1887 – William Cooper was publicly hanged on the grounds of the Key West jail for the murders of Liverpool Bain and George Hudson and...

1872 – Key West was suffering a water famine from the shortage of rain. The situation was so bad that the commandant of Fort Taylor...

A trolley on a dirt street in Key West circa 1900 1830 – The brig Mary , sailing from New Orleans to New York with 180 hogsheads of...

Agustin Parla’s plane over Morro Castle in 1913. 1865 – Confederate scientific advisor Richard Sears McCulloh was captured at Cape...

Sombrero Beach sales office in 1966. 1823 – There had been no rain at Key Vaca (Marathon) for many weeks and vegetation there was in a...

1856 – No rain had fallen at Key West for two months, and cistern water was rapidly diminishing. The dry weather was promising for a...

1853 – The steamer James L. Day arrived at Key West from New Orleans bringing with it the first mail shipment between the two ports....

1924 – The price of Key Largo land was on the rise, with oceanfront lots sometimes exceeding $200 an acre. Many landowners, though, were...

1833 – Cholera was rampant at Key West, and people were fleeing the island. A correspondent wrote ”all the garrison except one officer...

1823 – Commodore David Porter ordered the U.S. flag raised over “Thompson’s Island” (Key West), and a battery was erected with eight...

1859 – The US Coast Survey steamer Corwin arrived from New York to begin surveying the reefs and channels near Knight’s Key. 1859 – A...

1871 – Frederick Douglass arrived in Key West on the USS Tennessee with other members of the Santo Domingo Commission. 1881 – A man...

1866 – Cholera was spreading at Key West, and at least 17 military personnel were down with the disease. 1917 – Dutch tobacco merchant...

1829 – A duel was fought between Charles E. Hawkins, of the Mexican Navy and William Allison McRea, U.S. Attorney for the Southern...

1917 – Polk’s Key West City Directory for 1917/18 listed 16 Coffee Shops in the city. 1954 – James Silver of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

1916 – Wealthy U.S. industrialist Andrew Carnegie, accompanied by his wife and friends, was on the houseboat Everglades out of Marathon...

1827 – Former U.S. Navy Commodore David Porter, now commander-in-chief of the Mexican Navy, brought the frigate Liberator, the brig...

1898 – The Battleship Maine arrived at Havana, Cuba at 11 a.m. 1908 – Rumors were spreading that further construction of the Overseas...

1904 – The British steamer Sorle, sailing from Tampa to Europe with phosphate, ran aground near Rebecca Shoal. Wreckers refloated the...

1827 – Construction began on the first lighthouse on Sand Key. It was completed in 70 days. 1854 – During the year 1853, 28 ships...