Timeline of Florida
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Florida Div. History Resources: http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/bhp/fhep/
Florida History: http://www.floridahistory.org/default.htm
Facts: http://www.50states.com/florida.htm
Lycos: http://infoplease.lycos.com/ipa/A0108198.html
Map: http://g-lea.tamu.edu/map/florida.gif
Miami Herald: http://www.herald.com/
Travel: http://www.floridainfo.com
8,000BC About 10,000 years ago a
tribe of Indians lived in the Florida panhandle at the Aucilla River
for a few generations near the present town of Perry. The site was
nearly 100 miles inland. Within a hundred years rising water flooded
the village and sealed the remains under a layer of clay.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.D1)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.17)
c500BC-500AD A Tequesta burial site, discovered in
1998 and known as the Miami Circle, dated to this time.
(AM, 9/01, p.18)
c800-1700 The Calusa Indian tribe, nicknamed "The
Fierce Ones," dominated Florida’s Gulf coast from about 800 to 1700.
They escaped from Florida to Cuba in the early 1700s after Spanish
soldiers and other tribes overran their region.
(AP, 3/14/04)(AM, 11/04, p.47)
c1000 The Calusa Indians of
southern Florida avoided the Mississippian transformation and
maintained their ancient lifeways based on fishing and collecting.
(AM, 7/97, p.75)
1513 Mar 27, Spanish explorer Juan
Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1513 Apr 2, Spanish explorer Juan
Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. Juan Ponce de Leon, Spanish explorer,
discovered Florida and planted orange and lemon trees there. [see March
27, 1512 entry] He also discovered the Dry Tortugas, 10 small keys
southwest of Key West. The Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce
de Leon, discovered Florida and named it Pascua Florida, "feast of the
flowers." His discovery was made during his search for the legendary
Fountain of Youth.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.10)(NH, 4/97, p.317)(AP,
4/2/97)(SFEC, 1/2/00, Z1 p.2)(HNQ, 3/9/00)
1513 Apr 8,
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and his expedition began exploring
the Florida coastline.
(AP, 4/8/07)
1513 Calusa Indians in catamaran
canoes attacked Spanish ships under Ponce de Leon in the southwest
Florida and both sides suffered casualties.
(AM, 11/04, p.49)
1519 Feb 15, Pedro Menendez de
Aviles, explorer (found St. Augustine, Florida), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1521 Ponce de Leon returned to Key
Marco in southwest Florida, where he was again repulsed by the Calusa
Indians and died from an arrow wound.
(AM, 11/04, p.49)
1526 Jul 26, The Spaniard Lucas
Vasquez de Ayllon and his colonists left Santo Domingo in the Caribbean
for Florida.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1527 Don Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca, a Spanish soldier, was appointed 2nd in command under Panfilo de
Narvaez (47), to explore the recently discovered land of Florida.
(ON, 10/03, p.1)
1528 Apr 14, A Spanish expedition,
led by Panfilo de Narvaez, arrived at the west coast of Florida with
400 soldiers and 42 horses.
(ON, 10/03, p.1)
1528 May 1, The Spanish Narvaez
expedition began an inland march to Florida with some 300 men and 40
horses.
(ON, 10/03, p.1)
1528 Jul 19, The Spanish Narvaez
expedition retreated from the Indian town of Appalachen (north Florida)
to search for their ships on the Gulf Coast.
(ON, 10/03, p.2)
1528 Jul 30, The Spanish Narvaez
expedition captured the Indian town of Aute (Florida).
(ON, 10/03, p.2)
1528 Sep 22, The Spanish Narvaez
expedition, reduced by disease and combat to 250 men, completed 5
barges and headed west. [see Texas, 1528]
(ON, 10/03, p.2)
1528 Sep 28, A Spanish fleet sank
in Florida hurricane; 380 died.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1539 May 28, Hernando de Soto
sailed from Cuba to Florida with 13 pigs to help sustain his 700 men on
his gold-hunting expedition. [see May 30]
(ON, 4/01, p.4)(MC, 5/28/02)
1539 May 30, Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, with 600 soldiers in
search of gold. Hernando de Soto returned to the New World at the head
of a 1,000-man expedition into North America. He landed near
present-day Tampa Bay and proceeded through what is now Alabama and
Tennessee, making treaties with some Indian, viciously fighting with
others.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.15)(AP, 5/30/97)(HN, 5/30/98)(HNQ,
10/11/00)
1539 Jun 3, Hernando De Soto
claimed Florida for Spain. In 1922 Lippincott published "Narratives of
de Soto in Florida." The translated texts included "A Narrative of de
Soto’s Expedition Based on the Diary of Rodrigo Rangel" by Gonzalo
Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes."
(HN, 6/3/98)(ON, 4/01, p.5)
1559 Aug 14, Spanish explorer de
Luna entered Pensacola Bay, Florida.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1559 Sep 19, 5 Spanish ships sank
in a storm off Tampa. About 600 died.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1559 1,500 Spanish settlers sailed
from Vera Cruz to found a settlement on Pensacola Bay in Florida, but
were repulsed by hostile Indians. A Spanish settlement was founded in
the area of Pensacola, Fl., but its exact location is a mystery.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(AP, 3/24/06)
1561 Sep 23, Philip II of Spain
gave orders to halt colonizing efforts in Florida. The French took
advantage of the opportunity.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(HN, 9/23/98)
1562 May 1, The 1st French
colonists in the US, a 5-vessel Huguenot expedition led by Jean Ribault
(1520-1565), landed in Florida. He continued north and established a
colony named Charlesfort at Parris Island, SC.
(Arch, 1/05,
p.47)(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0841765.html)
1564 Jun 22, A 3-ship French
expedition under René de Laudonnière arrived in Florida
and built Fort Caroline. French artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues was
part of the expedition.
(Arch, 1/05,
p.47)(www.cla.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/chas2.html)(WSJ, 7/18/08,
p.W8)
1565 Aug 28, A Spanish expedition
under Pedro Menendez de Aviles arrived at an inlet on the Florida coast
on the feast day of St. Augustine and gave the theologian’s name to the
encampment.
(WSJ, 7/18/08, p.W8)
1564 Sep 4, A 10-ship Spanish
fleet under Pedro Menendez de Aviles made landfall in Florida. Menendez
was under orders from Phillip II to oust the French.
(Arch, 1/05, p.47)
1565 Sep 20, A Spanish fleet under
Pedro Menendez de Aviles wiped out some 350 Frenchmen at Fort Caroline,
in Florida. Spanish forces under Pedro Menendez massacred a band of
French Huguenots that posed a potential threat to Spanish hegemony in
the area. They also took advantage of the local Timucuan Indian tribe.
Artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues managed to escape and return to
France, where he painted watercolors depicting the local botany. His
alleged paintings of Indians living nearby were later thrown into
question.
(WSJ, 8/3/95, p.A-8)(Arch, 1/05, p.47)(WSJ, 7/18/08,
p.W8)(Arch, 5/05, p.31)(Arch, 1/06, p.25)
1564 Sep 13, On the verge of
attacking Pedro Menendez's Spanish settlement at San Agostin, Florida,
Jean Ribault's French fleet was scattered by a devastating storm.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1565 Sep 20, A Spanish fleet under
Pedro Menendez de Aviles wiped out the French at Fort Caroline, in
Florida. Spanish forces under Pedro Menendez massacred a band of French
Huguenots that posed a potential threat to Spanish hegemony in the
area. They also took advantage of the local Timucuan Indian tribe.
Artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues managed to escape and return to
France, where he painted watercolors depicting the local botany. His
alleged paintings of Indians living nearby were later thrown into
question.
(WSJ, 8/3/95, p.A-8)(HN, 9/20/98)(Arch, 1/05,
p.47)(WSJ, 7/18/08, p.W8)(Arch, 5/05, p.31)
1565 Pedro Menendez de Aviles,
Spanish Florida’s 1st governor, led an expedition to the Calusa and
stationed a small garrison at Calos. The garrison withdrew in 1568.
(AM, 11/04, p.50)
1566 Feb 13, St. Augustine,
Florida, was established. [see Sep 8, 1565]
(MC, 2/13/02)
1568 May 3, French forces in
Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1587 Richard Hakluyt, English
clergyman and geographer, wrote "A Notable Historie Containing Foure
Voyages Made by Certaine French Captains unto Florida."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(Arch, 5/05, p.29)
1591 Flemish engraver Theodor de
Bry published “A Brief Narration of Those Things Which Befell the
French in the Province of Florida” in Latin and Germany editions. It
focused on the 1564-1565 French settlement of Fort Caroline. The book
included 42 engravings said to be based on water color paintings by
Jacques de Moyne de Morgues (d.1588), who had accompanied the French
expedition. Moyne also provided a narrative and a map. In 1946 Stefan
Lorant translated Moyne’s text into English and reproduced his
engravings and map in “The New World.”
(Arch, 5/05, p.28)
1600 Dona Maria, a Timucuan Indian
woman, was chief of Nombre de Dios, a Spanish Franciscan mission town.
6 years later she inherited the position of chief of San Pedro de
Mocama on Cumberland Island, Georgia.
(AM, 7/01, p.22)
1602 Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit
missionary from Italy, created the first Chinese map to show the
Americas, at the request of Emperor Wanli. The map identified Florida
as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world.
Ricci was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in
the early 1600s. He became known for introducing Western science to
China. In October, 2009, one such Ricci maps, one of only two in good
condition, was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust for $1 million,
making it the 2nd most expensive rare map ever sold.
(AP, 1/12/10)
1622 Sep 6, A Spanish silver fleet
disappeared off Florida Keys; thousands died. The Santa Margarita,
discovered off of Key West in 1980 by pioneering shipwreck salver Mel
Fisher, was bound for Spain when it sank in a hurricane in 1622.
(MC, 9/6/01)(AP, 6/18/07)
1696 Sep 23, A squall drove the
ship Reformation aground on the east coast of Florida. Quaker merchant
Jonathan Dickinson along with his family, 11 slaves, 8 seamen and Capt.
Joseph Kirle were on route to Philadelphia from Jamaica.
(ON, 9/00, p.3)
1696 cSep 30, The Reformation
castaways encountered a 2nd Indian tribe after paddling north for 2
days in a canoe provided by Indians at their initial landing. They were
taken to a village, near present-day Vero Beach, and encountered
castaways from the bark Nantwich, which had sailed from Port Royal in
the same convoy.
(ON, 9/00, p.5)
1696 Nov 2, A Spanish company of
soldiers took the Dickinson and Nantwich party in custody and escorted
them north to St. Augustine. They arrive on Nov 19 after 5 people died
from exposure enroute.
(ON, 9/00, p.5)
1698 The Spanish established
Presidio Santa Maria de Galve (later Pensacola, Florida).
(AP, 3/24/06)
1699 Jonathan Dickinson (d.1722),
after resuming his mercantile business in Philadelphia, authored "God’s
Protecting Providence," a journal of his Florida ordeal.
(ON, 9/00, p.5)
1700s Several dozen members of the
Calusa Indian tribe, nicknamed "The Fierce Ones," escaped from Florida
to Cuba in the early 1700s after Spanish soldiers and other tribes
overran their region.
(AP, 3/14/04)
1701 The English slave ship
Henrietta Marie sank 35 miles off Key West, Florida, on its way back to
Europe. It had delivered 188 captured Africans to a slave broker in
Jamaica in exchange for sugar and other goods bound for England. The
wreck was found in 1972.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.C5)(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)(SSFC,
2/8/04, p.C12)
1702 Oct 27, English troops
plundered St. Augustine, Florida.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1704 English forces attacked
Apalachee Indians in Florida driving them into slavery and exile. Some
800 Apalachee fled west to French-held Mobile.
(WSJ, 3/9/05, p.A1)
1715 Jul 29, A hurricane sank 10
Spanish treasure galleons sank off Florida coast.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1715 Jul 30, A Spanish gold and
silver fleet disappeared off St. Lucie, Florida.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1719 The French captured and
burned the Spanish settlement Presidio Santa Maria de Galve (later
Pensacola, Florida), but handed Pensacola back to Spain three years
later. Hurricanes forced the Spanish to repeatedly rebuild.
(AP, 3/24/06)
1739 Apr 9, British Captain Robert
Jenkins lost an ear to a band of Spanish brigands, starting a war
between Britain and Spain: The War of Jenkins' Ear. [see Oct 19,1739]
(EWH, 4th ed, p.555)(HN, 4/9/02)
1739 Oct 19, England declared war
on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of
Jenkins’ Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of
British seaman Robert Jenkins. [see Apr 9, 1739]
(EWH, 4th ed, p.555)(HN, 10/19/98)
1750 The Ais Indians of Florida
were wiped out. In 2004 a site on Hutchinson Island, inhabited by the
Ais, revealed 2 thousand year old burials.
(Arch, 1/05, p.13)
1771 Mark Catesby had his work:
"The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands"
printed in London.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1809 Oct 27, President James
Madison ordered the annexation of the western part of West Florida.
Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1810 Oct 27, US annexes West
Florida from Spain.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1811 Jan 15, In a secret session,
Congress planned to annex Spanish East Florida.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1814 Nov 7, Andrew Jackson
attacked and captured Pensacola, Florida, defeating the Spanish and
driving out a British force.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1816 Jul 27, US troops destroyed
the Seminole Fort Apalachicola, to punish the Indians for harboring
runaway slaves.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1817 Nov 20, 1st Seminole War
began in Florida. [see Nov 27]
(MC, 11/20/01)
1817 Nov 27, US soldiers attacked
a Florida Indian village and began the Seminole War. [see Nov 20]
(MC, 11/27/01)
1818 Apr 7, Gen. Andrew Jackson
captured St. Marks, Fla., from the Seminole Indians.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1818 Apr 18, A regiment of Indians
and blacks was defeated at the Battle of Suwanna, in Florida, ending
the first Seminole War.
(HN, 4/18/99)
1818 May 24, Gen. Andrew Jackson
captured Pensacola, Florida.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1819 Feb 22, Spain signed the
Adams-Onis Treaty with the United States ceding eastern Florida.
Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John
Quincy Adams signed the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees
to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida. Spain renounced
claims to Oregon Country. [see 1821]
(AP, 2/22/99)(HN, 2/22/99)
1820 Oct 20, Spain sold a part of
Florida to US for $5 million. [see Feb 22, 1821]
(MC, 10/20/01)
1821 Feb 22, The Adams-Onis Treaty
became final, whereby Spain gave up all of Florida to the US. The
boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana Purchase was established and
the US renounced all claims to Texas.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1821 Jul 17, Spain ceded Florida
to the United States. [see Feb 22]
(AP, 7/17/97)
1821 Jul 17, Andrew Jackson became
the governor of Florida.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1822 Mar 30, Congress combined
East and West Florida into the Florida Territory.
(AP, 3/30/97)(MC, 3/30/02)
1837 Oct 21, During the
Second Seminole War (1835-1842), under a flag of truce during peace
talks, U.S. troops under Gen. Thomas S. Jesup (1788-1860) sieged the
Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida and sent to a jail in North
Carolina, where he later died. Jesup's trickery outraged the American
public.
(HN, 10/21/98)(DoW, 1999, p.435)
1837 Dec 25, In the Battle of
Okeechobee US forces defeated the Seminole Indians.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1840s A Spaniard shipped the
first grapefruit trees to Florida.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.B3)
1842 Aug 14, Seminole War ended
and the Indians were moved from Florida to Oklahoma.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1845 Mar 3, Florida became the
27th state.
(AP, 3/3/98)
1848 A female slave was executed
for killing her owner.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A6)
1857 The Florida House Inn on
Amelia Island dates to this time.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T13)
1860 Nov, Abraham Lincoln won the
US presidential elections with a majority of the electoral votes in a
4-way race. Following his election South Carolina seceded from the
Union followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and
Texas.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A13)
1860 US sailors intercepted 3
American slave ships on their way to Cuba. The Wildfire, the William
and the Bogota carried some 1,432 African slaves from the area of Benin
and Congo to be sold in Cuba. The slaves were taken to Key West for 3
months and then returned to Africa.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.C12)
1861 Jan 6, Florida troops seized
the Federal arsenal at Apalachicola.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1861 Jan 10, Florida became the
3rd state to secede from the Union.
(AP, 1/10/98)(HN, 1/10/99)(MC, 1/10/02)
1861 Feb 4, Delegates from six
southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States
of America. They included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana and Texas. They elected Jefferson Davis as president of
Confederacy.
(AP, 2/4/97)(ON, 11/00, p.1)
1861 Mar 8, St. Augustine,
Florida, surrendered to Union armies.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1861 Sep 13, In the 1st naval
battle of Civil War, Union frigate "Colorado" sank privateer "Judah"
off Pensacola, Fla.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1861-1865 During the Civil War Amelia Island, the
state's northernmost barrier island, was occupied by Union troops.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T12)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens,
FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola,
Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Dec 11, Union gunboats
Restless, Bloomer and Caroline entered St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and
began bombardment of both Confederate Quarters and Saltworks.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1864 Feb 7, Federal troops
occupied Jacksonville, Florida.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1864 Feb 20, Confederate troops
defeated a Union army sent to bring Florida into the union at the
Battle of Olustee, Fla.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1865 Mar 6, The last Confederate
victory of the Civil War occurred at Natural Bridge crossing near
Tallahassee, Fla., when the forces of Union Gen’l. John Newton were
routed by entrenched southerners.
(HT, 3/97, p.10) (HN, 3/6/98)
1865 Mar 25, Battle of Bluff
Spring, FL.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1866 Apr 2, Pres. ended war in
Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Ten & Va.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1868 Jun 25, Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted
to the Union.
(AP, 6/25/97)
1875 Jul 21, A 12-12 partisan
split in the Florida Senate ended when GOP legislator Elisha G. Johnson
was killed by a shotgun blast to the face.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1876 Nov 7, The presidential vote
between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden was
very close. The Florida result would determine the national outcome.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1876 Dec 6, US Electoral College
picked Republican Hayes as president, although Tilden won the popular
election. A questionable vote count in Florida ended and Hayes was
ahead by 924 votes. The Democratic attorney general validated the
Tilden electors.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)(MC, 12/6/01)
1877 Jan 1, The state Supreme
Court rejected a canvassing board vote count that showed Hayes in the
lead by 208 votes. The Democratic legislature ordered a recount and
named Mr. Tilden’s electors as rightful. The matter went to the US
Congress after the state Supreme Court declined to take up the case
until June.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1877 Jan 29, A highly partisan
Electoral Commission, made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats,
was established by Congress to settle the issue of Democrat Samuel
Tilden for president against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Under the
terms of the Tilden-Hayes Election Compromise, Hayes became president
and the Republicans agreed to remove the last Federal troops from
Southern territory, ending Reconstruction. On election night, 1876, it
was clear that Tilden had won the popular vote, but it was also clear
that votes in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon were
fraudulent because of voter intimidation. Republicans knew that if the
electoral votes from these four states were thrown out, Hayes would
win. The country hovered near civil war as both Democrats and
Republicans claimed victory. Illustrator Thomas Nast drew his cartoon,
"Tilden or Blood," showing the Democrats threatening violence.
(HNPD, 1/29/99)(PCh, 1992, p.542)
1877 Mar 2, Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes was declared winner of the 1876 presidential election over
Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote
50.1 to 47.95%. A special US congressional panel had awarded Florida’s
electors to Rutherford B. Hayes.
(PCh, 1992, p.542)(AP, 3/2/98)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html
1881 Aug 27, A hurricane hit
Florida and the Carolinas; about 700 died.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1881 Hamilton Disston (1844-1896)
negotiated with Florida Governor Bloxham and the Internal Improvement
Fund to drain all of the lands overflowed by Lake Okeechobee and the
Kissimmee River in exchange for one-half the reclaimed land. Disston
also purchased outright from the State four million acres of overflowed
lands at 25 cents an acre. He dug 80 miles of drainage canals before he
ran out of money.
(www.tommymarkham.com/OCF/ocf01.htm)(Sm, 3/06, p.52)
1893-1894 Clarence Bloomfield Moore excavated 83
Indian mounds in Florida using his steamer Gopher of Philadelphi as a
research station.
