THIS DAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE SUNSHINE STATE (Post appears one day before actual date) AUGUST 31 (NOTICE: This is the last post of “This Day in the History of the Sunshine State” that I will be posting. If someone on this site would like to continue the posting, please PM me and I will share my files. It has been a great and glorious run! Thank you for your positive response!) 1863 The Federal bark, Gem of the Sea, captured the Confederate sloop, Richard, which was owned by John Mooney and James Fuell of West Florida. News was received in Tallahassee that men of the 5th and 8th Florida Infantry Regiments captured at Gettysburg were imprisoned on Johnston’s Island. 1864 The following Florida units participated in Confederate General John Bell Hood’s ill-fated attempt to break the lines of General William T. Sherman at Jonesboro (south of Atlanta): Florida Marion Artillery Florida 1st Cavalry Regiment Florida 1st (Reorganized) Infantry Regiment Florida 3rd Infantry Regiment Florida 4th Infantry Regiment Florida 6th Infantry Regiment Florida 7th Infantry Regiment An excerpt from the civil war diary of Hiram Smith Williams, who settled in Rockledge in 1872 and who served two terms as a state senator in the 1880s. Williams was a member of the 40th Alabama Regiment and was a combat engineer during the Atlanta Campaign. “The ordeal is past and J[ohn] B[ell] Hood is gone under. Went to East P[oin]t yesterday morning, remained there all day, and this morning early came down to Jonesboro. Our infantry reached here, and charged the enemy in their works as usual, only to be repulsed with heavy loss. This horrid useless waste of human life, this wholesale butchery is terrible and should damn the authors through all time.” “Our company reached the place just as the fight commenced, but did not see much of it. Had a hearty laugh at one of our Lieutenants, who was carrying a musket and teakettle. Directly a shell burst near him and away went the gun while he struck out in a dog trot. A few minutes after another shell bursted and a piece or rather spent fragment struck him on the leg, when away went the teakettle and away went the Lieutenant, who was seen no more until we were far out of danger. Thank god, I have stronger nerves than that.” “Our boys have been repulsed all along the line, and I see it requires no military man to tell that Atlanta is gone.” Lewis N. Wynne and Robert A. Taylor (Editors), This War So Horrible: The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press). 1872 Charles H. Pearce, minister of the African-Methodist Episcopal Church of Tallahassee, was nominated as a candidate for a third Florida Senate term by Governor Harrison Reed at the Leon County Republican Convention. 1886 There were a series of strong earthquake shocks in Charleston, South Carolina on this date. The tremors in Charleston began at 21:51. In Tampa, residents reported 2 shocks, the first at 21:51, (9:51 p.m.) the second at 22:00 (10:00 p.m.). The first appeared to move NE to SW, while the second seemed to travel SW to NE. See earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/florida/florida_eq_history.php 1906 Elizabeth Hutchinson Broward, eight child of Governor and Mrs. Napoleon Broward, became the first child born to a sitting governor in the State of Florida. She was born in the Brown House on Monroe Street in Tallahassee. 1909 Ruby McCollum, who would gain notoriety from murdering her lover, Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams, Jr., in Live Oak was born today. See murderpedia.org/female.M/m/mccollum-ruby.htm 1912 The Socialist Party of Florida, meeting in convention in Ocala, nominated Thomas W. Cox as its candidate for governor. 1935 The U.S. Weather Bureau issued its first warning or storm advisory for what would become one of the deadliest hurricanes on record. Known as the Labor Day Hurricane, it struck the Florida Keys on September 2, 1935. More than 400 persons were killed as the storm struck the camps of workers and their families, which were located along the Overseas Highway. Most of the dead were World War I veterans who had participated in the Bonus Army march and encampment in Washington, DC. See hurricanescience.org/history/storms/1930s/LaborDay/ 1953 WIRK-TV was the first television station in West Palm Beach. Records indicate the station may have started broadcasting a test pattern on Aug. 31, 1953, but regular programming did not begin until Sunday, Sept. 13, 1953. (And regular programming meant having shows from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.) See rogersimmons/florida-television-history/ 1985 Although it never struck Florida directly, meandering Hurricane Elena brought havoc to the Sunshine State and to other states that bordered the Gulf of Mexico. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Elena 2013 Diana Nyad begins her fifth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, a feat she had failed to achieve in four previous attempts. See history/this-day-in-history/diana-nyad-64-makes-record-swim-from-cuba-to-florida and theguardian/world/2013/aug/31/diana-nyad-cuba-florida-swim
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 10:10:32 +0000
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