Selected Events for Migration and Immigration
YearMonthDayEvent Related
Resource
1819February22Spain ceded Florida to the United States. Although the two countries signed a treaty in this year, it was not ratified in the U.S. until two years later. 
1821  Temple Pent, a Bahamian immigrant, arrived in the area that would later come to be known as Coconut Grove. He failed in his attempt to officially homestead in the area, but his family settled there anyway and became its first permanent residents. He was nonetheless significant in early Dade County history, serving as Justice of the Peace and the keeper of the Cape Florida lighthouse. 
1823July03Monroe 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
1825December17The Cape Florida Lighthouse was completed. The site was the southern tip of Key Biscayne.display
1835December The Second Seminole War began. One of the incidents that contributed most heavily to its start was the killing of 108 United States soldiers near Bushnell, Florida. The war lasted until 1842 and was the most significant of all the Seminole Wars. Some of the fighting occurred in southeastern Florida, some in the areas that would later be part of the City of Miami. During the war, Fort Dallas was established on the Miami River.display
1836January06Dade 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
July23The Seminole Indians attacked the Cape Florida Lighthouse in the midst of the Second Seminole War. They set fire to the structure, but did not manage to completely destroy it. 
1838  Fort Dallas was established. Situated at the mouth of the Miami River, it served as a base for the United States Navy before Florida became a state. It was from this base that the U.S. launched attacks against Florida's Indian population in the Second Seminole War.display
1840  Simeon Frow arrived in Key West from Majorca. Later, he would become keeper of the Cape Florida Lighthouse, and his family would play a significant role in the history of early Coconut Grove. 
1842  The military abandoned Fort Dallas following the Second Seminole War. 
  William English acquired the Fort Dallas land formerly held by the military. 
1844March09Dade's county seat was moved from Indian Key to Miami. It would only be in Miami until 1889, when it was moved to Juno. 
1845March03Florida 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
1855  The United States reoccupied Fort Dallas. They did so for use in the brief fighting of the Third Seminole War (1855-1858). William English had already abandoned the property in the early 1850s as he headed west for California. This continued fighting discouraged settlement in the Miami area. 
1858June10The United States Army abandoned Fort Dallas. While they had already been forced to reestablish their presence there once before, the end of major fighting against the Seminole tribes marked the end of the fort's usefullness. 
1859  Simeon Frow became keeper of the Cape Florida Lighthouse. Having come recently from Key West and originally from Majorca, he held the post until the light went out during the Civil War. Later, one of his sons would hold the position. 
1868  Edmund D. Besly became the first person to apply for a homestead in the area that is today called Coconut Grove. It was comprised of 160 acres and stretched between today's Twenty-seventh Avenue and the Moorings. After his death, his widow Anna and the newly immigrated Dr. Horace Philo Porter disputed the validity of the claim. Ulimately though, Anna Besley won out and was awarded the homestead in 1875. 
1871  The Brickell family arrived from Cleveland. William Brickell immediately purchased a vast stretch of land extending from the Miami River south to today's Coconut Grove.display
1873January06A post office was established in the area that is today called Coconut Grove. It was the first time that the larger area where the Pent's, Besley's, and Dr. Porter had settled was referred to by name. Some of the settlements had individual names, but the creation of this post office established the area's name as Cocoanut Grove (as it was spelled then). Dr. Porter was its first postmaster. 
1874February08The Cocoanut Grove post office closed when Dr. Porter left Miami to follow his wife to Boston. 
1875May20Anna Besley won control of her deceased husband Edmund's homestead in Cocoanut Grove. 
1882  Hamilton Disston, a wealthy Philadelphian, purchased four million acres of swamplands in the Everglades. His engineers worked with the goal of draining the Everglades to serve man. Few at this time understood the crucial significance of this sprawing ecosystem. It would not be long before salt began to seep into Miami's drinking water due to sinking water levels in the Everglades.display
  J. William Ewan officially became the second homesteader in Cocoanut Grove. He had been in the area since 1874, arriving from Charleston, South Carolina. 