(AM, 7/00, p.56)
1895 Mar 15, Bone Mizell, the
famed cowboy of Florida, appeared before a judge for altering cattle
brands.
(HN, 3/15/00)
1896 Mar 2, Bone Mizell, the famed
cowboy of Florida, was sentenced to two years of hard labor in the
state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of
the sentence.
(HN, 3/2/00)
1896 Jul 28, The city of Miami,
Fla., was incorporated.
(AP, 7/28/97)
1896 Henry Flagler built the Palm
Beach Inn, later called the Breakers, in Palm Beach, Florida, as he
developed the area.
(WSJ, 6/24/08,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Flagler)
1897 The Queen Anne style Bailey
House on Amelia Island was built.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T13)
c1900 Florida’s wineries were
wiped out by Pierce’s disease. Growers then switched to orange trees.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D4)
1903 Mar 14, The 1st national bird
reservation was established in Sebastian, Florida.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1903 Frederick R. Swift authored
"Florida Fancy."
(AM, 7/00, p.56)
1903 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt set
aside the 5 acres of Pelican Island to protect pelicans and other birds
from hunters. This began the wildlife refuge system that grew to 537
national wildlife refuges in 2001.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A2)
1904 Jan 27, Willie Vanderbilt
(1878-1944) reached 92.3 mph in his new German motorcar at the Daytona
Beach Road Course at Ormond Beach, Florida, establishing a new land
speed record. He was the 2nd child and first son of William Kissam
Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith.
(Econ, 12/22/07,
p.122)(www.racechase.com/ftopic254.html)
1904 Apr 13, In Pensacola, Fl., an
explosion on the US battleship Missouri killed 29 men and injured 5
men, of whom 2 died later.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/6hkedu)
1909 St. Cloud, Florida, was
founded as a colony for Union veterans. Some prominent investors from
Washington, D.C., doing business as the Seminole Land Investment
Company, secured a purchase option on 32,000 acres of land on the
southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County, Florida. In
response to advertisements in the National Tribune, the nationally
distributed newspaper of the Grand Army of the Republic (a large
organization for Union veterans commonly called the GAR), more than
1,000 former soldiers in blue bought land in St. Cloud sight unseen.
For $50, soon raised to $100, a veteran could purchase a house lot in
the city and five acres in the countryside.
(HNQ, 6/30/01)
1910 Carl Graham Fisher
(1874-1939), on a vacation to Miami about this time, saw potential in
the swampy, bug-infested stretch of land between Miami and the ocean,
and in his mind transformed the 3,500 acres of mangrove swamp and beach
into the perfect vacation destination for his automobile industry
friends, which he called "Miami Beach." He and his wife bought a
vacation home there in 1912 and he began acquiring land. In 2000 Mark
Foster authored “Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham
Fisher.” In 1913 Fisher conceived and helped develop the Lincoln
Highway, the first road for the automobile across the entire United
States of America. As a serial entrepreneur he developed much of Miami
Beach.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_G._Fisher)(Econ,
12/20/08, p.116)
1910 There was a murder in Florida
later described by Peter Matthiessen (b.1927) in his 1997 book "Lost
Man’s River." It was part of his Watson trilogy. The first part was
titled "Killing Mr. Watson" (1990).
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D1)(SFEC,12/797, p.B11)
1913 May 20, Henry Morrison
Flagler (b.1830), US tycoon, real estate promoter, railroad developer
and Rockefeller partner in Standard Oil, died. He was a key figure in
the development of the eastern coast of Florida along the Atlantic
Ocean and was founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway. He
is known as the father of Miami, Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Flagler)
1914 Florida’s Jacksonville Zoo
began with a single red deer fawn.
(LP, Spring 2006, p.61)
1914 Jan, The St. Petersburg-Tampa
Airboat Line became the world’s first regularly scheduled airline
service. Scheduled service on the first winged airline, the St.
Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, treated a passenger or two to a wooden
seat, fresh Florida air, and salt spray in the face.
(HN, 6/1/98)(NPub, 2002, p.9)
1916 In Miami industrialist James
Deering (d.1925) built the Vizcaya villa in Italian Renaissance style
with formal gardens as his winter home on S. Miami Ave. The local
government acquired the villa in 1952 and turned it into a museum.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 60)(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.W2)(WSJ, 8/31/01,
p.W2)
1916 Sidney J. Catts won the
election for governor on the Prohibition Party ticket. He lost the
Democratic primary following a recount to William Knott, whom he
initially led. The state Supreme Court ruled Knott the winner of the
primary by 21 votes. Catts was later accused of nepotism and replied:
"Any old cats that do not take care of their kittens is not worth a
damn.’
(WSJ, 12/13/00, p.A24)
1919 Chalk’s Ocean Airways was
founded to fly tourists and fisherman from Florida to the Bahamas.
(SFC, 12/20/05, p.A4)
1920 Nov 2, In Ocoee, Fla., on
election day gunfire erupted after 2 black men tried to vote. By the
next day a number of residents, black and white, lay dead.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1923 Jan 2, A Ku Klux Klan
surprise attack on a black residential area of Rosewood, Fla., killed 8
people. The all-black town of Rosewood, a north Florida community of
120 people, was burned to the ground. A white woman fearful of being
caught in an affair, falsely claimed that she was raped and beaten by a
black man. Violence exploded as a white mob tried to string up a black
man for information on an alleged rape. At least 6 black and 2 white
died and almost every building was burned. In 1994 the Florida
legislature provided up to $2 million in compensation to survivors.
Nine survivors won a $2 million settlement in 1995. In 1996 the event
was recreated in the film "Rosewood" by John Singleton.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, DB p.43)(SFC, 9/24/97, p.C2) (SFC,
2/5/00, p.A3)(MC, 1/2/02)
1923 The Florida Blue Key, a
leadership honorary, was founded at the Univ. of Florida to organize a
Dad’s Day.
(SFC, 4/17/98, p.A5)
1923 Florida took delivery of its
first and only electric chair to execute convicts. The 3-leged chair
was built by convicts.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A26)
1924 Oct, D.P. Davis put up 2
island developments for sale near Tampa, Florida. The entire 875 acres,
much of it still under water, sold out for $18 million.
(WSJ, 8/3/05, p.B1)
1924 Florida abolished income and
inheritance taxes to attract investors.
(WSJ, 8/3/05, p.B1)
1926 Mar 3, International
Greyhound Racing Association formed in Miami, FL.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1926 Sep 18, A hurricane hit South
Florida killing about 400 people and leaving some 50,000 homeless.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.116)
1926 Sep 21, San Francisco held a
benefit to raise money for victims of a Florida hurricane that killed
374-600 people.
(SFC, 9/21/01, WB p.5)
1926 The Tampa Theater at 711 N.
Franklin was built.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T8)
1926 The Florida land bubble burst
following a severe hurricane. One Miami Beach business lot had
reportedly surged in value from $800 to $150,000.
(WSJ, 2/1/00, p.B1)
1927 The Ringling Brothers Circus
and Barnum and Bailey began to set up winter quarters in Sarasota.
(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A20)
1928 Sep 12, A major hurricane hit
Florida. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1928 Sep 17, A hurricane hit Lake
Okeechobee, Florida. A levee broke and some 1,800 people drowned. In
2003 the number dead was revised to at least 2,500. In 2003 Eliot
Kleinberg authored “Black Cloud: The Great Florida Hurricane of 1928.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Okeechobee_Hurricane)(http://tinyurl.com/9z8o6)
1929 Mar 11, Major Seagrave broke
the auto speed record in Daytona Beach. He reached an average of 223.2
mph in a 450 horse powered Golden Arrow.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1929 Aug 17, James Horace
Alderman, convicted of murdering 2 Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service
agent in 1927, was hanged at 5:00 a.m. at Coast Guard Base 6 in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. It was reported in the media that Alderman's neck
was broken and he died a painless death. In fact, Alderman kicked and
strangled for a full twelve minutes before being pronounced dead by a
local doctor. He was the only person ever executed on Coast Guard
property.
(www.jacksjoint.com/hanging.htm)
1930s The US Army Corps of
Engineers, at the behest of state and federal governments, built a new
levee around Florida’s’ Lake Okeechobee to dam the southward flood.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.31)
1931 May 22, Canned rattlesnake
meat 1st went on sale in Florida.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1931 Ernest Hemingway purchased a
home in Key West.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.T4)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect
Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa Zangara,
an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots
at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's head from only
twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed their target, each
bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of
Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks
later, on March 20. [see Mar 6, 20]
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(AP, 2/15/07)
1933 James and Ralph Ryder (d.2000
at 90) acquired their 1st truck, a Model A Ford, for $35. They
proceeded to grow their business to one of the world’s largest truck
leasing operations.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B8)
1935 Jan 4, Ft. Jefferson National
Monument was established in Florida.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1935 Jan 16, US federal agents
killed gangsters Ma Barker and Freddy, one of her 4 sons, at Lake Weir,
Fla.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1935 Mar 7, Malcolm Campbell set
an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1935 Sep 2, A hurricane slammed
into the Florida Keys, claiming more than 400 lives. Estimates of the
dead reached 500-800. Some 260 WW I veterans were killed in the Labor
Day hurricane as well as over 160 permanent residents.
(HC, 9/29/04)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.B1)(AP, 9/2/07)
1937 May 23, John Davison
Rockefeller (97), industrialist, died in Ormond Beach, Fla. In 1998 Ron
Chernow published this biography: "Titan: The Life of John D,
Rockefeller, Sr." His value in 1999 dollars totaled $190 billion.
(AP, 5/23/97)(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W1)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Par
p.7)(MC, 5/23/02)
1939 Jun 4, During what became
known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying more
than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida
coast. Also denied permission to dock in Cuba, the ship eventually
returned to Europe; many of the refugees later died in Nazi
concentration camps.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1937 Jun 11, Johnny Brown,
comedian (Good Times, Leslie Uggams), was born in St Petersburg, Fla.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1938 Florida passed a law making
it illegal to export alligators.
(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.C2)
1939 Jun 4, During what became
known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907
Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast.
Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship eventually
returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France,
Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi
concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified
935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, Par
p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1939 Nov 3, Terrence McNally,
playwright (Bad Habits, Master Class), was born in St. Petersburg, Fla.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1940s The US Army Corps of
Engineers, at the behest of state and federal governments, drained the
area to the south of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee to create vast sugar
fields.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.31)
1943 Dec 8, Jim Morrison, singer
(Doors), was born in Melbourne, Fla.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1946 C.D. Atkins (d.2000), Edwin
L. Moore and Louis MacDowell, researchers for the Florida Citrus
Commission, were granted a patent for developing a process for making
orange juice concentrate. The research was done in a federal lab and
they assigned the patent to the government.
(WSJ, 6/22/00, p.A22)
1947 Jan 25, American gangster Al
Capone died of syphilis in Miami Beach, Fla., at age 48. While he was
in prison at Alcatraz Capone composed a song titled “Madonna Mia,” and
gave to Vincent Casey, a Jesuit priest, who had visited him regularly.
In 2009 the song was produced and made available on CD.
(AP, 1/25/98)(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)
1947 Dec 6, Everglades
National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman. In 1998 it
covered 1.5 million acres.
(AP, 12/6/97)(SFEC, 4/20/98, p.A3)
1947 Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(d.1998 at 108) published "The Everglades: River of Grass," a natural
and political history of the Florida Everglades. She also led the
campaign to establish Everglades National Park.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D7)
1947 The new Florida Foods Co.
changed its name to Minute Maid. Their initial powder orange juice
proved more drinkable as a juice concentrate. Founder John Fox hired
Bing Crosby as his 1st spokesman.
(SFC, 1/20/03, p.B4)
1949 May 14, Pres. Truman signed a
bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1949 Prof. Gordon Willey
(1913-2002) authored "The Archeology of the Florida Gulf Coast."
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)
1950s The US Army Corps of
Engineers diverted Florida’s Kissimmee River allowing Miami and Fort
Lauderdale to grow on the old river bed.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.31)
1953 Aug 12, Ann Davidson, the 1st
woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrived Miami.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1953 Gov. Daniel McCarty died
while in office.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1954 The Fontainebleu Hotel in
Miami Beach, designed by Morris Lapidus (1902-2001), was completed.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A24)(WSJ, 12/26/07, p.D6)
1956 May 30, Bus boycott began in
Tallahassee, Florida.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1956 Dec 24, African Americans
defied a city law in Tallahassee, Fla., and occupied front bus seats.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1956 Dec 27, Segregation on
Tallahassee, Fla. buses was outlawed.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1957 Dec 6, America's first
attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose
only about four feet off a Cape Canaveral, Fla., launch pad before
crashing back down and exploding.
(AP, 12/6/08)
1957 The regional government of
Metro-Dade was established.
(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.A20)
1957 Lawrence Harvey Zeigler,
later known as Larry King, began sweeping floors for at a radio station
in Miami.
(WT-NWA, 7/01, p.43)
1959 Jul 2, Wendy B. Lawrence, USN
Lt Commander, astronaut, was born in Jacksonville, Fla.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1959 Aug 3, Victoria Jackson,
actress (Casual Sex, SNL), was born in Miami, Fla.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1960 Aug 9, There was a race riot
in Jacksonville Florida.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1960 Aug 12, The first balloon
satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
It bounced phone calls from JPL in California to the Bell Labs in New
Jersey.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A18)
1960 Sep 9, Hurricane Donna hit
the Florida Keys and moved up the coast to New England. It caused 50 US
deaths and $387 million in damage.
(WSJ, 5/31/06,
p.A1)(http://tampa.about.com/cs/history/l/bl1960.htm)
1960s The US Army Corps of
Engineers, at the behest of state and federal governments, crisscrossed
the remnants of Florida’s Kissimmee River with dykes, ditches and
levees.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.31)
1960s A walking catfish (Clarias
batrachus), imported from Bangkok, walked away from a fish farm west of
Deerfield Beach, Florida. By 2002 it had spread to 20 counties in South
Florida.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A2)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King
protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1962 Mar 10, The Phillies baseball
club left the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel due to its refusal to admit black
players, and moved to Rocky Point Motel, 20 miles outside Clearwater,
Florida.
(http://tinyurl.com/mdtvxu)
1962 The Miccosukee Indian tribe
gained federal recognition after its leaders made a state visit to
Fidel Castro.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A4)
1963 Mar 18, The US Supreme Court
made its Gideon v Wainwright ruling which said poor defendants have a
constitutional right to an attorney. Gideon had been forced to defend
himself in Florida in Jan 1962, and petitioned the Supreme Court to
hear his complaint.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.D4)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)(Econ,
4/4/09, p.39)
1963 Two white gas station
attendants were murdered in Port St. Joe. Two black men were convicted
twice by all-white juries in the murders and spent nine years on death
row. Curtis "Boo" Adams, a white man, later admitted to the murders. In
1998 Freddie Pitts (54) and Wilbert Lee (62) received $500,000 each
from the state for wrongful conviction.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A2)
1964 Feb 25, Cassius Clay (later
Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating
Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1965 Sep 8, Hurricane Betsy killed
75 in Louisiana & Florida.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1965 Nov 16, Walt Disney launched
Epcot Center: Prototype Community of Tomorrow in Florida. Epcot opened
in 1982.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1967 Jun 11, There was a race riot
in Tampa Florida and the National Guard was mobilized. Martin Chambers
(19) was suspected of robbing a camera store. Chambers ran from police
near Nebraska and Harrison Streets and was shot in the back and died.
Several days of riots around Central Avenue followed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Riots)
1967 Jul 16, A prison brawl
ignited barracks, killing 37 in Jay, Florida.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1968 Aug 5, The Republican
national convention convened in Miami Beach. Ronald Reagan announced
that he would seek the GOP nomination for president. He soon threw his
support to Nixon.
(AP, 8/5/08)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)(SSFC, 6/6/04, A16)
1968 Aug 8, Richard M. Nixon was
nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami
Beach. Later that day, Nixon chose Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be
his running mate.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1968 Aug 8, In Florida a riot
broke out in several neighborhoods of Miami, Florida, including one
community just 10 miles from the Republican Convention. 3 negroes were
killed by gunfire.
(www.project1968.com/august-4-10-1968.html)
1969 Jan 12, The New York Jets
defeated the Baltimore Colts, 16-7, in Super Bowl III at the Orange
Bowl in Miami.
(AP, 1/12/99)
1969 Mar 1, Jim Morrison (d.1971),
lead singer for the Doors, was arrested for exposing himself at Dinner
Key Auditorium in Miami before 10,000 people.
(SC, 3/1/02)(SFC, 12/24/02, p.A13)
1969 Mar 3, Apollo 9 blasted off
from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module. It carried
astronauts James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart and David Scott and made
151 Earth orbits over 10 days.
(AP, 3/3/98)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.B2)
1969 Mar 23, The teenage crusade
Rally for Decency in Miami drew some 30,000. Teenagers organized the
rally after Jim Morrison (24), the lead singer of The Doors rock group,
was charged with indecent exposure during a concert in Miami on March 1.
(http://forum.johndensmore.com/lofiversion/index.php/t2673.html)
1969 May 27, Walt Disney World
construction began in Florida.
(HN, 5/27/98)
1969 Jul 16, Apollo XI set out
from Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy), Florida, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin
Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the first manned mission to the surface
of the moon.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/16/97)
1969 Oct 5, Lieutenant Eduardo
Guerra Jimenez, a Cuban defector, entered US air space undetected and
landed his Soviet-made MiG-17 at Homestead Air Force Base near Miami,
Florida, where the presidential aircraft Air Force One was waiting to
return President Richard M. Nixon to DC.
(www.missilesofkeywest.bravepages.com/penetrated.htm)
1969 Oct 21, Jack Kerouac (47),
Beat Generation chronicler, died of alcoholism in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He wrote "On the Road" (1957), "Desolation Angels," "Vanity of Duluoz,"
and "Dharma Bums." Japhy Ryder the Zen hobo-poet in the book was
modeled after poet Gary Snyder. In 1979 Dennis McNally authored the
biography "Desolate Angel." In 1998 Ellis Amburn published
"Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac." In 1999 Barry
Miles published "Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats: A Portrait." In 2004
Douglas Brinkley edited “Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac.”
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A22)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFEC,
5/31/98, p.A17)(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.3)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SSFC,
8/11/02, p.M1)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.M1)
1969 Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(1890-1998), American journalist and environmentalist, helped found
Friends of the Everglades, a Florida-based conservation organization.
(SFC, 5/15/98,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas)
1970 State legislator Lawton
Chiles earned the name "Walkin’ Lawton" for his 1,000 mile walk from
the Panhandle to south Florida in 3 months.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1971 Oct 1, Walt Disney
Productions opened its Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
(AP,
10/1/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom)
1971 Judy Buenoano welcomed her
husband home from Vietnam and fed him with a diet of arsenic until he
died. she collected $85,000 in insurance money.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A6)
1972 Jul 13, George McGovern
claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's
convention in Miami Beach, Fla. McGovern defeated Scoop Jackson for the
nomination. McGovern’s campaign was led by Jean Westwood (d.1997 at
73), the first woman to chair a major US political party. McGovern was
nominated as candidate with Sen. Eagleton for vice-president. Sen.
Eagleton later dropped out after it was learned that he suffered from a
serious clinical emotional illness. The Democratic competition for
president included Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, Sen. Ed Muskie, Gov.
Terry Sanford, Sen. Henry Jackson, Mayor John Lindsay, and Rep. Shirley
Chisholm.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(SFC,
8/23/97, p.A20)(AP, 7/13/07)
1972 Aug 21, The US Republican
convention opened in Miami Beach, Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Republican_National_Convention)
1972 Aug 23, The Republican
National Convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice
President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term. The 1989 film "Born on the
Fourth of July" portrayed the riots outside the Republican National
Convention.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par p.2)(SFEC, 9/6/98, DB p.53)(AP,
8/23/97)
1972 Nov 10, Three black men
successfully hijacked a Southern Airways DC-9 after a stopover in
Birmingham, Ala., and flew to multiple locations in the United States
and one Canadian city and finally to Cuba with $2 million (actual cash,
Presidential "grant" totaled $10 million) and 10 parachutes. Co-pilot
Halroyd was wounded; they threatened to crash the plane into one of the
Oak Ridge nuclear installations; at McCoy Air Force Base, Orlando, the
FBI shot out the tires; they forced pilot William Haas to take off. The
plane finally landed in Havana; two were sentenced in Cuba to 20 years,
one to 15 years. They returned to Alabama in 1980 and received 20-25
year sentences.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cuba-US_aircraft_hijackings)(USAT,
6/11/03, p.2B)(http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0180.html)
1972 Dec 29, Eastern Airlines
Flight 401, a Lockheed Tri-Star Jumbo Jet carrying 176 people, crashed
into the Florida Everglades. 75 people survived. In the end, the crash
was blamed on the crew's preoccupation with a landing gear light.
