February 21

1826 – The day’s sales at Key West of goods salvaged from wrecked ships totaled $75,500, with the following day’s auctions garnering another $32,000.

1856 – The ship Lavinia Adams, which had left Key West on the 18^th for repair at New Orleans, sank and was lost, though the crew was saved. The ship was in a leaky state when it left Key West but had been fitted with a windmill pump to keep it dry. The vessel was thought to be fully insured.

1906 – Stock Island was connected to Key West with the completion of a narrow roadway on which the Florida East Coast Railroad would run. Filling to connect Boca Chica with Stock Island had also commenced.

1940 – John L. Lewis, labor leader and founding president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), spent the day in Key West at the Hotel Casa Marina. He arrived by boat from the Upper Keys where he had been fishing with friends.

1953 – Former President Herbert Hoover, who had been in a hospital in Miami with influenza, began a 10-day fishing vacation at the Key Largo Anglers Club.

1956 – Marathon’s March of Dimes fundraising committee raised $1,851 in its recent campaign – an average of 75 cents per resident. The amount was double the previous year’s total.

1991 – Key West native Master Sergeant Eloy A. Rodriguez, a medic with the Army Special Forces, died in a helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia. He was the only Keys resident killed in the Gulf War.

2016 – A study commissioned by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council found that the production of the television series “Bloodline” at Islamorada had added $91 million to the Florida Keys’ economy and created or supported 1,060 jobs.

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

Image: A fill roadbed being built between Key West and Stock Island for the Florida East Coast Railroad's Key West Extension, February 8, 1906. Gift of Mrs. Wm. Warren. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.