[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR JANUARY 27

[lewis n. wynne]

Dr. Robert A. Taylor, author of Rebel Storehouse:  Florida in the Confederacy,
will speak today at the Tebeau-Field Library in Historic Cocoa Village at 2:00
p.m.  The lecture is entitled "Florida and the Civil War" and is part of his
research for an upcoming book for Arcadia Press.  The library is located at
435
Brevard Avenue, Cocoa.  Call (321) 690-1971 for more information.

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
JANUARY 27   
1862 Brigadier General Samuel Jones was  assigned to command the Army of
Pensacola,  relieving General Braxton E. Bragg.
1864 Union General Alexander Asboth, in command of Federal forces at
Pensacola,
reported that 1,200 Confederates were encamped at nearby Pollard.  He also
reported that two companies of Confederate cavalry were camped at the head of
Choctawhatchee Bay.
1865 Lieutenant Charles A. French of the U.S.S. Ino captured an unknown ship
with a cargo of cotton and sugar today on the Manatee River.
1939 In order to help Florida citrus growers avert a complete financial
collapse, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nathan Mayo urged the universal
adoption of a standard minimum selling price of thirty-two cents a box.
1949 WTVJ in Miami began operations today as Florida's first broadcast
television station with special authorization granted by the Federal
Communications Commission.
1967 Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire
during a test firing of the first version of the Apollo spacecraft.  NASA
officials said an electrical spark must have ignited the pure oxygen inside
the
cabin of the Apollo spacecraft as the three astronauts were seated in the
cabin.  The fire broke out at 6:31 p.m. as the Saturn rocket, which carried
the
spacecraft, sat on launching pad 34.  Because the entire procedure was a test
firing, the gantry remained in place and blocked the emergency escape system. 
Unable to escape, the astronauts perished.
1992 Aileen Wournos, one of the rare female serial killers, was convicted of
killing three male motorists along Florida highways in 1990.