(http://www3.gendisasters.com/florida/1415/everglades,-fl-jumbo-jet-crash,-dec-1972)
1972 Florida inmate Michael
Costello, a convicted murderer, filed suit complaining of overcrowding
and poor medical treatment in the state’s prisons. He won and forced
court orders to reduce crowding.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1972 In Florida as many as 2
million old tires were unloaded a mile offshore from Fort Lauderdale to
create an artificial reef that could attract a rich variety of marine
life, and to free up space in clogged landfills. Decades later the idea
proved to be huge ecological blunder.
(AP, 2/16/07)
1973 Mar 5, During spring training
in Florida, Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich
announced they had swapped wives.
(www.around-the-horn.com/?p=131)
1973 Aug 23, The Intelsat 4 F-7
communications satellite was launched at Cape Canaveral.
(www.astronautix.com/craft/intlsat4.htm)
1974 Knight Newspapers Inc. (Miami
Herald) merged with Ridder Publications (Detroit Free Press).
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A19)
1975 Aug 20, Viking 1, the first
of 2 unmanned Viking landers, was launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, on a mission to Mars. It reached Mars in the summer of 1976.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1975 Sep 2, Joseph W. Hatcher of
Tallahassee, Florida, became the state's first African-American supreme
court justice since Reconstruction.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1975 L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986),
founder of Scientology, secretly purchased a historic hotel in
Clearwater, Florida, and began to establish the town as home for his
Church of Scientology.
(SFC, 9/24/07, p.A6)
1976 Mar 2, Walt Disney World
logged its 50 millionth guest.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1976 Aug 9, John Roselli (b.1905),
Chicago mobster hired by the CIA to kill Castro, was found murdered.
His decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating
in Dumfounding Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and
stabbed and his legs were sawed off.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Roselli)
1976 Clint Murchison Jr., owner of
the Dallas Cowboys, visited Miami for the Super Bowl and stopped for
ribs at a restaurant owned by Tony Roma (d.2003). He enjoyed the foods
so much that he purchased the majority of US franchise rights. In 2003
the chain had grown to over 250.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A21)
1977 Jun 7, Anita Bryant led a
successful crusade against Miami gay rights law.
(http://thecastro.net/parade/parade/parade.html)
1977 Jun 8, Some 5,000 marched
through downtown to protests an anti-gay rights vote in Miami. Voters
in Dade County had repealed a gay-rights ordnance.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1977 Jun, In Florida the
Elderhostel site at Eckerd College was founded. It was an education
program for vacationing seniors.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.T12)
1977 Florida passed a law banning
gay adoptions.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A3)
1978 Jan 15, Lisa Levy and
Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State University in
Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house. Theodore Bundy
(1946-1989) was later convicted of the crime, and executed.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1978 Feb 9, Kimberly Leach (12)
was killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Leach)
1978 Feb 15, Escaped mass murderer
Ted Bundy was recaptured in Pensacola, Fla.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1978 Judy Buenoano fed her
boyfriend a diet of arsenic until he died. She collected insurance
money.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A6)
1979 Jul 23, A Miami jury
convicted Theodore Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of
Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa
Levy. In 1980 he was convicted of the murder and rape of Kimberly Leach
(12). Bundy eventually confessed to more than 30 killings and was
executed in 1989.
(AP,
7/24/99)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/14.html)
1979 Sep. 3, Hurricane David
struck along the central Florida coast, leaving several people dead and
millions of dollars in damage.
(AP, 9/3/97)
1979 Dec 17, In a case that
aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance
executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. Four white
police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from
McDuffie's death.
(AP, 12/17/99)
1979 The US Fish and Wildlife
Service established Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge at the
northern end of Key Largo, Florida.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.49)
1979 Seminole Indians won the
right to run high-stakes Seminole bingo. Within a decade the Seminoles
were making $100 million a year.
(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A20)
1979-1987 Bob Graham served as governor of the state.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1980 Mar 2, Snow fell in Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snow_events_in_Florida)
1980 May 9, In Florida 35
motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the
Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, causing a 1,400-foot section of
the bridge to collapse.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1980 May 17, Rioting that claimed
18 lives erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an
all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of
fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie.
(AP, 5/17/97)
1980 Jul, Five men were shot dead
in a Miami home. Ronnie Lee Jones, a former boxer, was convicted of the
shooting and sentenced to death. An appeal granted a competency
hearing, but none was heard for 12 years and Jones was released in 1999.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A3)
1980 Judy Buenoano pushed her
handicapped 19-year-old son out of a canoe and watched him sink. She
collected $125,000 in insurance money.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A6)
1981 May 11, Bob Marley (b.1945),
Jamaican reggae artist, died of brain cancer in Miami.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T7)
1981 Aug 17, In Florida James
Dvorak was found bludgeoned to death at Indian Harbor Beach in what was
described as a robbery gone wrong. In 1981 William Dillon was convicted
and sentenced to prison. In 2008 Dillon (49) faced a retrial after DNA
evidence called into question his conviction.
(SFC, 11/19/08,
p.A4)(http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_28824.shtml)
1981 Aston Green, a breakaway
follower of Yahweh Ben Yahweh, was beheaded with a machete.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A2)
1982 Apr 23, Key West, Fla., under
Mayor Dennis Wardlow declared that it was seceding from the US and
would rename itself the Conch Republic. The move was in response to a
state roadblock and inspection on all cars heading out of the Florida
Keys. In 1997 Gregory King authored “The Conch That Roared.”
(WSJ, 1/19/05, p.B1)
1982 Jul 31, Jai Alai executive
John B. Callahan (45) was fatally shot in Miami by mob hit man John
Martorano. Callahan’s body was found Aug 2 in the trunk of his
Cadillac. In 2008 former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of 2nd
degree murder for leaking information to mobsters that led to the
shooting death of Callahan. In Jan, 2009, Connolly was sentenced to 40
years in prison.
(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A9)(http://mafiatoday.com/?p=442)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
1982 Oct 1, EPCOT Center opened in
Orlando, Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot)
1982 Dec 28, Nevell Johnson Jr., a
black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video
arcade, setting off 3 days of race-related disturbances that left
another man dead.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1982 Gov. Graham asked for 4,000
new prison beds and the Legislature voted to build 2,000.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1982 Documents obtained in
lawsuits in 2005 indicated that Florida Power and Light had mistakenly
shipped radioactive waste to an ordinary landfill. The documents
indicated that a number of similar shipments were made in the 1970s and
1980s to landfills and municipal sewage treatment plants.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A5)
1982 Allen Lee Davis murdered
Nancy Weiler and her 2 daughters (ages 9&5) during a robbery in
Jacksonville. Davis was electrocuted in 1999.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A7)
1983 Mitch Kaplan created the
Miami Book Fair. It grew to become a week-long marathon with estimated
attendance at 400,000 in 1998.
(SFEM, 5/17/98, p.74)
1983 A cosmetology school owner
was killed. Juan Melendez was convicted and spent 17 years on death
row. In 2000 the transcript of another man’s confession, withheld by
prosecutors, was found. Melendez was released in 2002.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
1983 Judy Buenoano attempted to
blow up a boyfriend after feeding him vitamin pills that contained
arsenic. John Gentry survived the experience and Buenoano was caught
and convicted of murder. Dubbed the "Black Widow" Buenoano, who had
changed her name from Goodyear, was executed in the electric chair on
Mar 30, 1998.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A6)(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A3)
1984 Mar 15, The acquittal of a
Miami police officer on charges of negligently killing a ghetto youth
sparked a rampage by angry blacks in Miami; 550 people were arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ow9d)
1984 Aug 18, A Triangle Oil Corp.
above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville, Fla., spilled 2.5 million
gallons of oil and burned after lightning sparked a fire.
(www.jacksonvillefiremuseum.com/history_1951.html)(http://tinyurl.com/2pwmtm)
1984 Aug 30, In Florida NASA
launched the US space shuttle Discovery on its 1st mission.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html)
1984 Oct 20, Paul Dirac (b.1902,
British physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1933), died in Florida. His
equations predicted the existence of antimatter. In 2009 Graham Farmelo
authored “The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac.”
(Econ, 1/24/09,
p.89)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac)
1984 In Dade County, Fla., the
State Attorney office of Janet Reno began amassing sex-assault charges
against police officer Grant Snowden. Officer Snowden was acquitted on
one set of charges and then convicted on another set of tenuous
charges. His case was on federal appeal.
(WSJ, 10/14/97, p.A22)
1984 Thomas Provenzano shot one
bailiff dead in a courtroom in Orlando and left 2 others paralyzed.
Provenzano was scheduled to be executed in 1999.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A7)
1984 Eriberto Mederos, aka El
Enfermero (the Nurse), joined the Cuban boat lift to America. He became
a US citizen in 1993. He had worked as the administrator of electric
shock therapy to political opponents of the Castro regime. In 2001 he
was arrested and faced deportation for lying about his former
occupation. In 2002 Mederos (79) was convicted in Florida for
concealing his past.
(SFC, 11/16/01, p.E3)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A6)
1984-1986 The prison population rose from 26,471 to
30,000.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1985 Jan 20, The SF 49ers defeated
the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the Super Bowl played at Stanford Stadium.
This capped the winningest season in national Football League history,
with 18 wins and only one loss.
(www.superbowl.com/history/recaps/game/sbxix)(SSFC,
1/17/10, DB p.42)
1985 Jan 22, A cold wave damaged
90% of Florida's citrus crop.
(http://prop1.org/inaugur/85reagan/850122in.htm)
1985 Sep 26, Shamu, the killer
whale, was born in Orlando, Florida. She was the first killer whale
born in captivity to survive.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamu)
1985 Nov 12, Xavier Suarez was
elected Miami's first Cuban-American mayor (1985-1993).
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A9)(AP, 11/12/03)
1985 Daniel Remeta killed an Ocala
convenience store clerk and went on a four state crime and murder spree
in which 5 people were killed. He was electrocuted in 1998. Remeta had
the mental age of a child and ordered snow cones for his final meal.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A3)
1985 Frank Lee Smith was convicted
for the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl. Smith (52) died of
cancer while on death row in 1999. In 2000 DNA evidence cleared Smith
of the rape and murder and the case was reopened.
(SFC, 12/15/00, p.A3)
1986 Mar 7, Jacob K. Javits
(b.1904), (Sen-R-NY), died in Palm Beach, Fla.
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=j000064)
1986 In Florida the Sarasota
Pigeon club began gathering on Fall weekends to race pigeons.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.D12)
1986 Bob Cox, mayor of Fort
Lauderdale, began a campaign to end the city’s reign as the spring
break capital of America. Students moved on to Daytona Beach and later
Florida’s Panama City.
(WSJ, 3/19/98, p.A16)
1986 Robert Rozier, a former NFL
football player, changed his name to Neariah Israel and murdered 8
people to prove himself to a sect of Yahweh Ben Yahweh. He testified
against the sect, which blamed for at least 23 killings and a series of
firebombings, and was freed after 10 years in prison. In 1999 he was
arrested for bounding check in California and subject to the "three
strikes" sentencing law.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.D4)
1986 Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a
Puerto Rican-born former evangelical priest, founded the Growing in
Grace church in Florida. By 2007 he called himself the Antichrist and
was preaching to followers in some 35 nations, mostly in Latin America.
(AP, 4/21/07)
1987 Jan 16, Lita McClinton
Sullivan was shot to death at her home in Atlanta by a man with roses
posing as a delivery person. Florida millionaire James Vincent Sullivan
paid a man $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid losing
property in a divorce. In 2003 a Thai court ruled to extradite Sullivan
(61). In 2004 James Vincent Sullivan arrived in Atlanta, Ga., for
prosecution. In 2006 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life
in prison.
(AP, 2/15/03)(WSJ, 4/13/04, p.A1)(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A3)
1987 May 3, The
Miami Herald, in its Sunday edition, said its reporters had observed a
young woman spending "Friday night and most of Saturday" at a
Washington, D.C., townhouse belonging to Democratic presidential
candidate Gary Hart. The woman was later identified as Donna Rice; the
scandal torpedoed Hart's presidential bid.
(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.C12)(AP, 5/3/07)
1987 Jun 24, Jackie Gleason
(b.1916), comedian-actor (The Hustler) died of cancer at his home in
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
(AP 6/24/97)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001276/)
1987 Sep 10, Pope John Paul
II arrived in Miami, where he was welcomed by President and Mrs.
Reagan, to begin a 10-day tour of the United States.
(AP, 9/10/97)
1987 Santo Traficante, the reputed
Mafia boss of Florida, died in Tampa.
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A21)
1987-1991 Gen. Ramon Guillen Davila headed the
CIA-financed Venezuelan National Guard antinarcotics group. During his
tenure 1-2 tons of cocaine were smuggled into the US. He was indicted
by a federal grand jury in Miami in 1996.
(WSJ, 11/22/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A2)
1988 Feb 5, A pair of indictments
were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1989 Jan 16, Three days of rioting
erupted in Miami when a police officer fatally shot a black
motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of a
passenger.
(AP, 1/16/99)
1989 Jan 24, Confessed serial
killer Theodore Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair for
the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1989 Mar 2, Gloria Estefan
(b.1957) and the Miami Sound Machine received the 1st star on the Latin
Star Walk on Calle Ocho, the main street of Little Havana in Miami, Fl.
(http://tinyurl.com/czkup)
1989 May 1, Disney held a grand
opening for its 135 acre MGM studio in Orlando, Fl.
(www.miamibeach411.com/disney/mgm-studios.htm)
1989 May 30, US Rep. Claude Pepper
(b.1900), D-Fla., a champion of the nation's elderly, died in
Washington, DC, at age 88.
(AP, 5/30/99)
1989 Dec 19, Police in
Jacksonville, Fla., disarmed a parcel bomb at the local NAACP office,
the fourth in a series of mail bombs to turn up in the Deep South. One
bomb killed a Savannah, Ga., alderman, and another a federal judge in
Alabama. Walter L. Moody Jr. was convicted in both bombings.
(AP, 12/18/99)
1989 El Salvador military officers
Colonel Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, director of the National Guard
and Gen’l. Jose Guillermo Garcia, the minister of defense, retired to
Florida. In 2002 a Florida jury found Casanova and Garcia responsible
for torture and atrocities committed in 1983 and ordered payment of
$54.6 million to 3 victims living in Florida. [see El Salvador Dec 4,
1980]
(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A12)
1990 Jan 4, Deposed Panamanian
leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in federal district court in Miami
on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1990 Jan 25, Kidnapped former
Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was transferred to a Miami federal
jail.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1990 Jun 18, James Edward Pough
went on a shooting rampage at an auto-financing company office in
Jacksonville, Florida, after his car was repossessed. He fatally
wounded 8 people before killing himself.
(AP, 6/18/00)(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A7)
1990 Sep 7, Kimberly Bergalis of
Fort Pierce, Florida, came forward to identify herself as the young
woman who had been infected with AIDS, apparently by her late
dentist. Bergalis died the following year.
(AP, 9/7/00)
1990 Nov 30, President Bush named
outgoing Florida Governor Bob Martinez to head the nation’s war on
drugs.
(AP, 11/30/00)
1990 Peter Matthiessen published
his novel "Killing Mr. Watson." It became the first of a trilogy about
a Florida homesteader, who murdered some 5 dozen people over his
lifetime.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B11)
1990 Lawton Chiles, Democrat, was
elected governor over Rep. Gov. Bob Martinez.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1990 Danny Rolling murdered 5
college students. He became known as the Gainesville slasher and later
collaborated with Sondra London, who wrote his confessions, and sold
his art and autographs. The money earned was seized in 1997 when a
Florida judge issued a ruling based on a state law that barred
convicted felons from profiting from their stories, artwork and
autographs.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A11)
1991 Jan 27, The New York Giants
defeated the Buffalo Bills, 20-to-19, in Super Bowl XXV, which was
played amid extra-tight security at Tampa Stadium in Florida, because
of fears of possible Iraqi-sponsored terrorism.
(AP, 1/27/01)
1991 Feb 21, Dame Margot Fonteyn
(b.1919), ballerina (1st lady of British Ballet), died in Panama City,
Fl. In 2004 Meredith Daneman authored “Margot Fonteyn: A Life.”
(AP, 2/21/01)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.)
1991 Mar 30, Patricia Bowman, a
resident of Jupiter, Florida, told authorities she’d been raped hours
earlier by William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Senator Edward Kennedy,
at the family’s Palm Beach estate. Smith was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 3/30/01)
1991 May 15, Defense lawyers
released docs claiming Noriega is "CIA's man in Panama."
(MC, 5/15/02)
1991 Jul 26, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee
Herman) was arrested in Florida for exposing himself at an adult movie
theater.
(http://crime.about.com/library/blreubenspaul.htm)
1991 Jun, Doug Swallow organized
the first Gay Days at the Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando. By 2000 the
event attracted some 100,000 participants.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A3)
1991 Dec 2, Testimony began in
West Palm Beach, Fla., in the trial of William Kennedy Smith, accused
of raping Patricia Bowman at his family's estate.
(AP, 12/2/01)
1991 Dec 4, Pan American World
Airways ceased operations. Pan Am’s records went to the Univ. of
Florida and artifacts went to the Historical Museum of South Florida.
However, a new, smaller version of Pan Am was later formed.
(AP, 12/4/01)(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.A9)
1991 Dec 8, AIDS patient Kimberly
Bergalis, who had contracted the disease from her dentist, died in Fort
Pierce, Fla., at age 23.
(AP, 12/8/97)
1991 Dec 10, William Kennedy
Smith, accused of raping Patricia Bowman, proclaimed his innocence
during his trial in West Palm Beach, Fla.
(AP, 12/10/01)
1991 Dec 11, A jury in West Palm
Beach, Fla., acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault and
battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1991 Dec, Shalanda Burt (19) shot
her boyfriend James Fairley in Bradenton, Florida. She was three months
pregnant at the time. A week after she delivered their first baby,
James raped her and ripped her stitches. Facing 25 years, she was told
by a female public defender to take a plea bargain and 17 years in
prison.
(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977464-5,00.html)
1992 Jan 26, Jose Ferrer (b.1909),
Puerto Rico born film actor, died in Coral Gables, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ferrer)
1992 Jan 27, Aileen Wuornos, a
Florida prostitute, was convicted of slaying the first of seven men
she'd admitted killing, claiming self-defense.
(AP, 1/27/02)
1992 Mar 3, Charges were filed in
Florida against New York Mets Darryl Boston, Vince Coleman and Dwight
Gooden for rape. They were dropped in April.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1992 Mar 20, Manuel Noriega's
wife, Felicidad, was arrested in Florida for stealing buttons from
dresses.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1992 Apr 9, Former Panamanian
ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami of eight drug and
racketeering charges; he is serving a 40-year prison sentence.
(AP, 4/9/97)
1992 Aug 24, Hurricane Andrew
smashed into Florida causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida,
Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm. It swept across
Coral Gables, Florida, and destroyed two-thirds of the Fairchild
Tropical Garden. It cost $15.5 billion in insured losses and was the
most expensive natural disaster in US history. Insurance losses in the
US and Bahamas totaled $21.5 billion.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(AP, 8/24/97)(Econ, 8/21/04,
p.62)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.73)
1992 Sep 14, The grand dragon of
the Ku Klux Klan's Invisible Empire of Florida announced that he was
moving the group's headquarters from Orlando to Gainesville. He said,
it's "a progressive community, and we think we can fit in."
