Florida

state of the United States of America

40 dated entries naming Florida, drawn from 37 separate years between 1513 CE and 2024 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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16th century

1513April 2 – Juan Ponce de León and his expedition become the first Europeans known to visit Florida, landing somewhere on the east coast. One of the expedition, Juan Garrido, becomes the first African known to visit North America.source
1513March 27 – Juan Ponce de León becomes the first European definitely known to sight Florida, mistaking it for another island.source
1527June 17 – The Narváez expedition to conquer Florida sets sail from Spain.source
1539May 30 – Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay, Florida with 600 soldiers, with the goal of finding gold. He also introduces pigs into North America.source
1562May 1 – Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida, and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort on Parris Island, South Carolina.source
1564June 22 – French settlers abandon Charlesfort, the first French attempt at colonizing what is now the United States, and, with the help of a relief force commanded by René Goulaine, establish Fort Caroline in Florida, near what is now the city of Jacksonville.source
1565August 28 (feast day of St. Augustine) – The Spanish fleet of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés first sights land in Florida.source

18th century

1715July 24 – 1715 Treasure Fleet: A Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships, under General Don Juan Ubilla, leaves Havana, Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida (some centuries later, treasure salvage is found from these wrecks).source
1740June 26 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Siege of Fort Mose – A Spanish column of 300 regular troops, free Black militia and Indian auxiliaries storms Britain's strategically crucial position of Fort Mose, Florida.source

19th century

1817November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida.source
1818March 15 – First Seminole War: General Andrew Jackson and his American army invade Florida.source
1819February 22 – Adams–Onís Treaty: Agreement is reached for Spain to cede Florida (already under USA's domination) to the United States in exchange for renunciation of American claims on Texas arising from the Louisiana Purchase, American payment of $5 million to settle citizens' claims regarding Florida, and definition of international borders. Following ratification, the treaty takes effect in 1821.source
1832February 9 – The Florida Legislative Council grants a city charter for Jacksonville, Florida.source
1837February 4 – Seminoles attack Fort Foster in Florida.source
1845March 3 – Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state. On the same day, both houses of the U.S. Congress vote by a two-thirds majority, to override a presidential veto for the first time in history in order to pass legislation.source
1865October 25 – Florida drafts its constitution in Tallahassee.source
1898October 4 – The American steam boat Walkatomica, which has made regular runs for travelers along the Gulf Coast of Florida since 1885, is destroyed by fire while in port in Tallahassee.source

20th century

1919September 10–15 – The Florida Keys hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.source
1928September 16 – The Okeechobee hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.source
1930April 3 – Lawton Chiles, American politician, U.S. Senator (Florida), 41st Governor of Florida (d. 1998)source
1939June 4 – The St. Louis, a ship carrying 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida; only a few passengers have been allowed to enter Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during The Holocaust.source
1941August 6 – Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to have an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma, dying 37 years later, still comatose.source
1947September 17–21 – The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in southeastern Florida, and also in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana causes widespread damage, and kills 50 people.source
1951July 2 — The cremated remains of Mary Reeser are found at her home in Saint Petersburg, Florida. She is believed to have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. The FBI believes that the near total consumption of her body by the fire was caused by the Wick effect.source
1959August 7 – Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.source
1960August 29 – Hurricane Donna kills 50 people in Florida and New England, United States.source
1960December 2 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the use of $1.0 million for the relief and resettlement of Cuban refugees, who have been arriving in Florida at the rate of about 1,000 per week.source
1966September 27 – Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Member of the US House from Floridasource
1979May 25 – John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976.source
1980May 9 – In Florida, United States, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. A 1,400 foot m section of the bridge collapses and 35 people (most of them on a bus) are killed.source
1987June 17 – With the death of the last known individual, the dusky seaside sparrow, a subspecies native to the US state of Florida, becomes extinct.source
1992August 24–28 – Hurricane Andrew hits south Florida and Louisiana and dissipates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system; 23 are killed.source
1993Backstreet Boys were formed in Orlando, Florida.source
1994June 30 – Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of Florida causing $1.03 billion in damage and 32 deaths.source

21st century

2003August 25 – The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.source
2009March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer that will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.source
2018February 6 – SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.source
2020May 30 – The first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2 (initially scheduled for May 27 but delayed due to weather) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first crewed spacecraft to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.source
2024September 15 – Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in Florida. Routh is later captured and arrested, and a trial date has been set for 2025.source
2024September 26 – Hurricane Helene, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Maria in 2017, makes landfall in Florida as a category four hurricane. It has a death toll of 236 and leaves more than 685 missing.source