Jacksonville

HISTORICAL TIME LINE

• 1513 Ponce De Leon discovers Florida and claims it for Spain.
• 1562 French Huguenots, under Jean Ribault, found a colony at Ft. Caroline on the St. Johns River.
• 1565 Pedro Menendez founds St. Augustine. John Hawkins takes tobacco from the Timucua Indians back to England.
• 1763 Florida becomes British and the King's road is built.
• 1783 Florida is returned to Spain by Great Britain.
• 1818 Major General Andrew Jackson enters Spanish Florida during the First Seminole War.
• 1821 Florida becomes an American possession.
• 1822 Cowford, a town on the north bank of the St. Johns River, is renamed Jacksonville after General Andrew Jackson.
• 1822 Duval County is created by the Legislative Council.
• 1832 William J. Mills is elected the first mayor of Jacksonville.
• 1845 Florida becomes the 27th state of the Union.
• 1864 The Battle of Olustee occurs, the only major battle of the Civil War to be fought in Florida.
• 1884 Col. J.J. Daniel organizes a second Jacksonville Board of Trade, known today as the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.
• 1901 The Great Fire burns out of control, destroying half of downtown.
• 1908 The first motion picture studios open in Jacksonville, helping it to become "the world's winter film capital."
• 1921 The first vehicular bridge over the St. Johns River is opened to traffic and is named for City Councilman St. Elmo Acosta.
• 1968 Duval County and the city of Jacksonville form a consolidated >government.

FIRST COAST TRIVIA

* The first graded road built in Florida was Old Kings Road in 1763, named for King George of England.

* James Weldon Johnson, a famous Jacksonville lawyer wrote the popular song "Lift Every Voice and Sing." He was the first African- American admitted to the Florida Bar.

* During the 1992 Gulf War, the busiest military port in the country was Jacksonville, moving more supplies and people than any other port in the country.

* The oldest, continuously operating community theater in the country is Theatre Jacksonville, in operation since 1919.

* The longest concrete cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere is Jacksonville's Broward Bridge. Known as the Dames Point Bridge, it is two miles long, supported by 21 miles of steel cables and rises 175 feet above the St. Johns River.

* Singers Pat Boone and Rita Coolidge were both born and raised in Jacksonville. Other musical notables with a Jacksonville connection are Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marcus Roberts, Frederic Delius and Slim Whitman.

* The longest river sailboat race in the world is the Annual Mug Race that runs 42 miles from Palatka to Jacksonville along the St. Johns River.

* The only contestant from Florida to ever win Miss America is Jacksonville's Leanza Cornett, Miss America 1993.

Jacksonville

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