Category Florida History
Florida Democrats at a Crossroads: Term limits , legislators, party building and office shopping
The advent of term limits helped to change the culture of state legislators in 1990’s. Previously many regardless of ideology worked hard to build a party that competed in elections and had a few guiding principles but was largely a big tent operation. Term limits being implemented coincided with the collapse of the Democratic Party […]
Flashback Friday: FDR takes first ever Presidential flight from Miami
This week in 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt became the first US President to take a plane flight, flying overseas to the wartime Casablanca Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. FDR flew from Miami’s Dinner Key Airport, then the world’s busiest international airport. Operation Torch, an amphibious invasion of North Africa had just been completed, […]
Monday Musings – Gwen Graham making waves, Rubio an attention whore, secession, the Battle of Natural Bridge and the Civil War
Gwen Graham is making waves quickly as a number of questionable votes have raised eyebrows among the progressive community. With her support of the Keystone pipeline and a vote against Nancy Pelosi, she is distancing herself from the Democrats and the internet is abuzz with criticism. However, in the long run, minority party politics […]
Flashback Friday: Traveling to Florida in 1974
It was the most progressive era in the state’s history with good government at the forefront and leaders in office who had a vision for the future of the state. The mid-1970s was a golden era in Florida politics and a time when the state was basking in a tourism boom and a positive […]
2015: 150 years since the Civil War ended
Throughout 2015 we will be looking back at the end of the Civil War in Florida. Throughout much of the war, union forces occupied Pensacola and Key West the two most strategic locations in the state. But the capital, Tallahassee which was the size of a large village at the time was never captured and […]
Flashback Friday: 1984 Orange Bowl Classic
Thirty one years ago, on January 2nd 1984 the University of Miami won the first national championship in the schools history. It was the first title for a school from the state of Florida and also the first by a school running a pro style offense. It was a game that changed the college football […]
Thursday Bookshelf: Last Train to Paradise
The building of the Overseas Railroad is one of great engineering feats in Florida’s history – in fact it might actually be one of the most amazing marvels in American history. Built thanks to Henry Flagler’s ingenuity and his deep pockets, the east coast railroad that had changed Florida was extended to the Keys to […]
Tragic Everglades crash anniversary
One of the most famous and tragic accidents in Florida’s history happened 42 years ago today. On December 29, 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 a new L-1011 Tristar aircraft (photographed) was en route from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Miami International during the busy holiday season tragically into the Everglades.
Pan Am, political influence and the growth of Florida’s international tourism economy
Following last week’s feature on Eastern Airlines return it made sense to look back at the history of Pan Am and its impact on the state of Florida. Before we begin let me recommend the book, Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am which is one of the finest narratives I have ever read about the aviation industry. […]
Flashback Friday: Apollo 8
This week in 1968 one of the most important space missions in history launched from Cape Canaveral. Apollo 8 was the first ever space mission to leave the earth’s orbit and to circle the moon. In the process they became the first humans to see the earth as a whole planet from space. It took […]
The Florida Squeeze 