(http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040906-012530-6093r.htm)
1992 Sep 20, Leanza Cornett of
Florida was crowned "Miss America" in Atlantic City, N.J.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1992 Sep 25, A judge in Orlando,
Fla., ruled in favor of Gregory Kingsley, a 12-year-old boy seeking a
"divorce" from his biological parents.
(AP, 9/25/97)
1992 Sep 28, Gloria Estefan and a
cavalcade of musicians and comedians raised one-point-three-million
dollars at a hurricane relief concert in Miami.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0002065/)
1992 Yahweh Ben Yahweh, aka Hulon
Mitchell Jr., was sentenced to prison for involvement in 14 killings,
arsons and other rackets. He was released in 2001. His Nation of Yahweh
was reported to foster a group of "death angels" that required the
killing of a white person and a body part as proof.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A2)
1992 Aileen Wuornos (36), a former
prostitute, testified in her trial that she killed men who assaulted
her and made her fear for her life. She pleaded to shooting a man in
1989 and no contest to murdering 5 men she picked up on Florida
highways. In 2001 she claimed that she killed out of hate and not from
self-defense and asked that her appeals be stopped and her death
sentence carried out. She was executed Oct 9, 2002.
(SFC, 7/2/01, p.A7)(SFC, 10/10/02, p.A7)
1993 Feb 11, President Clinton
announced his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's
first female attorney general, after two earlier candidates stumbled
because they'd hired illegal aliens.
(AP, 2/11/97)
1993 Mar 1, The new expansion
NHL (hockey) team, owned by Disney, was named the Mighty Ducks.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1993 Mar 10, Dr. David Gunn (47)
was shot to death outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic by Michael
Griffin, who was convicted and sentenced to life.
(AP, 3/10/98)(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.A3)
1993 May 28, A jury in Orlando,
Fla., acquitted Miami police officer William Lozano of manslaughter in
the 1989 shooting death of a black motorcyclist and the resulting
crash-caused death of the cyclist's passenger. Lozano had been
convicted in an earlier trial, but that verdict was overturned.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1993 Sep 6, President Clinton
visited South Florida, where he met with residents recovering from
Hurricane Andrew.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1993 Sep 7, Two white laborers
were convicted in West Palm Beach, Fla., of burning a black tourist
from New York; both were later sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 9/7/98)
1993 Sep 8, German tourist
Uwe-Wilhelm Rakebrand was killed by a woman firing from a van as he and
his wife drove away from the Miami airport. The gunwoman and an
accomplice received life prison sentences; the van's driver received 87
years.
(AP, 9/8/98)
1993 Sep 14, British tourist Gary
Colley was shot and killed, his female companion Margaret Jagger
wounded, at a highway rest stop in Florida. Three young men, Aundra
Aikins, John Crumitie, and Deron Spear, were arrested charged and
convicted. Two suspects later received life sentences; two others
received lesser sentences.
(AP, 9/14/03)(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A8)
1993 Oct 22, A judge in West Palm
Beach, Fla., sentenced two white men to life in prison for setting a
black tourist on fire.
(AP, 10/22/98)
1993 Nov 14, Don Shula became the
winningest coach in NFL history.
(http://www.donshula.com/careerhighlights.htm)
1994 Feb 15, Drifter Danny Harold
Rolling entered a surprise guilty plea to the 1990 murders of five
college students in Gainesville, Fla. In all, Rolling confessed to
killing eight people, though there may have been more. As a result of
his murder convictions, Rolling was executed by lethal injection on
October 25, 2006.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Rolling#Execution)(AP, 2/15/04)
1994 Feb 21, Jury selection began
in Pensacola, Fla., in the trial of Michael F. Griffin, an
anti-abortion activist accused of killing Dr. David Gunn outside a
women's clinic. Griffin was convicted of murder and sentenced to life
in prison.
(AP, 2/21/04)
1994 Mar 5, White House Counsel
Bernard Nussbaum resigned in the wake of turmoil over the Clinton
administration's handling of questions related to Whitewater.
(AP, 3/5/99)
1994 Mar 5, A jury in Pensacola,
Fla., convicted anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin of
first-degree murder in the shooting death of Dr. David Gunn; Griffin
was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/5/99)
1994 Jul 29, Abortion opponent
Paul Hill (40) shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton (69) and
Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic
in Pensacola, Fla. Hill was later convicted and sentenced to death.
Hill was executed Sep 3, 2003.
(AP, 7/29/99)(SFC, 9/2/03, p.A7)
1994 Aug 18, Florida Gov. Lawton
Chiles declared an immigration emergency and demanded federal help to
cope with the largest surge of Cuban refugees since the 1980 Mariel
boat-lift.
(AP, 8/18/99)
1994 Nov 2, A jury in Pensacola,
Fla., convicted Paul Hill of murder for the July 29 shotgun slayings of
an abortion provider and his bodyguard; Hill was sentenced to death. He
became the first person to be executed for killing an abortion provider
when he was killed by electrocution on September 3, 2003 at the age of
49 at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.
(AP,
11/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_Hill)
1994 Nov 8-1994 Nov 21, Hurricane
Gordon caused 1,137 deaths in the Caribbean and eight in the United
States. The storm hit Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti before striking Florida.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1994 Dec 9-1994 Dec 11, Pres.
Clinton presided over the first Summit of the Americas held in Miami.
Topics included lower trade barriers and plans for a Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA).
(SFC, 11/21/03,
p.A12)(www.summit-americas.org/miamiplan.htm)
1994 F. Lee Bailey represented
Claude Duboc in a drug case and worked out a deal in which Duboc would
plead guilty and forfeit his assets to the federal government. Bailey
kept part of the money for his services.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A20)
1995 Aug 2, Hurricane "Erin" came
ashore near Vero Beach, Florida; the storm was blamed for eleven deaths.
(AP, 8/2/00)
1995 Sep 11, Jimmy Ryce (9) was
kidnapped, raped and murdered. In 1998 Juan Carlos Chavez, a Cuban
ranch hand was convicted. His defense was that he was framed by his
bosses into a confession for fear of being deported. The defense held
that Edward Sheinhaus, the son of Chavez’s bosses, was the killer.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A4)
1995 Sep 27-Oct 6, Hurricane Opal
caused at least 50 deaths in Guatemala and Mexico and 20 deaths in the
United States. The storm hit Central America before striking Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1995 Oct 4, Hurricane Opal
battered the Florida panhandle.
(AP, 10/4/05)
1995 Oct 5, Hurricane Opal killed
15 people in the Florida Panhandle and caused $1.8 billion in insured
property damages.
(WSJ, 10/6/95, p.A1)
1995 In Tampa the Florida Aquarium
opened at 701 Channelside Drive.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T8)
1995 Florida passed a law that
requires all prisoners to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
Courts ruled that the law could not be applied to prisoners convicted
before Oct 1, 1995.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1996 Jan, Duane Hanson, sculptor,
died at age 70. He lived and worked mainly in Davie, Florida and used
common people as his subjects.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)
1996 Feb 24, Cuban war planes shot
down two unarmed private planes flown by a refugee group in Florida.
Cuba claimed the planes violated its airspace. 4 men were killed
including 3 US citizens. In 2001 Gerardo Hernandez (36) was convicted
of conspiracy in the deaths of the aviators. Antonio Guerrero (43),
convicted for spying while working a Navy base in Florida, was
sentenced to life in prison on Dec 27. In 2009 Guerrero’s sentence was
reduced to 20 years.
(WSJ, 2/23/96, p.A-1)(SFC,12/18/97, p.A6)(AP,
2/24/98)(WSJ, 12/13/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/09, p.A4)
1996 Feb, Augusto Falcon and
Salvador Magluta were tried and acquitted on charges of cocaine
trafficking. In 1998 the foreman of the jury, Miguel Moya, was
arraigned for accepting $500,000 in bribes.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A11)
1996 Apr 30, In Fort Myers,
Florida, members of a teen militia called the Lords of Chaos slew
high-school band director Mark Schwebes. They had begun a crime spree
on Apr 13 with acts of arson and vandalism. Arrested were Kevin
Foster,18, Derek Shields, 18, Peter Magnotti, 17, Christopher Black,
18, Christopher Burnett, 17, and Thomas Tarrone, 16.
1996 May 11, A ValuJet DC-9 with
110 people onboard caught fire shortly after takeoff crashed in the
Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff from Miami Int’l. airport. In
1999 Florida brought murder charges against Sabre-Tech, a Miami repair
facility, that had loaded hazardous oxygen generators onto the plane.
In 1999 SabreTech Maintenance Co. was convicted for mishandling oxygen
canisters that were blamed for the crash. In 2000 a $11 million penalty
was ordered against SabreTech. In 2001 8 0f 9 convictions against
Sabre-Tech were overturned by a federal appeals court.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-1)(AP, 5/11/97)(SFC, 7/14/99,
p.A1)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A3) (SFC, 8/15/00, p.3)(SFC, 11/1/01, p.C2)
1996 May 13, Recovery workers in
the Florida Everglades retrieved the flight data recorder from ValuJet
Flight 592.
(AP, 5/13/97)
1996 Nov 8, Cheyenne Pyle, the
youngest heart transplant patient (90 minutes old), was born in Miami
and flown to California for surgery. The infant did not survive.
(http://tinyurl.com/86zgh)
1996 Nov 13, A grand jury in St.
Petersburg, Fla., declined to indict a white policeman, Jim Knight, who
had shot black motorist TyRon Lewis to death the previous month; the
decision prompted angry mobs to return to the streets.
(SFC, 11/14/96, p.A3)(AP, 11/13/97)
1996 Nov 25, Rodrick Justin
Ferrell (16) of Murray, Ky., killed Richard Wendorf and Naoma Queen in
Eustis. He thought himself a vampire and burned the letter "V" into
Wendorf’s body. He and 4 friends were arrested 3 days later in Baton
Rouge. He was sentenced to death in 1998.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A6)
1996 A planned community was built
by Disney in Celebration, Fla. In 1999 Douglas Frantz and Catherine
Collins authored "Celebration U.S.A." and Andrew Ross authored "The
Celebration Chronicles."
(SFC, 11/4/98, Z1 p.4)(WSJ, 8/23/99, p.A13)
1996 The Chautauqua Assembly a
summer learning experience was revived after a 76-year hiatus in the
town of DeFuniak Springs, between Pensacola and Tallahassee.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T2)
1996 A Miami SWAT team killed
Richard Brown (73) with 123 bullets in a drug raid. In 2001 5 members
of the team were accused of fabricating evidence and agreeing to make
false statements during a probe of the incident.
(SFC, 3/15/01, p.A5)
1997 Feb 19, Larry Singleton
murdered Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Fla. He had served 8
years of a 14-year sentence for the 1978 rape and maiming of
15-year-old Mary Vincent in Ca. A trial in Dec ended in a mistrial and
another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998 but died of
cancer in a prison hospital in 2001.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.A3)(SFC,
1/1/02, p.A13)
1997 Mar 29, In Jacksonville,
Fla., Philip N. Johnson staged a Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored car
robbery for $22 million. He was arrested Aug 30 at a border crossing in
Texas.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul, Tyco Corp. under CEO
Dennis Kozlowski merged with ADT Ltd., a Bermuda corporation, and began
relocating employees to headquarters in Boca Raton, Fl.
(WSJ, 4/5/04, p.A8)
1997 Sep 2, In Miami Beach,
Florida US postal worker, Jesus Antonio Tamayo (64) shot and critically
injured his former wife, Manuela Acosta (62) and a friend and then
killed himself.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Oct 18, The Florida Marlins
beat the Cleveland Indians 7-4 in game one of the World Series.
(AP, 10/18/98)
1997 Oct 19, The Cleveland Indians
defeated the Florida Marlins 6-1 in game two of the World Series,
evening the series at one game apiece.
(AP, 10/19/98)
1997 Oct 25, The Cleveland Indians
avoided elimination in the World Series by defeating the Florida
Marlins, 4-1, in game six.
(AP, 10/25/98)
1997 Oct 26, The Florida Marlins
beat the Cleveland Indians in game 7 of the Baseball World Series 3:2.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.E1)
1997 Nov 7, Sheila Bellush (35)
was found dead by her 13-year-old daughter in her home in Sarasota with
her quadruplet toddlers crawling in her blood. Samuel Gonzales (27) and
Daniel Alex Rocha of San Antonio, Tx., were later arrested for
conspiracy to commit murder. Police still searched for Jose Luis Del
Toro (21), the man believed to have done the shooting. Del Toro was
extradited from Mexico in 1999 and faced trial in Florida. In 2000
Allen Blackthorne (44), the ex-husband of Bellush, was charged with
arranging the killing of Bellush. Blackthorne was convicted of
arranging the murder and faced a mandatory life sentence.
(SFC,11/18/97, p.A9)(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A3)(SFC,
1/6/00, p.A2)(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A9)
1997 Nov 24, Steven and Marlene
Aisenberg reported the kidnapping of their baby Sabrina, not yet 6
months old, from their home in Valrico. In 1999 they were charged in
Maryland with lying and misleading investigators in the disappearance
of the baby.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A2)
1997 Nov, In Miami former mayor
Xavier Sanchez defeated incumbent Mayor Joe Carollo in a close
election. Evidence of voter fraud later emerged and extended to the
city of Miami Beach.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A9)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A4)
1997 Dec 12, In Orlando John
Armstrong was killed by police after a 4-day hostage crises during
which he held two children captive. He killed a man just before taking
the 2 children hostage. He had been released from prison in March after
serving less than a third of a 12-year sentence for robbery in 1989.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A2)
1997 Mitchell Wolfson (b.1939)
donated his Wolfsonian Museum, a collection of decorative art and
political propaganda, to Florida Int’l. Univ. He restricted his art
objects to those made between 1880 and 1945 illustrating the evolution
of modern Western design.
(Econ, 7/18/09,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Wolfson,_Jr.)
1997 Hearst Corp. purchased
WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1997 A new bridge was built from
Tampa to St. Petersburg. The old bridge was saved and renamed the
Friendship Trail Bridge.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T8)
1997 Florida police shot and
wounded Daniel Hoban, a homeless alcoholic. In 2003 4 officers were
convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy for planting a gun
on Hoban and covering-up the case.
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A4)
1998 Jan 1, The 109th Rose Bowl
Parade in Pasadena was held and Univ. of Michigan beat Washington State
21-16, Florida State downed Ohio State 31-14 in the Sugar Bowl.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A1,22)(AP, 1/1/08)
1998 Jan 30, In Sarasota, Florida,
a 14-year-old girl was found staggering along a road. She had been
raped and stabbed nearly 30 times and beaten badly four days
earlier. She hid in the woods in fear of her assailant, Scott
Christopher Malsky (22), who was arrested in Delaware the next day.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 2, Three days of storms
began the left an estimated damage of over $25 million. Gov. Chiles
requested $19 million in federal disaster aid.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 23, In Florida 6-10
tornadoes killed forty-two people. Some 2,600 homes and businesses
damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in Seminole, Osceola, Orange,
Brevard and Volusia counties Florida.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/99)
1998 Mar 10, After a week with no
mayor the Third District Court of appeals ruled that Joe Carollo would
be the mayor of Miami after it voided the 5,000 absentee ballots.
Zavier Suarez promised to fight the decision.
(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar, In St. Augustine the
Tragedy in US History Museum, created by L.H. "Buddy" Hough, closed.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A22)
1998 Mar, Bruce Kaplan, Dade
County Commissioner, resigned after pleading no contest to charges of
filing false financial statements.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 4, Larry Singleton,
rapist and murderer, was sentenced in Florida to death for the 1997
murder of Roxanne Hayes (31). He died in prison of cancer on December
28, 2001.
(SFC, 1/1/02,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton)
1998 Apr 22, The new Disney Animal
Kingdom theme park in Orlando was scheduled to open.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Par p.4)
1998 Apr, Lawmakers passed a bill
that required girls under 18 to notify at least one parent prior to an
abortion.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A3)
1998 May 19, In Brooksville Hank
Carr freed himself from handcuffs and killed 2 officers and a state
trooper after he was picked up for questioning in the shooting death of
his 4-year-old stepson. He later shot himself during a standoff with
170 police officers at a gas station.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 2, Bishop J. Keith Symons
(65) announced his resignation as head of the Palm Beach diocese after
admitting that he molested 5 boys early in his career. Bishop Robert N.
Lynch was named as temp. administrator over the 200,000 Catholics in
the 5-county diocese.
(SFC, 6/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 6, Fires in east-central
Florida burned 1,700 wooded acres near Palm Coast and 1,200 acres in
Seminole County.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 10, A jury in
Jacksonville, Fla. ordered Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. to pay
nearly $1 million to the family of Roland Maddox, who had died after
smoking Lucky Strikes for almost 50 years. A Florida appeals court
later overturned the verdict.
(AP, 6/10/99)(AP, 6/10/08)
1998 Jun 23, Some 260 fires raged
across the state.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 30, A federal judge
halted enforcement of a new Florida law that imposed 5-year prison
terms on doctors who perform a type of late-term abortion.
(SFC, 7/1/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun, Carmen Luneta, 18-year
director of the Port of Miami, was indicted on federal charges of using
the port as a personal bank.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 1, Florida fires closed a
125-mile section of I-95.
(SFC, 7/2/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 2, Tropical Storm Earl
hit the Florida Panhandle. It was expected to reach hurricane strength
with winds over 74 mph.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A2)(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A3)
1998 cSep 12, In Tampa Amanda
Hartman (7) disappeared from her trailer home. Willie Crane Jr. (52), a
crabber and convicted child molester, was later charged with kidnapping
and murder. He had just met the child’s mother 2 days earlier and spent
that evening with the mother and child.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A4)
1998 Sep 14, In Miami ten
suspected Cuban spies were arrested for trying to penetrate the
military and exile groups. Five men later pleaded guilty to lesser
charges; the trial of the other five has been postponed until May 2000.
The 5 remaining men were convicted in June, 2001, for acting as
unregistered agents and conspiracy to commit crimes against the US. In
2009 a federal judge lowered the life sentence of Ramon Labanino to 30
years. The 19-year sentence against Fernando Gonzalez was reduced to
about 18 years.
(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A1) (WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A1)(AP,
9/14/99)(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A19)
1998 Sep 15-Oct 1, Hurricane
Georges caused 602 deaths in the Caribbean and four in the United
States. The storm hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico,
Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and British and U.S.
Virgin Islands before striking Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Florida.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Oct 22, In Miami Miranda Shaw
(34) locked herself in a room with her 3 children, ages 4-14, doused it
with gasoline and set fire killing all. She faced charges of petty
theft from a school cafeteria and feared the loss of her job.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A2)
1998 Nov 3, Maddie Clifton (8) was
killed by Joshua Phillips (14) in Bartow. Phillips was sentenced to
life in prison in 1999.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A2)
1998 Dec 12, Gov. Lawton Chiles
died at age 68. He had acquired wealth as one of the original investors
in Red Lobster restaurants. Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay took over for the
next 3 weeks.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1998 Dec 17, A boatload of Cubans
capsized off Elliot Key, Fla., during an immigrant-smuggling attempt
and at least 8 people were drowned.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A7)
1998 Florida passed a Religious
Freedom Restoration Act which said governments cannot impose a
"substantial burden" on people's freedom of religious expression.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A2)
1998 Two teenagers (aged 16 and
17) beat and kicked to death a gay man, Steven Goedereis (29), who had
called one of them "beautiful." The teenagers were convicted of 2nd and
3rd degree murder in 1999.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.A6)
1998 Bebe Rebozo, Miami
businessman, died and left a $19 million bequest to Richard Nixon’s
presidential library.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1999 Jan 5, Jeb Bush was scheduled
to take office as governor.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)
1999 Jan 5, Anthony Dejuan Fail
was arrested in Miami. He was believed to be the gang leader at the
center of a turf war that had left 12 people dead since August.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 11, Dr. Bradley Silverman
(41), a Miami area surgeon, was shot and killed by former patient
Robert Herndon (45) who was upset over the outcome of an operation.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A4)
1999 Feb 27, Rev. Henry J. Lyons,
president of the National Baptist Convention USA, was convicted of
racketeering and grand theft. He announced his resignation Mar 15.
Lyons was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison and ordered to repay
almost $2.5 million.
