In the Sunshine State on this day in:


1857 Madison Starke Perry, fourth governor of Florida (October, 1857-October 7, 1861), took the oath of office today in Tallahassee.  Perry, elected as a Democrat, had represented Alachua County in the 1850 Florida Senate.  Perry’s administration was a busy one that saw the settlement of the boundary dispute with Georgia, the expansion of railroads in the state, and the re-establishment of the Florida militia.  Perry was governor when Florida seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861.   He died at his Alachua County plantation in March 1865.


1894 Cuban exile leader Jose Marti arrived in West Tampa to consult with Fernando Figueredo, one of the leaders of the Cuba Libre movement in Florida.


1931 The first classes began at the University of Tampa (then called Tampa Junior College) in the Hillsborough High School Building.  The University of Tampa later acquired the Tampa Hotel, built by Henry Plant, on a permanent lease from the City of Tampa for its campus.