Chronology: Travel, Tourism and Urban Growth in Miami

Selected Events for Advertising and Promotion
Year	Month	Day	Event	Related Resource
1823	July	03	Monroe County was created. It not only included all of what would later be Dade County, but all of the land in Florida south of Lake Okeechobee as well. The county seat was in Key West.	display
1836	January	06	Dade County was created. At the time, it included present-day Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties, though Monroe County retained the western Keys. Indian Key was the county seat of the newly created Dade County. Despite these early beginnings, by 1870 the county still had fewer than one hundred residents.	display
1845	March	03	Florida was admitted to the Union. It was admitted as a slave state, and at the time, almost one half of its 54,447 people were African American.	display
1874	February	08	The Cocoanut Grove post office closed when Dr. Porter left Miami to follow his wife to Boston.
1884			John Frow became Cocoanut Grove's first land subdivider. He sold parts of his land to his brother Joseph Frow, James A. Waddell, three of his sisters, and several others. He kept forty-three acres for himself.
1896	May	15	*Miami's first newspaper, The Miami Metropolis, made its debut*, stating that, "This is the first paper ever published on the beautiful Bay Biscayne, the most southern newspaper on the mainland of the United States." It went on to describe the young settlement as "the coming metropolis of South Florida."	display
1897	January	16	The Hotel Royal Palm opened for business fifteen days behind schedule. Henry Flagler built the hotel at a cost of $750,000 to draw passengers onto his new railroad line extending to Miami. The hotel stood until 1931.	display
1899	July	06	The post office request made by William Larkins was made official, and the area became known as Larkins. He had tried to name the area Manila, but the residents of the area that is today South Miami preferred the name of Larkins.
1903	September	15	*The first edition of Frank Stoneman's Miami Evening Record* was published*. In 1907, it merged with the Miami Morning News* to become the Miami Morning News Record, and in 1910, that paper was replaced by The Miami Herald.
1903	December	11	*The Miami Metropolis* became a daily newspaper, being published every day except Sunday.
1907			John Roop built an observation tower on Musa Isle. It allowed people a view out over the Everglades, which then started at what is today N.W. 22nd Avenue.
	July	31	*The last edition of the Miami Evening Record* was published** as the paper merged with the Miami Morning News.
	December	02	*The first issue of the Miami Morning News Record* was published*, after the Miami Evening Record* had merged with the Miami Morning News. It was published every day except Monday.
1909	April	30	Palm Beach County was created. It had been part of Dade County.
1909	October	01	The Everglades Land Sales Company opened its office in Miami. Much of the land it sold was purchased sight unseen.
1910	November	30	*The last edition of the Miami Morning News Record* was published*. It became the Miami Herald* the following day.
1910	December	01	*The first edition of the Miami Herald* was published by Frank Shutts*. He was assisted by the financial backing of Henry Flagler and the paper's editor Frank Stoneman. The paper replaced the Miami Morning News Record*. It was published six days a week, every day except Monday.	display
1911	February	13	*The Miami Herald* published its first Monday edition**, making it a true daily newspaper.
1912	May		Before the start of construction linking Miami Beach by bridge to the mainland, the Lummus Brothers acquired 500 acres to the south of Collins, from 14th Street to Government Cut. The land was bought from Charles Lum and Edmund Wilson for $80,000. The two brothers established the Ocean Beach Reality Company with a vision of a modest city composed of single-family residences fronting the ocean. The brothers became pioneers of beach-front property sales.
	May		The U.S. War Department gives developers permission to construct a bridge spanning Biscayne Bay. Realty firms prepared for what they believed would be a surge in population upon the bridge's completion. The bridge would be named the Collins Bridge.
	July	01	Thomas Pancoast arrived in Miami. He was secretary and treasurer of the Miami Beach Improvement Company. John Collins was the company's president. Together, both men pursued loans from the Lummus brothers, both of whom were involved in banking.	display
	July	09	The Ocean Beach Realty Company filed the first plots of land on the beach. The Lummus brothers' plots preceded those filed by John Collins and Carl Fisher five and six months later respectively.	display
1914			The W.J. Brown Hotel opened on Miami Beach. It was the first hotel to open on the island.
1915	January	01	The Miami Chamber of Commerce was founded.	display
1915	April	30	Broward County was created. It had previously been part of Dade County.
1916			The Lummus brothers offered free lots to anyone who promised to build homes on their land.
1917			The status of Miami Beach was changed from town to city.
1917			Lafe Allen made plans for a "perfect city" calling for 80-foot wide residential streets and 100 and 125-foot wide business thoroughfares. Today, the area's street layout is as the pioneer pictured it then with wide avenues named Fulford Boulevard (now known as NE 172nd Street) and Flagler Boulevard (now known as NE 19th Avenue). Then referred to as Fulford-by-the-Sea, today the area is North Miami Beach.
