In the Sunshine State on this day in 1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Florida’s Pulitzer Prize winning author, was born on this date in Washington, D.C. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for her best-selling novel, The Yearling. In 1946, it was made into a movie and has subsequently been remade into a television special. Rawlings lived in Cross Creek, FL, where she wrote six novels, a volume of short stories, and a collection of essays. Her work dealt with the vicissitudes faced by the hardy settler families on Florida’s frontier and the natural beauty of her adopted state.She died on December 14, 1953.

In 1942 Four German saboteurs who landed at Ponte Vedra Beach on June 17, 1942 were executed by the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C.The four, along with a second group of four who landed on Long Island, were on a mission to sabotage defense plants, utility systems, and other installations

In 1967 Voters in Duval County and Jacksonville approved the consolidation of both units of government by a 2-1 margin.Jacksonville thus became the largest city in Florida, according to acreage.

In 1989 STS 28 was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral.