September 18, 1926: The Great Miami Hurricane

September 18, 1926: What becomes known as the Great Miami Hurricane makes landfall. Hurricanes didn't start to be identified with girls' names until 1953, and with boys' names until 1979. This one was the 7th of the Atlantic hurricane season, so its name would have started with a G.

The extension of passenger rail service to Key West in 1912, and the development of commercial air-conditioning in the early 20th Century, made living in Florida palatable. In the 1920s, particularly from 1924 onward, the "Florida Land Boom" was underway, taking advantage of the "paper prosperity" of the "Roaring Twenties," leaving behind entirely new, planned developments incorporated into towns and cities. Of course, being that Florida was a Southern State, these places were racially segregated.

This helped to make Miami and surrounding South Florida a major tourist destination. It gave Miami a rare status, enjoyed by possibly no other city in the Eastern U.S., besides New Orleans: It was a "major city" without having a major league baseball team.

But a lack of knowledge about storm frequency, and poor building standards, made these buildings, including houses, as susceptible to hurricanes as many buildings in San Francisco were to earthquakes and fires prior to that city's 1906 disaster.

There was warning, as the hurricane had already devastated the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos. When it made landfall on September 18, the waves were as high as 15 feet. Although South Florida would be hit by damaging hurricanes in the interim, these would remain the highest waves there until Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Miami and Miami Beach were flooded, knee-deep. The County Causeway, connecting the two since 1920 (and later renamed for General Douglas MacArthur), was submerged under 6 feet of water. Yachts and other large vessels were carried out to sea. Power lines were downed, cutting off communication with the rest of the country. Most wooden buildings were either blown down or lost their roofs. Concrete and steel buildings were warped at their bases.

The hurricane moved inland, and caused damage on the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The number of deaths is uncertain, but is believed to be over 500. With inflation factored in, it remains the most damaging hurricane in American history.

And that's just in the short term. In the long term, Florida took a long time to recover, economically and culturally. The land speculators went bankrupt. Historians in Florida have suggested that the State fell into a depression 3 years sooner than the country as a whole did. Additional hurricanes in 1928 and 1935 didn't help.

Among the structures ruined by the hurricane was one on which construction was begun just the previous day: A new 8,000-seat football stadium for the University of Miami, on its campus in suburban Coral Gables.

By October 30, a temporary structure was in place at Tamiami Park, and, coached by former University of Wisconsin and Green Bay Packers star Howard "Cub" Buck, "The U" was ready to play its 1st game: At home, they beat Rollins College, 7-0.

The team was, naturally, named the Hurricanes, and went 8-0 that first season. In 1937, they left Tamiami Park for the new Burdine Stadium, which was renamed in 1959 for its best-known event, the Orange Bowl.

Rollins, in nearby Winter Park, Florida, dropped its football program in 1949, and now competes in other sports in NCAA Division II.

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September 18, 1926 was a Saturday. These baseball were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at League Park in Cleveland. George Uhle outpitched Urban Shocker. Indians player-manager Tris Speaker went 1-for-3 with a walk. So did Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at the Polo Grounds. Bill Terry went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Frankie Frisch went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known when Wilbert Robinson managed them from 1914 to 1931) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Ebbets Field. Paul Waner went 3-for-4, while the Robins as a team only got 4 hits, but errors doomed the Bucs.

* A doubleheader was split at Braves Field in Boston. The Boston Braves won the opener, 3-2. The Chicago Cubs won the nightcap, 6-0. Joe "Sheriff" Blake pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* A doubleheader was split at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 1st game, 7-3. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2nd game, 3-2, with Hal Carlson outpitching Grover Cleveland Alexander, although Art Reinhardt was the losing pitcher. Rogers Hornsby 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. With the Senators leading, 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, Tigers player-manager Ty Cobb sent himself up as a pinch-hitter, and he tripled Johnny Neun home with the tying run. Harry Heilmann then singled Cobb home with the winning run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. George Sisler went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

And there were 4 college football games:

* Virginia Military Institute (VMI) beat Wofford College, 20-0 at Alumni Field in Lexington, Virginia.

* Davidson College beat Elon University, 26-0 at Richardson Field in Davidson, North Carolina.

* Clemson College (now Clemson University) beat Erskine College, 7-0 at Riggs Field in Calhoun, South Carolina.

* And Stanford University beat Fresno State, 44-0 at the old, but then-new, Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

April 23, 1982: Key West Secedes From the Union

April 23, 1982: The Conch Republic is declared, when Key West, Florida secedes from the United States of America. This actually happened, and in a town where weird things happen, it may be the weirdest ever.

In 1982, the United States Border Patrol set up a roadblock and inspection point, on U.S. Route 1 just north of the merger of County Route 905A onto Route 1, in front of the Last Chance Saloon in Florida City. Routes 1 and 905 A are the only two roads connecting the Florida Keys with the mainland.

