[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR DECEMBER 28

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
DECEMBER 28
1835            General Wiley Thompson and Lieutenant Constantine Smith 
were shot from ambush at Fort King.  The fort's sutler, Erastus Rogers, was 
killed.

1835            Major Francis Langhorne Dade, in command of two companies 
of soldiers marching from Fort Brooke to Fort King, were ambushed by 
Seminole warriors near Bushnell in Sumter County, about five miles from 
Wahoo Swamp.  Dade was killed by the first shot fired, and command of the 
unit passed to an artillery officer unfamiliar with infantry tactics.  One 
hundred and eight men were killed, and only three survived.

1840            Units of the United States' Companies A, B, E,C, and I of 
the 7th Infantry, under the command of Lieutenant W. Sherwood, engaged 
Seminole warriors at Martin's Point Hammock, near Micanopy, today.

1847            Simon Towle assumed the position of Comptroller of Florida 
today.  He held this position until January 25, 1851, when he was replaced 
by John beard.

1862            Soldiers with the Florida 4th Infantry regiment were 
engaged in fighting at Lebanon Pike, Tennessee, today.

1925            The Florida Power and Light Company was incorporated today.

1963            Twenty-one persons were killed and sixty-six were injured 
as fire swept through the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Jacksonville.

1979            Floridians and other Americans were shocked when legendary 
coach Woody Hayes of Ohio State University punched Clemson University 
player Charlie Bauman when Bauman intercepted a pass during the last minute 
of play in the Gator Bowl game.  Ohio State University lost the game 
17-15.  OSU president Harold Enarson said, "There is not a university in 
this country that would permit a coach to physically assault a college 
athlete."