The Florida Portal
Florida is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico; Alabama to the northwest; Georgia to the north; the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean to the east; and the Straits of Florida and Cuba to the south. It is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. With a population exceeding 21 million, it is the third-most populous state in the nation and ranks eighth in population density as of 2020. It spans 65,758 square miles (170,310 km2), ranking 22nd in area among the 50 states. The Miami metropolitan area, anchored by the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, is the state's largest metropolitan area with a population of 6.138 million, and the state's most-populous city is Jacksonville with a population of 949,611. Florida's other major population centers include Tampa Bay, Orlando, Cape Coral, and the state capital of Tallahassee.
Various Native American groups have inhabited Florida for at least 14,000 years. In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León became the first known European to make landfall, calling the region La Florida ([la floˈɾiða]) for its lush greenery and the Easter season (Pascua Florida in Spanish). Florida subsequently became the first area in the continental U.S. to be permanently settled by Europeans, with the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, founded in 1565, being the oldest continuously inhabited city. Florida was repeatedly contested by Spain and Great Britain before being ceded to the U.S. in 1819; it was admitted as the 27th state on March 3, 1845. Florida was the principal location of the Seminole Wars (1816–1858), the longest and most extensive of the Indian Wars in U.S. history. The state seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861, becoming one of the seven original Confederate States, and was readmitted to the Union after the Civil War on June 25, 1868.
Since the mid-20th century, Florida has experienced rapid demographic and economic growth. Its economy, with a gross state product (GSP) of $1.4 trillion, is the fourth-largest of any U.S. state and the 16th-largest in the world; the main sectors are tourism, hospitality, agriculture, real estate, and transportation. Florida is world-renowned for its beach resorts, amusement parks, warm and sunny climate, and nautical recreation; attractions such as Walt Disney World, the Kennedy Space Center, and Miami Beach draw tens of millions of visitors annually. Florida is a popular destination for retirees, seasonal vacationers, and both domestic and international migrants; it hosts nine out of the ten fastest-growing communities in the U.S. The state's close proximity to the ocean has shaped its culture, identity, and daily life; its colonial history and successive waves of migration are reflected in African, European, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian influences. Florida has attracted or inspired some of the most prominent American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes, particularly in golf, tennis, auto racing, and water sports. Florida has been considered a battleground state in American presidential elections, particularly those in 2000, 2016, and 2020. (Full article...)
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Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River. An average of one million people visit the park each year. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone. UNESCO declared the Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and listed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1979, and the Ramsar Convention included the park on its list of Wetlands of International Importance in 1987. Everglades is one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists.
Most national parks preserve unique geographic features; Everglades National Park was the first created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The Everglades are a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing 0.25 miles (0.40 km) per day out of Lake Okeechobee, southwest into Florida Bay. The park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. Thirty-six threatened or protected species inhabit the park, including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, along with 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. The majority of South Florida's fresh water, which is stored in the Biscayne Aquifer, is recharged in the park. (Full article...)Did you know...
- ... that a five-year-old boy, using paper and his mother's cigarette lighter, started a fire that consumed the transmitter of Florida radio station WEAR?
- ... that a Florida resident was arrested after posting on RateMyCop.com?
- ... that one radio station owner's decision to bring a "country cousin" to Tallahassee, Florida, turned out to be a miscalculation?
- ... that a Florida TV station claimed freeze damage to its transmitter as the reason it had to delay its first broadcast?
- ... that Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
- ... that the Florida beach festival Surfing Santas, held regularly on Christmas Eve, was inspired by a Honda commercial?
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Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (née McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and presided as president or leader for a myriad of African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration's Negro Division.
She also was appointed as a national advisor to president Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom she worked with to create the Federal Council on Colored Affairs, also known as the Black Cabinet. She is well-known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. It later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University. She was the sole African American woman officially a part of the US delegation that created the United Nations charter, and she held a leadership position for the American Women's Voluntary Services founded by Alice Throckmorton McLean. For her lifetime of activism, she was deemed "acknowledged First Lady of Negro America" by Ebony magazine in April 1949 and was known by the Black Press as the "Female Booker T. Washington". She was known as "The First Lady of The Struggle" because of her commitment to promote better lives for African Americans. (Full article...)Selected images -
Current events
- September 24, 2023 –
- Six people are killed when a train collides with a car in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. (NBC News)
- August 30, 2023 – 2023 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Idalia makes landfall in the U.S. state of Florida as a category 3 hurricane. Flooding is reported in the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa and other parts of Hillsborough County. Two deaths are reported with both being due to vehicle accidents. (The Washington Post) (Spot On Florida)
- August 26, 2023 – 2023 Jacksonville shooting
- Three people are killed in a racially motivated shooting at a store in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The perpetrator, who killed himself after the attack, released a manifesto against black people. (AP)
- July 28, 2023 – Disney v. DeSantis
- A judge in Florida, U.S., denies a request by entertainment conglomerate Disney to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Governor Ron DeSantis against their effort to neutralize the Walt Disney World district takeover in Orange County. (AP)
WikiProjects
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Downtown Miami is the central business district of South Florida, Miami-Dade County and Miami, Florida. Brickell Avenue/Biscayne Boulevard is the main north-south road in downtown, and Flagler Street is the main east-west road in the Central Business District.
