December 20

View of Key West taken from the lighthouse, looking west toward Fort Taylor, in 1897. The battleship Maine can be seen to the left of the Fort

1870 – The Sears School, Key West’s first public school, was established on Free School Lane.

1875 – Several distinguished Key West Cubans, including Mayor Carlos M. De Cespedes, met at St. Paul’s Episcopal church and organized St. John’s Episcopal church for the island’s Spanish-speaking residents.

1897 – Schooners leaving Key West were given warning shots by the USS Maine as a command for them to halt. The vessels were boarded by officers from the battleship and searched for arms and ammunition that might be used to illegally supply revolutionary forces in Cuba. None were found.

1925 – The University of Havana basketball team was in Key West for a game at the Athletic Club against the local Coral Islanders squad. The Havana team prevailed 41 to 28.

1955 – The American Salvage Company signed a two-year lease with the city of Key West for dockage and warehouse space as it prepared to recover a cargo of ore from a shipwreck sunk by Navy mines north of Key West during WWII.

1960 – Leicester Hemingway, brother of renowned author Ernest, was visiting Key West and connected with Stan Smith at Sloppy Joe’s, among other old friends. Hemingway said that he hoped to live on the island for good.

1977 – In a special run-off election Mary Lee Graham was re-elected to the Key West City Commission.

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

Image: View of Key West taken from the lighthouse, looking west toward Fort Taylor, in 1897. The battleship Maine can be seen to the left of the Fort. From the Library of Congress.. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.