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Tampa, Florida

"Cigar City"
Built on cigars, phosphate, and Cuban culture — Tampa transformed from a mosquito-infested Gulf Coast outpost into a booming Sun Belt metropolis where Latin heritage meets Southern charm.
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Founded 1849 | Population 384,959 | Peak 384,959 (2020) | County Hillsborough County

Top 10 Most Important Events for Tampa, Florida

1
1886Ybor City Cigar Industry: Vicente Martinez-Ybor moved his cigar factories to Tampa, creating Ybor City — a thriving neighborhood of Cuban, Spanish, and Italian immigrants that made Tampa the cigar capital of the world.
2
1898Spanish-American War Staging Ground: Tampa served as the primary port of embarkation for American forces heading to Cuba. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders assembled at the Tampa Bay Hotel before shipping out.
3
2021Champa Bay Championship Year: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV with Tom Brady, and the Lightning won the Stanley Cup — making Tampa the first city to hold both championships simultaneously since 2002.
4
1921Tampa Bay Hurricane: A major hurricane struck Tampa Bay directly, causing devastating storm surge and killing over 20 people. It remains the last major hurricane to make a direct hit on Tampa Bay.
5
1849Tampa Founded as Military Outpost: Tampa grew from Fort Brooke, a military outpost established during the Seminole Wars. The small settlement was incorporated in 1849 as the jumping-off point for cattle ranching in central Florida.
6
1891Tampa Bay Hotel Opens: Henry Plant built the extravagant Tampa Bay Hotel, a Moorish Revival palace that put Tampa on the tourist map and later served as Teddy Roosevelt's headquarters during the Spanish-American War.
7
1960Civil Rights Sit-Ins: Students staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in downtown Tampa, joining the broader movement for equality across the South.
8
1950Phosphate Industry Boom: Tampa's proximity to Florida's phosphate deposits made it a major center for fertilizer production and export, driving economic growth.
9
2004Hurricane Season Batters Tampa: Three hurricanes impacted the Tampa Bay area in a single season, causing billions in damage and reinforcing the city's vulnerability to tropical storms.
10
2012Republican National Convention: Tampa hosted the Republican National Convention that nominated Mitt Romney, showcasing the city as a major Sun Belt metropolis.
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Population Over Time

0 96,240 192,480 288,719 384,959 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Latest News in Tampa

News articles will appear here as they're published.

Complete Historical Timeline

1824 Government
Fort Brooke established during Seminole Wars
1849 Government
Tampa incorporated
1886 Industry
Ybor City cigar industry founded
1891 Architecture
Tampa Bay Hotel opens
1898 Government
Spanish-American War troops ship from Tampa
1921 Disaster
Major hurricane strikes Tampa Bay
1950 Industry
Phosphate industry booms
1960 Civil Rights
Civil rights sit-ins downtown
1976 Sports
Buccaneers join the NFL
2003 Sports
Buccaneers win Super Bowl XXXVII
2012 Politics
Republican National Convention hosted
2021 Sports
Bucs and Lightning win championships

Did You Know?

1
Ybor City's cigar factories once employed over 10,000 workers who hand-rolled 700 million cigars per year — and the factories hired professional readers to read newspapers and novels aloud to workers all day.
2
Tampa is one of only a handful of major U.S. cities that has never been hit by a major hurricane since 1921 — but scientists warn it's one of the most vulnerable cities in America to storm surge.
3
Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival is the third-largest parade in America, where hundreds of thousands of people watch a pirate ship 'invade' the city every January.
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