1. In 1864, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and Union General Nathaniel Banks engaged in the Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana, which had a significant impact on Florida's role in the Confederate States of America.
2. In 1958, the NASA Experimental Test Pilot School was established in Florida, paving the way for the state's important role in the space program, including the Kennedy Space Center.
3. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a failed CIA-backed mission to overthrow Fidel Castro's government in Cuba, took place. Cuban exiles who trained in Florida played a significant role in the invasion.
4. In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission, which famously had a catastrophic malfunction in space, safely returned to Earth, thanks in part to the efforts of NASA engineers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
5. In 2009, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic reached Florida, leading to statewide efforts to contain the spread of the virus and protect public health.