1906 – Long running Florida politician Robert Lee Fulton Sikes, known as the “He-Coon”, was born in Isabella Georgia on this date. Sikes attended the University of Florida as a graduate student receiving an MS in 1929. He later moved to Crestview and established a publishing business there. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1936 and served until 1940 when he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 1st district. Sikes would serve in that position until 1978, briefly resigning during WWII to serve in the military. He was best known for helping to develop Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County into one of the largest U.S. Air Force installations in the U.S.