April 4
- Florida Keys History Center
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
1934 – Sam E. Harris was named Key West Postmaster.
1938 – Gene Tunney, heavyweight boxing champion, visited the city from his winter home at Hobe Sound.
1956 – There was low water pressure throughout the Florida Keys as South Florida went through its annual dry period. Some were calling for a freshwater reservoir to be built to supply the islands, but the idea was nixed by the Aqueduct Commission as there was nowhere to build one of adequate size.
1961 – The cable schooner Western Union arrived safely in port at Key West after having been stopped in international water by two armed Cuban gunboats.
1964 – The Flagler Avenue Branch Post Office in Key West was dedicated. Congressman Dante B. Fascell was the main speaker.
1982 – Suwa, a male dolphin owned by Little Torch Key resident Betty Brothers and kept on her property, attacked a man after he entered the private lagoon to swim with the creature. Suwa rammed the man six times, causing severe liver lacerations and the rupture of a “major” vein in his stomach.
1983 – Movie star Gloria Swanson died at the age of 84 in New York City. As an 11-year-old Army dependent, Swanson made her first appearance on the stage at the Odd Fellows Hall in Key West, where she sang “As the World Rolls On.”
1986 – Monroe County Mayor Wilhelmina Harvey put forward a proposal to the Tourist Development Council that a “Truman Days” festival be organized to celebrate President Harry Truman and his ties to the Keys. The celebration would be modeled on the popular Hemingway Days event.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: An aerial view of Betty Brothers' Motel on Little Torch Key. Photo taken by the federal government on October 7, 1987. From the Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