(SFEC, 2/28/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A3)(SFC,
4/1/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 8, In Orlando Shirley
Egan (68) shot her daughter, Georgette Smith, after hearing her talk of
putting her into a nursing home. Smith (42) was hit in the spine,
completely paralyzed and later begged doctors to let her die. On May 18
a court ruled that life support could be removed the next day. Smith
died May 19. Shirley Egan was acquitted of attempted murder on Aug 18.
(SFC, 5/19/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A3)(SFC,
8/18/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 16, Cuban Americans,
whose sons were in custody by the INS, began a hunger strike outside
the gates of the Krome Detention Center at the edge of the Everglades.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar, Seuss Landing at the
Universal Studios Escape theme park opened.
(WSJ, 4/13/99, p.B1)
1999 Apr 8, In Florida a power
plant explosion killed 2 people in Tampa and injured 49.
(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 15, A fire burned 20-30
homes in Port St. Lucie and had spread over 1,500 acres.
(SFC, 4/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 18, A fire in the
Everglades had consumed some 50,000 acres and still burned along I-75
at Alligator Alley. In Port St. Lucie 43 homes were reported destroyed
by fire.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 19, The Everglades fire
charred 130,000 acres and continued to rage.
(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 22, The Everglades
wildfire was contained after burning some 170,000 acres.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 27, In Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush and the Legislature agreed on a plan to allow children in the
lowest-rated schools to use state vouchers for private schools.
(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 30, The Florida
Legislature gave final approval to a school voucher program that would
entitle students in the worst public schools to receive $3-25,000 a
year to help pay for private or parochial school tuition. In 2002 a
judge struck down the school-voucher law.
(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A4)(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.A1)
1999 Apr, In Daytona some young
black professionals held a reunion at the Adam's Mark Hotel. Their
treatment caused them to file suit and in 200 they won $8 million in
penalties for harassment and discrimination from the hotel chain.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A7)
1999 Jun 12, It was reported that
King, a 29-year-old gorilla, was the last of his kind to be held in a
30 by 40 foot concrete cage at Monkey Jungle in Dade County. King was
captured as an infant in Cameroon and had spent the last 20 years along
in his cage at Monkey Jungle.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A8)
1999 Jun, The Miccosukee Indians
celebrated the opening of their $50 million, 300-room resort and
convention center on their 680 acres in Everglades National Park.
Meanwhile the price tag for restoring the everglades ecosystem was put
at $7.8 billion.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 5, It was reported that
Norman Nixon (57) of Sarasota, Fla., planned to build a live-at-sea
Freedom Ship to house some 50,000 people. The project was estimated at
$6 billion. As of 2008 he was still working on realizing his dream. He
was also suing several people who fleeced his company out of hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A3)(www.freedomship.com/)
1999 Jul 7, In Miami a jury found
cigarette makers liable for injuries in a large class action suit.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 28, In Florida Lionel
Tate (12) flung Tiffany Eunick (6) around a living room in a session of
play wrestling. Eunick died from severe injuries. Tate was convicted of
1st degree murder in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. In 2003 an
appeals court ordered a new trial and Tate agreed to a 2nd degree
murder charge. Tate was released in 2004.
(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A3)(SFC, 3/10/01, p.A1)(AP,
6/19/01)(SFC, 12/11/03, p.A3)(AP, 1/5/04)(SFC, 1/27/04, p.A2)
1999 Aug 25, In Miami, Florida,
federal agents arrested 50 American Airline workers for smuggling drugs
and weapons.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 7-19, Hurricane Floyd
caused one death in Caribbean and 56 in United States. Storm hit
Bahamas before striking Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1999 Sep 9, In Miami undercover
agents arrested 15 more people for suspected drug smuggling at the
airport.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 13, Hurricane Floyd with
winds at 150 mph stretched out for 700 miles and approached the Florida
coast as over a million people were ordered to evacuate the coast.
(SFC, 9/14/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 22, A 2nd pipe bomb
exploded at the Florida A&M Univ. The first went off on Aug 31 and
no one was injured in either case. On Oct 1 Lawrence Michael Lombardi
(41), a former vending machine company employee, was arrested in
connection with the bombings.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A3)
1999 Oct 14, At Cape Canaveral
Launch Complex 41, built in 1945, was destroyed to make way for Atlas V
rockets.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.A3)
1999 Oct 15, In Apopka it was
reported that some 10,000 homes were overrun by mice following the
flooding of farmlands for the Lake Apopka restoration project.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.D6)
1999 Oct 15, Hurricane Irene hit
southern Florida and 5 people were electrocuted by down power lines in
Miami.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Oct 29, Some 3,000 people
attended a memorial service in Orlando, Florida, for golfer Payne
Stewart, who was killed along with 5 other people in the crash of their
Learjet.
(AP, 10/29/00)
1999 Nov 25, A 5-year-old boy, one
of 14 escapees from Cuba, was saved by sport fisherman off Florida
while 9 people drowned. The fate of Elian Gonzalez was in question
after his father called for his return to Cuba. This set off an
international custody battle between relatives in Miami and Elian's
father in Cuba.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.A3)(SFC, 12/1/99, p.A7)(AP,
11/25/06)
1999 Dec 30, In Tampa, Fla.,
Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, an employee at the Radisson Bay Harbor Inn,
shot and killed 4 co-workers and a motorist as he tempted to steal a
car before police arrested him. Izquierdo-Leyva later pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to life.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)
2000 Jan 6, Florida lawmakers
passed a bill to give death row inmates the option of lethal injection
rather than the electric chair.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A2)
2000 Jan 6, In Miami hundreds of
Cuban Americans protested the INS decision to return Elian Gonzalez to
his father in Cuba. At least 135 people were arrested.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A3)
2000 Jan 10, In Florida Judge Rosa
Gonzalez ordered that Elian Gonzalez remain in the US until a March
court date to hear arguments by the boy's relatives in Miami for Elian
to remain in the US.
(SFC, 1/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 1, In Jacksonville Tracy
Moss (26) shot and killed himself after being pursued by police. He had
just killed his ex-wife, Mitzi Moss, his girlfriend, Kenyatta Shantell
Mines, and his boss, Matthew Wells.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 17, The Florida State
Univ. Board of Regents approved rules that eliminated race and gender
(affirmative action) as considerations for admission to the state's 10
public universities.
(SFC, 2/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb, An Asian swamp eel,
Monopterus albus, was discovered in South Miami-Dade County and it was
feared that it would make its way into Everglades National Park and
disrupt food webs.
(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.A20)
2000 Mar 8, In Florida a
24-vehicle pileup on I-10, 90 miles east of Tallahassee, left 3 people
dead and 21 injured. Blinding smoke from a forest fire was blamed.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 14, In Florida a state
judge ruled the 1-year-old school voucher program unconstitutional.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 22, Four Florida counties
were declared agricultural disaster areas due to a spreading citrus
canker. Half the lime crop was already destroyed in the southern part
of the state.
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 12, Janet Reno, US
Attorney General, ordered the relatives of Elian Gonzalez to bring the
boy to a Miami area airport for transferal to his father.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 22, In Miami US INS
agents stormed the home of Lazaro Gonzalez and took away Elian Gonzalez
to Washington, where he was united with his father. Riots erupted in
Little Havana and 290 protesters were arrested.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A1,4)
2000 Apr 25, A medical evacuation
helicopter crashed on the edge of Tampa Bay and 3 crew members were
killed.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A4)
2000 Apr 28, In Florida William
O’Brien, the Miami police chief, resigned after Mayor Joe Carollo fired
Donald Warshaw, the city manager, who refused to fire O’Brien. O’Brien
did not alert the mayor to the federal action in the Elian Gonzalez
seizure.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, In Tampa a $30
million fire destroyed a 450-unit luxury housing project and post
office under construction in Ybor City.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A3)
2000 May 26, In Florida, Nathaniel
Brazill, a 13-year-old student, shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow
(35) on the last day of classes at Lake Worth Community Middle School
after the teacher refused to let him talk with two girls in his
classroom. Brazill, a seventh grader, had been sent home for throwing
water balloons. In 2001 Brazill was tried as an adult, convicted of 2nd
degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A3)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C2)(SFC,
5/17/01, p.A3)(AP, 5/26/05)
2000 Jun 4, George A. Burton (48),
helicopter pilot, died when his craft crashed while fighting a fire
near Fort Myers.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 20, A contractor drove a
piling into an underwater pipe and caused a 25 million gallon sewage
spill. 25 miles of Miami beaches were closed.
(WSJ, 6/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 6, The body of
19-year-old Cory Erving, son of basketball star Julius "Dr. J" Erving,
was found in his car at the bottom of a Florida pond; he’d been missing
since May 28th.
(AP, 7/6/01)
2000 Jul 13, Harry Lee Coe II, a
Hillsborough County state attorney, was found dead of an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was suspected that he committed
suicide following an investigation into loans he got from subordinates.
(SFC, 7/14/00, p.A6)
2000 Jul 14, In Florida a
Miami-Dade County jury awarded $144.8 billion in punitive damages to
500,000 Florida smokers. Tobacco executives planned to appeal. In 2003
a state appeals court reversed not only the award but also the class
action unifying hundreds of thousands of sick Florida smokers under a
single lawsuit; the Florida Supreme Court agreed in May 2004 to review
that decision..
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A10)(AP,
7/14/05)
2000 Jul 23, Jamie Dean Petron
held off police for a 2nd day and held 5 hostages in Orlando. A police
sharpshooter shot and killed hostage Andrea Hall (40). Petron committed
suicide the next day and 4 children were unhurt.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A5)
2000 Jul 24, In Sarasota Nancy
Campbell-Panitz (57) was found dead shortly after the broadcast of "the
Jerry Springer Show" in which she was taped as a stalker in the "Secret
Mistresses Confronted" episode. Ralf Panitz, her ex-husband, was
arrested 4 days later and Eleanor Panitz was held as a material witness.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A5)(SFC, 7/29/00, p.A2)
2000 Aug 11, A jury in Orlando,
Fla., ordered the Disney Co. to pay $240 million to Nicholas Stracick
and Edward Russell for stealing their ideas for a sports complex.
(SFC, 8/12/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 29, Thadeus Kubinski (69)
died following a shark attack while swimming with his wife in
5-foot-deep water off their dock in Boca Ciega Bay.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 27, It was reported that
the Asian swamp eel, Monopterus albus, was within a mile of the fragile
Florida Everglades National Park.
(WSJ, 9/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 8, In Florida 19,000
votes were reported disqualified in West Palm Beach. Election officials
began a recount and the US presidential election winner remained in
suspense based on the Florida result.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 10, Vote counting
continued in Florida. An unofficial tally gave Bush a 327-vote lead.
(SFC, 11/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 12, The Palm Beach
Canvassing Board decided to recount all county votes, some 425,000, by
hand.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.1)
2000 Nov 13, The vote count in
Florida was set to conclude though absentee ballots remained.
(WSJ, 11/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 14, Florida Secretary of
State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush's fragile 300-vote lead
over Al Gore, hours after a judge refused to lift a 5 p.m. deadline;
however, the judge gave Harris the authority to accept or reject
follow-up manual recount totals.
(SFC, 11/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/14/01)
2000 Nov 15, In Florida Katherine
Harris, the Republican Sec. of State, turned down requests by 4
counties to extend the time limit for counting ballots.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 16, The Florida State
Supreme Court ruled that "there is no legal impediment to the recounts
continuing."
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 16, A US Air Force F-16
collided with a small plane near Sarasota, Fla. The pilot of the Cessna
was killed, the fighter pilot ejected safely.
(WSJ, 11/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 17, The Florida Supreme
Court froze the state's presidential tally, forbidding Secretary of
State Katherine Harris from certifying results of the marathon vote
count just as Republican George W. Bush was advancing his minuscule
lead over Democrat Al Gore. Also, a federal appeals court refused to
block recounts under way in two heavily Democratic counties.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/17/01)
2000 Nov 18, The absentee ballot
count raised Gov. Bush’s lead over Al Gore to 930 votes.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Lawyers for Al Gore
and George W. Bush battled before the Florida Supreme Court over
whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to continue.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 21, In Florida the
Supreme Court issued a 42-page unanimous decision that called for the
recount in 3 counties to continue and that results be posted no later
than 9 a.m. Nov 27.
(SFC, 11/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 22, Gov. George Bush
called on the US Supreme Court to stop the vote counting in Florida. In
Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga ordered election officials
to consider dimpled ballots. In Dade County election officials called
off the recount due to their inability to meet the Nov 27 deadline.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 23, In Florida the
Supreme Court rejected an emergency plea by Al Gore to force Miami-Dade
County to resume manual counts. Meanwhile, Gore's lawyers argued in a
brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the high court should stay
out of the Florida election controversy.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/23/01)
2000 Nov 26, Sec. of State
Katherine Harris certified Gov. George W. Bush as winner in the state’s
presidential election, 2,912,790 to 2,912,253, a 537-vote margin. Ralph
Nader received 97,488 votes.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/26/01)(Econ, 7/24/04,
p.32)
2000 Nov 29, Al Gore asked the
Florida Supreme court for a spedup recount. Gore said in a series of TV
interviews that he was prepared to contest the Florida presidential
vote until "the middle of December." A judge ordered all ballots from
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties sent to Tallahassee. Florida
legislators planned a special session to name electors for George W.
Bush.
(SFC, 11/30/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/29/01)
2000 Nov 30, Gov. Bush proceeded
with transition plans as Al Gore asked a Florida judge to begin an
immediate review of 13,000 ballots from Palm Beach and Dade counties.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, The US Supreme Court
heard arguments by attorneys of Al Gore and George W. Bush on the
legality of a vote extension by the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida
Supreme Court turned down 2 Democratic pleas for an immediate count of
disputed ballots and for a new election in Palm Beach County.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 2, Al Gore sought a
recount in south Florida, while George W. Bush flatly asserted, "I'm
soon to be the president" and met with GOP congressional leaders.
(AP, 12/2/01)
2000 Dec 3, Circuit Judge Sanders
Sauls finished listening to testimony on al gore’s request for a hand
count of 13,000 ballots in 2 counties.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 4, Judge Sauls denied Al
Gore’s request for a recount. The US Supreme Court set aside the
decision by the Florida Supreme Court to extend the vote counting
deadline and sent the case back to the Florida court.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 5, The Florida Supreme
Court agreed to hear Al Gore’s plea for hand recounts.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 7, The Florida Supreme
Court heard arguments over the election results.
(WSJ, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 7, A phase 1 water
shortage was declared in southern Florida. Drought conditions were the
worst since 1961.
(SSFC, 2/18/01, p.A13)
2000 Dec 8, The Florida Supreme
Court issued a 4-3 decision ordering new manual recounts of thousands
of disputed ballots.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 9, The US Supreme ruled
5-4 to stop the recount in Florida until arguments are heard Dec 11.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 11, Pres. Clinton signed
a bipartisan $7.8 billion bill to revive the Florida Everglades. It was
the largest environmental restoration effort in history.
(Sm, 3/06, p.48)
2000 Dec 12, A divided U.S.
Supreme Court reversed a state court decision for recounts in Florida's
contested election, effectively transforming George W. Bush into the
president-elect. The high court agreed, 7-to-2, to reverse the Florida
court's order of a state recount and voted 5-to-4 that there was no
acceptable procedure by which a timely new recount could take place. A
later review of the ballots suggested that George W. bush would have
won anyway.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A1)(AP,
12/12/01)
2000 Dec 15, Mazen Al-Najjar, a
Palestinian immigrant who had taught at the Univ. of South Florida, was
released following 3½ years in jail on secret evidence. He still
faced deportation and was suspected of having ties with the
Syrian-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Dec, Pres. Clinton signed the
$7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. CERP included
68 projects planned over 30 years.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.32)
2001 Jan 28, Super Bowl XXXV was
played in Tampa. The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T8)
2001 Jan, Rilya Wilson (4)
disappeared. She was not reported missing until Apr 25, 2002. Geralyn
and Pamela Graham, 2 sisters who cared for Rilya, were charged Oct 2,
2002 with accepting some $14,000 in Florida public assistance following
her disappearance.
(SFC, 10/3/02, p.A4)
2001 Feb 5, The new $16 million
Holy Land Experience theme park opened in Orlando.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A2)
2001 Feb 6, Gus Boulis (51),
founder of the Miami Subs restaurant chain and SunCruz gambling
cruises, was shot and killed in Fort Lauderdale. In 2006 it was
reported that Boulis was killed by John Gurino, a man with mob
connections, who was himself killed by a business partner in 2003.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A4)(SFC, 6/10/06, p.A9)
2001 Feb 16, A wildfire broke out
between Orlando and Tampa and burned some 10,000 acres before it was
brought under control on Feb 26.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A8)
2001 Feb 18, In Florida Dale
Earnhardt (b.1951), race car driver, was killed on his final turn at
the NASCAR Daytona 500. Later this year Joe Menzer authored "The
Wildest Ride," a history of NASCAR racing.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/01, p.A26)(NW,
12/31/01, p.109)
2001 Feb 20, In Florida 11,000
acres burned near Polk City.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A7)
2001 Mar 9, A judge in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced 14-year-old Lionel Tate to life in prison
for the 1999 killing of Tiffany Eunick, a 6-year old girl. Tate, who
had been convicted of first-degree murder, said he was imitating
pro-wrestling moves. Tate's first-degree murder conviction and sentence
were later overturned; he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and
received a new sentence of probation, but is now accused of violating
that probation.
(AP, 3/9/02)(AP, 3/9/06)
2001 Apr 17, Alfred Moen (86),
inventor of the single-handed faucet, died in Destin, Fla. He began
working on the device in 1937 as a college student and found a
manufacturer, Ravenna Metal Products of Seattle, in 1947.
(WSJ, 4/19/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A23)
2001 Jun 4, Pres. Bush spoke in
the Florida Everglades and underlined his request for $58 million in
the 2002 budget for Everglades restoration.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 8, Five Cuban men were
convicted in the US for operating as unregistered foreign agents.
Gerardo Hernandez (36) was sentenced to life in prison on Dec 12 for
conspiracy in the deaths of 4 aviators shot down by Cuba in 1996.
Antonio Guerrero (43), convicted for spying while working a Navy base
in Florida, was sentenced to life in prison on Dec 27. In 2009
Guerrero’s sentence was reduced to 20 years.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A4)(SFC, 12/28/01, p.A5)(SFC,
10/14/09, p.A4)
2001 Jun 12, Gov. Jebb Bush signed
into law a bill banning the execution of mentally retarded killers.
Florida became the 15th state to do so.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 12, Tropical Storm
Allison killed another 4 people. 5 were killed in the Panhandle a week
earlier.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 6, Eight-year-old Jessie
Arbogast was badly injured in a shark attack off the Florida coast.
(AP, 7/6/02)
2001 Jul 25, Irving Sicherer (76)
was found bludgeoned to death in his condo in Adventura. Adam Ezerski
(19) was suspected.
(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A15)
2001 Jul 26, Anthony Martilotto
(39) was strangled to death in Fort Lauderdale. Adam Ezerski (19) was
suspected. Ezerski was caught in Reno on Aug 17.
(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A15) (SFC, 8/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 4, In Florida an
immigration official turned back Muhammed al-Kahtani (al-Qahtani), a
Saudi who had flown in from London with $2,800 in cash and no return
ticket. He was later captured in Afghanistan and detained at Guantanamo
after officials suspected that he was the intended 20th hijacker for
the Nov 11 attacks. In 2008 the Pentagon dropped charges against
al-Qahtani.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.39)(AP, 5/13/08)
2001 Sep 7, In Miami 13 current
and former police officers were indicted for planting evidence,
cover-ups and multiple cases of misconduct from the mid 1990s. More
indictments were expected.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Sep 23, In Hillsborough
County, Florida, Randolph Standifer (21) was arrested for the rape and
attempted murder of a 9-month-old baby that was kidnapped and abandoned
a day earlier.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Oct 5, Bob Stevens (63),
photo editor for the Sun tabloid, died of anthrax. Anthrax spores were
later found on his computer keyboard in Lantana. [Oct 2 also given]
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A10)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D7)
2001 Oct 8, A 2nd case of anthrax
was reported in Ernesto Blanco (73), a co-worker of the man who died
Oct 5 in Florida.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 9, The 2 anthrax cases in
Florida was reported to probably have been caused by an intentional
release of the deadly bacteria.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A4)
2001 Oct 10, A 3rd Florida case of
anthrax was identified in a 35-year-old woman who worked in the same
office as Robert Stevens. The strain was reported to match one from
Iowa in the 1950s commonly used by lab researchers.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.A4,5)
2001 Nov 1, Anthrax spores were
found in 4 mailrooms in Rockville, Md., a postal facility in Kansas
City, 3 new locations in a Manhattan processing center and a 6th postal
facility in Florida.
