The city is involved in a long celebration lasting almost a year-and-a-half to commemorate its Spanish heritage and its importance in U.S. history, given that in 1559 it became the first Spanish settlement on what would later become U.S. soil, established by the members of an expedition led by Tristan de Luna.

The brigantine schooner Elcano, which in 2008 completed its 80th year of service with the Spanish navy, was escorted into the port of Pensacola by a flotilla of 60 boats.

When it passed by the Pensacola Naval Air Station, the Spanish training vessel fired several salvos, which were responded to in a signal of welcome from the U.S. Navy base.

But the famous supersonic Blue Angels aircraft squadron at the base had to cancel their aerial acrobatics exhibition due to the bad weather.

The Juan Sebastian de Elcano, the third-largest ship of its kind in the world, will remain docked at Pensacola until next Tuesday and will be able to be visited by the public.

The training ship has put in at Pensacola on six previous occasions, and its crew have organized a series of events to commemorate the 1559 exploratory expedition, six years before the founding of St. Augustine, the oldest city on U.S. soil.

The founding of Pensacola was accomplished by Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna, who arrived at the site on Aug. 15, 1559, with 11 vessels and 1,400 people, having set sail the previous June from Veracruz, Mexico.

Tristan de Luna's settlement only lasted two years because a great hurricane decimated the expedition, sank five ships, killed hundreds of the colonists and destroyed most of their supplies and foodstuffs.

For the next 135 years, no Spanish expedition established another settlement on the shores of PensacolaBay.

For a total of 240 years, and during three different periods, the Spanish flag flew over PensacolaBay, which also passed through French and British control until it became part of the United States in the early 19th century.

An essential point of the history of U.S. independence was Spaniard Bernardo de Galvez's winning of a highly significant battle at Pensacola, which helped pave the way for George Washington's victory at Yorktown, which ended British rule of the American colonies.

According to Jay Clune, a history professor at the University of Florida, the events commemorating Pensacola's 450th anniversary will help "people become aware that Spanish explorers had arrived long before the establishment of Jamestown (Virginia) by the first British colonists."

In addition to the celebrations of the founding of Pensacola and St. Augustine, which in 2015 will also commemorate its 450th anniversary, Florida is preparing for another anniversary in 2013: the 500th anniversary of the arrival from Puerto Rico of Juan Ponce de Leon along the Florida coasts.