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July 13

  • Writer: Florida Keys History Center
    Florida Keys History Center
  • Jul 12
  • 2 min read
A marine dredge working with a shoreline in the foreground.
The dredge Babcock working on the ramp for the new Naval Air Station at Trumbo Point in 1917.

1823 – Commodore David Porter sent five Spanish pirates to the Captain-General of Cuba for trial. The outlaws had been wounded in a battle with the US Navy’s anti-piracy squadron off the north coast of Cuba, taken prisoner, and brought to Key West.


1917 - Ground was broken for the first Naval Air Station on Trumbo Point. The new air facility was on land rented from the Florida East Coast Railroad.


1942 – The merchant vessel Andrew Jackson was sunk 72 miles east of Havana by the German submarine U-84.


1957 – The State of Florida announced that the Monroe County School District would receive $913,828 in state funds for the upcoming school year.


1962 – A 50-foot mobile home was towed from Key West to Pigeon Key, where it would provide living quarters for the state conservation agent who was operating the crawfish hatchery on the small island.


1975 – Divers for Mel Fisher’s Treasure Salvors discovered five bronze cannons, along with an unreported number of copper ingots, approximately 10 miles west of the Marquesas Keys. Markings on the guns proved that they were from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, sunk in 1622.


1984 – The Monroe County Commission renamed three buildings at their meeting in Key West. The Key West Library was renamed Monroe County May Hill Russell Library, the Marathon Library was renamed the George Dolezal Branch Library and the West Martello was renamed West Martello Joe Allen Garden Center.


1993 – Katherine “K” Wilkinson was selected by the American Cancer Society to receive the 1993 Florida Distinguished Service Award for her diligent volunteer service to the society.


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


Image: The dredge Babcock working on the ramp for the new Naval Air Station at Trumbo Point in 1917. From the Ida Woodward Barron Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.


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