Constitution of Florida
Florida's first constitution as a U.S. territory was written and implemented in 1838. On March 3, 1845, Florida was granted admission into the Union as the 27th state. The current Constitution of Florida was ratified on November 5, 1968, and has been modified by initiative and referendum several times since.
History of Florida
Although it is often stated that he sighted the peninsula for the first time on March 27, 1513 and thought it was an island, he probably saw one of the Bahamas at that time. He went ashore on Florida's east coast during the Spanish Easter feast, Pascua Florida, on April 7 and named the land "La Pascua de la Florida." After briefly exploring the land south of present-day St. Augustine, the expedition sailed south to the bottom of the Florida peninsula, through the Florida Keys, and up the west coast as far north as Charlotte Harbor, where they briefly skirmished with the Calusa before heading back to Puerto Rico.
From 1513 onward, the land became known as "La Florida". After 1630, and throughout the 18th century, Tegesta (after the Tequesta tribe) was an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in Joannes de Laet's "History of the New World".