Discover Florida Resources

FLORIDA'S FIRST PEOPLES, 12,000 BC - 1500 AD

The first people move into Florida. Referred to today as PaleoIndians, they moved into the peninsula in search of new food sources. These sources included mastodons, giant armadillos and horses. At that time, the end of the last ice Age, Florida was twice the size it is today.

The PaleoIndian culture evolved into the Archaic culture. They established the first permanent settlements, primarily on the coast, and were dependent upon shellfish and plant gathering.

The Woodland culture emerges. It included year-round settlements, reliance on hunting deer and birds, and the first farmers.

Emergence of the powerful Mississippian culture, ruled by religious-political leaders called chiefdoms. Involved intensive agriculture (especially corn), large earthen mounds, and continent-wide trade connections.

EARLY CONTACT PERIOD, 1500 - 1565

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing in the employ of Spain en route to India, accidentally lands in North America. Results in wide-spread European exploration and colonization of the "New World."

There were three large Native American cultures in Florida: the Timucua in Northeast and Central Florida, the Apalachee in the Big Bend area, and the Calusa in South Florida.

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his expedition were the first documented Europeans to land on the Florida peninsula. He landed on the East Coast, near present-day St. Augustine. Ponce de León named the peninsula "Florida" as the season was "Pascua Florida" (Flowery Easter). He then sailed to South Florida, where he was wounded in a fight with the members of the Calusa.

After serving time as governor of Puerto Rico, Ponce de León returns to Florida in search of gold. Contracted by the Spanish crown to colonize and Christianize the native peoples, Ponce de León was killed in South Florida.

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón founded the ill-fated colony of San Miguel de Gualdape on present-day Georgia's east coast.

Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Narváez led a second expedition into Florida. Numbering over 600, the expedition was a notorious failure. Alienating Florida's native cultures, the expedition was repeatedly attacked. By 1528, Narváez was dead, and the expedition was grounded due to hurricanes. Four survivors eventually walked to Mexico City, arriving in 1536. Despite the failure, their fantastical tales of mythical cities of gold inspired future expeditions to North America.

Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto, having gained experience invading the Incas in Peru, landed in Florida with an 800-man expedition. After wintering in present-day Tallahassee, the expedition traveled throughout the Southeast (covering eleven present-day states), and crossed the Mississippi River twice. After De Soto was killed in 1542, the expedition, now only 300 strong, left for Cuba.

European diseases decimate Florida's native peoples. Within a century 90% had died.

Tristán de Luna y Arellano, with 1500 participants, attempted Florida's first settlement, Puerto de Santa Maria (today's Pensacola Naval Air Station.) Within a year, the remaining colonists left to return to Cuba.

The French, under Jean Ribault, first explore Florida.

French settlers establish Fort Caroline.

FIRST SPANISH PERIOD, 1565 - 1763

Spain established St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in North America, located within Timucua territory. In the process, the Spanish expelled the French.

The Jesuits established Spanish missions in the Southeast.

The first African slaves were brought to St. Augustine.

Sir Francis Drake, British seafarer, sacked and burned St. Augustine.

The Franciscans take over the Spanish missions, eventually establishing over 100 missions in Florida and Georgia.

Missions established in Apalachee territory.

Timucua peoples rebel against Spanish authority; Mission San Luis established in what is today Tallahassee.

Castillo de San Marcos built by Spanish in St. Augustine, using native and slave labor.

Pensacola established by the Spanish.

The English destroy the Spanish missions.

Free black settlement, Fort Mose, established.

English general, James Oglethorpe, invades St. Augustine.

BRITISH PERIOD, 1763 - 1783

The end of the French and Indian (Seven Years War) results in the transfer of Florida from Spain to England. The colony was divided into East and West Florida. British colonist expanded Florida agriculture, especially cotton, rice, and indigo. St. Augustine remains the capital of East Florida, with Pensacola the capital of West Florida. James Grant appointed Governor of British Florida.

By this time, Native peoples from Georgia and Alabama, most members of the Creek peoples, were moving into Florida. Eventually called the Seminoles from the Spanish word cimarron, meaning "outsiders" or "runaways."

Patrick Tonyn replaced an ill Grant as governor.

The American Revolution begins. Florida did not join its fellow thirteen English colonies in the revolution and remained loyal to England. Its previously sparse population swelled overnight as Tories escaped into loyalist Florida, mostly settling in St. Augustine.

Florida's first newspaper, the Tory-run East-Florida Gazette, starts publishing. Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution. In return for its assistance to the colonies, the treaty allowed Spain to reoccupy Florida. Most of the English settlers in Florida left for England and the Bahamas.

