September 21
1934 – The Key West Historical Society was formed at an organizational meeting at the Key West Library. The officers named were Judge Jefferson B. Browne, president; M.E. Gilford, vice-president; H.T. Hunt Jr., recording secretary; Mrs. S. W. Douglas, treasurer, and Mrs. Wallace B. Kirk, temporary historian.
1948 – A category three hurricane passed over Boca Chica Naval Air Station where a barometer reading of 28.45 and sustained winds of 122 mph were recorded. The storm caused only minor damage in Key West.
1951 – Key West Mayor Louis M.J. Eisner dedicated the new Wickers Stadium before a crowd estimated at 3,000. The Miami Sun Sox and Havana Cubans played the first baseball game in the stadium.
1961 – The Monroe County Civil Defense program was training people throughout the Keys on how to use Geiger counters to detect radioactivity and bacteriological detectors to pinpoint biological agents.
1976 – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established a protected “critical habitat” for the endangered American crocodile in the Everglades and northern Florida Keys. There were fewer than 10 breeding females known in the U.S., all of which lived in the designated area.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: American crocodiles hunted on Key Largo in August 1929. L to R: Unknown, and Miami taxidermists Phil Pfluger and Al Pfluger. The Sullivan collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
