July 27

Peggy Murphree and Peter Pell, ca. 1973.

1925 – Monroe County Superintendent of Public Instruction Melvin E. Russell said he had been notified that all Florida teachers would have to undergo an examination on the U.S. Constitution. Teaching certificates would not be issued until recipients passed the exams.

1933 – The Smith Shoals lighthouse was first lighted.

1935 – The Florida Works Progress Administration announced in the month of August it intended to employ 810 persons in the Key West area at a cost of $32,380.

1957 – The USS Seawolf, the Navy’s second nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Key West for a two-day stay. Seawolf was conducting operations around the Florida Keys, and, other than its home port of New London, CT, Key West was the only port it had been cleared to enter.

1960 – Eckwood Solomon Jr. was awarded the Philippine Military Academy’s “Order of Merit.” He was an exchange student from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

1981 – Peter Pell, one of the founders of Key West Hand Print Fabrics, died suddenly at his home in Key West. Pell, with his partner James Russell, founded Hand Print Fabrics in the early 1960’s.

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

Image: Peggy Murphree and Peter Pell, ca. 1973. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.