SECOND SPANISH PERIOD, 1783 - 1821

The reassumption of Spanish control of Florida.

Patriot’s War, when several Americans attempted to conquer Florida.

Andrew Jackson invades Florida in pursuit of Seminole Indians. Start of the First Seminole War.

From 1817-1818, U.S. settlers, Spanish citizens, British agents and Creek Natives clashed in West Florida. Andrew Jackson, regardless of the international border, burned native villages, hanged two British subjects, and captured St. Marks and Pensacola.

Transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States, finalized by the Adams–Onís treaty.

TERRITORIAL FLORIDA, 1821-1845

Florida becomes a US Territory, with Andrew Jackson as its first governor. Hand-colored Spanish land grant maps were among the documents used to establish ownership of land in Florida. Florida's first American newspapers begin: Florida Gazette in St. Augustine, and the Floridian in Pensacola.

Florida government established on 20 March by Congressional act. First Act of the state legislature. William Duval elected Florida's first non-military governor; serves until 1834.

Tallahassee established as Florida capital; State legislature meets.

First Florida census: population 34,730 (white 18,395, nonwhite 16,335).

John Henry Eaton serves as Florida's second territorial governor.

Beginning of the Second Seminole War.

Richard Keith Call elected the third territorial governor of Florida, serves again 1841-1844.

Fifty-six commissioners elected from Florida's 20 counties gathered at St. Joseph to draft a constitution in anticipation of statehood.

Second Seminole War ended by U.S. Government decision, without treaty or capitulation.

EARLY STATEHOOD AND ANTE-BELLUM FLORIDA, 1845-1860

The Act establishing statehood for Iowa and Florida was approved on March 3, 1845 by the second session of the 28th Congress. Continued expansion of the plantation system, with its heavy dependence upon enslaved African Americans.

First state seal adopted.

Legislature passes bill to create two colleges, the West Florida Seminary (later became Florida State University) and the East Florida Seminary (later the University of Florida).

Rising political and cultural tensions stemming from the national slavery debate.

Third Seminole War.

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION, 1861-1876

On January 10, the Secession Convention voted 62-7 to adopt an Ordinance of Secession and withdraw Florida from the United States. On April 12, the Civil War begins. In October, Confederate forces attack Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island in Pensacola.

Union forces occupy Fernandina, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine.

The Union deploys units of black troops for the first time during operations along the Georgia/Florida coast.

Confederates defeat Union forces at Olustee. Florida Times-Union begins publishing in Jacksonville.

Home Guards and Cadets from West Florida Seminary (now Florida State University) saved Tallahassee from capture at the Battle of Natural Bridge. The Civil War ended with Tallahassee the only Confederate state capital east of Mississippi to escape capture during the war. Governor John Milton committed suicide and Florida fell under Federal control. Slavery ended. Emancipation Day is celebrated on May 12th.

Brown Theological Institute (later Edward Waters College) was founded to educate newly freed slaves.

New federally-mandated state constitution. Attempt to impeach reconstruction governor Harrison Reed; a second attempt in 1872. Board of Commissioners of State Institutions created. Second state seal adopted.

Florida played a decisive role in the controversial presidential election between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes. Florida was one of three states with disputed elector votes. After much political maneuvering, which led in large part to the end of Federal Reconstruction, Hayes was elected president.

End of Reconstruction.

GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA IN FLORIDA, 1877-1913

Florida State Hospital established in Chattahoochee; State Prison moved to Raiford.

Hullam Jones constructs Florida's first glass-bottom boat, at Silver Springs. 

Florida Memorial University was founded in 1879 as the Florida Baptist Institute in Live Oak, Florida.

St. Petersburg Times debuts as a weekly.

New state constitution; replaced the 1868 constitution. Served as framework for government until 1968.

The first Confederate pensions in Florida were authorized and granted to veterans the sum of $5.00 per month.

Rollins College was founded.

Florida A&M University begins as State Normal College for Colored Students.

Railroad baron Henry Flagler completes the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine.

State Board of Health created, in response to the recent yellow fever outbreak.

Developer Henry Plant opens the Tampa Bay Hotel (after 1933, the University of Tampa).

The Spanish-American War saw embarkation camps at Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville. Thousands of soldiers and other who entered the state during the war returned afterwards as permanent residents.

James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, faculty members at the Florida Normal and Industrial Institute (later Florida Memorial University), wrote the words and music to what has become known as the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”

Everglades drainage begins, undertaken to create more farmland.

Start of construction of Henry Flagler's railroad to Key West; opens in 1912.

Mary McLeod Bethune opened her school in Daytona Beach.