1883January06Henry Lum purchases two lots of land from the United States government along the ocean north of 11th Street. He paid between $0.75 and $1.25 an acre. 
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. 
1886June27The first recorded board meeting of Dade County Schools was held. Charles Lum was appointed the first superintendent one year earlier. 
1889February19The Dade County seat moved from Miami to Juno. It would moved back to Miami ten years later. 
1890  The settlement of Lemon City began to take shape. It was two miles north of the Miami River on the shore of Biscayne Bay. The area - set roughly where today's Biscayne Boulevard and Sixty-first streets intersect - was then called Billy Mettair's Bight. The area had homes, hotels, saloons, and several other businesses.display
1891  Julia Tuttle and her children arrived in Miami. They did so after purchasing 640 acres on the north bank of the Miami River. It was the old Fort Dallas land. Like the family of William Brickell, hers was from Cleveland. It was there that the two had met.display
1892  A road linking Lemon City with Lantana in Palm Beach County was completed. Lemon City thus became the first section of Miami to be linked to the cities and towns to the north. 
1893  The Florida legislature enacted a bill protecting manatees. Those who captured or killed the species were subject to fines of $500 and three months in prison. 
April16John Pent, Temple Pent's son, applied for a homestead in Cocoanut Grove. He was unable to prove his claim just northeast of today's Grand Avenue, however, his son Edward succeeded in doing so roughly a decade later. Even though this failed attempt at a homestead followed others that had been successful, the Pents were still the area's first permanent residents. 
1894April02Henry Flagler's railroad reached Palm Beach. 
April07The Lemon City Library opened.display
1895  In the winter of 1895, a severe blizzard hit New England. Solomon Merrick, the father of young George Edgar Merrick, lost his daughter Ruth during the accompanying flu epidemic. This loss was, according to George, crucial in his father's decision to purchase one hundred sixty acres of land in what would eventually become Coral Gables. 
  John N. Lummus arrived in Miami. He saw immediate promise for the area's development, and returned a year later to work as a train dispatcher for the Florida East Coast Railway. 
  Julia Tuttle offered Henry Flagler land if he would agree to extend his railroad to Miami. He accepted her proposal and a contract was signed that allowed for his Florida East Coast Railroad to reach Miami the following year. 
1896  Henry Flagler and Julia Tuttle created a district for Miami's black residents. It was between N.W. Sixth and Twelfth streets, and later became known as Overtown. By 1915, most of the city's 5,000 blacks lived in the general vicinity of this community. 
  The first known Cubans move to Miami. It is Eduardo Luis Gonzalez and his family who move to the young city at this time. 
February James E. Lummus arrived in Miami and opened a general merchandise store. He maintained the store until 1908.display
April15The Florida East Coast Railway, owned by Henry Flagler, reached Miami and the first train arrived on this day. Prior to this date, most of the people in the area were homesteaders and the only "towns" were Coconut Grove and Lemon City.display
July28The City of Miami was incorporated. 344 registered voters met for the vote, and elected John B. Reilly as the first Mayor. While only 344 votes were tallied, 368 voters were present at the meeting. Of those men (women were not allowed to vote), 206 were white and 162 were black. 
1897  Captain William H. Fulford acquired a 160-acre land patent from President Grover Cleveland through utilization of the Homestead Act. The land surrounded a railroad depot just north of Miami that had been established by the Florida East Coast Railroad a year earlier. Though only a mile from Ojus, the two communities remained separated due to the poor roads and difficult travel conditions. Later, however, all of these lands would be incorporated into North Miami Beach. 
  In the 1890s, settlers established farms along the east side of the Oleta River. In this year, the area was named Ojus by Albert Fitch, a farmer who wanted to grow pineapples in the rich soil. The word Ojus is a Seminole word for "plenty" or "lots of", and at that time, farmers in Ojus grew peas, beans, sugar cane, and tomatoes. 
