August 21

Building the highway over the Seven Mile Bridge, circa 1936-38.

1858 – The U.S. Brig Dolphin intercepted and seized the slave ship Echo with 318 Africans on board near Cayo Verde, Cuba. The captured slaver was sent to Charleston under Navy command, and the Dolphin sailed to Key West with the American and Spanish slaving crew under arrest and held in irons.

1907 – Charity Albury and E. Payson Johnson were married at the Plantation Key home of Elizabeth Pinder, the bride’s grandmother. Pastor E.A. Gray of Key West’s Sparks Chapel made a special voyage to perform the ceremony. The newlyweds planned to make their home at Planter on Key Largo.

1937 – The Public Works Administration announced that it had 600 men working on the new Overseas Highway, and the road would be open to the public by the start of the new year.

1947 – Federal Judge John W. Holland sentenced Navy cook Joseph Watson to death in the electric chair for the murder of seaman Benjamin L. Hobbes. The murder occurred on the Navy destroyer USS Stribling in Key West on July 25, 1946.

1956 – Aerial spraying was conducted at Key West to combat medflies. Residents were warned that the pesticide used would affect paint and were urged to cover their cars or to wash them within two hours afterward the application. All cisterns had to have all outlets covered and no water was to go into them “until a heavy rain has washed all the roofs thoroughly.” 

1975 – Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Tench ruled that all building permits issued for work in the “old section” of Key West must first be sent to the Old Island Restoration Commission for approval. City officials agreed to comply with the order.

1995 – Former President George H.W. Bush was in Islamorada for the Second Annual George Bush/Cheeca Lodge Bonefish Tournament.

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Building the highway over the Seven Mile Bridge, circa 1936-38. Photo from Erma Stout's scrapbook. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.