July 9
- Florida Keys History Center
- 32 minutes ago
- 2 min read
1898 – Private Robert Hunter, Company H 25th Infantry, died of typhoid in the Army Hospital at the Convent.
1903 – The members of Key West’s Zion Primitive Baptist Church announced they would hold a fundraising rally to help pay for a new roof, repainting, and other repairs to the building.
1933 – Ernest Hemingway, fishing with Captain Joe Russell of Key West, caught a Marlin in Cuban waters that was 12 feet 8 inches long and weighed 468 pounds.
1942 – The merchant vessel Nicholas Cuneo was sunk 66 miles southwest of Key West by the German submarine U-571.
1947 – The Navy announced it would move its Special Weapons and Devices School from New London, CT, to Key West. The school had a staff of six officers and 17 enlisted men and a normal student population of 16 officers and 150 enlisted men.
1974 – Fire destroyed the La Plaza grocery at 630 Fleming Street in Key West and an adjacent store and conch house at 628 and 624 Fleming. An Elizabeth Street home was damaged. The grocery building, across from the Key West Library, originally housed Pierce Bros. Hardware, established 75 years earlier.
1975 – A federal judge ordered developer Charles Valois to restore seven acres of land along State Road 905 north of U.S. 1 on Key Largo to its original state. Valois had dredged canals and clear-cut mangroves without a permit at the site, where he hoped to build 27 homes.
1990 – Monroe County Commissioners Doug Jones, Wilhelmina Harvey, Mike Puto, and John Stormont received letters from the militant environmentalist group Earth First! Each letter bore the message “We are here, and we are watching you,” scrawled in black marker.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Jackpot Grocery, 628 Fleming St., Key West, ca. 1965; destroyed by fire 1974. Sqr 49, Pt Lot 2. Photo taken by the Monroe County Property Appraiser's office. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.