1832 - The Florida Territorial Legislature repealed an anti-dueling law on this date. This legislative measure effectively legalized dueling in the territory. For years, men would challenge each other to duels which often involved firearms, but might also involve hand to hand combat. This repeal of anti-dueling laws is evidence of the violent nature of dispute resolution amongst men in Florida during the territorial period.

1969 - Diane Crump became the first female jockey to compete in an officially sanctioned professional American horserace at the Hialeah Park racetrack in south Florida on this date. Crump grew up in Oldsmar, Pinellas County, where she began her riding career, and was only 18 when she first competed professionally against her male counterparts. She would go on to become the first women to compete in the Kentucky Derby in 1970 and continued to compete professionally over the course of the next 30 years winning hundreds of races along the way.

1897 -Millard Fillmore Caldwell, the 29th governor of Florida (1945-1949), was born today near Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended Carson-Newman College, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Virginia and served in the Army during WWI, before coming to Florida in 1924. In 1929, he was elected to represent Santa Rosa County in the Florida House of Representatives. In 1933, he was elected to theÿU.S. House of representatives from Florida?s 3rd District. In 1941, he retired to private law practice, but reentered public life in 1944 when he ran for governor.

1926 - The town of North Miami in Dade County, then known as Miami Shores, was incorporated on this date. The area was originally inhabited by Native American communities and in the mid-19th century early American settlers formed a small community known as Arch Creek, named after a unique, 40ft long natural limestone bridge that has since collapsed. In the early 20th century agriculture became the major industry as the population slowly grew. After the Second World War the town grew rapidly and voters decided to incorporate as a city on May 27th, 1953 renaming the community North Miami.

1832 - Columbia County, Florida?s 16th, was created by the State Legislature on this date, named after the poetical name of the United States. Columbia County is located in north Florida on the border with Georgia and is home to over 67,000 residents. The County Seat and largest city is Lake City in the central part of the county.

1921 - The South Florida Fair and Gasparilla Carnival opened in Tampa, Florida on this date. In July of 1904, the South Florida Fair Association was formalized and plans for a new exhibition hall, a stadium, coliseum, and stock stalls to be built. After a few short years it became known as the Mid-Winter Festival. In 1915, when Articles of Incorporation for the South Florida Fair and Gasparilla Carnival were filed with the Secretary of State's office in Tallahassee, the Fair became known simply as the Florida State Fair.

2007 - In Central Florida, twenty-one people were killed and 76 others were injured in a tornado outbreak. Due to unstable weather conditions, a long-tracked supercell formed and produced four confirmed tornadoes in just over one hour and seventeen minutes. The supercell resulted in a 70-mile trail of damage. The first tornado damaged 1,145 homes and destroyed 200 others in Sumter County before hitting the Lady Lake area where it killed 8 people, damaged 180 homes and destroyed 101 homes in Lake County.

1929 - The Bok Tower Gardens and Bird Sanctuary in Lake Wales was dedicated by President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge on this date. The brainchild of Dutch immigrant Edward W. Bok and his wife Mary Louis Curtis Bok who wintered in Florida, the complex features a 250 acre garden with thousands of different trees, shrubs and flowers designed by Fredrick Las Olmstead Jr. The centerpiece of the gardens, however, is the 205ft-tall stone Gothic Revival and Art Deco tower which houses a 60-bell carillon.

1961 - Ham, America's first Astrochimp, was launched into space in an 18 minute flight aboard a Mercury capsule that reached an altitude of 150 miles from Cape Canaveral on this date. Ham?s flight in the Mercury capsule was a preliminary test before the launching of a human into orbit later that year. After his first and only flight, Ham spent the next 17 years at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and later the North Carolina Zoo.

1964 - The imposing Ringling Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Longboat was finally demolished on this date. John Ringling first moved to Sarasota on Florida's southwest coast in 1912 andin earnest developing the sleepy Florida town. One such project was a large luxury hotel which Ringling planned to be a part of the Ritz-Carlton franchise. Not long after construction began in 1926, the project ran into financial trouble and with the onset of the Great Depression the hotel was abandoned unfinished.