Did You Know That...

On this day in 1865 William Marvin was appointed Provisional Governor of Florida by President Andrew Johnson and directed him to call a constitutional convention to write a new constitution for the state as a condition for being readmitted to the union. Although the Convention met in Tallahassee on October 28 and wrote a new governing document, the new constitution, which would have become effective on November 7. It was never activated because Congress assumed responsibility for establishing the rules for readmission and Johnson’s program was rejected.

In 1887 present day Titusville was incorporated as the City of Sand Point on this date.

In 1971 Rhonda Spence became the first Florida citizen to cast a ballot under the age of twenty-one when she voted in a city election in DeFuniak Springs. Twenty-year old Lennie H. Andrews, a sailor, had turned in an absentee ballot on the Friday preceding the election, but the ballot was not opened until after Miss Spence had cast her vote.