(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 15, Investigators in
Florida said anthrax was found throughout the 68,000-square-foot
America Media building in Boca Raton, where the 1st case was identified.
(SFC, 11/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 21, Florida disbarred F.
Lee Bailey (68) for payment in a 1994 drug case that was supposed to go
to the government.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Nov 26, In Pensacola, Fla.,
Terry Lee King was murdered and his house set afire. His 2 sons, Derek
(14) and Alex (13) confessed to the murder, but later said Rick Chavis
(40), a local handyman, killed the father and had gotten the boys to
take the blame. Derek and Alex were convicted of 2nd degree murder on
Sep 6, 2002. Rick Chavis was acquitted. Derek was sentenced to 8 years
in prison and Alex was sentenced to 7 years.
(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A3)(AP, 9/7/02)(SFC, 11/15/02, p.A8)
2001 Dec 12, Gerardo Hernandez,
the leader of a Cuban spy ring, received a life sentence in federal
court in Miami for his role in the infiltration of US military bases
and the deaths of four Cuban-Americans in 1996.
(AP, 12/12/02)
2001 Dec 28, Lawrence Singleton
(74), rapist, died at a Florida prison hospital where he was awaiting
execution for a 1997 murder. Singleton had raped Mary Vincent (15) in
1978 and chopped off her forearms. He was paroled in 1987.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A1)
2001 A Florida judge upheld the
state’s 24-year-old law banning gay adoptions.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A3)
2002 Jan 2, The No. 5 Florida
Gators crushed No. 6 Maryland 56-23 in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/2/03)
2002 Jan 3, In Florida the
conviction of Juan Melendez for a 1983 murder was overturned after he
had spent 17 years on death row. In 2000 the transcript of another
man’s confession, withheld by prosecutors, was found.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 4, Florida coach Steve
Spurrier resigned to pursue an NFL job, two days after leading the
Gators to victory over Maryland in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2002 Jan 24, The Florida state
pension fund reported a $325 million loss from the demise of Enron. The
Univ. of California reported a $145 million loss.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A24)
2002 Feb 17, Ward Burton took
advantage of Sterling Marlin's blunder for his first victory in the
Daytona 500. Marlin, who appeared in control of the race, was penalized
for getting out of his car and pulling briefly on a damaged fender
during the stoppage.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2002 Mar 1, Grand American series
driver Jeff Clinton was killed during practice in a crash at
Homestead-Miami Speedway.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2002 Mar 8, Anthony J. O’Connell,
Palm Beach Catholic bishop, resigned after admitting to the sexual
abuse of a teen-age seminary student 27 years earlier.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb, Florida Bay experienced
a mass of "black water" spread over some 700 sq. miles north of the
Keys. It was thought to be caused by an algal bloom.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.C10)
2002 Apr 18, An Amtrak train
derailed near Crescent City, Florida, and 4 people were killed. The
engineer had pulled the emergency brake after he spied what he thought
was deformed track. 3 workers pulled the emergency brake when they saw
a disjointed track.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A3)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A3)(WSJ,
4/21/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, Robert Rhodes (68),
former Florida dog track security guard, was charged in Alabama with
cruelty to animals after the remains of some 3,000 greyhounds were
found on his property.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A6)
2002 May 29, Pres. Bush moved to
prevent oil drilling off the Florida coast and in the Everglades.
Payments of $115 and $120 million would be made to buy back
drilling rights. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said it was good public policy.
(SFC, 5/30/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 5, The SF Guardian
reported that Greg Palast, BBC journalist, had uncovered that the state
of Florida had used an inaccurate list in an effort to purge felons
from the 2000 voter rolls. As it turned out, only a fraction of the
57,700 people on the list were ex-cons.
(SFG, 6/5/02)
2002 Jun 26, In Florida Jennifer
Irene Graves (30) shot Ronnie Katrina Holton (21) in the head and
kidnapped her 6-month-old boy. Graves was arrested in Fort Myers and
Holton died 3 days later.
(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A20)
2002 Jul 2, A trial court in
Florida ruled that the state’s capital sentencing statute in
constitutional.
(SFC, 7/3/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 5, Ted Williams (83),
baseball legend, died in Florida.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul, Moon rocks stolen from a
NASA safe were recovered at a hotel in Orlando, Fl. 4 men were later
convicted and sentenced to prison terms.
(USAT, 10/30/03, p.7A)
2002 Aug 3, Barbara Jean Laney
(67), former model and actress (TV’s Sky King), was beaten, strangled
and stabbed to death at her Bradenton, Florida, condo. In 2006 Gary
Michael Cloud (49) was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/hosx8)
2002 Aug 10, Doris Wishman (82),
director of bad films, died in Coral Gables, Florida. Her films
included such works as "Bad Girls Go to Hell" and "Blaze Star Goes
Nudist."
(SFC, 8/20/02, p.A22)
2002 Sep 10, In the Florida
Democratic primary Bill McBride won over former Attorney General Janet
Reno by some 8,196 votes for a chance to unseat Gov. Jebb Bush. McBride
was certified as winner on Sep 17. Polling stations opened late and
problems cropped up with new touchscreen voting machines.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/13/02, p.A1)(WSJ,
9/18/02, p.A1)(AP, 9/10/03)
2002 Oct 9, Aileen Wuornos (46), a
former prostitute, was executed for killing 6 men along Florida
highways. She became the 10th woman executed in the US since capital
punishment resumed in 1977.
(SFC, 7/2/01, p.A7)(SFC, 10/10/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 20, Thomas Mohaghan (65),
founder of Domino’s Pizza, pledged at least $220 million to build the
Catholic Ave Maria Univ. near Naples, Fla.
(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A7)
2002 Dec 8, Devi Sridhar (18) of
Coral Gables, Florida, was one of 32 recipients of the Rhodes
scholarship and the youngest ever US recipient.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.J1)
2002 The South Florida Water
Management District voted in 1998 to spend $120 million to buyout 1,400
landowners on some 6,000 acres in the East Everglades by this year.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A7)
2003 Jan 26, Tampa Bay won their
first NFL championship over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl 37.
Rioting erupted on Oakland streets following the Raiders' Super Bowl
loss to the Tampa Bucs (48-21).
(SFC, 1/27/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/26/04)
2003 Jan 27, In Florida over 800
doctors staged a brief walkout to protest rising malpractice insurance
costs.
(WSJ, 1/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 20, Sami Al-Arian, a
University of South Florida engineering professor, and seven other men
were charged with financing a Palestinian terrorist group. Four of the
men face trial; the other four have yet to be arrested. On Dec 6, 2005,
a Florida jury cleared Al-Arian and 3 co-defendants of terror charges.
(AP, 2/20/04)(SFC, 12/7/05, p.A5)(Econ, 12/10/05,
p.38)
2003 Apr 18, In the Florida Keys
at least 28 pilot whales stranded themselves and 5 were reported dead.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A4)
2003 May 25, In Miami an explosion
on the cruise ship SS Norway, formerly the SS France, killed 4
boiler-room crew members.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 13, Florida's legislature
approved a bill that capped most medical malpractice damage awards at
$500,000.
(WSJ, 8/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 24, Japan’s Musashi-Fuchu
routed East Boynton Beach, Fla., 10-1 to win the Little League World
Series.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Sep 3, Paul Hill, a former
minister who said he murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard to
save the lives of unborn babies, was executed in Florida by injection,
becoming the first person put to death in the United States for
anti-abortion violence.
(AP, 9/3/04)
2003 Sep 20, In Atlantic City, NJ,
Miss Florida Ericka Dunlap beat out 50 rivals to be crowned Miss
America.
(AP, 9/21/03)
2003 Oct 15, The Florida Marlins
defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-6 in game 7 for the National League pennant.
(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 15, In Florida
tube-feeding stopped for Terri Schiavo (39), severely brain-damaged
since 1990, based on a court decision for its removal. Death was
expected within 2 weeks. The tube was reinserted six days later after
the Florida Legislature rushed through "Terri's Law," which was
recently struck down by the Florida Supreme Court
(Econ, 10/18/03, p.31)(AP, 10/15/04)
2003 Oct 21, In Florida
tube-feeding was resumed for Terri Schiavo (39), brain-damaged since
1990, on orders from Gov. Jeb Bush, who overrode a court decision for
its removal.
(SFC, 10/22/03, p.A2)(WSJ, 10/22/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 25, The Florida Marlins
beat the NY Yankees 2-0 at Yankee Stadium and won Baseball's World
Series in 6 games.
(SSFC, 10/26/03, p.B1)
2003 Oct 25, Florida State's Bobby
Bowden became the winningest coach in major college football history
with his 339th victory as the Seminoles beat Wake Forest 48-24.
(AP, 10/25/04)
2003 Oct 28, The seven astronauts
who died in the February 1 Columbia shuttle disaster were honored with
the unveiling of their names carved into the national Space Mirror
Memorial in Florida.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida ministers
from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a Free Trade Area
of the Americas" (FTAA), as police clashed with hundreds of
demonstrators.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 21, The Air Force
conducted a 2nd test of the "Mother of All Bombs," officially the
Massive Ordnance Air Blast, in Florida. It was 1st tested Mar 11.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Dec 10, An appeals court
ordered a new trial for Lionel Tate, a Florida teen sentenced to life
for causing the death of a 6-year-old playmate, Tiffany Eunick.
Originally convicted of first-degree murder, Tate pleaded guilty to
2nd-degree murder and went free in January 2004.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2003 Dec 25, Florida's Gov. Jeb
Bush dedicated a faith-based prison.
(WSJ, 12/26/03, p.A1)
2003 The Florida Clean Air Act
became part of the state constitution. It prohibited smoking in
virtually all indoor public areas.
(WSJ, 1/27/04, p.D12)
2004 Jan 26, Lionel Tate, the
Florida teen who'd killed a 6-year-old playmate and became the youngest
defendant in the nation to be locked away for life, was released after
three years behind bars.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2004 Feb 1, In Sarasota, Florida,
Carlie Brucia (11) was abducted. Brucia, whose abduction was captured
by a surveillance camera, was found Feb 6 in a church parking lot, and
Joseph P. Smith, a mechanic, was charged with her murder. Smith (39)
was convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder on Nov 17, 2005. In 2006
Smith was sentenced to death.
(AP, 2/6/04)(SFC, 2/7/04, p.A3)(SFC, 11/18/05,
p.A3)(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A7)
2004 Feb 6-7, G7 finance ministers
met in Boca Raton, Florida, and agreed that more flexibility is
desirable for currencies that “lack such flexibility.”
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.70)
2004 Apr 19, Jim Cantalupo (60),
McDonald's Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive, died of an apparent
heart attack in Florida and the company named Chief Operating Officer
Charlie Bell to replace him as CEO.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Jun 7, In Hockey’s Stanley
Cup Tampa Bay defeated the Calgary Flames in game 7.
(WSJ, 6/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 3, At Cape Canaveral,
Fla., a Delta II rocket lifted the spacecraft Messenger on a 6 ½
year journey toward Mercury.
(SFC, 8/4/04, p.A2)
2004 Aug 6, In Deltona, Fla., 4
men and two women were found slain in a home after one of them failed
to show up for an early morning shift at a nearby Burger King. A man
who was angry about a suspected theft recruited three teenagers to stab
and beat six people to death with baseball bats.
(AP, 8/6/04)(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 10, Pres. Bush nominated
Porter J. Goss, Florida Republican congressman, to head the CIA. Goss
spent most of his career as a clandestine operative in Latin America.
(AP, 8/11/04)(WSJ, 8/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 13, Hurricane Charley
roared across Cuba, ripping apart roofs, downing power lines and
yanking up huge palm trees on its way to Florida. Charley hit Florida
with winds at 145mph. It flattened oceanfront homes, killed 23 people
and left thousands more homeless.
(AP, 8/13/04)(AP, 8/14/04)(AP, 8/14/04)(AP,
8/16/04)(WSJ, 8/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 5, The eye of Hurricane
Frances made official landfall near Sewall’s Point, Fl. Sustained winds
of 105 mph knocked out power to some 2 million people. Frances left 19
dead in Florida as it slowly moved northwest.
(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.A1)(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/8/04,
p.A1)
2004 Sep 6, Former hurricane
Frances pounded the Florida Panhandle as a tropical storm.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2004 Sep 16, Hurricane Ivan
slammed ashore in Alabama with winds of 130 mph, packing deadly
tornadoes and a powerful punch of waves and rain that threatened to
swamp communities from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. At least 23
people were killed.
(AP, 9/16/04)(SFC, 9/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 17, The violent remains
of Hurricane Ivan pounded a large swath of the eastern United States,
drenching an area from Georgia to Ohio. Ivan left 70 dead in the
Caribbean and 40 dead in the US including 4 in Alabama, 16 in Florida,
4 in Georgia, 4 in Louisiana, 3 in Mississippi, and 8 in North Carolina.
(AP, 9/17/04)(SFC, 9/18/04, p.A16)
2004 Sep 26, Hurricane Jeanne
blasted ashore in Florida with drenching rains and 120 mph wind. At
least 1.5 million people were without power. Several people were killed.
(AP, 9/26/04)(WSJ, 9/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 3, Mel Martinez, George
Bush’s former Sec. of Housing, won a Florida Senate seat.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.30)
2004 The property tax base in
Miami, Florida, rose 27% as home prices doubled since 1999.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.23)
2005 Feb 4, John and Linda Dollar,
a Florida couple accused of torturing and starving five adopted
children, were captured in southeastern Utah.
(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 20, In Florida Jeff
Gordon won his third Daytona 500. Gordon was born in Vallejo,
California, and raised in Pittsboro, Indiana.
(AP,
2/20/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gordon)
2005 Feb 23, In Homosassa,
Florida, Jessica Marie Lunsford (9), was last seen when her grandmother
tucked her into bed. The next morning, her father discovered she was
gone. [see Mar 19]
(AP, 2/27/05)
2005 Mar 2, It was reported that
the Palm Beach, Fla., hedge fund KL Financial, with assets of $200
million, had run out of funds.
(WSJ, 3/2/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 2, In Florida dozens of
dolphins beached on the Florida Keys. Sonar from a US submarine was
later suspected.
(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 18, Doctors in Florida
removed the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo (41) despite efforts by
congressional Republicans to halt the process. The brain-damaged woman
died on March 31, 2005, at age 41.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/18/06)
2005 Mar 19, In Florida the body
of missing Jessica Lunsford (9) was found, a day after officials said
John Evander Couey (46), a registered sex offender, confessed to
kidnapping and killing the girl. [see Feb 23] On June 30, 2006, a judge
ruled that John Couey's taped confession is inadmissible in court and
will not be heard by members of the jury. The decision was based on the
fact that, at the time the confession was recorded, police had not
granted Couey's repeated requests for access to a lawyer. It was ruled
that all evidence collected after Couey's confession, including the
recovery of Lunsford's body, will be allowed in court, as will
incriminating statements made by Couey to investigators and a jail
guard. The Jessica Lunsford Act was named after her. It requires
tighter restrictions on sex offenders (such as wearing electronic
tracking devices) and increases prison sentences for some convicted sex
offenders. Jessica's Law refers to similar reform acts initiated by the
states. In 2007 a jury decided that Couey should get the death penalty.
On Aug 24 a judge sentenced Couey to death.
(AP,
3/19/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lunsford)(SFC, 8/25/07,
p.A3)
2005 Mar 21, Pres. Bush in the
early hours signed an emergency bill called the “Palm Sunday
Compromise” to permit the reinsertion of a feeding tube to keep Terri
Schiavo alive in Florida.
(SFC, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 24, The U.S. Supreme
Court denied an appeal from the parents of Terri Schiavo to have a
feeding tube reinserted into the severely brain-damaged woman.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2005 Mar 31, Terri Schiavo (41),
the severely brain-damaged woman who spent 15 years connected to a
feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way
to the White House and Congress, died in Florida, 13 days after the
tube was removed.
(AP, 3/31/05)(SFC, 4/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 2, Terri Schiavo's body
was cremated as disagreements continued between her husband and her
parents, who were unable to have their own independent expert observe
her autopsy.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2005 Apr 9, Sarah Michelle Lunde
(13) was last seen in Ruskin, Fla. Her body was found April 16 at an
abandoned fish camp about a half mile from her home. David Onstott
(36), a sex offender who once dated the girl’s mother, was arrested
April 12. Onstott confessed and was charged with 1st degree murder on
April 17.
(SSFC, 4/17/05, p.A13)
2005 Apr 16, Authorities in
Hillsborough County, Fla., found the body of missing 13-year-old Sarah
Michelle Lunde. A suspect, David Lee Onstott, was charged with her
murder on April 17.
(AP, 4/16/06)(SSFC, 4/17/05, p.A13)
2005 Apr 17, Registered sex
offender David Lee Onstott was charged with first-degree murder in the
death of Sarah Michelle Lunde, the 13-year-old Florida girl whose body
had been found the day before.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2005 Apr 26, Florida’s Gov. Bush
signed legislation giving people the right to meet “force with force,”
effective Oct 1. Utility crews in South Florida scrambled to restore
power to more than 1 million customers blacked out by Hurricane
Katrina, which continued to churn in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A5)(AP, 8/26/06)
2005 May 2, Florida’s Gov. Bush
signed legislation imposing 25-year jail terms for some child molesters
and forcing many to wear satellite tracking gear upon release.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 13, A 4-year-old boy died
following a spin on the Disney World “Mission Space” ride.
(SFC, 6/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 25, A shark attack near
Pensacola, Florida, killed a girl (14).
(WSJ, 6/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 10, Hurricane Dennis
swamped homes, ripped off roofs and felled power lines and trees when
it hurtled into northwest Florida and Alabama with 120-mph (190-kph)
winds. The storm left at least 16 dead in Haiti. Dennis killed at least
16 people in Cuba, damaged or destroyed 15,000 homes and caused an
estimated $1.4 billion in property damage.
(Reuters, 7/11/05)(WSJ, 7/11/05, p.A1)(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Aug 3, Luis Diaz (67), a
Florida man who spent 26 years in prison on rape charges, was released
after a judge exonerated him because new DNA evidence cast doubts on
his guilt. Authorities believed at the time the former cook was Miami's
infamous "Bird Road rapist" blamed for attacks on at least 25 women
between 1977 and 1979.
(AFP, 8/3/05)
2005 Aug 25, Hurricane Katrina
plodded across South Florida and left 4 people dead.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Sep 18, At least 2.2 million
people die of work-related accidents and diseases around the world each
year, the UN International Labor Organization said in a report, adding
that the estimate was 10 percent higher than in 2002. The report was to
be released at the 17th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in
Orlando, Florida, which runs to Sep 22.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 19, Officials ordered
residents evacuated from the lower Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita
headed toward the island chain, threatening to grow into a hurricane
with a potential 8-foot storm surge.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 20, Rita strengthened
into a growing hurricane as it lashed the Florida Keys with heavy rain
and strong wind, threatening the island chain with a storm surge of up
to 6 feet and sparking fears the storm could eventually bring new
misery to the Gulf Coast.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Oct 24, Hurricane Wilma left
at least 6 dead in Florida and damages estimated to be as much as $6-10
billion, making it the 3rd costliest in US history (behind Andrew and
Katrina). Some 27,700 dwellings were destroyed or rendered temporarily
unlivable.
(WSJ, 10/24/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/15/05, p.B1)
2005 Oct 26, In Florida the death
toll from Hurricane Wilma rose to 10. Officials estimated agriculture
damage at $1 billion.
