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May 14

  • Writer: Florida Keys History Center
    Florida Keys History Center
  • May 13
  • 2 min read
Two men, one in a Navy officer's uniform, looking at a display.
Former President Harry S. Truman and Rear Admiral Francis McCorkle inside Building 124, Naval Station Key West, on February 23, 1957.

1898 – Apprentice First Class Ernest Suntzenich, who was wounded in battle at Cienfuegos, Cuba, died of his wound at the Army Hospital at the Key West Barracks. He was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery.


1940 – Thelma Strabel, author of “Reap the Wild Wind,” a story about Key West wreckers, received a building permit to construct a $12,000 house at 400 South Street.


1942 – The Mexican freighter Potrero Del Llano was sunk by the German submarine U-564 near Fowey Rocks Lighthouse.


1959 – Rear Admiral Francis D. McCorkle, Commanding Officer of Naval Station Key West, was unanimously chosen to be Grand Marshal for the island’s annual Armed Forces Day parade. The popular McCorkle, a highly decorated war hero, was considered an “adopted son” by Key Westers.


1980 – A task force of Key West business leaders was formed to combat unfavorable press coverage resulting from the Mariel boatlift. Merchants reported that business was down between 25 and 50% over the last year.


1995 – A Coral Gables man proposed to the Key West Bight Board that a 14,000-square-foot scaled-down version of Key West as it looked in the 1890s be built at Greene and Elizabeth streets. The roughly 1:40 scale outdoor set-up would be covered by a shade structure.


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



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