The Buckman Act consolidated and reorganized the seven state supported institutions of higher learning into three institutions, segregated by gender and race. The seven (the University of Florida at Lake City, the Florida State College at Tallahassee, the White Normal School at De Funiak Springs, the East Florida Seminary at Gainesville, the South Florida College at Bartow, the Florida Agricultural Institute in Osceola County, and the Negro Normal School at Tallahassee) became the University of Florida for men, the Florida State College for Women, and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes.

Hundreds of workers on the Florida East Coast Railway's Overseas Extension were lost when a hurricane swept the Keys and battered Miami on October 18th.

Miami Herald newspaper begins publishing.

FLORIDA DURING WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918

Zena B. Dreier became the first women in Florida (and the South) to vote in a local election, which was cast on 19 June in Fellsmere.

Sydney Catts successfully campaigns for governor on the Prohibition ticket. Out-going governor Park Trammell was elected to the U.S. Senate.

From 1917-1918, Florida was the scene of training for World War I fighting men, particularly aviators, as weather permitted year-round activity.

The World War I service cards provide the name; age; serial number; race; place of birth; and residence; for service men and women who were either from Florida or who entered service in Florida.

1918 Florida votes to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited the purchase and consumption of alcohol.

BOOM AND BUST, 1920-1940

Beginning of Florida land boom.

WDAE in Tampa became Florida’s first radio station.

Leasing of state convicts to timber companies and other interests was abolished as a result of the death of a prisoner in a private camp.

Racial violence leads to the destruction of the town of Rosewood, a predominantly African American community.

Nathan Mayo elected Commissioner of Agriculture; becomes Florida's longest serving public servant (37 years - died in office in 1960).

State Livestock Board created; begins mandatory cattle dipping for ticks.

Silver Springs opens for business.

State Library Board created.

Hurricane strikes Florida. Thrusts Florida into an economic depression. The University of Miami enrolled its first class.

State Board of Public Welfare created in response to depression.

Florida Forestry Service created to control fires and promote timber growth.

Another hurricane struck South Florida. Effectively ends the land boom.

Tamiami Trail opens in South Florida.

Mediterranean Citrus fruit fly discovered; results in massive loss of citrus crops.

Bok Tower opens in Lake Wales; begins golden age of roadside attractions.

Population 1,468,211 (white 1,035,390, nonwhite 432,821) .

Assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt by Joseph Zangara in Miami.

Dave Sholtz inaugurated as governor. He involves Florida with the Federal New Deal program, with CCC, PWA, and CWA projects in the state

Board of State Conservation created.

Start of construction of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal.

Florida Park Service created.

The Labor Day Hurricane makes landfall in the middle Florida Keys.

Claude Neal lynched in Marianna; creates nation-wide outcry.

WPA and the NYA begins work in the state.

Florida Citrus Commission created.

"Old Folks at Home" named State Song.

Two U.S. Senators, Duncan Fletcher and Park Trammell, pass away. They are replaced through special elections by Claude Pepper and Charles Andrews, respectively.

Cypress Gardens opens in Winter Haven.

On June 1, Amelia Earhart took off from Miami on the first over water leg of a round-the-world flight. She and her navigator disappeared over the Pacific on July 2.

Fred Cone inaugurated as governor.

State Welfare Board created.

The State legislature ended the poll tax.

Zora Neale Hurston began working for the Florida division of the Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the time, Hurston had already published Jonah's Gourd Vine and Mules and Men.

Marineland opens as a tourist attraction and movie studio.

State Highway Patrol began.

Banana River Naval Air Station opened; later would become Cape Canaveral Space Center.

FLORIDA IN WORLD WAR II, 1941-1945

Spessard Holland inaugurated as governor; later elected U.S. Senator.

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and on December 8 the United States entered the Second World War; Florida mobilizes. Florida is an important location for the training of American soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

Four German agents land on Ponte Vedra Beach, south of Jacksonville. Fishermen discover the agents, who were then captured by the FBI.

The Wainwright shipyard in Panama City builds over 100 Liberty Ships for the U.S. war effort.

World War II ends; returning GI's fuel Florida's modern boom period.

FLORIDA IN THE MODERN ERA, 1946-PRESENT

President Harry S. Truman begins visiting Key West for rest and relaxation. The house he stayed in becomes known as the "Little White House" and is used by subsequent presidents as well.

Everglades National Park established.

Weeki Wachee Springs amusement park opened.

Chipola College in Marianna opened.

Florida State College for Women goes co-ed as Florida State University.

WTVJ-TV (NBC), Florida's first television station, begins broadcasting. WJXT-TV (CBS) in Jacksonville was the second station, also began in this year.

Stephen Foster Memorial opened.

The Inter-American Center Authority (Interama) created.

