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 4^th with three ships and approximately 200 men heading north towards an unknown landmass referred to as Biminy.

1863 - Floridians, like most Southerners, reacted angrily today when the Confederate Congress approved the Impressment Act on this date, which allowed Confederate tax collectors to impress food and other articles useful to the Confederacy.” The act was an attempt to regulate the already common Confederate army practice of impressing supplies including food and slaves.  The legislation turned out to cause more strife when government pricing for impressed goods was demonstrably lower than their market value. 

1822 - Lieutenant M.C. Perry took possession of Key West for the United States on this date.  Perry was commanding the U.S. schooner U.S.S.

1967- A three-day riot pitting collegians against police during Spring Break began in Fort Lauderdale on this date.  At least 500 people were arrested as a result. The riot was sparked when a student lay in the middle of A1A and the police got involved. By the 1960s, sun, beaches, and beer made south Florida THE destination for college students on Spring Break.

1991 - The town of Manatee set a world record for the greatest egg hunt ever staged on this date.  Forty thousand children hunted more than 120,000 plastic and candy eggs.  The record has had many challengers since, but the title is currently held by another Florida city- comment if you know the answer!  

1982 – The space shuttle Colombia (STS-3) lifted off from Cape Canaveral on its third flight, and only the third mission of the space shuttle program, on this date. Despite a one hour delay due to failure of a nitrogen gas ground support line heater, the mission was successfully completed and demonstrated a safe orbiter re-launch and return. The crew members onboard were pilot C. Gordon Fullerton and Commander Jack R. Lousma.  Their journey lasted eight days, landing in White Sands, New Mexico on March 30 and returning to Kennedy Space Center on April 6.

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 16^th 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.

1928 – Miami Beach Police Officer David Cecil Bearden was fatally shot by suspected car thieves on this date, making him the first Miami Beach police officer killed in the line of duty. Bearden was a native of Alabama and moved to Miami Beach in the early 1920s and became a police officer in 1926. On March 18^th 1928, three men stole a car from Miami Beach and drove to Fort Lauderdale, then shortly after midnight broke into a Hupmobile dealership, stole a sedan and drove back to Miami Beach in the early morning hours of March 19^th.

1946 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play baseball in the Major Leagues, played his first Minor League exhibition game with the Montreal Royals against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Daytona Beach on this date. The following season, Robinson was called up to the Major Leagues and played for the Dodgers and won the MLB Rookie of the Year Award. He was the first African American to break the color barrier in Major League baseball since the 1880s. Robinson played in six World Series, including the Dodgers’ 1955 win against the New York Yankees, and was a six time All Star.