The mockingbird isn't just a Florida favorite, it's also the state bird of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge was established by an executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903. It was created to protect egrets and other birds from extinction through plume hunting.

In 1953, a restaurant called Insta-Burger opened at 7146 Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida. It had a special oven called the Insta-Broiler that could cook 400 patties an hour, but despite its supercharged output, business dwindled until new owners bought the restaurant and renamed it Burger King.

People from Tampa have historically been called "Tampans", "Tampanians", or "Tampeños". According to local authorities, "Tampan" was originally the most common, but "Tampanian" became more popular after the former term began to be used as an insult. "Tampeños" generally refers to the mix of Cuban, Italian, and Spanish immigrants who began arriving in city during the late 1800s.

According to some sources, Orlando was named after the protagonist of As You Like It. James Speer, a resident and admirer of William Shakespeare, suggested the name in a letter, writing that "Orlando was a veritable Forest of Arden, the locale of As You Like It." In addition, one of downtown Orlando's major streets is Rosalind Avenue, which may have been named after the heroine of the play.

According to local legend, St. Petersburg co-founders John C. Williams and Peter Demens flipped a coin to see who would get to name the new community. Demens won the bet and named the city after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he had grown up. If Williams had won, he meant to name the city Detroit.

Amelia Earhart is probably the most famous missing person in history, and she said her final goodbyes from Hialeah, Florida as she set out on her ill-fated attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah is named in her honor.

During the winter of 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto and his men occupied the capital of the Apalachee people in what is now Tallahassee. It is one of the few places on the route where archaeologists have found physical traces of the expedition, which was first European expedition deep into the continental U.S., and since Christmas was one of the highlights of the medieval Spanish calendar, De Soto's encampment is likely the first place Christmas was celebrated in the continental United States.

At only 5 to 8.5 ounces and 7.5 to 11 inches tall, the Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia floridana) is one of the smallest of all owls, and it is the only owl that lives underground. Unlike the Western species of the Burrowing Owl (athene cunicularia hypugaea) that lives in abandoned prairie dog burrows, the Florida species dig their own burrows. Cape Coral has upwards of 2500 burrows within the city limits.

The disappearance of five Navy torpedo bombers that took off from Fort Lauderdale on December 5, 1945, helped establish the myth of the Bermuda Triangle. All 14 airmen on Flight 19 were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched to search for them.