December 18
- Florida Keys History Center
- Dec 17, 2025
- 2 min read
1862 – The U.S. Army’s 47th Pennsylvania Regiment arrived in Key West on the steamer Cosmopolitan to relieve the men of the 90th New York.
1940 – At 3:30 p.m., Elena Hoyos Mesa was buried in a grave in the Key West Cemetery by the Lopez Funeral Home. The interment was ordered by her sister, Mrs. Nana Medina, after Elena’s body was recovered from the home of Karl Tanzler (who called himself Count Von Cosel), who had lived with it for eight years. The location of the grave was not revealed.
1961 – Actress Tallulah Bankhead arrived in Key West for the Christmas holidays. She was visiting her friend, author and playwright James Leo Herlihy.
1974 – Keys shrimpers were experiencing a significant economic downturn as shrimp prices had dropped 39 percent over the previous year, while the cost of fuel was up 50 percent.
1985 – New York businessman John “Smash” Theurer was single-handedly changing the face of Marathon. Since February, he had applied for 38 construction permits in the area, including renovations of the laid-back Boot Key Marina and the Reef Bar, an aviation facility at Marathon Airport, and a residence on Crawl Key.
1986 – The movie “Russkies,” about a group of Key West boys who befriend a castaway Soviet sailor, was being filmed in Key West.
1990 – The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the population of Monroe County was 78,024, with 29,073 in Key West. This was a considerable shift from the 1960 Census that reported 47,921 people in Monroe County, of which 33,956 lived in Key West.
2015 – The TGI Friday’s restaurant and bar in Key West’s Overseas Market shopping center closed for business.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The shrimp boats James Allen and Stephen Joe in Key West Bight, 1978 or 1979. Gift B. Knowles. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
