On this past weekend in the Sunshine State …

1835 General Wiley Thompson and Lieutenant Constantine Smith were shot from ambush at Fort King.  The fort’s sutler, Erastus Rogers, was killed.

1835 Major Francis Langhorne Dade, in command of two companies of soldiers marching from Fort Brooke to Fort King, was ambushed by Seminole warriors near Bushnell in Sumter County, about five miles from Wahoo Swamp.  Dade was killed by the first shot fired, and command of the unit passed to an artillery officer unfamiliar with infantry tactics.  One hundred and eight men were killed, and only three survived. 

1840 Units of the United States’ Companies A, B, E,C, and I of the 7th Infantry, under the command of Lieutenant W. Sherwood, engaged Seminole warriors at Martin’s Point Hammock, near Micanopy, today.

1847 Simon Towle assumed the position of Comptroller of Florida today.  He held this position until January 25, 1851, when he was replaced by John Beard.

1925 The Florida Power and Light Company was incorporated today.

1963  Twenty-one persons were killed and sixty-six were injured as fire swept through the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Jacksonville.

1979 Floridians and other Americans were shocked when legendary coach Woody Hayes of Ohio State University punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman when Bauman intercepted a pass during the last minute of play in the Gator Bowl game.  Ohio State University lost the game 17-15.  OSU president Harold Enarson said, “There is not a university in this country that would permit a coach to physically assault a college athlete.”