The first Florida Folk Festival presented in White Springs

Governor Dan McCarty died in office; replaced by Senate president Charley Johns.

Leroy Collins elected governor.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v. Board of Education case that school segregation was unconstitutional. Many in the State of Florida resisted the decision, prolonging desegregation until well into the early seventies. The Tallahassee bus boycott began to desegregate that city’s public transportation. One of the first public protests in what became known as the Civil Rights movement, eventually comprising numerous demonstrations and protests throughout the state to end racial segregation in places such as stores, schools, theaters, and public beaches.

Legislature passes legislation for a state turnpike.

Florida's first non-commercial television station, WPBT-TV in Miami, begins.

University of South Florida founded.

1956-1964 The Johns Committee - named for Senator Charley Johns; investigated Communists and homosexuality in the state and university system.

Legislature passes an interposition (HCR 174) to reject Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court; rejected by Governor Leroy Collins.

Seminole tribe of Florida formed as a political entity.

Cuban Revolution launches wave of Cuban immigration to Florida.

Civil War Centennial Commission created.

On May 5, the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard, was launched into space from Cape Canaveral Space Center (later called Cape Kennedy).

Cape Canaveral renamed Cape Kennedy by President Lyndon Johnson, who also established the Kennedy Space Center at the site, located in Brevard County. The name was changed back in 1973.

Cuban Missile Crisis.

St. Augustine race riot.

Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and the University of West Florida in Pensacola began operations.

400^th anniversary of St. Augustine celebrated.

Governor Haydon Burns announces Walt Disney is opening a theme park in Orlando.

The nine-member Board of Regents took control of Florida’s colleges and universities from the Board of Control.

Florida International University in Miami begins operations.

Claude Kirk elected Florida's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

Complete revision of the state constitution, which consolidated the numerous boards and commissions into more streamlined Departments and Divisions, such as Departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Regulation, Education, State, Agriculture, Commerce, and Transportation.

Florida is the scene of the nation's first statewide teachers' strike.

Florida Technological University opens near Orlando (later renamed University of Central Florida).

On July 16, Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins lifted off at Cape Kennedy on the journey to the moon. Four days later Armstrong advised the Earth: "The Eagle has landed."

Roxcy Bolton successfully challenged the practice that many restaurants had of keeping a separate "men only" section.

University of North Florida opens.

Florida State Archives created.

Reuben Askew elected governor.

Population 6,789,443 (white 5,719,343, nonwhite 1,070,100).

Walt Disney World opens in Orlando; transforms Florida's economy and surrounding Central Florida.

Both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions are held in Miami.

The 1972 Miami Dolphins play a perfect season, winning every game they played that year, including the Super Bowl.

Askew becomes first governor to be successively re-elected.

Florida Folklife Program started.

Bob Graham elected governor; in 1986 he was elected U.S. Senator.

Old Capitol saved from destruction; opens as museum in 1982.

Florida's first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing them to resume.

Mariel boat lift; increase in Cuban immigration to Florida.

The first space shuttle launches began at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Florida was one of fifteen states to fail to ratify of the ERA Constitutional Amendment.

Florida News Service begins in Tallahassee.

Walt Disney World opened its second attraction in Orlando, EPCOT.

New state seal created to correct inaccuracies dating back to 1868.

TV show Miami Vice became a cultural phenomenon.

Space shuttle Challenger exploded over Cape Canaveral shortly after take-off. Halted the NASA shuttle program for several years.

State archaeologist Calvin Jones discovered Hernando De Soto’s winter encampment near the Florida capital.

The state lottery began operations, selling its first tickets in January.

Governor Lawton Chiles created the Dept. of Elder Affairs.

Miami awarded Florida’s first Major League Baseball team, the Florida Marlins.

Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida on 24 August, with the town of Homestead suffering the worst damages. At the time, it was the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

Dept. of Environmental Protection created, uniting DNR and DER.

Former State Attorney for Dade County Janet Reno was appointed the first female U.S. Attorney General by President Bill Clinton.

Former U.S. Senator and governor Lawton Chiles died in office; replaced by Buddy McKay

Son of U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Jeb Bush, elected governor.

Voters passed constitutional amendment to shrink the Executive Cabinet to four elected officers: Governor, Agricultural Commissioner, Attorney General, and Chief Financial Officer (a new position that combined the State Treasurer and State Comptroller).

Presidential election crisis; focus settles upon Florida's courts and voting ballots.

Jeb Bush becomes first Republican governor to be re-elected.

Department of Financial Services created out of the Department of Insurance, Treasury and State Fire Marshal and the Department of Banking and Finance.

Charlie Crist inaugurated as 44th governor.

Rick Scott inaugurated as 45th governor.