Jacksonville, Florida
Two small French ships with 140 Huguenots onboard led by Jean Ribault, landed in Florida on this date in 1562. Using information gained from Verrazzano’s voyages to North America, Jean Ribault reached the coast of Florida near St. Augustine. He sailed northward to the mouth Read More …
The Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), linking Miami and Naples through the , officially opened to travelers on this date in 1928. Construction on the east-west section of the road lasted for twelve years. Once it was completed, cars could travel directly between Naples and Miami Read More …
The Florida State Legislature designated orange juice as the official beverage of Florida on this date in 1967. Citrus has been an integral part of Florida’s history since the first Europeans arrived on its shores, and it remains an important component of Florida’s agricultural output Read More …
Inscription: Built in 1885 as a private residence, Old Brewster Hospital and Nursing Training School was the first medical facility to serve Jacksonville’s African-American community. Located in the LaVilla neighborhood, the hospital opened in 1901 through the efforts of the Women’s Home Missionary Society of Read More …
Inscription. On Saturday, August 27,1960, 40 Youth Council demonstrators from the Jacksonville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) advised by local civil rights leader Rutledge H. Pearson (1929-1967), sat in at the W.T. Grant Department Store, then located at Read More …
Citizens of Pensacola were still dealing with a large riot that was taking place in their city between electric streetcar employee union workers and strikebreakers from New York on this date in 1908. The strike began on April 6, shortly after workers at the Pensacola Read More …
Sigurd Olson “Sig” Haugdahl broke the land speed record at Daytona Beach on this date in 1922. Sig reached a speed of 180 miles per hour in a car he built named the “Wisconsin Special.” The car had an 836-cubic inch, 6-cylinder, airplane engine Read More …
“We are so excited to announce that Deesha Philyaw – Writer‘s “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” (West Virginia University Press) has been selected as the winner of the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction!” “I’m deeply honored and thankful to receive the PEN/Faulkner Award for Read More …
The first report from the State Board of Health was released on this date in 1891. The establishment of the State Board of Health was in response to the public and political will to create a statewide agency to coordinate quarantine and disinfection efforts after Read More …
At least 500 people were arrested as a result. The riot started when a student lay in the middle of A1A and the police were forced to intervene. By the 1960s, sun, beaches, and beer made south Florida THE destination for college students on Spring Read More …
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés received his “asiento,” or settlement orders, from the Spanish government to travel to La Florida on this date in 1565. Two years earlier, Don Juan Menéndez, Pedro Menéndez’s only son, was lost in a wreck near the Bahamas and Menéndez was Read More …
12,000 years ago (10,000 B.C.E.) – Native Americans occupy Florida 16th Century – Africans arrive with Spaniards 1513 – Juan Ponce de León lands on East Coast 1521 – Juan Ponce de León returns and is mortally wounded on Florida’s SW Coast 1528 – Pánfilo Read More …
Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play baseball in the Major Leagues, played his first Minor League exhibition game with the Montreal Royals against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Daytona Beach on this date in 1946. The following season, Robinson was called up to the Read More …
St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching and once again we will endure the controversy. No I’m not talking about whether green beer is overrated or not, there is no controversy there, it is overrated. Though I will admit, it has an interesting history. Today’s St. Read More …
The keel of the USS “Florida” (BB-30) was laid during a ceremony at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on this date in 1909. It was a Florida-class dreadnought battleship which was commissioned in May of 1910. The ship had a displacement of 21,825 tons, was 521 Read More …
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for Read More …
The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg first opened its doors on this date in 1982. The museum features the largest collection of Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí’s artwork in North America. The pieces were collected by A. Reynolds Morse and Eleanor R. Morse, who began Read More …
Florida is admitted into the Union as the twenty-seventh state on this date in 1845! After over three centuries of Spanish rule, twenty years of British control, and almost twenty-five years as a U.S. territory, Florida became a U.S. state. Floridians had voted in a Read More …