In the Sunshine State on this day in:

1838 The currency issued by Florida banks was reputed to be the worst in the United States.  Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury urged state banks to improve their condition and to strengthen their currency issues.

1926 The University of Miami football team in its first-ever game today defeated the Rollins College freshman team by a score of 7-0.  Approximately 4,000 fans witnessed this feat.

1984 Millard Fillmore Caldwell, the twenty-ninth governor of Florida (January 2, 1945-January 4, 1949), died today at his antebellum home in Tallahassee.  Caldwell was born on February 6, 1897, near Knoxville, TN.  He attended Carson-Newman College and the University of Mississippi. After service in the Army in World War I, he attended the University of Virginia.

He came to Florida in 1924 and practiced law in Milton.  In 1929 and 1931, Caldwell represented Santa Rosa County in the Florida House of Representatives.  From 1933 until 1941, he represented Florida’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.  During his congressional service, he represented the United States in international conferences at The Hague (1938) and Oslo (1939).

Elected governor in 1944, he promoted the enactment of the Minimum Foundation Program for public schools and the development of the Capitol Center.  After a number of Federal positions, Caldwell was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court in 1962 and elected that same year without opposition.  In 1967, he was elected the Chief Justice.  Caldwell retired in 1969.