June 24
- Florida Keys History Center
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
1855 – The brig Perseverance arrived at Key West from Pensacola with a cargo of brick for the construction of Fort Taylor.
1897 – Key Wester Sylvanus Johnson was charged with rape, and he was ordered to be held without bond by the Justice of Peace. An attempt was made to raise a mob to lynch Johnson, but Sheriff Frank Knight protected the prisoner and threatened to shoot any man who moved to take him. That night, a group of armed African Americans surrounded the jail to also help protect the prisoner. During the night, Will Gardener, who was walking by the courthouse, was shot and killed by an unknown assassin.
1926 – Jumbo, a loggerhead sea turtle, celebrated his third birthday at the aquarium at the eastern end of Key West. Jumbo had been hatched in a sandbox onboard Peter Roberts’ fishing boat and then hand-raised alongside Roberts’ dock for two years, before being transferred to the aquarium because of his increasing size.
1930 – In a run-off election, Arthur Gomez of Key West was elected state senator for the 24th district and Roy S. Fulford was elected county commissioner.
1946 – Key West was made part of the Florida-Cuba emergency radio phone network, a network of 40 amateur short wave radio station operators in both Florida and Cuba. Many of the operators had their own power stations and could operate when regular power systems failed, particularly in hurricanes.
1954 – A 49-year-old Keys woman became the 31st polio victim of the year. She was also the oldest person to be stricken with the disease in Monroe County.
1988 – Key West resident Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson received the Prisoner of War Medal from President Ronald Reagan, who recognized Thompson as the U.S. military’s longest held prisoner of war. Thompson had been held in Vietnam for 3,278 days.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Peter Roberts (R) at his fish market along the Key West waterfront. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
