Florida // Tallahassee, FL // Southern Region // Eastern/Central Time (The Sunshine State) Spanish cession: February 22, 1819 Territory established: March 30, 1822 Statehood granted: March 3, 1845 // 27th state Secession from Union: January 10, 1861 Confederacy joined: February 10, 1861 Civil War: April 12, 1861 - May 9, 1865 Readmitted to Congress: June 25, 1868 End of Reconstruction: January 2, 1877 [View map of US territorial acquisition]

#4284 // September 2, 2008 (self-adhesive coil definitive) Flags of Our Nation Series Florida State Flag and anhinga bird	#1961 // April 14, 1982 (ex pane of 50 different stamps) State Bird & Flower of Florida Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottus) and Orange Blossom	#1659 // February 23, 1976 (ex pane of 50 different stamps) American Bicentennial Series Florida State Flag

#927 // March 3, 1945 // Tallahassee, FL Florida Statehood Centennial State Seal, Gates of St. Augustin, State Capitol at Tallahassee, FL	#2950 // March 3, 1995 // Tallahassee, FL Florida Statehood Sesquicentennial American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
#952 // December 5, 1947 // Florida City, FL Dedication of the Everglades National Park, Florida, on December 6, 1947 Great White Heron (Ardea alba) and Map of Florida	#1271 // August 28, 1965 // St. Augustine, FL 400th Anniversary of the Settlement of Florida Spanish Explorer and Ships, Royal Flag of Spain

#4750/53 // April 3, 2013 // St. Augustine, FL (pane of four se-tenant stamps and pictorial selvage) 500th Anniversary of the Naming of Florida Red and pink hibiscus; Yellow cannas; Morning glories in shades of purple, red, and white; White and purple passionflowers The selvage of the pane depicts an imagined scene of explorers traveling in a small boat along a river or channel surrounded by tropical foliage.

During the Easter season of 1513, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon (* ca. 1460, † 1521) first visited the state today know as Florida. He named the land "La Florida" for Pascua Florida ("Feast of the Flowers"), Spain's Easter celebration, and for the verdant display of vegetation that the explorers could see from their ship.

#4649 // February 28, 2012 // St. Petersburg, FL Priority Mail Stamp Sunshine Skyway Bridge

The construction of the "Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge" began in 1982 and the completed bridge was dedicated on February 7, 1987. The bridge, spanning Tampa Bay, FL, with a total length of 4.1 miles (6,67 km), replaced an older bridge built in 1954 and partly destroyed on May 9, 1980. During a thunderstorm the freighter "MV Summit Venture" collided with a pier (supporting column) involving the collapse of the southbound span of the bridge.

#3569 // April 4, 2002 (ex pane of 50 stamps, one for each state) Greetings from Florida Illustration of contemporary postcard in the style of the 1930s/1940s View Florida state quarter View Florida state map View Florida clock

	The origin of the state name are the Spanish words "Pascua Florida", meaning "Feast of the Flowers" (Easter). Find out more facts & trivia
	Land Area rounded mi2 [km2] 53,927 [139.670] ranked 26th	Population (census 2010) 18,801,310 ranked 4th	Population Density per mi2 [km2] of land area 351 [135] ranked 9th
	The State of Florida has 67 counties.