In the Sunshine State on this day in:

1814 Spanish Governor Maurique formally surrendered Pensacola to American forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson today, officially acknowledging the reality of Jackson’s defeat of Spanish forces.  Jackson soon restored Pensacola to the Spanish, but only after the British forces had been evacuated to the mouth of the Apalachicola River.

1876 Eartha Mary Magdalene White, African-American humanitarian and the founder of the Clara White Mission, was born today in Jacksonville.

1904 The City of Umatilla was incorporated.

1958 The third attempt by the United States Air Force to launch a rocket to the moon fails after a mere 1,000 miles.

1962 The United States announces that all Soviet missile bases in Cuba have been dismantled, thus ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1966 Claude Kirk was elected governor of Florida today.  He was the first Republican governor elected since the end of Reconstruction.

1973 Construction started today on the new Capitol building.  When finished (August 19,1977), it will be Florida’s fourth capitol building.