January Wilson Alexander Larkins settled in the area of today's South Miami. He came with his family and livestock, building for them a home and a barn. 
1898  Wilson Larkins opened a dry goods store, and outpost, and established a post office near his home and farm. It was not long after this that people began to settle in the area in greater numbers. 
June24The first of 7,000 U.S. troops began to arrive in Miami. Some came to build fortifications on William Brickell's bluff, and some were on their way to fight against the Spanish in Cuba. A wide large area of the northern sector of today’s downtown became their home. Camp Miami, as it came to be known, was near the city's black area. The soldiers provoked several violent incidents there.display
August12The last units of Camp Miami dispersed. With the war in Cuba ending so quickly, the soldiers' stay in Miami had only lasted for six weeks and ended before they were ever needed in Cuba. 
October William Burdine and his family moved to Miami. "Burdine and Son" had been operating in Bartow, a central-west Florida town, but when William's son John found quick success selling wares to soldiers stationed in Miami, the father made the choice to move the store to the growing city. The store's first home was on South Miami Avenue close to Flagler Street. 
1904  Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was elected Governor of Florida. His campaign promise was to drain much of south Florida, creating an "Empire of the Everglades." 
1905  Henry Flagler decided to extend his Florida East Coast Railway further south, from Biscayne Bay in Miami to Key West. 
1909October01The Everglades Land Sales Company opened its office in Miami. Much of the land it sold was purchased sight unseen. 
1911November A color line was drawn along certain streets throughout Miami. The city's white residents wished to restrict the expansion of areas inhabited by blacks. A year earlier, the 1910 census reported that 42% of the city's residents were black, and at the time, racial conflicts were becoming more common. 
1912  Carl Fisher arrived in Miami Beach late in the year. He wanted to develop a new city in and of itself, separate from Miami.display
  Lafe Allen and an associate purchased Captain Fulford's original grant plus additional property with the idea of developing and selling lots. Eventually, they purchased 557 acres of land. 
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. 
July01Thomas 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
July09The 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
July22Construction of the Collins Bridge began. It was slated to cost $75,000, though the final cost was nearly twice that. 
1914  The W.J. Brown Hotel opened on Miami Beach. It was the first hotel to open on the island. 
1915April24Father Theodore R. Gibson was born to parents who had immigrated to Miami from the Bahamas. By the early 1960s, he had become rector of the Christ Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove. He used his power in the church and the Coconut Grove community to become the most significant leader in Miami's civil rights movement. 
April30Broward County was created. It had previously been part of Dade County. 
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. 
  The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Drainage District was created. The project's goal was to drain and reclaim a half million acres in Broward and northern Dade Counties.display
July15A group of whites bombed the Odd Fellows Hall, which was at the time the largest structure found in the city's black community. The guilty parties were never arrested. 
1918  The Tamiami Trail began to extend further west. In this year, forty-three miles were completed.display
  Christian Hospital opened at 1218 NW First Place. It was the first hospital that treated blacks in Miami. 
1920  The Miami Beach land boom began in roughly 1920. Over the next nine years, a host of millionaires built mansions along Collins Avenue's "Millionaire's Row." 
1921March20The Miami Beach Congregational Church was dedicated. It was the island's first church, and was later renamed the Miami Beach Community Church.display
May24The Ku Klux Klan held a parade in honor of their arrival in Miami.display
July02The Ku Klux Klan kidnapped a black minister from Coconut Grove. They carried out the act in response to his message aimed at racial equality. He was released after promising to return to the Bahamas. 
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. 
1923June29A group of whites threw bombs into several unoccupied black homes. Those responsible were never apprehended. 
1925April27Coral Gables was incorporated. 
June11The town of Deerfield was incorporated. 
September05Greater Miami was created. Residents had voted three days earlier to annex Coconut Grove, Silver Bluff, Allapattah, Lemon City, Buena Vista, and Little River. 
