1866 – Ex-Confederate Army Major Lansford Hastings, leading a group of 34 southerners fleeing northern reconstruction, stopped at Key...

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

1911 – The steamer Luckenbach was aground eight miles from Key West and in a dangerous situation. The lives of the 28 men onboard were...

1513 – Ponce de Leon sighted the Florida Keys and became the first European to land in what is now called Florida. 1898 – Eight bodies...

1859 – The ship Mulhouse went ashore and bilged on the Quicksands west of the Marquesas Keys. Mulhouse was carrying 26 passengers,...

1924 – Wm. M. Butler, political manager for U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, bought 476 acres on Key Largo. The land included a 100-acre...

1822 – John Fleming arrived from Mobile with workers and material to erect the first house on Key West. 1843 – The Baltimore brig...

1854 – The bark California , sailing from New Orleans to New York, ran onto Conch Reef with a cargo of molasses. Wreckers removed 250...

1838 – The barque Eleanor , sailing from Boston to New Orleans, ran onto Alligator Reef with a cargo of ice and codfish. Two Key West...

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

1839 – The brig Arabian , sailing from Charleston to New Orleans, went ashore at the Tortugas with a cargo of rice, beans, and an untold...

1926 – Samuel J. Wilde of Boston purchased Crawl Key near Marathon from Mary Porter Harris, wife of the late Judge W. Hunt Harris of Key...

1909 – A man died of leprosy in a house on Virginia Street. The house and all contents were destroyed by fire under the direction of...

1853 – The case of the brig Cymbus , which had wrecked on the Western Dry Rocks, was heard in Federal Court. The vessel, sailing from...

1822 – Congress denied a land grant to the East Florida Coffee Land Association. The group was asking for a 23,000-acre tract that...

1797 – The British ships from Nassau – Ranger , Primrose , and Elizabeth – were seized by Spanish privateers at Key West. The two...

1832 – A reporter visiting Key West wrote, “We visited the Salt Ponds, which are now in operation; the pans have been filled for some...

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

1858 – Professor Louis Agassiz of Harvard University was at Key West continuing his multi-year examination of the Florida reef and...

1909 – Upton Sinclair, author of “The Jungle,” was ill in the Louise Maloney Hospital in Key West. He was a passenger on the Mallory...