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

”As it began to dawn, the pilot of our Chalupa raised anchor to go over the bar because the sea was increasing with strength. Later, when it was day, and they could see, they found at their backs by the stern of one vessel, two French vessels that had come that night to search it out. If the French had attacked at once when they arrived, it would have been a great capture, because our people were not supplied with arms and were carrying provisions.”

“As our people recognized by daylight that the vessels were French, they put up a prayer to our Lady of Consolation who was in Utrera, asking of her the help of a little wind, because already the French came upon them. It appeared that She herself came to the vessel; and, with the little wind that She stirred, the vessel entered the bar in such a manner that the vessel just finished entering as the French arrived. As there is a bank and the bar is shallow and their vessels great, they could not enter. Our people and provisions entered in safety together with those two vessels. As the day opened, they discovered four other vessels of the same enemies, although somewhat further off, and these were the same that we found in their port the night we arrived upon them. They came supplied with people and artillery and came to attack our galleon and the other vessel, along and unprotected. For this Our Lord provided two remedies. The first was that the same night, after we put in the provisions and the people without being sensed by the enemies, the galleon and the companion ship that was with her set sail, one returning to Spain and the other going to Havana to bring help, neither being captured.”

In 1926 Today the City of Miami prepared for a hurricane with winds of more than 135 mph. For more than two weeks, south Florida residents worried about when and where the storm would hit. More than 18,000 homes were destroyed, 5,000 injured, and more than 850 killed when the hurricane finally came ashore on the 17th.

In 1928 Reubin O’Donovan Askew, Florida’s 37th governor, was born today in Muskogee, Oklahoma. A graduate of both Florida State University and the University of Florida Law School, Askew began his political career as a member of the Florida House of Representatives (1958) and a member of the Florida Senate (1962). Askew was President pro tempore of the Senate in 1969-1970.

Askew was elected governor in 1970. Among the many “firsts” in his administration was the appointment of the African-American member of the Florida Supreme Court, the first female member of the Cabinet, and the first African-American member of the Cabinet. Governor Askew also headed a movement to put the “Sunshine Amendment” on the election ballot through a statewide petition campaign.