In the Sunshine State on this day in 1565 From the Diary of Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, Chaplain to Pedro Menendez’s expedition to Florida...

“Thursday, the 30th, we were given a time of head winds which made us throw out the anchor. We were with contrary winds for four days so that we could not navigate further. When these were lacking, calm came to us and stopped us. We were anchored all these days about a league and a half off shore. The Captiana was about a league ahead of us. We could not reach her because of the swift current. Our General [Menendez], seeing that neither the pilots nor the two French prisoners in our company knew how to reach port by the few land signs (because the coast is so low and level and lacking in signs), decided to put 50 arquebusiers on land. Some captains made many bonfires so that the Indians would come up to see what it was. They are so animal-like they did not care about it and no one came. When our people saw this, they went into the land; and four leagues from there they found a settlement of Indians by whom they were well received. The Indians gave them good food and embraced them and begged for what was brought. The soldiers were so generous that they gave them many things they carried and the Indians gave them two pieces of gold, although of low carat. It showed that they had some and were in the habit of giving it in exchange. The Frenchmen with us said they had been in communication with them for some time.” “The Indians wished the Christians to remain there that night so they might feast them, but they did not accept because of the need of taking the good news to the General.”

Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, Laudonniere and Fort Caroline.

In 1778 an American privateer raided the plantation of Dr. Andrew Turnbull during the American Revolution.

In 1961 a resolution establishing Edison Junior College was approved by the Lee County (Fort Myers) Board of Public Instruction. Edison Junior College is now Edison Community College and a new university, Florida Gulf Coast University, has also been established in the county (1996).