In Tallahassee, the formal Ordinance of Secession is signed on the capitol steps and Florida secedes

The the sixty-nine delegates elected to the Florida state convention to consider secession had assembled in the capital city of Tallahassee a week earlier. The gathering produced an ordinance of secession and passed it by a vote of sixty-two to seven the previous day.  The formal Ordinance of Secession was signed on this day on the east steps of the capitol and Florida became the third state to declare its independence. (By John Osborne)