Tag: Florida

The Second Seminole War Ends

Today in History, August 14, 1842:

After seven years of war on the Florida peninsula, the second Seminole War is declared to be at an end.

The war had begun when the US government attempted to enforce the Indian Removal Act and the Treaty of Ft. Gibson in which the Seminole Tribe was to move to the Creek Reservation west of the Mississippi River, in Indian Territory.

The tribe resisted with the leadership of Osceola beginning in 1835. Numerous battles ensued, but the government began to succeed with smaller raids and false truces with which they captured as many as 3-4,000 Seminoles, forcing their removal.

Osceola was captured in 1837 and imprisoned in Charleston, SC where he died.

Flight 19

Today in History, December 5: 1945 –

Flight 19, a squadron of 5 TBM Avenger Torpedo planes on a navigational training flight out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, disappears without a trace within the “Bermuda Triangle”. Land based personnel could hear them by radio trying to find their way before apparently ditching at sea. 14 crewmen were lost.

In the efforts to find the lost men, a flying boat, a PBM Mariner, was also lost without a trace…almost doubling the loss of life with her 13 man crew. Hundreds of aircraft and ships searched for the lost crews without success.

Many ships and aircraft have been lost in this area…leading to speculation about aliens, magnetic anomalies, the lost civilization of Atlantis, etc. The Navy is likely correct about disorientation, but there have been an unusual amount of losses within the “Triangle.”