1865 – Word reached Key West that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General U.S. Grant on April 9, essentially ending the Civil War. There was a great celebration, and the Army fired a 100-gun salute.
1886 – Ley Memorial Methodist Church was dedicated at Key West.
1902 – Ground was broken for the foundation of the Key West Armory, and the John Lowe sawmill was cutting timber for the building’s construction.
1926 – Dr. J.N. Fogarty, former Key West mayor, visited the island and reconnected with many old friends. Fogarty had moved to St. Augustine and become mayor of that city and Chief Surgeon for the Florida East Coast Railway.
1927 – A large crowd welcomed General Gerardo Machado y Morles, President of Cuba, to Key West. The President arrived on the steamer Governor Cobb and was met at the pier by Mayor Leslie Curry and other officials. After a reception at the La Concha Hotel, the President and his party boarded a private train car for a trip to Washington.
1982 – Owners of tourism businesses in the Keys claimed that the roadblock established by the U.S. Border Patrol to check the citizenship of everyone leaving the Florida Keys had frightened away legitimate traffic to the islands.
1986 – A sky breaking was held for the renovation of the La Concha Hotel.
1991 – After 17 straight winning seasons Key West High School baseball coach Pedro Fraga retired.
2007 – Three people were killed when the small plane they were travelling in collided with the cable that tethered the radar blimp on Cudjoe Key. The Cessna 182, which had earlier left Key West, spun out of control after hitting the cable and crashed into two feet of water.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Naval Headquarters at the end of Duval Street in April 1865. Scott De Wolfe Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.