On this day in the Sunshine State …

1824 Alachua County was established today.  County Seat:  Gainesville. 

1824 Leon County was established today and is named for Juan Ponce de Leon.  County Seat:  Tallahassee.

1824 Monroe County, named for U. S. President James Monroe, was established today.

1824 Nassau County, most probably named for Nassau in the Bahamas, was established today.  Some speculation is that the county might have been named for the “Duchy of Nassau” in Germany.

1824 Walton County, named for General George Walton, was established today.  Walton served as the Secretary of West Florida during the governorship of Andrew Jackson (1821-22) and as the Secretary of East-West Florida from 1822 until 1826.  Walton was the son of George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

1824 Mosquito County, which has since disappeared, was established today.

1829 Washington County, named for George Washington, was established today.

1854  Volusia County, most probably named for an early English settler named Volus, was established today. 

1908 Norvin S. Veal, late publisher of the Jacksonville Journal, was born today in Owen County, Kentucky.

1917 A one-half inch blanket of snow covered many counties in Florida’s Panhandle and in North Florida.  Some snow was reported as far south as Crescent City.

1970 Rhea Pincus Grossman was appointed a judge of the Eleventh Circuit (Dade County) today by Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr.  Ms. Grossman was the first woman to become a Circuit Court judge.  She was 29 years old at the time of appointment.