Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Richard Heyman, who served two terms as mayor of Key West (1983-85 and 1987-89),
was perhaps the first openly gay mayor of a sizable US town (and perhaps any US town,
period). In 2010 a documentary on his life,
The Newcomer,
was released. Heyman died of
AIDS-related pneumonia in 1994.
TIMELINE
10,000 BC
After crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia some 50,000 years earlier, humans ar-
rive in Florida, hunting mastodon and saber-toothed tigers, at the end of the last Ice
Age.
2000 BC
The earliest period in which archaeologists can find evidence of the creation of fired
pottery in the state of Florida.
500 BC
Pottery from this period is attributed to the Glades Culture, which stretches from the
Keys to present-day Martin county, north of Miami. The Glades Culture does not sur-
vive European contact.
AD 500
The Caloosahatchee Culture develops and thrives in the area that now includes the
western Everglades and 10,000 Islands. This complex society lasts till 1750.
1513
Ponce de León arrives in Florida, landing south of Cape Canaveral, believing it an is-
land. Since it's around Easter, he names it La Florida, 'The Flowery Land' or 'Feast
of Flowers.'
1702
In their ongoing struggle with Spain and France over New World colonies, the British
burn St Augustine to the ground; two years later they destroy 13 Spanish missions in
Florida.
