1. On December 20, 1820, the United States ceded Florida from Spain under the Adams-Onis Treaty, which established the boundaries between the two countries and ended years of dispute.

2. In 1860, Florida held a state convention on December 20 to discuss secession from the Union, as tensions grew between the North and South leading up to the Civil War.

3. One of the deadliest fires in Florida history occurred on December 20, 1983, when a blaze at a home for the elderly in Melbourne killed 11 people and injured dozens more.

4. On December 20, 1999, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide manual recount in the contested presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, sparking a political firestorm and eventually leading to the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore.

5. In 2013, the Tampa Bay Times reported on December 20 that the state of Florida had made $200 million in profits from the sale of specialty license plates, which fund a variety of causes and organizations across the state.