Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida and named it for Spain
On this day · 2 April 1513
On April 2, 1513, a Spanish expedition glimpsed a green coastline and christened it La Florida, opening Europe's long reach into North America.
On April 2, 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted an unfamiliar coastline north of present-day St. Augustine. Sailing from Puerto Rico with three ships outfitted at his own expense, he had been at sea for weeks when land appeared, lush and green.
He named the place La Florida, partly for its abundant vegetation and partly for the timing: the sighting fell during the Easter season, which the Spanish called Pascua Florida, the “feast of flowers.” Over the following days his men came ashore and claimed the territory for the Spanish crown.
He thought he had found an island, and spent weeks trying to sail around it.
Ponce de Leon went on to probe the Keys and the Gulf coast near modern Tampa, convinced he was circling a large island rather than a peninsula. His landfall marked the first documented European encounter with what is now the continental United States, a quiet prelude to centuries of colonization.
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