Jacksonville, Florida
August 6th is National Root Beer Float Day. Some root beer history: Sassafras root beverages were made by indigenous peoples of the Americas for culinary and medicinal reasons before the arrival of Europeans in North America, and European culinary techniques have been applied to making Read More …
Inscription. Here at the foot of Market St. stood a bay tree which served as the starting point for the original survey of Jacksonville in June 1822. Market was the first street laid off and named. A total of 20 squares were platted, bounded by Read More …
Please join in the ground breaking of Centennial Garden at Willow Branch Park July 25 at 8am, celebrating the 100th year anniversary of the dedication of this historic park. This gift is made possible through the combined efforts of the AIDS Memorial Project and Plant Read More …
July 18, 1941 – A celebration was held for the grand opening of the Main Street Bridge in Jacksonville on this date. The steel vertical-lift bridge, which crosses the St. Johns River, was built at a cost of $1.5 million. Hundreds of people attended the festivities, Read More …
There is a new butterfly garden in Landon Park. Laura Byres designed the new space after Hurricane Irma ruined the rose garden that was previously there. Byres, along with the San Marco Garden Club, filled it with milkweed, pentas, black-eyed Susans and more flowers to Read More …
July 16, 1969 Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Ed Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft on this date. Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of the Apollo program, and its target was Read More …
July 10, 1875 – Author, educator, and African American Civil Rights leader, Mary McLeod Bethune, was born in Mayesville, South Carolina. The fifteenth child of former slaves, Bethune knew from a young age that education was the key to success. She attended Scotia Seminary School, Read More …
Garden Club Jax joins the people raising support for the Centennial Garden at Historic Willow Branch Park. Richard Ceriello, president of the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida, has been working to improve the park for several years. His organization has planted trees in the Read More …
Lewis Thornton Powell was hanged for his role in the conspiracy to kill President Abraham Lincoln on this date in 1865. Powell was not a native Floridian, but he had lived in Live Oak since 1859 with his family, joining the 2nd Florida Infantry in Read More …
July 4, 1776 – Thirteen British colonies located on the Atlantic coast of North America signed a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on this date. Florida was acquired by the British from the Spanish in 1763, and was subsequently divided into Read More …
July 2, 1961 – Author, journalist, and longtime Florida resident Ernest Hemingway died at his home in Idaho on this date. He is best known for his short stories and novels including, “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Old Man and the Sea,” and “To Have Read More …
“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” will be performed live or played before “The Star-Spangled Banner” prior to each NFL game during Week 1 and the league is considering putting names of victims of police brutality on helmet decals or jersey patches, a person familiar with Read More …
Wendell Scott raced into history on Dec. 1, 1963 at Speedway Park on the west-side of Jacksonville. That was the day he became the first black man to win a NASCAR race in the Grand National Series. Richard Petty was the favorite to win the Read More …
Fellsmere resident Zena M. Dreier became the first woman in Florida and the southern United States to cast her vote in a municipal non-school election on this date in 1915. Mrs. Dreier cast her vote five years before the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to Read More …
James Weldon Johnson, African American author, composer, lawyer, teacher, and civil rights activist, was born in Jacksonville on this date in 1871. In his early years in Jacksonville, Johnson was educated first by his mother, but later graduated from the Edwin M. Stanton School, where Read More …
The Collins Bridge, the first bridge connecting Miami Beach with Miami, opened on this date in 1913. It was built by early south Florida land developer, John S. Collins, and partially financed by Carl G. Fisher. At the time of completion it was the longest Read More …
Mayor Lenny Curry held a press conference on the steps of City Hall this morning, hours after city workers removed a Confederate monument from Hemming Park. “Yesterday there was Confederate monument in this park. It’s gone. And the others in this city will be removed Read More …
City work crews advanced on Hemming Park before sunrise. They caught the last Confederate within the park by surprise. The Confederate Monument that has stood since 1898, a sentinel to a heritage of hate and racism has fallen. The monument was donated to the State Read More …