July 1
- Florida Keys History Center
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
1858 – The Loggerhead Key Lighthouse in the Dry Tortugas was first lit.
1932 – The Key West Citizen, in a front-page editorial, reported to readers that the paper was reducing operations because of lost income from the Great Depression.
1953 – Victor Lang, owner of the Southern Cross Hotel, was named acting Key West city manager.
1963 – Tom O. Watkins was sworn in as the first Public Defender for Monroe County.
1966 – Galey Memorial and DePoo hospitals in Key West and Fishermen’s Hospital in Marathon were approved to participate in Medicare. The new federal medical insurance program for those over 65 went into effect on this date.
1976 – Key Wester Frank Balbontin sent a painted wood carving he made of the White House to President Gerald Ford as a Bicentennial gift from the island. It had taken Balbontin six months to complete the 24x36-inch artwork.
1982 – The United States Supreme Court denied the State of Florida’s claim to 25 percent of the Spanish treasure from Nuestra Señora de Atocha, found and raised by Mel Fisher.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Frank Balbontin with his wood carving of the White House that he sent to President Gerald Ford as a bicentennial gift. Photographed for the Miami Herald, June 30, 1976. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
