August 10
- Florida Keys History Center
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
1907 – George Patterson took charge of the U.S. Weather Bureau’s Key West station from H.G. Cornthwaite, who went to Northfield, VT.
1904 – Construction began on the new naval officers’ quarters at the corner of Whitehead and Caroline streets in Key West.
1926 – Two men drowned after being thrown in the water and three others were injured when two “speeder” cars collided on the railway approach to the Pigeon Key bridge. The injured men were transported via another speeder to Dr. Lowe’s hospital in Key West.
1964 – Bernie C. Papy, 62-year-old Key West political leader, died. He had served 14 consecutive terms in the state legislature before at last being defeated in 1962. Papy was a powerful and influential Monroe County politician, and at the height of his career was called “King of the Keys.”
1966 – The Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce asked the Florida Road Department to place a 45-mile-per-hour speed limit on the highway through Big Pine Key after it was learned that nearly 120 Key deer had been killed by automobiles in the previous four and a half years.
1980 – An Air Florida flight from Miami to Key West was hijacked and taken to Cuba. The plane and passengers later returned to Miami unharmed.
1985 – Johnny Carson, star of NBC Television’s “Tonight Show” was in Key West to visit the wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha as guest of famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher.
1994 – The Columbus Iselin, a 176-foot University of Miami research vessel, ran aground on Looe Key. The impact damaged the reef, and the vessel leaked about 200 gallons of diesel fuel.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Bernie Papy of 925 Southard Street, Key West, in 1918. He was a news boy for Edward Phillips. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
