Florida Facts

The first semi-permanent settlements appeared in Florida around 5000 B.C.

Saint Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States.

The state of Florida is bigger than England.

In 2008, a 13-year-old boy in Florida was arrested for excessive farting in school.

In November 2013, a woman in Florida named Linda Ducharme married a Ferris wheel named Bruce, becoming one of the few people to legally wed an inanimate object under objectum sexuality.

Jacksonville, Florida, has the largest total area of any city in the contiguous United States.

Florida has more tornados per square mile than any other state.

In 2017, about 80 strangers on Panama City Beach linked arms to pull a family out of a rip current. Two boys got caught, then their mother, grandmother and others who swam out after them, nine people in all. Derek Simmons remembered how ants chain together to pass a stuck baby to safety, and got people lined up arm to arm. After nearly an hour, all nine were back on the sand.

Eeyore the family dog ran straight to a deputy's patrol car in Destin, Florida when his owner's 86-year-old mom fell on a night walk and couldn't get up - then led Deputy Devon Miller right to where she lay on the sidewalk. She got it on bodycam: "You're such a good boy. Grandma loves you."

A teenager was drowning in a rip current at Pensacola Beach. Andrew Smith, a fisherman with a seizure disorder who can't swim, was the only person nearby who could help. He strapped a flotation device to his shark-fishing drone and flew it out. First drop missed. A bystander handed him a second float. Second drop - she grabbed it and held on.

A Florida mom posted on Facebook asking if anyone with a cool car could drive past for her son Kosta's 4th birthday. She expected maybe one or two cars. Ten supercars showed up - Porsches, Audi R8s, Mercedes-AMG GTs, and BMW M4s - escorted by the Winter Springs Police Department. Kosta got to sit in every single one.

A Florida pastor who wrote a book on how to love your spouse was arrested for allegedly marrying a second woman while still legally wed to the first. Leslie Williams, 62, ran a faith-based ministry at The Villages and published the 2017 book "Love Her Like This." He is charged with felony bigamy.

Winter the dolphin lost her tail after a crab trap rope cut off blood flow when she was two months old. A prosthetics team spent 18 months building her a silicone tail. The gel liner they invented to keep it in place - later named WintersGel - now helps thousands of human amputees worldwide.

Melby the manatee swam up a Florida storm drain chasing warm water during a cold snap and got stuck under a street, unable to turn around. Rescuers tore up 10,000 pounds of concrete to pull the 410-pound animal free. Eight weeks of rehab at SeaWorld later, Melby swam home 105 pounds heavier.

A man bet $50,000 that someone would streak at Super Bowl LV - then streaked himself. Yuri Andrade sprinted onto the field in a hot pink swimsuit and expected to collect about $374,000 across multiple Bovada accounts at +750 odds. The sportsbook connected the linked accounts and voided every bet. He paid a fine, did 100 hours community service, and wrote an apology letter to the NFL. He netted negative money.

Miami's Freedom Tower was built in 1925 as the city's first skyscraper. From 1962 to 1974, it became a federal refugee center people called the Ellis Island of the South. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles fleeing Castro passed through its doors for medical care, paperwork, and a fresh start. The tower closed in 2023 for a $25 million restoration. It reopened in September 2025, 100 years after opening its doors.