1919	March	18	Cocoanut Grove residents voted to incorporate their town. In doing so, they decided to drop the "a" from the original spelling, changing the town's name to Coconut Grove.	display
1922			*The Miami Herald* is the heaviest newspaper in the United States** as a result of its extensive land advertisement section.
1922			Lafe Allen's Fulford-by-the-Sea Company began selling lots. During the Florida land boom of the 1920's, lots were sometimes sold eight times before ever being recorded.
1925	February	18	The Olympia Theater opened. It was the first building in Miami to be air conditioned. The theater hosted a variety of acts, but its specialty was the vaudeville show. It drew large crowds through the 1950s, but later faced demolition until being purchased by Maurice Gusman in 1971.	display
	April	27	Coral Gables was incorporated.
	June	11	The town of Deerfield was incorporated.
	September	05	Greater Miami was created. Residents had voted three days earlier to annex Coconut Grove, Silver Bluff, Allapattah, Lemon City, Buena Vista, and Little River.
	November	16	The town of Davie was incorporated.
1926	February	05	The town of Miami Shores was incorporated. The area had formerly been called Arch Creek, and was later renamed North Miami. Another town called Miami Shores was incorporated in 1930.
1926	March	02	Larkins was incorporated as the town of South Miami. Soon after, John Opsahl constructed the town's first concrete block building on Sunset Drive.
1927	June	01	The town of South Miami adopted a new charter and changed its name to the City of South Miami.
	June	06	The town of Miami Shores changed its name to North Miami.
	July	28	The Greater Miami Airport Association was created.
1928	September	15	Pan American Airways established its base of operations in Miami. It had previously been in Key West.
1931			The City of South Miami Chamber of Commerce was established.
1931			Colonel Henry L. Doherty purchased the Miami-Biltmore, the Roney Plaza, and the Key Largo Angler's Club. In doing so, he formed the Florida Year Round Club. This move aimed to counteract the negative impacts of the Great Depression and establish Miami and Miami Beach as year-round tourist destinations.
1933	January	01	Miami hosted its first Orange Bowl, even though it was not referred to as such. The University of Miami and Manhattan College played in "The First Annual New Year's Day Football Classic," which was held at Moore Park.	display
1933	August	17	*The Miami Herald* wrote that, "Miami's gates will always remain open to Cubans."** This came four days after the violence that resulted in the fall of Machado and the departure of a number of Cubans for South Florida.
1936	December	20	Parrot Jungle Island opened. Started by Franz Scherr and originally located on Red Road, one hundred visitors paid twenty-five cents admission to see twenty-five birds and the flora and fauna of his park on this first day. Today, Parrot Jungle is home to over one thousand birds and has moved to a site along the MacArthur Causeway between Miami and Miami Beach. The original grounds on Red Road remain, and the park has renamed as Pinecrest Gardens.
1939	June	12	The town of Hillsboro Beach was incorporated.
1940			The Deco Grossinger Beach Hotel opened. Later to be called the Ritz Plaza Hotel, it was designed by L. Murray Dixon in classic Art Deco style. Seven years later, the Delano Hotel opened directly across the street.
1941	April	10	A memorial to Carl Fisher was dedicated. It was in Miami Beach at Fifty-first Street and Alton Road.
1943	June	14	The Greater Miami Port Authority was created.
1945	June	11	The Dade County Port Authority was created. It replaced the Greater Miami Port Authority, which had been created two years earlier.
1946	January	06	*The Miami Herald* began offering "the Clipper edition."** It was a smaller version of the Herald that they sent by air to the countries of Latin America.
1946	May	07	Voters approved the transfer of Jackson Memorial Hospital from the City of Miami to Dade County.	display
1947			Marjory Stoneman Douglas released The Everglades: River of Grass. It was a landmark book in educating people on the significance of preserving and protecting the Everglades ecosystem.	display
1947	December	29	Life magazine published a story on Miami Beach containing over twelve pages of color photos and text. The article referred to the city as "the crown jewel of the Miami area."
1948			The Saxony Hotel opened in Miami Beach. It was designed by Roy France, who also designed the National Hotel of 1940. The Modernist Saxony was part of a new generation of hotels built in Miami and Miami Beach. It and many of the other new buildings lacked the ornamental Art Deco motifs that were to be seen for the last times in the designs of the Sherry Frontenac and the Delano hotels.	display
1948	March	31	The Greater Miami Crime Commission was established.
1949			Florida's first television station, WTVJ, began broadcasting in Miami.
			The Casablanca Hotel opened. Roy France designed the hotel, which was named after the famous film staring Humphrey Bogart. The hotel can be described as Modernist in its design, but it also incorporated elements of the International Style and Hollywood-themed kitsch. The latter of these came to influence the way developers in Las Vegas, Nevada designed their resorts decades later.	display
	October	29	The town of Hacienda Village was incorporated. It was to serve as a casino town.
