The jokes are nonplus a piddling honest-to-goodness . Florida man this . Florida cleaning lady that . We get it . This state is a little unearthly . But when you ’re deal with alligator invading swim pools or 900 lb pythons , you ’re lead to attract a strange crowd .
However , beyond our outlandishness , there ’s a lot the humans can thank Florida for . In his new book , Oh , Florida , How America ’s Weirdest State Influences the eternal sleep of the Country , Craig Pittman , womb-to-tomb Floridian and chronicler of the bizarre , educates us on a lot of contributions we ’ve made to human chronicle . For example , Amazon Prime . Or the Endangered Species Act . Or , most importantly for a quite a little of Floridians , public defender . So go onward and thank the Sunshine State for those , and these 15 other things the world would not have if it were n’t for Florida .
The environmental movement
John Muir is for the most part credited with being the father of the modern environmental movement . But had he not gotten bite by a nasty mosquito on a slip to Florida , it might never have happened . Muir was here trekking from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key when he was bitten by a mosquito and – as many did in 1867 Florida – contracted malaria . While recuperate and work at a pencil factory , he came to a not bad realization . “ Man claim that Earth was made for him , and I was going to say that venomous beats , spiny plants , and deadly diseases … prove the whole globe was not made for him . ” So , essentially , the unpleasantness that was Florida made him realize there are places that should be left alone , and Muir set out to protect them . His workplace ultimately convinced Teddy Roosevelt to move towards establish our National Parks .
Streaking
We all know that UF ’s smashing contribution to society is a eminent - sugar potable that makes everyone but athletes obese and not hungover anymore . FSU ’s greatest contribution ? Running naked across campus , of course of study . The first incidence of baring all to protest … something … find at Florida State ’s Landis Green in 1973 , and when UPI picked up the pictures , the fad distribute quickly throughout the nation .
Amazon Prime
Anyone who grew up in South Dade jazz Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a production of Miami Palmetto Senior High School ( Panther Pride ! ) . But the computers that allow him to make his bodied billions are thanks to a cat advert John Atanasoff . Atanasoff grew up as the boy of an railroad engineer at a Polk County phosphate mine , and the slide convention blew his mind so much he decided to get a degree in electrical technology from UF in 1926 . Flash forward 15 years , and he ’s got a line of work as a professor at University of Iowa , and invents the first working computer in 1941 .
Cameras in the courtroom
If you ’re quondam enough to remember expend an entire summer watching the OJ test , you’re able to thank Florida . The trial of some corrupt Miami Beach cops in 1977 was televise , and after the police were convicted , their attorney blamed the sentence on … television system . He invoke all the style to the U.S. Supreme Court , which in 1981 rule that camera in res publica courts were absolutely permissible – in the stake of the populace having a slap-up knowledge of how the jurist system of rules work .
The Endangered Species Act
Nathaniel Reed grow up on Jupiter Island , and his love life of its nature lead him to lead the burster to block a jetport that was planned for the Big Cypress preserve . He went on to push for greater protective cover for plant and brute that were nigh extinct , meet with his cohorts in a South Florida Chinese restaurant . finally , their plans became the Endangered Species Act of 1973 , and among the first specie protect were the Florida cougar , manatees , and alligator .
Uncovering Watergate
Since those Woodward and Bernstein guys got a whole film made about them , citizenry be given to forget the contribution of Martin Dardis . Much like every scandal ever , Watergate had a large - fourth dimension Florida connexion : the burglar who break down in were , of course , from Miami . Dardis , a state lawyer ’s investigator , traced money from the burglars back to Richard Nixon ’s re - election cause . Assuming they were n’t just badly yield staffer who had to supplement their income with time out - In , he in the end unveil much of the stuff thoseWashington Postreporters later founder .
Spring break!
No immense shock that the concept of a mid - semester bacchanal of booze and bathing wooing started here . Around Christmas of 1935 , the Colgate University swimming squad came to Ft . Lauderdale for a meet . When they get under one’s skin back , they could n’t shut up about the beautiful beach and tender weather , and planned a replication trip for natural spring . This practice scatter to other school , and eventually the parties spread to other parts of Florida . Now our state is synonymous with spring breakage , even if most of our beach cities do n’t even desire it .
Public access to government
J. Emory “ Red ” Cross was a Florida State Department senator in the 1960s who was alarm by the turn of secret backroom meeting taking billet in Tallahassee . He set out with UF news media professor Buddy Davis to create a jurisprudence that necessitate all governance meetings and record to be made public . It ultimately became known as the Sunshine Law and has become the model for open - government Torah nationally . It ’s also why everyone in the country gets to read our craziest constabulary report .
NASCAR
In 1930 , mechanic Bill France take a happy chance from his drive from Washington , DC to Miami in Daytona Beach , and never left . He open a machine repair workshop and expend his unembellished time modify car to make them faster . By the mid-1930s , gadget driver were setting land hurrying records on the hard - packed sand of Daytona , and Bill – who was competing in these race on the beach – was tapped to begin promote them as spectator events . After turning some tidy winnings , he lead off promoting races in the Carolinas . In 1947 he hold a meeting at the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel , where the origination for a internal serial of race was mapped out . It would be cognize as the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing . Or , for short , NASCAR .
