Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Celebrates 125 Years: From One Doctor on Horseback to Global Pediatric Leader

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 1, 2026--

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is marking its 125th anniversary, celebrating more than a century of advances in pediatric medicine through clinical excellence, surgical innovation, and scientific discovery. CHLA consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 children’s hospitals on U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll of Best Children’s Hospitals, earning international recognition as a destination for families seeking specialized pediatric care.

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Incorporated on April 1, 1901, CHLA opened in a small house dedicated exclusively to the care of children. The hospital treated 14 patients in its first year, led by one physician who traveled on horseback to reach young patients across the region. What began as a modest charitable effort has grown into one of the nation’s leading pediatric academic medical centers. CHLA now oversees more than 750,000 patient visits each year, serving children and families in Southern California, as well as from all U.S. states and more than 90 countries.

CHLA is home to the Saban Research Institute —one of the nation’s leading pediatric research institutions with nearly 600 active clinical trials—and one of the country’s largest training programs for pediatricians, pediatric nurses, researchers, and other pediatric health professionals. In addition, the Chuck Lorre Pediatric Health Education Institute delivers comprehensive education at CHLA across six pillars of professional training, including physicians, nurses, clinical service and allied health professionals, researchers, simulation trainees, and members of the community workforce. The institute is the first of its kind in the nation and will serve as a model for training pediatric health professionals nationwide.

“The story of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is a 125-year commitment to saving and transforming children’s lives,” says Paul S. Viviano, CHLA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our physicians, nurses, researchers, and team members have continually pushed the boundaries of care, developing therapies and surgical approaches that have improved outcomes for generation after generation of children throughout the world.”

Leading Pediatric Care: A Legacy of Breakthroughs

Over its 125-year history, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has achieved countless breakthroughs in pediatric medicine. While there have been many significant advances, the following highlights showcase just a few of the many impactful innovations and milestones shaping the hospital’s legacy.

“Clinical discovery is central to CHLA’s mission of creating hope and building healthier futures,” says James E. Stein, MD, MSc, FACS, FAAP, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “In its next century of service, CHLA will continue to expand clinical programs, accelerate translational research, and train the next generation of pediatric physicians and surgeons so families everywhere can benefit from the latest advances in pediatric medicine.”

In celebration of its 125 th anniversary, CHLA launched the public and final phase of the $1.25 billion Anniversary Campaign this past fall. The initiative honors the hospital’s legacy of care while ensuring future generations of children have access to world-class treatments, innovative research, and programs designed to meet pediatric health care needs for the next 125 years.

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About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is at the forefront of pediatric medicine and is the largest provider of hospital care for children in California. In the 125 years since its founding in 1901, CHLA has delivered a level of pediatric care that is among the best in the world. Ranked one of the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles provides comprehensive and compassionate care to one of the largest and most diverse pediatric patient populations in the country. The hospital is the top-ranked children’s hospital in California and the Pacific U.S. region for 2025-26. A leader in pediatric research, CHLA is among the top ten children’s hospitals for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles supports the full continuum of research, translating scientific discoveries into life-changing treatments for patients around the globe. As a pediatric academic medical center, CHLA is also home to one of the largest graduate education programs for pediatricians in the United States. The hospital’s commitment to building stronger, healthier communities is evident in CHLA’s efforts to enhance health education and literacy, introduce more people to careers in health care, and fight food insecurity. To learn more, follow CHLA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X, and visit CHLA.org.

In its first year, Children's Hospital Los Angeles treated 14 patients, with a single physician traveling on horseback to reach patients across the region.

Children's Hospital Los Angeles, incorporated April 1, 1901, opened in a small house dedicated exclusively to the care of children.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up one of the term's most consequential cases, President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. Trump plans to be in attendance.

In arguments Wednesday, the justices will hear Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck down the citizenship restrictions, one of several courts that have blocked them. They have not taken effect anywhere in the country.

A definitive ruling is expected by early summer.

Trump will be the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.

The case frames another test of Trump's assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court that has largely ruled in the president's favor — but with some notable exceptions that Trump has responded to with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed the first day of his second term, is part of his Republican administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Birthright citizenship is the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously struck down global tariffs Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.

Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs decision, saying he was ashamed of the justices who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.

He issued a preemptive broadside against the court on Sunday on his Truth Social platform. “Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!,” the president wrote. “Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!”

Trump's order would upend the long-standing view that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, and federal law since 1940 confer citizenship on everyone born on American soil, with narrow exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

The 14th Amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” it reads.

In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down the executive order as illegal, or likely so, under the Constitution and federal law. The decisions have invoked the high court's 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

The Trump administration argues that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.

The court should use the case to set straight “long-enduring misconceptions about the Constitution’s meaning,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

No court has accepted that argument, and lawyers for pregnant women whose children would be affected by the order said the Supreme Court should not be the first to do so.

“We have the president of the United States trying to radically reinterpret the definition of American citizenship,” said Cecillia Wang, the American Civil Liberties Union legal director who is facing off against Sauer at the Supreme Court.

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would be affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright restrictions also would apply to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen as the moon rises Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)