1832 - The St. Augustine City Council passed an ordinance today authorizing the creation of tax-supported free schools in the city. This was one of the earliest such ordinances in the American South and in the nation. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States, founded by Pedro Menedez de Aviles in 1565. It was the administrative center for East Florida during the British Period (1763-1783) and the Second Spanish Period (1783-1821).
1998- Judy Buenoano was executed by electrocution on this date. She was the first woman to be executed in Florida in 150 years and the first to die in the electric chair. The last woman to be executed before her was a freed slave who murdered a former master in 1848.
1863 - Federal army and naval forces continued evacuating Jacksonville on this date. As they evacuated, Union soldiers set fire to much of the town. Jacksonville was the center of Confederate military operations in Florida and the fires caused national outrage and debate over who was to blame. Rain helped to contain the fire, but the damage was already done as most of the city lay in ruins.
1833 - The Treaty of Payne’s Prairie was confirmed on this date with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Gibson. Seminoles agreed to the removal of the Seminole people from Florida in the Treaty of Fort Gibson, Arkansas, after their investigation of the new western lands. Removal would take place within three years.
1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon first sighted the Florida peninsula on this date, although he would not go ashore until April 2. The peninsula was sighted and mistaken for an island, which Ponce de Leon named “La Florida.” Ponce, who was most recently the Governor of Puerto Rico, set sail from that island on March 4th with three ships and approximately 200 men heading north towards an unknown landmass referred to as Biminy.
1949 - WTVJ-TV, Miami’s first television station, aired its first broadcast at noon on this date. It was the first television station in Florida and only the 16th in the entire country. The station was originally owned by Wometco Enterprises and carried all four major networks of that era (NBC, CBS, ABC and Dumont). After 1964 the Jackie Gleason Show was produced at WTVJ. In 1984 Wometco sold the station to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) but by 1987 NBC purchased the station.
1565 – Pedro Menendez de Aviles received his “asiento” or settlement orders from the Spanish government to travel to La Florida on this date. Two years earlier, Don Juan Mendedez, Pedro Menendez’s only son was lost in a wreck near the Bahamas and Menendez was determined to find him. He was also instructed to reconnoiter the gulf and east coasts, making detailed observations about the ports, currents, hazards, etc., and settle the new territory. The Spanish government also tasked Menendez with driving the French settlers out of La Florida.