1951			The Bombay Hotel opened. The hotel's name was later changed to the Golden Sands Hotel. It was the first hotel in Miami Beach to offer its guests a parking garage. Norman M. Giller designed the building. On why his was the first hotel to have a garage, Giller said that, "in the Art Deco days we were in a Depression, so nobody was thinking about cars, because not too many people had them."
1952			The Dade County Auditorium was integrated. The change followed world-renowned contralto Marian Anderson's refusal to sing for segregated audiences.
1953			The Lido Spa opened on Belle Isle along the Venetian Causeway.
	April	30	The town of Plantation was incorporated.
	July	16	The Miami City Commission voted to establish a temporary City Hall. The old Pan American Airways terminal on Dinner Key was chosen as the site.
1955	May	26	The town of Miramar was incorporated.
1955	May	30	The town of Margate was incorporated.
1956	June	13	The town of Lighthouse Point was incorporated.
1957	December	10	Pembroke Park was incorporated.
1958	January	01	Pembroke Pines was incorporated.
1959	May	21	Voters approved a new county government. It was called the Dade County Metro Government.
	June	20	Cooper City was incorporated.
	June	20	The town of Lauderhill was incorporated.
1961	July	22	The town of Sunrise was incorporated.
1962	October	01	Dadeland Mall opened. At this time, it was only an outdoor strip-mall with fifty-eight tenants. One of them was a Burdines.
1963			The Bacardi U.S.A. building at 2100 Biscayne Boulevard was built. The building, which was designed by Enrique Gutierrez of Puerto Rico's firm of Sacmag International, is one of the many examples of Modernist architecture along Biscanye Boulevard. Unlike others, however, the Bacardi U.S.A. building incorporates a number of Latin American and Spanish motifs, such as Meso-American ball courts and mosaics done in tiles glazed in Spain.
1964	February	16	The Beatles stayed at the Deauville Hotel. Their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan show was broadcast from there.
1964	March	31	The first Coconut Grove Festival was held. Now called the Coconut Grove Art Festival is one of the largest art fairs in the nation.
1965	August	1965	The National Football League (NFL) awarded the City of Miami a franchise. Joe Robbie and Danny Thomas, the teams owners, were the individual recipients.
1965	October	25	The Disney Corporation announces plans for Walt Disney World. The company plans to establish it in central Florida.
1966			The Jackie Gleason Show began broadcasting from Miami Beach.	display
	September	02	The Miami Dolphins played their first NFL game. They lost to the Oakland Raiders 23-14 at the Orange Bowl. 26,766 fans attended the game.
	December	19	The maiden voyage of Ted Arison's "MS Sunward I" marked the beginning of Miami's cruise industry. Arison owned this boat that departed Miami for the nearby port of Nassau, Bahamas. Over time, hundreds of cruise ships would call at Miami's port on their way to destinations around the globe.
1967	February	19	The town of Coconut Creek was incorporated.
1968			Biscayne Bay was listed as a national monument. Congress cited its "rare combination of terrestrial, marine, and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty."
	January	14	The first NFL Super Bowl was played in the Orange Bowl. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders.
	August	05	The Republican National Convention was held in Miami Beach. It lasted through August 8.	display
	December	29	The passenger terminal at the Port of Miami was dedicated.
1970	April	22	The first national "Earth Day" was celebrated in Miami. A teach-in at the University of Miami was held, as was a "Dead Orange Parade" on Biscayne Boulevard.
1971			Maurice Gusman purchased the Olympia Theater. Architect Morris Lapidus was hired to restore the historic building. It was later transferred to the City of Miami and renamed Gusman Hall.
1971	October	01	Walt Disney World opened in central Florida.
1972	July	10	The Democratic National Convention was held in Miami Beach.	display
	August	21	The Republican National Convention was held in Miami Beach.
	October	20	The Gusman Philharmonic Hall opened.
1973	January	14	The Miami Dolphins won the NFL Super Bowl, completing their undefeated season.
1973	November	06	Maurice Ferre was elected mayor of Miami. He was the city's first Hispanic mayor.
1976	March	30	The Miami Herald first published El Herald, a Spanish language supplement paper.
1978	March	12	The first Calle Ocho Festival was held in Little Havana. Called Open House 8, over 100,000 people attended the event.
1979			The Everglades were designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.	display
1979	May	14	The Miami Beach Art Deco District was listed as an historic landmark in the United States national register. It was the first district created in the twentieth-century (largely in the 1930s and 1940s) to receive this designation.	display
1980			Biscayne Bay National Park was established. As the status was changed from a national monument to a national park, Congress authorized the acquisition of new keys and reefs in the bay.	display
1980	July	07	The Metrozoo opened. This first section was twenty-five acres.	display
1984	September	16	"Miami Vice" debuted. The television series by Peter Yerkovich and Michael Mann brought visions of a rich, vibrant, and lush tropical paradise to the entire United States.
2000			Miami Beach was named the #1 Urban Beach by the Surfrider Foundation.

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