Florida (U.S. state)/Timelines

Timeline for History of Florida

A sequence of significant events in the history of Florida.

approx. 12000 BCE: Paleo-Indians enter Florida. 1513: Juan Ponce de Leon names Florida and claims it for Spain. 1559: First foundation of Pensacola; abandoned in 1561. 1565: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine. 1696: Second foundation of Pensacola. 1763: Florida transferred from Spain to Britain: divided into East Florida and West Florida. 1784: Floridas returned to Spanish rule. 1810-1816: Part of West Florida occupied and annexed by United States. 1817-1818: First Seminole War. 1821: Floridas transferred from Spain to the United States. 1822: Florida Territory organized. 1835-1842: Second Seminole War. 1845: Florida admitted to the United States as a state. 1855-1858: Third Seminole War. 1861: Florida secedes from the United States and joins the Confederate States of America. 1868: Florida readmitted to the United States as a state. 1877: Reconstruction ends in Florida. 1926: Great Miami Hurricane ends the Florida Land Boom. 1928: Lake Okeechobee Hurricane kills more than 1,800 people. 1935: Labor Day Hurricane destroys Overseas Railroad to Key West, kills more than 400. 1949: Missile testing begins at Cape Canaveral. 1959: Revolution in Cuba eventually leads to large of numbers of Cubans migrating to Florida. 1971: Walt Disney World opens near Orlando.