November16The town of Davie was incorporated. 
1926  Elmer A. Ward arrived in Miami. Upon arrival, he opened the Economy Drug Store at 1101 NW Third Avenue. Years later, he fought for civil rights in Miami as the leader of the city's chapter of CORE (the Congress on Racial Equality). 
February05The 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. 
July04The Ku Klux Klan opened their headquarters in downtown Miami. The building stood at SW Fourth Street and Eighth Avenue. It was destroyed in the hurricane of September 1926. 
1927June06The town of Miami Shores changed its name to North Miami. 
1928  The continued construction of the Tamiami Trail, aimed at providing settlers with easier access to lands further and further inland, hastened the collapse of the frontier Seminole economy, threatening the Florida Indians with assimilation and extinction. 
1929  Father John E. Culmer arrived in Miami from Tampa to lead Saint Agnes Episcopal Church in Colored Town. Years later, he became one of the most notable leaders in the city's civil rights movement. 
1930  The population of Miami Beach reaches 6,500. 
1933August13The government of Gerardo Machado was overthrown in Cuba. The ousted leader was subsequently flown to Miami for safety.display
August17The 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. 
1937  Voters rejected a ballot to unify all transit services in Miami except its jitneys. 
1939  Voters approved a second ballot - two years after the first - that unified the City of Miami's transit system. 
May The Ku Klux Klan organized a rally of more than 2,000 persons in opposition to black voter participation. On election day that year, nearly 1,000 blacks went to the polls. It was the first time that the city's black residents banded together as a major voting bloc in a city election. 
May10Florida's state legislature passed a bill barring blacks from voting in primaries. 
June12The town of Hillsboro Beach was incorporated. 
1940  The population of Miami Beach reaches 28,000. 
1941June A large group of white Coconut Grove residents protested the move of two black families into white sections of the community. The group succeeded in the blocking the two families, but shortly thereafter blacks began moving into white areas of Coconut Grove. 
August Five-hundred whites in northwest Dade County actively opposed the construction of a 250-acre black development on NW Seventh Avenue. They were supported by the Ku Klux Klan and carried banners to the county courthouse where they presented a petition with over 1200 hundred signatures in opposition to the development. 
1942February The Army Air Corps began sending the first of what was to be 4,000 men to Miami Beach - the site chosed for their officer training. 
April15Formerly called Municipal Pier, the Serviceman's Pier opened to recreation-seeking soldiers. The Miami Beach Pier Association's first president, Kay Pancoast, worked tirelessly to raise funds for the project, and within one year, over 200,000 servicemen visited the pier. 
1943May27The Dade County public health system was created. 
August The United States government had appropriated at least 188 Miami Beach hotels, 109 apartment houses, and 18 private homes. 
1944  The City of Miami hired its first black police officers. They were only assigned to patrol in areas where blacks lived. 
  Six blacks were allowed to vote on the Democratic ticket at a precinct in Tallahassee. This was the first step in greater political participation for all Florida blacks, including those in Miami. 
November Only 68 Miami Beach hotels and 11 apartment houses remained as appropriated property of the United States government. 
1946January06The 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. 
January13Grattan Ellesmere ("G.E.") Graves Jr. arrived in Miami to practice law. He worked to rally all of the city's blacks to fight for equal rights, often times inserting himself at the forefront of the battle. He was a crucial part of the battle for civil rights in Miami. 
April Developers broke ground for what would be the extremely exclusive residential community of Bal Harbour. Robert Cabel Graham, a wealthy Detroit truck manufacturer and farmer, hired the firm of Harland and Bartholomew and Associates to design the community. Its exclusivity lay in the original agreement that required no lot be "sold, conveyed, or leased to anyone not a member of the Caucasian race, not to anyone having more than one-quarter Hebrew or Syrian blood." 
May The Miami Housing Authority used a 24-acre tract of land in Coconut Grove to provide low-rent housing for blacks. When white residents of the community began to protest, a deal was struck. A seventy-four-foot buffer strip and a wall - parts of which still stand today - were constucted to divide the two populations. 
