In the Sunshine State on this day in:

1940 United States Senator “Connie Mack” was born in Philadelphia, PA, today.  Mack moved to Florida when he was eleven years old.  He graduated from the University of Florida in 1966.  He served in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to becoming senator.

1959 The United States Air Force launched an Atlas rocket carrying a nose-cone camera today from Cape Canaveral. The purpose of the mission was to photograph earth’s cloud cover from a height of 300+ miles. 

1963 An Atlas missile launched today from Cape Canaveral went out of control 2.5 minutes after launch and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.  This marked the sixth successive failure of the Atlas missile.

1998 Senator John Glenn took his second trip into outer space today aboard  space shuttle, Discovery.  Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962, also became the oldest American in space at age 77.