The history of Miami, Florida first started more than a thousand years
ago by the Tequesta Indians. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men
first visited and claimed the area around Miami, Florida for Spain in
1566. Fort Dallas was built in the mid-1800s and the area became a
site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. After the Great
Freeze of 1894, Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower, convinced Henry
Flagler, a railroad tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railroad
to Miami and on July 28, 1896 Miami was officially incorporated as a
city. Miami prospered during the 1920s but weakened after the 1926
Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression in the 1930s. After Fidel
Castro rose to power in 1959, many Cubans immigrated to Miami, further
increasing the population. In the 1980s and 1990s, various crises
struck South Florida, among them the Arthur McDuffie beating and the
riot caused by it, Hurricane Andrew, and the Elián González uproar.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Miami%2C_Florida
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1430:
Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was captured at the Siege of
Compiègne.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Compi%C3%A8gne)
1813:
South American independence leader Simón Bolívar entered Mérida,
leading the invasion of Venezuela, and was proclaimed El Libertador
("The Liberator").
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar)
1945:
End of World War II in Europe: Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was
captured and his Flensburg government was dissolved.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_D%C3%B6nitz)
1998:
The Belfast Agreement was accepted in a referendum, with a high margin
of three-fourth 'yes' votes to Northern Ireland.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast_Agreement)
2002:
The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol was reached after its
ratification by Iceland.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_protocol)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"Cynicism isn't smarter, it's only safer. There's nothing fluffy
about
optimism." -- Jewel
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jewel_%28singer%29)