Public defenders
You know that part of the Miranda rights where they say “ if you’re able to not afford an attorney , one will be appointed to you ? ” Thanks , Florida ! Or more specifically , thanks Clarence Earl Gideon ! A vagabond and life history petty crook , Gideon , upon his stay in Panama City for robbing a jukebox , asked the jurist to appoint him an attorney . But at the time only people facing capital offenses could obtain court of law - appointed lawyer , and Gideon was convicted . As luck would have it , his cellmate at Raiford prison house was a corrupt x - judge named Joseph Peel , who help Gideon craft his appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court . The court ruled that anyone in the U.S. charged with a felony had a right field to an lawyer , set a huge sound precedent and finally leading to Gideon ’s acquittal .
Reality TV
Until Broward County Sheriff Nick Navarro – one of the most shameless ego - promoters in law enforcement story – invite tv camera crews to depend upon along with his deputies in the eighties , the persuasion of stick with around even the great unwashed with TV cameras and calling it entertainment seemed ridiculous . But the show that leave –COPS– became an international whiz , and paved the way for such cultural advancements asI Did n’t Know I Was significant . Again , you ’re welcome .
Classifying (and avoiding) hurricanes
Grady Norton was an Alabama farmer on vacation in West Palm Beach in 1928 , where he found himself at a funeral for some the great unwashed who ’d die in the smashing hurricane that twelvemonth . Some attendees were lamenting the fact that if there ’d been a way to warn people about the oncoming storm , perhaps this funeral never would have happened . He was so motivated by this conception he devoted his life to predicting hurricanes , and ultimately headed the National Hurricane Center for 20 years , revolutionizing the drill of call storm , and lower the median hurricane death toll from 500 when he accept over , to five when he left . One of the men who follow him – Robert Simpson – work with Dade County building engine driver Herbert Saffir to germinate their namesake exfoliation , blackleg hurricanes from class 1 to Category 5 .
Lilly Pulitzer dresses
What would the Hamptons be without the colorful patterned dresses you ’ve amount to sleep together and hump ? But did you know those patterns are actually found on orange juice stains from a derange Palm Beach woman of the house ? It ’s true . After Lilly married a wealthy newspaper publishing company , she had a mental crack-up . Instead of dictate Xanax like every doc in PBC does now , her doctor advised her to find something to keep her occupied . So she opened an Orange River juice stand , but continue splatter on her prissy white clothes . To conceal the stains , she began to design colorful , patterned dress that could disguise a small spilled OJ , and they quickly became all the rage of Palm Beach lodge women .
Air conditioning
No sane person who is n’t a lately fire spy inhabit in Florida without A / carbon , right-hand ? Or Dubai . Or Arizona . Or pretty much anywhere else that ’s oppressively red-hot and owes its entire being to artificially cool down melodic line . Well , it was produce here in Florida by Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola , who developed the precursor to advanced A / ampere-second in 1851 as a direction to give some relief to his patients with lily-livered fever and malaria .
Cool Hand Luke
Is it any surprisal that the phrase “ What we ’ve got here is bankruptcy to communicate ” is somehow based on Florida ? Of course not . But the moving-picture show that made Paul Newman famous for thrust himself with eggs was found on a script by Donn Pearce about his time at Tavares Road state prison .
USA Today
The paper that introduced the Earth to the infographic actually start in Cocoa Beach asCocoa Todayin 1966 . Founder Al Neuharth , formerly of theMiami Herald , wanted to make a newspaper that was “ windy in content and coming into court ” for busy NASA proletarian in the area . He put Saturn rings around the “ o ” in Today , and the forerunner for America ’s most popular newspaper was born . It later on becameFlorida Today , and in 1982 Neuharth unveiledUSA Today . The short articles and numerous list and infographics set the spirit for how news would be consumed . Look no further than the internet for proof of that .
Supermarket tabloids
Of course , USA Todaywasn’t the worst newspaper to make out out of Florida . That note belong to to the infamousNational Enquirer , and its disgraceful - and - white stepchild theWeekly World News , both establish out of Lantana . Though tabloids were nothing newfangled , seeing them every time you waited for an old gentlewoman to write a substantiation for Caterpillar food was . Founder Generoso Pope , Jr. realize he had a captive audience on market store course , and made deals with the supermarkets to place his tab at optic level at the check pedestal . To this day we ’re recognise with the late on B - lean renown sexcapade every sentence we go for a Pub Sub .
Breastaurants
Bad nutrient and large tit seems like a pretty lucid recipe for a successful eating place today . But until a group of Clearwater businessman thought of putting young fair sex in bantam orange shorts and armored combat vehicle teetotum to make everyone forget how defective their nutrient was , it had n’t been done . More than four hundred eatery in 27 countries later , Hooters has launched an total music genre of restaurants – the only one in America today that is systematically profitable . You ’re welcome , America . You ’re freak out welcome .
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