Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 23, 2006



The colonial history of Miami, Florida began when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men first established contact with the Tequesta Indians (resident there some 500 years) and claimed the area 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 ensuing riot, Hurricane Andrew, and the Elián González uproar. (more...)

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