July 8

An electric trolley and tracks on an unpaved Key West street, ca. 1900.

1908 – Monroe County Deputy Sheriff and Audubon Society Game Warden Guy M. Bradley was shot and killed by outlaw bird plume hunters in what is now Everglades National Park.

1926 – The Key West trolleys and tracks, along with their accompanying electric lines, began to be removed from city streets. The cars, because they were not of a standard gauge and were of an obsolete “open” style, would be sold for scrap.

1942 – The American merchant vessel J.A. Moffett Jr. was torpedoed and damaged near the Alligator Reef Lighthouse by German submarine U-571.

1945 – Dr. James B. Parramore, county health director, reported there had been 35 cases of polio in Key West during the summer.

1953 – The beach on the Key West Naval Station used by former President Harry Truman was renovated and opened to Naval Personnel and their dependents.

1962 – The movie “PT-109,” the story of President John F. Kennedy during World War II, was being filmed on Munson Island. The movie starred Cliff Robertson as Kennedy.

1976 – The new Rock Harbor reverse osmosis plant on Key Largo was running smoothly and producing over a million gallons of freshwater daily. The plant was still not at full capacity, though, as it had not yet been plumbed into the main Keys pipeline.

1986 – Ida Barron, newspaper columnist and historian, died at age 75. Among other accomplishments, she was instrumental in bringing together the Island Roots celebration in the 1970’s in which Key West and New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas were named sister cities.

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

Image: An electric trolley and tracks on an unpaved Key West street, ca. 1900. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.