Battle of Santa Rosa Island

Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. The fort was completed in 1834 and was one of the few forts in the South that remained in Union hands throughout the American Civil War. It remained in use until 1947. Fort Pickens is included within the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and as such, is administered by the National Park Service.

Pensacola Pass is an inlet between Santa Rosa Island and Perdido Key at the western end of the Florida Panhandle. It connects the Gulf of Mexico to Pensacola Bay. The mainland around Pensacola Bay is heavily developed, with high-rise condominiums. Santa Rosa Island and the eastern part of Perdido Key adjacent to Pensacola Pass are units of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and remain largely undeveloped.

On the morning of December 6, 2019, a terrorist attack occurred at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida. The assailant killed three men and injured eight others. The shooter was killed by Escambia County sheriff deputies after they arrived at the scene. He was identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, an Air Force aviation student from Saudi Arabia.The FBI investigated the case as a presumed terrorism incident, while searching for the motive behind the attack. On January 13, 2020, the Department of Justice said they had officially classified the incident as an act of terrorism, motivated by "jihadist ideology."On February 2, 2020, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the shooting. In an audio recording, emir of the Yemen-based group Qasim al-Raymi said they directed Alshamrani to carry out the attack. On May 18, 2020, the FBI corroborated the claims.

The Pensacola Naval Air Station Historic District encompasses the early historic elements of Naval Air Station Pensacola in Warrington, Florida. Included in the historic district are surviving buildings of the Pensacola Navy Yard, which the air station took over, as well as buildings related to the early years of aviator training by the United States Navy. The district, roughly bounded by West Street, Saufley Avenue, and Pensacola Bay, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark District in 1976.

The Capture of Pensacola took place in May 1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance when a French force led by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville took and occupied the settlement of Pensacola in the Spanish colony of Florida. The French occupied Pensacola until August 1719, when a large Spanish force arrived and compelled the small French garrison to surrender. This Spanish occupation only lasted until September 1, when a French fleet arrived to reassert French control.The war ended status quo ante bellum and Pensacola was officially returned to Spanish control, though the French garrison did not withdraw until 1726.

The siege of Pensacola, fought from March 9 to May 10, 1781, was the culmination of Spain's conquest of West Florida during the Gulf Coast Campaign of the American Revolutionary War.

The siege of Pensacola included two separate attempts in 1707 by English-supported Creek Indians to capture the town and fortress of Pensacola, one of two major settlements (the other was St. Augustine) in Spanish Florida. The attacks, part of Queen Anne's War (the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession), resulted in the burning of the town, and caused most of its Indian population to flee, although the fort withstood repeated attacks. The battles were primarily fought in the nighttime hours due to the excessive heat of the day. The first siege, in August, resulted in the destruction of the town, but Fort San Carlos de Austria successfully resisted the onslaught. In late November, a second expedition arrived, and made unsuccessful attacks on three consecutive nights before withdrawing. Pensacola's governor, Don Sebastián de Moscoso, whose garrison was depleted by disease, recruited convicted criminals to assist in the fort's defense.

Fort Barrancas (1839) or Fort San Carlos de Barrancas (from 1787) is a United States military fort and National Historic Landmark in the former Warrington area of Pensacola, Florida, located physically within Naval Air Station Pensacola, which was developed later around it.The hill-top fort, connected to a sea level water battery, overlooks Pensacola Bay. From 1839 to 1844, the historic Spanish fort on the hill was reconstructed and dramatically expanded in brick. This is now termed "Fort Barrancas". The older, water battery downhill (Bateria de San Antonio, 1787) has been separately named as "Fort San Carlos". It is a remnant from the Spanish fortification, the wooden (Spanish: Fuerte) Fort San Carlos de Barrancas of the late 18th century. Due to changing requirements, the U.S. Army deactivated Fort Barrancas on April 15, 1947, following World War II. Designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960, the fort was transferred to the control and administration of the National Park Service in 1971. After extensive restoration during 1971–1980, Fort Barrancas was opened to the public (see below: Timeline).

Barrancas National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in the city of Pensacola, Florida. It encompasses 94.9 acres (38.4 ha), and as of 2021 had over 50,000 interments.

Chevalier Field was the original non-seaplane aircraft landing area at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Established originally in 1922 as Station Field, it was an expansion of the balloon operating field that opened in 1916. It was located on the northeast side of the Navy shipyard, on the western edge of Pensacola Bay and south of Bayou Grande. The small town of Woolsey, just north of the Navy Yard, had been razed for the creation of the airdrome. "Locals assumed the Army's involvement in the project and had to be informed that the field, initially called Station Field, was intended for the exclusive use of Navy landplanes."Expanded in 1935, it was renamed Chevalier Field after United States Naval Aviation pioneer Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1910, who was appointed Naval Air Pilot No. 7 on 7 November 1915 and a Naval Aviator No. 7 on 7 November 1918. Chevalier commanded the first naval air station in France, at Dunkerque, in November 1917, and for his World War I service was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. On 26 October 1922 Lieutenant Commander Chevalier made the first landing on the USS Langley's deck, the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, in an Aeromarine 39-B, A-606. Chevalier died at Norfolk Naval Air Station after a crash.A blimp hangar and two aircraft hangars had been constructed on the south side of the field by 1935, and the field was further expanded in 1938, adding schools for aviation medicine and aviation maintenance. By World War II, the field had seven asphalt runways arranged in two clusters that intersected in mid-field, the longest 3,100 feet. Seaplane hangars had been added on the southeast corner facing Pensacola Bay by this time.With the introduction of jet aircraft, Chevalier's limited runway length and ramp space became a problem, and on 2 November 1951, Forrest Sherman Field was dedicated, three miles to the west, which remains the primary air facility at NAS Pensacola, as well as the home of the Blue Angels demonstration team. Chevalier Field remained in limited use as a helicopter facility and its perimeter was used as a storage area for aircraft awaiting refurbishment by the Naval Air Rework Facility (NARF), later renamed the Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) located at the base into the 1980s and early 1990s. A rail spur onto the base was aligned along the western edge of the airfield until it was removed circa 1979. This line was originally the Pensacola and Fort Barrancas Railroad, dating from 1870, an eight-mile line connecting Pensacola with Fort Barrancas through Warrington and Woolsey.Helicopter operations ended in the period 1994-1996, coinciding with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)-directed closure of NADEP Pensacola, although the airfield itself was closed as an independent air facility by 1976. In the late 1990s, with the BRAC-directed relocation of the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC) from NAS Memphis, the airfield was completely removed and the more modern buildings of the former NADEP repurposed as a new complex of buildings and barracks for the relocating NATTC was erected on the site. Several hangar buildings, including the original control tower, still exist and have been adapted for reuse as part of the NATTC facility.

The United States Naval Aviation Hall of Honor, located at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, recognizes individuals "who by their actions or achievements made outstanding contributions to Naval Aviation." Since its inception in 1979, the Hall of Honor has enshrined 80 people representing every element of the naval aviation family: U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Civilian and every naval aviation warfare community. Selectees are chosen by a board appointed by the Director, Air Warfare Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, sponsor of the Hall of Honor, and approved by the Chief of Naval Operations.

The National Naval Aviation Museum, formerly known as the National Museum of Naval Aviation and the Naval Aviation Museum, is a military and aerospace museum located at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Founded in 1962 and moved to its current location in 1974, the museum has now been reopened to the public starting May 2023, after a temporary close in 2019.