14 August 1559
On this date in 1559…
Appointed by the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico to establish Spanish settlements on the Gulf Coast, Tristan de Luna y Arellano, with several priests, 500 soldiers, and 1,000 settlers landed at Pensacola Bay with thirteen ships. Most of the expedition is dead just a few days later due to a hurricane. The survivors soon starved.
Other Years:
- 1756 – Frontier legend Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan in Yadkin River, North Carolina.
- 1842 – The Second Seminole War ended with most Seminoles forced to relocate from Florida to Oklahoma.
- 1846 – The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite struck near the town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
- 1861 – Having seized control of the city, federal invaders declared Martial Law at St Louis, Missouri due to pro-secession sentiment which surged throughout Missouri after federal troops and German immigrants unsuccessfully attacked the Missouri State Guard at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek.
- 1864 – Confederate General Joe Wheeler laid siege to federals at Dalton, Georgia.
- 1936 – In the last public execution in the U.S., Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky.
- 1995 – Due to a federal judge’s order, Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend the Citadel.
- 1997 – The Oklahoma Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of northern terrorist Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.
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