March 26
- Monroe County Public Library
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
1830 – A captain Hobart witnessed a pirate attack on a ship off Key Largo. After seeing three vessels and hearing the report of a heavy coming gun from their direction, he saw a schooner approach a ship, “and from the evident confusion on board the ship [he] had no doubt she was boarded by pirates.” Hobart heard another gun and left the scene.
1885 – The Florida State Census listed the population of Key West as 13,558. The birthplaces of the people in the census were Key West/Florida 43%, Cuba 33%, and the Bahamas 24%. The census reported a total work force of 4,895. The largest number of those employed, 2,035, worked in the cigar industry. The next occupation was seaman, followed by washwomen 542, laborers 283, and carpenters 195.
1898 – The Spanish Naval Court of Inquiry submitted to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Long its findings, which found the Battleship Maine was destroyed by an internal explosion.
1926 – The Brethren meeting at the Gospel Chapel at 720 Southard Street in Key West began a three-day conference that would run until the close of Sunday evening services.
1963 – Bernice Daniel purchased the Hemingway House on Whitehead Street in Key West.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan met in Key West to discuss the serious situation in Southeast Asia.
1994 – Former Key West resident Charles A. Allen Jr. was memorialized when the Fort Polk Library was named the First Sergeant Charles A. Allen Jr. Library. Allen graduated from Key West High School and joined the Army in 1966. He retired in 1984 and died in 1985.
2011 – Water restrictions were instituted across all of Monroe County as South Florida experienced its worst drought in 80 years.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Gospel Chapel at 720 Southard St., ca. 1965; built 1906. Sqr 59, Pt Lot 2. Photo taken by the Monroe County Property Appraiser's office. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.