(WSJ, 10/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 27, Pres. Bush visited
Florida and took a look at the damage from Hurricane Wilma as the death
toll rose to 14. Some 2 million homes and businesses were still without
power.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.A9)
2005 Nov 2, In Florida 2 men
pleaded guilty to organizing a Cuban smuggling trip that ended when
their speedboat capsized and a 6-year-old boy drowned on Oct 12.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 17, A jury in Sarasota,
Fla., convicted mechanic Joseph Smith (37) of kidnapping, raping and
strangling 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, whose Feb 1, 2004, abduction had
been captured by a car-wash security camera. On December 1, 2005, a
jury, by a vote of 10 to 2, returned a recommendation for the death
penalty. On March 15, 2006, the day before what would have been
Carlie's fourteenth birthday, he was sentenced to two terms of life
imprisonment on the charges of sexual battery and kidnapping, and was
sentenced to death by lethal injection for murder.
(AP,
11/17/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlie_Brucia)
2005 Nov 18, A civil jury in
Florida ruled 10-2 that Robert Blake (72), former “Baretta” TV star,
intentionally caused the 2001 death of Bonny Lee Bakley, and ordered
him to pay her children $30 million.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A2)
2005 Dec 1, A jury in Sarasota,
Fla., recommended the death sentence for Joseph Smith, the killer of
11-year-old Carlie Brucia.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2005 Dec 7, In Miami, Florida, US
Air Marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar on suspicion of having a
bomb. No bomb was found, and federal officials later concluded there
was no link to terrorism. Witnesses said his wife, Anne, frantically
tried to explain he was bipolar, a mental illness also known as
manic-depression, and was off his medication.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 19, In Florida a
58-year-old propeller seaplane, owned by Chalk’s Ocean Airways, crashed
in the water off Miami Beach after taking off for Bimini in the
Bahamas. 20 people were killed. Federal investigators found
longstanding cracks in a wing that fell off.
(AP, 12/20/05)(SFC, 12/20/05, p.A4)(WSJ, 12/22/05,
p.A1)
2005 Dec 30, In Florida 87 Cubans
reached shore in a series of landings that made police suspect
smugglers.
(WSJ, 12/31/05, p.A1)
2006 Jan 5, The Florida Supreme
Court struck down the voucher system that allowed some children to
attend private schools at taxpayer expense, saying that it violates the
state constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public
schools.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 6, In Florida Martin Lee
Anderson (14) died a day after he was brutally beaten at a juvenile
detention boot camp. Videotape showed that he was punched and kicked. A
2nd autopsy on Mar 13 indicated that Anderson did not die of natural
causes. An earlier autopsy said his death was due to a sickle cell
trait. In May 2007 the Florida state legislature agreed to pay
Anderson’s family $5 million to settle civil claims. On Oct 12, 2007,
an all-white jury acquitted 8 former boot camp workers of manslaughter.
(AP, 2/17/06)(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A4)(SFC, 10/13/07,
p.A4)
2006 Jan 9, The US charged a
husband and wife Florida Int’l. Univ. employees, one a teacher, with
spying for decades for Castro’s regime in Cuba.
(WSJ, 1/10/06,
p.A1)(www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-10-voa7.cfm)
2006 Jan 12, In Fort Lauderdale 4
youths went cruising to beat up some bums. Norris Gaynor (45), a
homeless man, was beaten to death with baseball bats in one of 3
attacks. A surveillance camera captured the beating of Jacques Pierre
in one of the non-lethal attacks. [see Jan 15]
(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A5)
2006 Jan 14, Christopher Penley
(15) was shot by a SWAT team in a Longwood, Fl., middleschool when his
pellet gun was mistaken for real pistol. Penley died the next day.
(SSFC, 1/15/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 15, Police in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, arrested Brian Hooks and Thomas Daugherty, two
teenagers charged with murdering Norris Gaynor (45), a homeless man.
Three such attacks were conducted in the early hours of January 12,
leaving Gaynor dead and two others seriously wounded. In 2008 Brian
Hooks (21) and Thomas Dougherty (19) faced trial for murder and
attempted murder. 2 other youths played lesser roles. On Oct 23
Dougherty was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/15/06)(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A5)(SFC, 10/24/08,
p.A4)
2006 Jan 23, Alan Crotzer (45) was
freed in Florida after DNA testing and other evidence convinced
prosecutors he was not involved in the 1981 armed robbery and rapes
that led to a 130-year prison sentence. DNA has been used to clear at
least 172 people wrongly convicted of crimes in 31 states since 1989,
according to the Innocence Project.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 25, In Florida a car full
of siblings headed home was crushed between a truck and a stopped
school bus, killing the seven adopted children just two miles from
where they lived.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 29, Nam June Paik (74),
the avant-garde artist credited with inventing video art in the 1960s
by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live
performers, died in Miami, Fla. In a 1974 report commissioned by the
Rockefeller Foundation, Paik wrote of a telecommunications network of
the future he called the "Electronic Super Highway," predicting it
"will become our springboard for new and surprising human endeavors."
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 5, Alan Shalleck,
writer and director, was beaten and stabbed to death at his Boynton
Beach home in West Palm Beach, Fla. He had collaborated with the
co-creator of "Curious George" to bring the mischievous monkey to TV
and a series of book sequels. In 2007 Rex Ditto (31) pleaded guilty and
was sentenced to life in prison for killing. His co-defendant and
former lover, Vincent Puglisi (56) was scheduled for trial in early
2008.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2006 Feb 8, Steve Fossett (61)
soared out over the Atlantic from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a quest to
break the 25,000-mile record for the world's longest aircraft flight.
The 80-hour voyage would break the airplane distance record of 24,987
miles set in 1986 by the lightweight Voyager aircraft piloted by Dick
Rutan and Jeana Yeager, as well as the balloon record of 25,361 miles
set by the Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Mar 2, It was reported that
Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, hoped that the new town of
Ave Maria in southwestern Florida would be governed under strict Roman
Catholic principles. The town was being constructed around Ave Maria
Univ. east of Naples. The town and university, bankrolled by Monaghan
with $250 million, were set to open in 2007.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 29, Jack Abramoff, the US
lobbyist who spawned a congressional corruption scandal, drew a 6-year
prison term in a Florida fraud case.
(WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 3, Florida beat UCLA,
73-57, to win its first NCAA title in men's basketball.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2006 Apr 26, Florida lawmakers
agreed to shut down the state’s juvenile boot camps in response to the
Jan 6 death of a boy (14), who was beaten by guards. They would be
replaced with a new, less militaristic program.
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.A3)
2006 May 1, A Florida judge
sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian (48) to another year and a
half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism conspiracy
case. Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which he admitted
providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 8, Florida’s Gov. Jeb
Bush declared a state of emergency and called in the state National
Guard to help fight wildfires that have burned thousands of acres and
blanketed highways with thick smoke.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 17, US Navy divers
detonated explosives aboard the USS Oriskany, sending the retired
aircraft carrier on a 212-foot plunge to bottom of the Gulf of Mexico
24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., to create the world's
largest intentional reef.
(AP, 5/17/06)(www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm)
2006 May 18, In Florida Lionel
Tate (19) was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating probation
by having a gun and robbing a pizza delivery man in 2005. The teenager
had been convicted of murdering a 6-year-old girl in 1999 in what his
attorneys initially claimed was a pro wrestling move.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 31, Florida’s Gov. Jeb
Bush signed the Martin Lee Anderson Act, which replaced boot camps with
education based juvenile detention centers.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.29)
2006 Jun 12, Forecasters issued a
hurricane warning for parts of Florida's Gulf Coast as the first named
storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season quickly gained strength in
the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 20, The Miami Heat won
their first NBA title, beating the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 in Game 6.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2006 Jun 21, In Tallahassee,
Florida, corrections officer Ralph Hill, an Air Force veteran, had
smuggled a gun into the prison and opened fire on FBI agents and
Justice Department investigators. Hill (43) and Justice Department
special agent William "Buddy" Sentner (44) were killed, and a prison
employee helping with the arrests was wounded. The federal agents were
trying to arrest Hill and five others indicted in a sex-for-contraband
scandal.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jun 22, In Florida FBI agents
arrested 7 people in the Liberty City area of Miami in connection with
a nascent plot to attack the Sears Tower and federal buildings in south
Florida. Narseal Batiste (32), the alleged ringleader, called the group
“Seas of David.” In 2009 five Miami men were convicted of plotting to
start an anti-government insurrection by destroying Chicago's Sears
Tower and bombing FBI offices. One man was acquitted.
(SFC, 6/23/06, p.A10)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.26)(AP,
5/12/09)
2006 Jun 30, Cuban librarians
criticized attempts by the Miami-Dade County school board to ban a
children's book that presents a positive depiction of life on the
communist-run island.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, Florida and CSX
Transportation struck a deal on a nearly $1 billion commuter rail
system in central Florida to relieve gridlock in and around Orlando.
(Reuters, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 6, Walt Disney World
hiked ticket prices for the second time in 2006, raising the cost of a
basic one-day, one-park admission to $67, according to a pricing chart
posted on the company's media Web site.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 29, Tropical Storm
Ernesto's leading edge drenched Miami and the rest of southern Florida.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2006 Sep 8, The Miami Herald
reported that 10 South Florida journalists, including three with the
Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of dollars
from the federal government for their work on radio and TV programming
aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's communist regime. The Herald fired
3 of the journalists.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 11, It was reported that
Florida’s St. Lucie County was planning a $425 million plasma-arc
gasification facility to vaporize its garbage. The plant by Geoplasma,
a subsidiary of Jacoby Development Inc., was expected to go operational
in 2 years.
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.C4)
2006 Sep 20, In Florida Clarence
Hill was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police officer. He
had argued that Florida’s use of lethal injections amounted to cruel
and unusual punishment, but the US Supreme Court denied him another
stay of execution.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 22, It was reported that
11 Domino's employees in Pensacola, Fla., hoping to make a little more
dough and get a bigger slice of the profits have formed the nation's
first union of pizza delivery drivers.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Florida, brothers
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (67) and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela (62),
who headed the Colombia’s Cali cocaine cartel, were sentenced to 30
years in prison. They agreed to forfeit $2.1 billion worth of assets
linked to the drug trade as part of their plea agreement. In exchange
half a dozen of their relatives would not face prosecution.
(SFC, 9/27/06, p.A12)
2006 Sep 29, US Rep. Mark Foley, a
prominent House Republican from Florida, resigned after the revelation
that he exchanged raunchy electronic messages with a teenage boy, a
former congressional page.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep 29, Police in Florida
said 2 Roman Catholic priests allegedly misappropriated more than $8
million from their church and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on
real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends.
(Reuters, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep 29, In Lakeland, Fla., 9
SWAT team members fatally shot Angilo Freeland, a man suspected of
killing a sheriff's deputy a day earlier. An autopsy showed that
officers fired 110 rounds of ammunition at Freeland.
(AP, 9/29/06)(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Miami, Florida,
inauguration ceremonies were held for the Carnival Center for the
Performing Arts.
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.32)
2006 Oct 5, The House ethics
committee opened an expansive investigation into the unfolding
congressional page sex scandal that resulted in the resignation of US
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2006 Oct 13, In St. Lucie County,
Florida, 4 people, two of them young children, were found shot to death
along an isolated stretch of Florida's Turnpike with obvious tire
tracks nearby. In 2009 Daniel Troya (26) and co-defendant Ricardo
Sanchez Jr. (25) received the death sentence for the slayings.
(AP, 10/13/06)(AP, 5/14/09)
2006 Oct 17, Pres. Bush signed
into law a bill to provide grant money for the Gullah/Geechee Cultural
Heritage Corridor. In September Congress had declared a swathe of
coastline from North Carolina to Florida the Gullah/Geechee Cultural
Heritage Corridor, in an effort to preserve the region’s distinctive
black culture and creole language.
(Econ, 2/2/08,
p.42)(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6283153)
2006 Oct 17, Actor Wesley Snipes
was indicted for cheating the US government out of nearly $12 million
in false refund claims and not filing for 6 years. On Feb 1, 2008, a
federal jury in Florida acquitted Snipes of the most serious charges
but convicted him on 3 of 6 lesser charges and said he must pay up to
$17 million in back taxes plus penalties and interest.
(SFC, 10/18/06, p.A2)(SFC, 2/2/08, p.A2)
2006 Oct 25, Florida executed
Danny Rolling (52), an infamous serial killer. He was executed for
butchering five college students in Gainesville in 1990.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Nov 7, Charlie Crist was
elected governor of Florida over Democrat Jim Davis.
(http://tinyurl.com/tom9x)
2006 Dec 7, The 3,300-member
Seminole Tribe of Florida said it was buying the Hard Rock business in
a $965 million deal with Rank Group PLC, a British casino and hotel
company.
(SFC, 12/8/06, p.D2)
2006 Dec 13, Angel Nieves Diaz
(55) was executed by lethal injection in Florida for the 1979 murder of
the manager of a Miami topless bar. Diaz required a 2nd dose and took
34 minutes to die due to liver disease. The case roused death penalty
opponents.
(SFC, 12/15/06, p.A4)
2006 Dec 15, A federal judge
declared California's execution procedure unconstitutional, extending
the state’s execution moratorium. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all
executions there after a bungled execution this week. Florida's death
row has 374 inmates. California's is the largest, with more than 650
inmates.
(AP, 12/16/06)(WSJ, 12/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 22, Space shuttle
Discovery and its seven-member crew has landed in Florida after a
13-day mission that advanced construction of the International Space
Station.
(AFP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 27, A Florida doctor
pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection with a life insurance
scam that cost 28,000 investors nearly $1 billion. Clark Mitchell, the
former director of a prominent AIDS clinic who was arrested more than
five years ago on insurance fraud charges, agreed to be responsible for
restitution of $367 million to investors in Mutual Benefits Corp., a
Fort Lauderdale company that sought investors in life insurance
policies held by elderly or ill people.
(Reuters, 12/27/06)
2006 Michael Grunwald authored
“The Swamp: the Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.”
(WSJ, 3/15/06, p.D16)
2006 Atlas Van Lines brought 6,700
families to Florida and took 8,000 out, the first time it has moved
more out than in.
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 20, George Smathers
(b.1913), former 3-term US Senator from Florida, died. He helped pass
bills to create Medicare, the Small Business Administration and
Everglades National Park. He also pushed for federal holidays to be
moved to Mondays and ardently supported the war in Vietnam.
(SSFC, 1/21/07, p.A15)
2007 Jan 30, In Florida 2 people
shot and killed a sheriff's wife and a deputy before officers killed
the suspects at the sheriff's home in Jackson County.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 2, Storms blew through
central Florida, killing 21 people, flattening dozens of homes and a
church and lifting a tractor trailer into the air.
(AP, 2/3/07)(AP, 2/2/08)
2007 Feb 3, President Bush
designated four central Florida counties disaster areas in the wake of
tornadoes that ripped through the region, leaving 21 dead.
{BushGW, USA, Florida}
(AP, 2/3/08)
2007 Feb 5, NASA astronaut Lisa
Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Fla., accused of trying to kidnap a
perceived rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2007 Feb 8, Anna Nicole Smith
(b.1967), former Playboy centerfold (Miss May 1992) and wife of former
oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II (1905-1995), died in Florida.
Authorities later said Smith died of an accidental drug overdose of
nine prescription medications, but an extensive six-week investigation
found no signs of foul play.
(AP, 2/8/07)(SFC, 2/9/07, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 7, Sex offender John
Evander Couey was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and
murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2007 Mar 23, In Florida the
aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned after nearly 40
years of service.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Apr 2, Florida won its second
consecutive college basketball championship, beating Ohio State 84-75;
the Gators became the first team to repeat since Duke in 1991-92.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2007 May 3, The Florida
Legislature gave its final approval to moving the state's 2008 primary
from early March to Jan. 29.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2007 Apr 5, Florida’s Gov. Charlie
Crist persuaded 2 of 3 members of the state board of executive clemency
that most felons had served their time and should automatically recover
the right to vote.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.35)
2007 Apr 6, In Florida US District
Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that Luis Posada Carriles could be
released on $250,000 bond. He is being held at the Otero County jail in
New Mexico on charges he lied to immigration authorities in a bid to
become a naturalized citizen. Posada, a former CIA operative, is wanted
in Cuba in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people,
a charge Posada denies. Castro has repeatedly accused the US government
of protecting Posada.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 19, Luis Posada Carriles
(79), an anti-Castro exile wanted in Cuba for the 1976 bombing of a
Cuban airliner, was freed from a New Mexico jail after he posted
$250,000 bond and his family put up another $100,000. He must wear an
electronic monitoring device while under house arrest at his wife's
home in Miami pending his May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges.
Posada's immigration case was later thrown out by a federal judge, but
the government appealed.
(AP, 4/20/07)(AP, 4/19/08)
2007 May 8, The US hired a Florida
firm to build a Guantanamo camp by next May to house fleeing Cubans
should there be an exodus when Castro dies.
(WSJ, 5/9/07, p.A1)
2007 May 18, Deep-sea explorers of
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration said they have mined what
could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, bringing home 17
tons of colonial-era silver and gold coins from an undisclosed
shipwreck off England. The estimated value was $500 million.
(AP, 5/18/07)(WSJ, 5/19/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, Florida set its 2008
presidential primary for January 29.
(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 25, Miami police said
Francisco Oliveira (29), a handyman delivering drugs, shot and
critically wounded Fabio Alonso Salgado (aka Estefano), a prominent
Latin music songwriter and producer, inside a waterfront mansion.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 Jun 5, Spanish media said a
court has ordered police to capture and search two vessels belonging to
a Florida firm that recently announced it had found a shipwreck in the
Atlantic Ocean laden with an estimated $500 million worth of
Colonial-era treasure.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 18, In Florida Avion
Lawson (14) and Nathan Walker (16) were among a group of about 10
masked suspects who forced their way into a woman's apartment in a
crime-ridden housing project. The 2 teenagers were later accused of
gang raping the woman and forcing her son (12) to join in the attack,
then beating him and pouring cleaning solution into his eyes.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 10, In Florida a small
plane trying to make an emergency landing crashed into a suburban
Orlando neighborhood, killing both people aboard and starting two house
fires that seriously burned two adults and a 10-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 12, Spanish Civil Guards
heightened a battle over a $500 million treasure of gold and silver
coins from a shipwreck when they seized the Ocean Alert, a vessel
belonging to a Tampa, Fla.,-based company. The ship was released a week
later.
(AP, 7/12/07)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.51)
2007 Jul 16, An Amtrak train hit a
car at a Florida crossing killing 4 occupants.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 24, Florida began
distributing playing cards to prison inmates with pictures and
information regarding unsolved murder and missing person cases.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A5)
2007 Aug 4, Yousef Megahed (21) of
Egypt and Ahmed Mohamed (24) of Kuwait, students from the Univ. of
South Florida, were arrested following a speeding stop in the vicinity
of the Naval Weapons Station, located in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
Pipe bombs were found in their vehicle. They were later indicted for
carrying explosives across state lines. In 2008 Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif
Mohamed pleaded guilty in a Tampa court to making a video demonstrating
how to build a remote bomb detonator to help terrorists.
(www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/17/fbi_backs_off_arrests13265/)(WSJ,
9/1/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/19/08, p.A2)
2007 Aug 24, A judge in Inverness,
Fla., sentenced John Evander Couey to death for kidnapping 9-year-old
Jessica Lunsford in 2005, raping her and burying her alive.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2007 Sep 4, In Florida Broward
County Sheriff Ken Jenne resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to
federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 13, In Florida Shawn
Sherwin Labeet (25) opened fire on 4 Miami-Dade county police officers
during a traffic stop killing officer Jose Somohano (37). Labeet was
found and killed hours later.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A6)
2007 Sep 17, During a forum at the
University of Florida, Andrew Meyer, a student with a history of taping
his own practical jokes, was Tasered by campus police and arrested
after repeatedly trying to question Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2007 Sep 21, Kirby Archer (35) and
Guillermo Zarabozo (19) hired the yacht Joe Cool in Miami for a ride to
Bimini. Two days later the US Coast Guard found the yacht drifting and
12 miles away a life raft, drifting northward with the Gulf Stream
current. In it were Archer and Zarabozo, with a supply of water, their
luggage, and some other curious objects: a blow gun, darts, several
knives, and 22 $100 bills. They said pirates had attacked the yacht and
killed the 4-person crew. Arkansas prosecutors have accused Archer of
robbing the Wal-Mart in Batesville, where he worked for less than a
year as a customer service manager. On Oct 10 prosecutors charged the 2
men with murder. Archer later pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping.
