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Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California about 22 miles (35 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. The population was 46,837 at the 2000 census.

Covina is often mistaken for West Covina, which is actually larger in both area and population, located to its south and west. Irwindale lies to the west, as well as the unincorporated area of Vincent, Azusa and Glendora are to the north, the unincorporated community of Charter Oak to the northeast, San Dimas to the east, the unincorporated area of Via Verde, and Walnut to the southeast.

It has been a sister city of Jalapa, Mexico, since 1964. A replica of a giant stone Olmec head, located in front of the city police station, was given to the city in 1989 by the Mexican state of Veracruz.
The city was founded in 1882 by Joseph Swift Phillips, and tradition has it that it was named by either him, his wife Mrs. Cornelia (Hunt) Phillips, or his surveyor Frederick Eaton, in 1885 when the survey was finished. One of them supposedly noticed the many vineyards nestled in the San Gabriel Valley and devised the name "Covina" from "cove of vineyards".

The city was incorporated in 1901. However, it would be orange and grapefruit trees, not vineyards, that would soon blanket the area and make it famous. By 1909, the city was the third largest orange producer in the world, and it still claimed to have "the best oranges in the world" as late as the 1950s. Since World War II, however, the orange groves have been largely replaced by single family and multiple family dwellings.

The Covina Valley Historical Society maintains an extensive archive illustrating the city's history in the 1911-built Firehouse Jail Museum, Covina's first municipal building, located immediately behind City Hall in Covina's Old Town.

The city's slogan, "One Mile Square and All There" was coined by Mrs F. E. Wolfarth, the winner of a 1922 slogan contest sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, when the incorporated area of the city was only (some say slightly less than) one square mile, making it the smallest city in area in the country.

Today, it claims to have the largest movie multiplex in Los Angeles County. Opened in 1997, the Covina AMC 30 located at Arrow Hwy. and Azusa Ave. is one of the busiest theatres in America. The movie theater was built on the site of a former Sears building.

During the election held March 6, 2007, nine candidates ran for two of the five positions on the city council, and the voters rejected the 10-year renewal of a 6% Utility Users Tax the city has had since 1999. Only 3,797 ballots were cast out of 21,633 registered voters. The Utility Users Tax was subsequently renewed at the June 3, 2008 election which attracted 5,032 voters.

2008 marked both the opening as well as charter season of the Covina Center for the Performing Arts, a newly remodeled multimillion dollar theatrical venue in downtown Covina.

On December 24, 2008, a shooting and arson occurred in the town, in which a man dressed in a Santa Claus costume entered a Christmas party and proceeded to open fire. At least 9 people were believed to have been killed as a result of the massacre.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covina,_California