June 29
- Florida Keys History Center
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
1887 – A particularly malevolent strain of yellow fever was rapidly spreading through Key West. “The disease is now beyond the control of the health authorities, and its character is very fatal,” wrote a correspondent. Of 46 cases reported on this date, 19 died.
1905 – An appropriation of nearly $500,000 was authorized for improvements at the Key West Naval Station, including new buildings, an extension of the coal sheds, and the construction of a quay wall from the sheds to Fort Taylor.
1951 – A Navy PBM crashed near Dredgers Key after taking off from the Key West Sea Plane Base, killing eight of the nine-man crew.
1966 – Marine Lance Corporal Leland (Skipper) Albury, a Key West native, died from wounds he received in battle in Vietnam. Albury was a renowned tennis player for the Key West High School team, and the courts at Bayview Park are named in his honor.
1984 – A federal grand jury indicted a total of 22 people, charging with a variety of offenses in connection with the operating of a cocaine trafficking ring and a protection network. Included in the group were the Key West deputy chief of police and two detectives.
1973 – Destroyer Squadron 18 and Submarine Squadron 12 were decommissioned in a joint ceremony at the Naval Station Key West. This ended Key West Naval Station’s use as an active base for submarines and destroyers that began before World War II.
1995 – The Navy held an official ribbon-cutting for the Peary Court housing project. The site had been leased to the city for years which created a movement to stop the housing project.
2001 – The recent arrest of “Key West the Newspaper” editor Dennis Reeves Cooper for publishing information about a city police department internal affairs investigation was garnering national attention and being perceived as retaliatory. Cooper had long had a contentious relationship with the KWPD and its Chief Buz Dillon.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Naval Station Key West coal sheds and waterfront, with a large crowd of people standing on the docks, ca. 1918. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