May07Voters approved the transfer of Jackson Memorial Hospital from the City of Miami to Dade County.display
1947April17Miami Beach enacted an ordinance banning signs containing discriminatory phrases such as "Gentiles Only" or "Restricted Clientele." The act came at a time when the city was undergoing an increase in its Jewish population. 
August01The City of Miami evicted a number of black residents from their homes. Their homes were destroyed to make way for Allapattah Junior and Elementary schools. 
December29Life 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." 
1949October29The town of Hacienda Village was incorporated. It was to serve as a casino town. 
1951September23A group of racist Miamians bombed a black apartment house in the community known as Carver Village. A Catholic Church and Jewish Centers were also targeted, but the bombing of the apartment house stood out as it came just as a number of blacks were ready to move into the all-white community. Authorities believed that the Ku Klux Klan was to blame for the attacks.display
1953April30The town of Plantation was incorporated. 
1955May26The town of Miramar was incorporated. 
May30The town of Margate was incorporated. 
1956June13The town of Lighthouse Point was incorporated. 
July25Florida's House of Representatives upholds segregation by a vote of 89-1. Miami's Jack Orr is the sole dissenter. 
1957December10Pembroke Park was incorporated. 
1958January01Pembroke Pines was incorporated. 
December07Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Miami. The Diocese of Saint Augustine had previously covered the entire state. 
1959January01Fidel Castro assumed control of the island of Cuba. The exodus of Cubans refugees moving to Miami began. 
May21Voters approved a new county government. It was called the Dade County Metro Government. 
June20Cooper City was incorporated. 
June20The town of Lauderhill was incorporated. 
1960March11The Reverend Edward T. Graham and six other black clergymen attempted a sit-in at the Burdines store in downtown Miami. The police denied them entrance. When a boycott of downtown stores was threatened, city leaders sat down to negotiate a settlement. In April, it was agreed that all stores would open to black customers simultaneously in August later that year. 
May03Dade County voters approved a new county-wide road system. With their vote, they allowed a $46 million bond to be issued for what would be a six year project. 
August01Six blacks - all CORE (the Congress on Racial Equality) members - were served at several department store lunch counters. While the color barrier was only broken at three stores on this day, it fell elsewhere soon after. 
August02The Metropolitan Dade County Transit Authority was created. 
September Miami's black residents were allowed to use the city's public swimming facilities. In a suit filed by the local NAACP, a United States federal court ruled that desegregation in the city's pools was unconstitutional. 
December20Operation "Pedro Pan" began. These flights from Cuba brought 14,000 children to the United States by 1962. 
1961  Developer Steve Muss arrived in Miami Beach. His father, Alexander Muss had established the family as developers with the founding of Alexander Muss & Sons in 1952. Steve would come to have dramatic influence in the ways that Miami Beach developed. 
April01The first major Miami hotel that had previously been segregated admitted blacks. Six black players in town with the Chicago White Sox stayed at the Biscayne Terrace Hotel in downtown Miami. 
June The University of Miami admitted three black students. They were the first to attend the private university. 
July22The town of Sunrise was incorporated. 
1962February20Dade County's population reached one million. The man who was recognized as the city's millionth resident moved to Arizona four months later. 
October01Dadeland Mall opened. At this time, it was only an outdoor strip-mall with fifty-eight tenants. One of them was a Burdines. 
1963June Black and white teachers met together at Convention Hall in Miami Beach. This was the first time that both groups joined to discuss professional issues. 
1965October10Fidel Castro opened the port of Camarioca in Cuba. By November 15, 5,000 would depart for Miami. 
December "Freedom flights" from Cuba began to arrive in Miami. These twice a day flights from Varadero, Cuba resulted in over 100,000 Cubans being brought to Miami in one year. 
