January 30
- Florida Keys History Center
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
1901 – The schooners Lilly White and Dr. Lykes were seized at Key West by the revenue cutter McClane. The vessels, bound from Havana, were found to be carrying demijohn bottles of contraband rum and a quantity of unregistered cigarettes.
1911 – Curtiss Aircraft test pilot J.A.W. McCurdy attempted to fly from Key West to Havana but crashed in the water shortly before reaching Cuba. He was rescued by a U.S. Navy destroyer.
1915 – Key West had 29 cigar factories employing 2,100 workers who made 62,415,000 cigars from imported Cuban tobacco.
1926 – It was announced that, three times a week, Key Wester Isaac Knowles would wrestle turtles in the Thompson Turtle Kraals, where he would dive into the pens and lift the large creatures into the air. A crew from the Fox Motion Picture Company planned to film the first “bout” for a newsreel.
1927 – New York Mayor James J. Walker stopped in Key West on his way to Cuba. Mayor Leslie A. Curry welcomed him to the island city.
1929 – President-elect Herbert Hoover arrived at Long Key Fish Camp by train from Miami. He boarded the houseboat Amitie for his second attempt to land a sailfish.
1967 – Charles Helberg, 62, died of a sudden heart attack at the Key Wester Motel on South Roosevelt Boulevard, which he had built in 1951. In December 1949, Helberg, Vicent Conley, and Abe Golan formed Key West Improvement, Inc., which purchased most of the eastern half of Key West from William R. Porter and the Key West Realty Company.
2006 – Key West’s City Hall on Angela Street was overcrowded, deteriorating, and employees were getting sick from mold contamination. It was becoming obvious to many that the 1962 structure was on its last legs and needed to be replaced: “It’s not bad; it’s intolerable,” said Commissioner Mark Rossi.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: J.A.W. McCurdy's rescue by the USS Paulding after he attempted to fly from Key West to Havana, 1911. Photo by R. W. Harrison; gift of Albert R. Martin, Jr. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
