirling around the Church of Scientology, the largest has centered around its status as a tax-exempt organization. American constitutional provisions for the separation of Church and State mean religious institutions are tax-exempt for most purposes. In 1967, the U.S. government decided the Church was commercial and profit-making in nature, and stripped it of the exemption. After multiple lawsuits and counter-lawsuits, the exemption was restored in 1993, and is in force still.