December12The first group of Haitian refugees arrived in south Florida. They were treated as political refugees and given asylum in the United States. 
1966April11Martin Luther King Jr. visited Miami. He spoke at a rally attended by 1,200 people. 
1967  Several Florida species were put on the federal endangered list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed Florida panther, the snail kite, and the Cape Sable seaside sparrow on the list.display
February19The town of Coconut Creek was incorporated. 
1968May08The Vatican elevated the status of the Diocese of Miami to an Archdiocese. 
August07A riot took place in Miami's Liberty City. After a rally organized by the Congress of Racial Equality and the Black Panthers, a man with a bumber sticker reading "George Wallace for President" was attacked. Shortly thereafter, a number of youths and other individuals vandalized and looted areas of Liberty City. The violence continued through the night, taking place during the Republican Party convention.display
August08The riot beginning on August 7 continued after City of Miami officials took no action to address the concerns of those rioting in Liberty City. After Miami police opened fire on the crowds, two black men were killed and a black child was wounded. Over the next two days, two more black men were killed by police.display
1970June15The "rotten meat" riot occurred in the section of Miami known as Brownsville. Protesters had been picketing at a white-owned Pic-and-Pay since June 12, when the owners were accused of overpricing poor quality meet and other goods. When police arrived firing tear gas several days later, rioting ensued and continued for three days, extending into Liberty City and some sections of Coconut Grove. 
1972July06Manolo Reboso was appointed to the Miami City Commission. He was the first Cuban exile to serve as such. 
December A second boatload of Haitian immigrants arrived in south Florida. Over the next several decades, thousands more would follow. At this point in time, the most common way of dealing with Haitian immigrants was to detain them for a short period of time before dropping them off at local black churches. As the U.S. government began extending these detentions, they came under fire for providing Cubans with such a considerably easier road to citizenship than Haitians. 
1973April07Freedom Flights from Cuba to the United States ended. 
November06Maurice Ferre was elected mayor of Miami. He was the city's first Hispanic mayor. 
1976  Florida's state legislature created the South Florida Water Management District.display
March30The Miami Herald first published El Herald, a Spanish language supplement paper. 
1977January18The Dade County Commission passed a human rights ordinance. It protected individuals against discrimination based on sexuality. 
June07Dade County voters repealed the human rights ordinance passed by the county commission less that one half year earlier. The vote came following a fervent anti-gay rights campaign led by Anita Bryant. 
1978March12The first Calle Ocho Festival was held in Little Havana. Called Open House 8, over 100,000 people attended the event. 
1979  Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaragua's ousted dictator, fled to Miami. Along with other members of his fallen government, roughly 15,000 wealthy Nicaraguans moved into or purchased residences in Miami during the late 1970s. The primary areas of concentration for these moves and purchases were Key Biscayne, Brickell Avenue, and the western suburb of Sweetwater. 
December16Arthur McDuffie was brutally beaten by a group of Dade County police officers. He died four days later as a result of the beating. The acquittal of all the officers involved sparked a riot in Miami that caused what came to be known at the "Miami Riot of 1980." 
1980April21The Mariel boatlift from Cuba to the U.S. began as the first boats began to reach Key West. By the end, nearly 140,000 Cubans would be brought to South Florida. 
May17A group of Dade County police officers was acquitted in the beating that left Arthur McDuffie dead the previous December. After the verdict was reached by an all-white Tampa jury, Miami descended into violence and what came to be known as the "Miami Riot of 1980." The riot cost tens of millions of dollars in damage. 
May20The INS detention center on Krome Avenue opened. It had previously been used as a missile base. 
September26The Mariel boatlift ended. 
November04An "English Only" referendum passed in Dade County. 
1981  A Haitian boat traveling to the United States sank just offshore and thirty-three bodies washed up on the shores of South Florida that fall. 
1990February Miami's Holocaust Memorial was dedicated. South Florida's large Jewish population raised the funds for Ken Triester to design the memorial that was placed on Miami Beach. 

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