On Feb 19, 2009, Zarabozo was convicted of murder.
(AP, 10/14/07)(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A10)
2007 Sep 21, The Rev. Rex Humbard
(88), whose televangelism ministry once spanned the globe, died in
Atlantis, Fla.
(AP, 9/21/08)
2007 Oct 10, Jimmy Wales, founder
of the Wikimedia Foundation (2003), said he plans to move the small
operation from St. Petersburg, Florida, to SF.
(SFC, 10/11/07, p.C1)
2007 Nov 1, Florida’s high court
ruled that the state’s lethal injection procedures aren’t cruel and
unusual, which could clear the way for an execution.
(WSJ, 11/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 10, Miami ended its
70-year stay at the famed Orange Bowl with the biggest shutout loss in
the stadium's history, a 48-0 rout to Virginia.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 26, Washington Redskins
star safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a
botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. Taylor died the
next day.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2007 Nov 27, In Florida Pro Bowl
safety Sean Taylor died after he was shot in his home by an apparent
intruder, leaving the Washington Redskins in mourning for a teammate
who seemed to have reordered his life since becoming a father. By the
end of the week 4 men were charged with unpremeditated murder, armed
burglary and home invasion with a firearm or another deadly weapon.
(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Nov 29, Florida state
officials froze withdrawals from the state’s Local Government
Investment Pool (LGIP) as panicky investors pulled out nearly half of
the fund’s assets in the wake of the US mortgage mess. School and
municipal officials found themselves short of money to pay bills. Other
states faced similar problems due to purchases of high yield debt known
as structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.87)
2007 Nov 30, Evel Knievel
(b.1938), the hard-living US motorcycle daredevil, died in Florida. His
rocket-powered jumps and stunts made him an international icon in the
1970s.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Four suspects were
charged in Miami in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star Sean
Taylor. One ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder; a fifth
suspect was also charged.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 8, Florida quarterback
Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2007 Dec 11, US officials in
Florida arrested 4 people, 3 from Venezuelan and one from Uruguay, and
accused them of being agents of the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors
later said the 4 were seeking to silence Guido Alehandro Antonini
Wilson, a citizen of both the USA and Venezuela. In August Wilson was
detained in Argentina for carrying $800,000 in a suitcase, which
prosecutors said was intended to aid the campaign of Cristina Kirchner.
Franklin Duran, multimillionaire owner of Industrias Venoco CA, was one
of the arrested Venezuelans. In 2008 a federal jury convicted Duran on
charges that he was a foreign agent involved in a conspiracy.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/10/08, p.A5)(SFC,
11/4/08, p.A4)
2007 Dec 29, Nonja (55), a
Sumatran orangutan, was found dead at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had
lived in Miami since 1983 and was believed to be the world’s oldest
orangutan.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2008 Jan 9, Some 70 cars crashed
on a highway blanketed by fog and smoke from a brush fire in central
Florida. 4 people were killed.
(AP, 1/9/08)(SFC, 1/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 25, In Miami Moises
Maionica (36) of Venezuelan pleaded guilty in a scheme to cover up the
source of $800,000 seized in a suitcase in Argentina that was allegedly
sent by Venezuelans as a donation to Cristina Fernandez's presidential
campaign.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 29, In Florida Sen. John
McCain won the Republican primary with 36% of the vote. Mitt Romney was
2nd with 31% and Rudi Giuliani 3rd with 15%.
(SFC, 1/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 3, In West Palm Beach,
Florida, Alburn Edward Blake (60) opened fire inside a Wendy’s
restaurant killing a paramedic and wounding 5 others before killing
himself.
(SFC, 3/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 11, The US space shuttle
Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad to deliver part
of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built
robotic system to the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 13, The Florida Senate
passed a bill that could mean suspensions for students with droopy
britches. Orlando Sen. Gary Siplin, a Democrat, has said the fashion
statement has a back-story -- it was made popular by rap artists after
first appearing among prison inmates as a signal they were looking for
sex.
(Reuters, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 25, In Florida part of a
construction crane fell 30 floors at the site of a Miami condo tower,
killing 2 workers and injuring 5.
(WSJ, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 May 1, Deborah Palfrey
(b.1956), a woman from Vallejo, Ca., known as the “D.C. Madam,” was
found hanged at her mother’s home in Tarpon Springs, Fl. She had been
convicted on April 15 of racketeering and other charges related to a
prostitution ring, whose clients included high profile government
officials.
(SFC, 5/2/08, p.A13)
2008 May 13, In Florida
investigators searched for one or more arsonists behind a string of
wildfires that had destroyed or damaged over 160 homes along the
Atlantic coast.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.A4)
2008 May 30, In Florida 2 veteran
police officers were charged with providing protection for purported
shipments of cocaine and stolen goods in what was actually an
undercover FBI operation.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 24, In Florida Gov.
Charlie Crist and officials of US Sugar announced a plan for the state
to buy US Sugar for $1.7 billion. The company, founded by Charles
Stewart Mott, would be allowed to operate for 6 more years before
returning 187,000 acres of the Everglades to its natural state. In
November the plan was revised to pay $1.34 billion for 181,000 acres.
In 2009 the plan was again scaled back to cover 72,500 acres fro $533
million with a 10-year option to buy the remaining land.
(SFC, 6/25/08, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/25/08, p.B1)(WSJ,
11/12/08, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A4)
2008 Aug 1, US Federal and state
regulators closed First Priority Bank of Bradenton, Florida, the 8th US
bank to fail this year. It would be acquired by SunTrustBanks Inc.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A3)(www.fpbank.com/)
2008 Aug 21, Tropical Storm Fay
forced the evacuation of more Florida residents as it made landfall for
a 3rd time this week.
(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 22, Florida state
officials said 7 people have been killed over the five days that
Tropical Storm Fay has been pounding the state with torrential rain and
powerful winds.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, The US Democratic
national convention’s credentials committee ruled to give full voting
rights to delegates from Michigan and Florida, despite their defying
party rules and holding their primaries early.
(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 4, Jack Abramoff (49),
once powerful DC lobbyist, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his
part in a political corruption scandal. He had already spent 2 years in
prison for a fraudulent casino boat deal in Florida. On Sep 10 a
federal judge shaved 2 years from his Florida sentence guaranteeing the
Abramoff will serve no more that 4 additional years.
(SFC, 9/5/08, p.A4)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 16, Local media reported
that a Florida judge has deemed unconstitutional a law banning baggy
pants that show off the wearer's underwear.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Oct 13, ABC News reported
that Tim Mahoney (52), a US Democratic Representative from Florida, had
an affair with an aide and then paid her $121,000 to keep her quiet and
avoid a sexual harassment suit. His affair with Patricia Allen (50) had
begun in 2006.
(SFC, 10/15/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 30, In Florida the son of
former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty by a US court
in Miami of torture in the first prosecution under a 14-year-old law
that allows citizens to be prosecuted for such crimes committed abroad.
Charles Taylor Jr. was arrested at Miami International Airport in 2006
and pleaded guilty to a charge of lying about his father's identity on
a passport application.
(Reuters, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, sophomore Teah Wimberly (15) shot Amanda Collette at Dillard
High School, then walked to a seafood restaurant to call authorities
and turn herself in.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 19, In Miami, Florida,
police arrived to find Abraham Biggs (19) dead in his father's bed 12
hours after the Broward College student first declared on a Web site
that he hated himself and planned to die. It was only then that the Web
feed stopped. Some users told investigators they did not take him
seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 25, A judge ruled that a
strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is
unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for
sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Dec 19, Florida’s prison
population topped 100,000, making it the 3rd state to break into six
digits after California and Texas.
(WSJ, 12/20/08, p.A1)
2009 Jan 9, In Miami Charles
Taylor Jr. (31), the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
was sentenced to 97 years in prison for mutilations and executions
carried out in Liberia, in the first US prosecution for torture
committed abroad.
(Reuters, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 11, Marcus Schrenker's
plane went down en route to Destin, Fla., from Anderson, Ind. Schrenker
(38), an Indiana investment manager, had reported that the windshield
imploded and that he was bleeding profusely. Federal marshals believe
he faked a distress call before parachuting from his plane over Alabama
and disappearing on a motorcycle he had stashed in advance. US Marshals
apprehended Schrenker on Jan 13 at a northern Florida campground.
Officers had to tend to Schrenker's self-inflicted gash to the wrist
before he was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. In August
Schrenker pleaded guilty was sentenced in Florida to 4 years and 3
months in federal prison.
(AP, 1/13/09)(AP, 1/14/09)(SFC, 8/20/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 21, Rev. John Skehan
(81), one of two Florida priests accused of embezzling hundreds of
thousands of dollars from their church, pleaded guilty as jury
selection was set to begin in the case. Prosecutors said he and Rev.
Francis Guinan plucked cash from the offering plate and spent it on
upscale homes, gambling trips to Las Vegas with a mistress, even a
$275,000 rare coin collection. On March 24 Skehan was sentenced to 14
months in prison. On March 25 Guinan was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(SFC, 3/25/09,
p.A7)(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 1, In Super Bowl XLIII at
Tampa, Florida, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals
27-23.
(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, A Florida jury
ordered Philip Morris to pay $8 million in damages to Elaine Hess, the
widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer.
(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 23, In Florida the Rev.
Francis Guinan (66) was convicted of 2nd degree grand theft for
embezzling thousands of dollars from his Delray Beach church.
(SFC, 2/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 25, In Florida Pablo
Josue Amador (53), a Cuban immigrant and piano teacher, shot and killed
wife, Maria (45), and their youngest daughters, Prescilla and Rosa, 14
and 13, before killing himself. A teenage son escaped the shootings and
called police.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 28, A fishing boat from
Clearwater, Florida, capsized as the four friends were pulling up the
anchor. Nick Schuyler was rescued on March 2. Oakland Raiders
linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and
former University of South Florida player William Bleakley remained
missing.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Florida Donte
Stallworth, a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, killed
pedestrian Mario Reyes (59) while driving after a night out. On April 1
Stallworth was charged with DUI manslaughter.
(SFC, 4/2/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 15, In Miami, Florida, a
man shot four people to death at a family gathering, then went home and
killed himself.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, The space shuttle
Discovery and its crew of 7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in
Cape Canaveral, Fl., bound for the Int’l. Space Station. It carried the
last set of solar wings to boost the station to full power.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A7)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 18, Felipe E. Sixto (29)
of Miami, a former White House aide, was sentenced to 2½ years
in federal prison for stealing nearly $600,000 from a federally funded
nonprofit group that promotes democracy in Cuba.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 19, High Okun, a Miami
businessman, was convicted in Virginia of bilking nearly 600 people
across the country out of $126 million.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 25, US authorities
arrested Florida businessman Rama K. Vyasulu and froze his
Rosemont Finance Corp. following a federal grand jury indictment in
Boston indicting him on charges of laundering $900,000 in drug profits.
His firm served as a key US clearing house for dozens of black market
brokerages selling dollars in Venezuela, despite an official ban on
private firms buying an d selling currency at unofficial rates. An
estimated $100 million was believed to be frozen.
(WSJ, 3/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 12, In Florida a power
boat packed with 12 people slammed into a docked tug boat, killing five
occupants of the pleasure craft and seriously injuring seven on the
Intracoastal Waterway in St. Johns County.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 15, In Florida inmates
Doni Ray Brown (23) and Wayne Fletcher (25) escaped the county jail in
Palatka and within hours stole 2 vehicles and killed Fletcher’s
step-grandmother (66). Both were arrested on April 18 and charged with
murder.
(SFC, 4/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Apr 20, In Florida 7 more
Venezuelan polo horses sickened just before a tournament died
overnight, raising the death toll to 21. Officials said they may have
been killed by some type of poison.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 25, In Florida Joshua
Cartwright (28), accused of beating his wife, killed two sheriff's
deputies at a shooting range in Okaloosa County. Cartwright shot the
deputies after they shocked him with a Taser. He then fled across the
county line, where he died in an exchange of gunfire with deputies.
(AP, 4/26/09)(WSJ, 4/27/09, p.A5)
2009 Apr 29, In Florida Juwhan
Yun, a Korean American who had served prison time for attempting to
broker the sale of nerve gas bombs to Iran, was indicted in Miami on
charges of trying to help South Korea obtain advanced Russian rocket
technology.
(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2009 May 3, In Florida Troy Ryan
Bellar (34) shot and killed his wife, Wendy Bellar (31) and their
5-month-old and 8-year-old sons before killing himself outside their
home in Lakeland. His 13-year-old son, Nathan, escaped.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 8, In Panama City,
Florida, Dr. Jason Newsom resigned from the Bay County Health
Department under pressure following his launch of a one-man war on
obesity by posting sardonic warnings on an electronic sign outside.
After the lawyers threatened to sue, his bosses made him remove
the anti-fried doughnut rants and eventually forced him to resign.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 May 11, The space shuttle
Atlantis and 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a mission
to repair the Hubble telescope.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A6)
2009 May 13, RealtyTrac Inc. said
new data indicated that the number of US households faced with losing
their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the
same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the
highest rates.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 13, Off of Florida an
overloaded boat capsized and sank with about 30 people aboard, mainly
Haitian immigrants fleeing their country's crushing poverty. At least 9
people were dead. 17 survivors were pulled from the waters. On May 18
Jimmy Metellus (33) of Haiti was charged with human smuggling.
(AP, 5/14/09)(SFC, 5/14/09, p.A4)(SFC, 5/19/09, p.A5)
2009 May 21, In Florida 11 people
were indicted in Miami on charges of running a money laundering racket
for the Bonano crime family of New York. A FBI agent posing as a
crooked businessman was key to the indictment.
(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2009 May 27, In Florida a
demolition crew sank the USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg seven miles off
Key West, where it will become one of the world’s largest man made
reefs. The WWII ship was last used by the Air Force to track missiles
and spacecraft.
(SFC, 5/26/09, p.A8)(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A5)
2009 Jun 14, In Florida Tyler
Hayes Weinman (18), whose divorced parents live in the neighborhoods
where many of the cats were killed, was charged with 19 counts each of
animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body. Police said
they investigated more than 30 cat deaths since May and were flooded
with tips from concerned citizens.
(AP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 28, Billy Mays (50),
known to television viewers as the OxiClean guy, died of a heart attack
at his Tampa home. The boisterous pitchman aired on commercials
hundreds of times a week nationwide showing off his latest cleaning
product or gadget. An autopsy later showed that cocaine use contributed
to his heart disease.
(AP, 6/29/09)(SFC, 6/30/09, p.A4)(SFC, 8/8/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 5, In Florida 2 monorail
trains crashed in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World,
killing one train's operator.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 9, In Florida Byrd and
Melanie Billings were killed at their sprawling home near Pensacola.
The wealthy Florida couple had 4 children and adopted 12 others with
developmental disabilities and other problems. Three men were soon
arrested in connection with the slayings.
(AP, 7/13/09)(SFC, 7/14/09, p.A5)
2009 Jul 31, The space shuttle
Endeavour returned to Florida after over 2 weeks aloft and a successful
construction job that boosted the size and power of the international
space station.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Jul, Oswaldo Juarez (21), a
Peruvian visiting Florida to study English, Juarez swallowed his last
pills, packed a few small suitcases and left the A.G. Holley State
Hospital following 19 months of treatment. He was the first US case of
a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of
tuberculosis.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Aug 17, Albert Gonzalez (28)
of Miami, a former informant for the US Secret Service who helped the
agency hunt hackers, was indicted in New Jersey and charged with
conspiring with two other unnamed suspects to steal the private
information. He allegedly stole information from 130 million credit and
debit card accounts in what federal prosecutors called the largest case
of identity theft yet. He was already in jail awaiting trial in a
hacking case. On Aug 28 Gonzalez agreed to plead guilty and serve up to
25 years in federal prison.
(AP, 8/18/09)(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 28, The space shuttle
Discovery with 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral just before
midnight to bring supplies to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 18, Mesac Damas (33), a
man with prior charges of domestic violence, left Miami on flight to
Haiti. The next day his wife and 5 children were found slain in Naples,
Fl. Damas was later arrested in Haiti and returned to the US where he
was charged with 6 counts of first-degree murder.
(SFC, 9/21/09, p.A7)(SFC, 10/27/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 23, Sidney Cambridge (45)
of Nassau, a prominent Bahamian lawyer, was indicted on US federal
corruption charges in a case that allegedly involves a South Florida
politician and nearly $1 million in laundered money. Also charged in
the case was Broward County Commissioner and Vice Mayor Josephus
Eggelletion, who was suspended pending the outcome of the case.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Oct 19, Somer Thompson (7), a
north Florida girl, vanished on her walk home from school. Detectives
found her body partially covered by garbage on Oct 21 in a Georgia
landfill, about 48 miles from where the girl disappeared.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, US regulators shut
down 3 small banks in Florida and one each in Georgia, Illinois,
Minnesota and Wisconsin bringing the total for the year of failed US
banks to 106.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 25, In Florida Jeffry
Picower (67) was found by his wife at the bottom of a pool at the
couple's sprawling oceanside Palm Beach mansion. He had suffered a
heart attack and died a short time later at a nearby hospital. He was
accused of making more than $7 billion off the investment schemes of
jailed financial manager Bernard Madoff.
(AP, 10/26/09)(SFC, 10/27/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 28, NASA launched its
327-foot Ares I-X, its new prototype moon rocket, skyward from Cape
Canaveral on a suborbital test flight at a cost of $445 million.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A7)
2009 Nov 6, In Orlando, Florida,
Jason Rodriguez (40), a former engineer, fatally shot Otis Beckford
(26) and wounded five others at the firm where he once worked. The next
day his attorney later said Rodriguez is "very mentally ill" and
crumbled under the stress of his divorce, bankruptcy and unemployment.
Rodriguez was an entry-level engineer at Reynolds, Smith and
Hills for 11 months before he was fired in June 2007. On Jan 4,
2010, Rodriguez was declared incompetent to stand trial.
(AP, 11/7/09)(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2009 Nov 20, Canada’s TD Bank was
hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit calling it the "financial
epicenter" of an alleged Ponzi scheme run by disgraced Florida lawyer
Scott Rothstein.
(Reuters, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 26, In Jupiter, Florida,
3 women and a child, Makayla Sitton, in bed were shot to death during a
family Thanksgiving gathering. Police officers were looking for Paul
Michael Merhige (35) of Miami. Merhige, a cousin of the 6-year-old
victim, was arrested on Jan 2, 2010, at a motel in the Florida Keys.
(AP, 11/27/09)(AP, 1/3/10)
2009 Nov 27, Tiger Woods ran his
SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his Florida home. This took
place just days after the National Enquirer claimed he had an affair
with Rachel Uchitel, the 33-year-old golf champ. A report soon followed
in Us Weekly magazine of a cocktail waitress claiming to have had a
31-month affair with Woods.
(AP, 12/4/09)(http://tinyurl.com/yjqs6nr)
2009 Nov 27, Space shuttle
Atlantis and its 7 astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown
at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the
International Space Station.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Miami, Florida,
lawyer Scott Rothstein was arrested on federal racketeering and fraud
charges alleging he operated a $1 billion scheme involving phony legal
settlements. On Jan 27, 2010 Rothstein (47) pleaded guilty to federal
charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
(SFC, 12/2/09, p.A9)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A6)
2009 In Florida the tally of
manatee deaths reached a record 429 for the year, surpassing the 2006
record of 417.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 7, The so-called Liberty
Head nickel, a rare 1913 US coin once owned by an Egyptian king and
later featured in a famous US TV detective series, was sold for more
than $3.7 million (2.3 million pounds) in a public auction in Florida.
(Reuters, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day
state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was
feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the
Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the Everglades,
and produce a new “super snake.”
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 14, In Florida Chad Reed
(33), a Dixie County sheriff’s deputy, died in a shootout with a man
suspected of killing his sister and another woman near Brooksville.
John Kalisz (55) was wounded in the shootout.
(AP, 1/16/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Florida
End of file.