November 21

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the playhouse at the East Martello museum, 1960.

1905 – A general strike of the cigarmakers was ordered. Several meetings of the Manufacturers Union and the Cigarmakers Union failed to settle the strike.

1930 – Joe Allen was named editor of Key West High School’s “Conch” yearbook, with Evely Miller as assistant editor, Norma Yates as business manager and secretary, and Rosalind Grooms as art editor.

1935 – The WPA began a program of eradication of wild cotton in the Keys and Everglades. The cotton was being eliminated because it played host to the pink boll worm.

1946 – President Harry Truman submerged to 440 feet on a captured German submarine manned by a U.S. Navy crew.

1954 – The crew filming “The Rose Tattoo” left after the final scenes were shot at the Mardi Gras Club on Duval Street.

1960 – The East Martello Tower Museum opened a new exhibit called “The Playhouse,” which featured toys housed in the first playhouse built in Key West.

2000 – Key West Police were warning female bargoers to not leave their drinks unattended. There had been multiple instances over the previous weeks where women became extremely intoxicated after their drinks were altered with drugs, apparently by men planning to sexually assault them.

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

Image: A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the playhouse at the East Martello museum, 1960. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.