Vehicles were stopped and searched for narcotics and illegal immigrants. This was just 2 years after the Mariel Boatlift dumped 125,000 Cubans onto Florida, many of them criminals who took up, or had already taken up, the drug trade. And it was a year and a half before a remake of the 1932 gangster film Scarface moved the action to early 1980s Miami, making the crime kingpin a Cuban cocaine lord played by an Italian-American actor, Al Pacino, instead of a Prohibition-era Italian-American booze bootlegger played by a Jewish actor, Paul Muni.

The Key West City Council complained repeatedly about the inconvenience for travelers to and from Key West, claiming that it hurt the Keys' important tourism industry. Eastern Air Lines, which had a hub at Miami International Airport, saw a window of opportunity when the roadblocks were established: Eastern was, at the time, the only airline to establish jet service to Key West International Airport, counting on travelers from Key West to Miami preferring to fly rather than to wait for police to search their vehicles.

When the City Council's complaints went unanswered by the U.S. federal government, and attempts to get an injunction against the roadblock failed in court, as a form of protest, Mayor Dennis Wardlow and the Council declared Key West's independence. In the eyes of the Council, since the U.S. federal government had set up the equivalent of a border station as if they were a foreign nation, they might as well become one. As many of the local citizens were referred to as Conchs (after the shell, pronounced "conk"), the nation took the name of the Conch Republic.

As part of the protest, Mayor Wardlow was proclaimed Prime Minister of the Republic, which immediately declared war against the United States. Wardlow symbolically broke a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a naval uniform. He surrendered to this man after one minute, and applied for $1 billion dollars in foreign aid.

Prime Minister Dennis Wardlow

The faux secession and the events surrounding it generated great publicity for the Keys' plight. The roadblock and inspection station were removed soon afterward. It also resulted in the creation of a new avenue of tourism for the Keys.

To this day, through the City's website, the Conch Republic issues passports as souvenirs, with no legal authority. And several buildings in the city continue to fly Conch Republic flags. Their motto is, "We seceded where others failed."

Dennis Wardlow served as Mayor of Key West from 1981 to 1983, and again from 1991 to 1997. As of April 23, 2022, the 40th Anniversary of his "Premiership," he is still alive, at age 78 -- and, he says, still waiting for his foreign aid!

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April 23, 1982 was a Friday. A full slate of Major League Baseball games was played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at Yankee Stadium. Dan Petry outpitched Dave Rightetti.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Sixto Lezcano hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 12th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-6 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.)

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at the Astrodome. Joe Niekro outpitched Tom Seaver.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-2 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Angel Stadium in 2004.)

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 9-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Bob Welch pitched a 7-hit shutout, aided by a home run by Ron Cey.

* And the Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 12-4 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

The NFL was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Washington Bullets, 103-92 at the Capital Center in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 98-95 in overtime at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 91-70 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.") Moses Malone had 28 points and 23 rebounds.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Denver Nuggets, 126-110 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were well underway. In a Patrick Division Final, the New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. Butch Goring and Bob Bourne each scored 2 goals for the defending Champion Isles.

In an Adams Division Final, the Boston Bruins beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-5 in overtime at the Colisée de Québec. The winning goal was scored by Peter McNab, 10:45 into overtime.

And in a Norris Division Final, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

March 29, 1938: The Overseas Highway Opens

March 29, 1938: The Overseas Highway is opened to traffic, linking the Florida Keys to the Florida mainland. It runs 113 miles rom Key West to the mainland, 164 miles from downtown Miami.

The Florida East Coast Railway had made the City of Miami possible in 1896, and linking the Keys to the mainland by road or rail had been planned since 1917. Construction began in 1922, and continued past the end of the Florida Land Boom in 1926.

On January 25, 1928, the Highway opened from Key West to Key Largo, but there was still a ferry from Key Largo to the mainland, and that ferry took 4 hours. The Highway and the Ferry were bannered as extensions of U.S. Route 1.

In 1935, work began on a bridge to connect the Highway to the mainland. Then came the Labor Day Hurricane, which wrecked much of their work, not to mention many of the buildings in the Keys. Finally, the full Highway was opened for traffic on March 29, 1938.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Key West, the southernmost point in the continental U.S., helping to spark tourism to the area. His successor, Harry Truman, occasionally stayed at a house there that became known as the Little White House or the Summer White House. Writer Ernest Hemingway also owned a house there, known for an extended family of six-toed cats. And on April 23, 1982, in an event for which I have a separate entry, a dispute between the City of Key West and the U.S. Navy led to the City seceding from the Union, forming the Conch Republic, and declaring war on the United States, surrendering one minute later.

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March 29, 1938 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And the NBA hadn't been founded yet.

Two games were played in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Boston Garden, to complete a 3-game sweep and clinch a Finals berth. Gordie Drillon scored at 10:04 of overtime. And the New York Americans beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden. But the Hawks would win the series, and then beat the Leafs for the Cup.