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Featured articles
1910 Cuba hurricane • 1928 Okeechobee hurricane • 2012 Budweiser Shootout • American white ibis • Andrew Sledd • Biscayne National Park • Derek Jeter • Draining and development of the Everglades • Ernest Hemingway • Everglades National Park • Falcon's Fury • Geography and ecology of the Everglades • Gregor MacGregor • Guy Bradley • Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort) • Hurricane Andrew • Indigenous people of the Everglades region • Iron Gwazi • John F. Bolt • Marjory Stoneman Douglas • Restoration of the Everglades • Rosewood massacre • Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant • SheiKra • Space Shuttle Challenger disaster • St. Johns River • Stephen Crane • Turning Point (2008 wrestling) • USS Massachusetts (BB-2) • Walt Disney World Railroad • William Cooley
Featured lists
List of Florida hurricanes • List of Florida hurricanes (pre-1900) • List of Tampa Bay Rays seasons • List of University of Central Florida alumni • List of birds of Florida • List of counties in Florida • List of governors of Florida • List of invasive species in the Everglades • List of mammals of Florida • List of municipalities in Florida • List of sister cities in Florida • Snow in Florida • United States presidential elections in Florida
Good articles
1898 Georgia hurricane • 1928 Florida Gators football team • 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season • 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season • 1986 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season • 1987 Gulf Coast tropical storm • 1987 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season • 1989 Florida's 18th congressional district special election • 1989 South Florida television affiliation switch • 1998 Pepsi 400 • 2003 Budweiser Shootout • 2005 TNA Super X Cup Tournament • 2006 Daytona 500 • 2006 Ford 400 • 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament • 2009 Budweiser Shootout • 2009 Ford 400 • 2010 Cafés do Brasil Indy 300 • 2010 Daytona 500 • 2010 Ford 400 • 2011 Budweiser Shootout • 2011 Daytona 500 • 2011 Gatorade Duels • 2012 Daytona 500 • 2012 Gatorade Duels • 2016 24 Hours of Daytona • 2018 24 Hours of Daytona • 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship • 2022 Gasparilla Bowl • Against All Odds (2005) • Albert A. Murphree • Andy Hansen • Apalachee massacre • Apollo 1 • Ashlyn Harris • Battle of Flint River • Bob Turley • Bomis • Bound for Glory (2005) • Brad Miller (baseball) • Burger King • Burger King franchises • Burger King legal issues • Burger King products • Carlos (Calusa) • Caroline Street (Key West) • Casey Donovan (actor) • Catie Ball • Chad Mottola • Cheetah Hunt
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Did you know? articles
Ruby Diamond (2023-09-22) • 1989 South Florida television affiliation switch (2023-09-22) • WXEL-TV (2023-06-25) • 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship (2023-05-15) • 2023 Fort Lauderdale floods (2023-05-04) • Devin Futrell (2023-04-28) • Royal Palm State Park (2023-03-28) • Florida Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission (2023-03-07) • WVUP-CD (2023-03-02) • Jett Howard (2023-02-22) • WJXX (2023-02-01) • 2022 Gasparilla Bowl (2023-01-22) • William Everett Potter (2023-01-16) • Killing of Sara-Nicole Morales (2023-01-12) • 2022 Boca Raton Bowl (2023-01-08) • 2022 Cure Bowl (2023-01-01) • Pipeline: The Surf Coaster (2022-11-03) • Jamie Keeton (2022-10-06) • Skeeter Reece (2022-10-04) • 2022 U.S. Open Cup final (2022-10-04) • Cauley Square (2022-09-12) • Dania Beach Hurricane (2022-09-11) • Cheetah Hunt (2022-09-05) • Sean Barber (2022-09-01) • Lee Wachtstetter (2022-08-31) • Tigris (roller coaster) (2022-08-28) • Ken Russell (politician) (2022-08-25) • Chaz Stevens (2022-08-22) • Hank Goldberg (2022-08-16) • Dwight Smith (baseball) (2022-08-07) • Mario Salcedo (2022-08-06) • WPST-TV (2022-07-24) • Lance McCullers (2022-07-23) • WAQI (2022-07-18) • Iron Gwazi (2022-07-12) • The Mutiny Hotel (2022-06-09) • NetPark Tampa Bay (2022-06-08) • Dave Thomas (politician) (2022-06-04) • Royal Theater (St. Petersburg, Florida) (2022-05-05) • Disney and Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act (2022-04-21) • Mary Hayes Davis (2022-04-17) • Jovani Furlan (2022-03-24) • Peter Walker (dancer) (2022-03-21) • Jack Sweeney (2022-03-15) • WGBS-TV (2022-03-03) • WITV (Florida) (2022-03-02) • Milam Residence (2022-02-25) • Lake Worth Beach, Florida (2022-02-10) • Zigzag House (2022-02-07) • Comedian (artwork) (2022-01-28)
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Things you can do
- Tag all talk pages of Florida articles and categories with
{{WPFlorida|class=|importance=}}
. (The rater user script can be used to help tag articles.) - Find images for articles (see Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Florida)
- Cleanup requests: clean-up listing for Florida
- Expand any existing stub
- Add county templates (
{{Hamilton County, Florida}}
,{{Jackson County, Florida}}
, etc.) to appropriate cities. - Add appropriate short descriptions to Florida-related articles.
Sources
- ^ "Cuba's most famous food isn't even from Cuba — or Miami". Matador Network.
- ^ "Viva La Cuban Sandwich!". Farmers’ Almanac. March 20, 2015.