Juan Ponce de Leon claimed La Florida for Spain.
Spain established St. Augustine, the oldest city in what would become the United States, about 70 miles north of what is now Daytona Beach.
Great Britain took possession of Florida after Spain, allied with France, was on the losing side of the Seven Years' War, called the French and Indian War in North America.
The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution, established the boundaries of the United States, formally recognized the United States as a sovereign nation, and returned East and West Florida to Spain.
Entrepreneur Matthias D. Day, Jr. of Mansfield, Ohio, who invented the arc lamp, came to Florida in 1870 looking for land to develop for friends and relatives. He purchased the 3,200-acre Williams plantation along the west bank of the Halifax River for...
Day hired engineers J. H. Fowler and Romanus Hodgman to lay out streets, plots for settlers, and a large hotel where settlers could live until their own houses were completed.
The first post office opened in the settlement, which most residents referred to as Daytona. Mr. Esabella McCauley served as postmaster.
Day recruited 14 workers and built a steam-powered sawmill and a two-story frame building on the newly acquired land.
The large hotel where new residents stayed while their own homes were built became known as the Palmetto House when palmetto fronds were used after roof shingles failed to arrive on time. The hotel later burned down in 1922.
Considered a private school because it was not organized under Florida law, the school opened on August 4 near the corner of Beach and Oak Streets. Teacher J. W. Smith was paid by Volusia County.