1832 – John J. Audubon arrived at Indian Key on the Revenue Cutter Marion.
1847 – Wreckers arrived at Key West with cotton recovered from the British ship Yucatan, wrecked on French Reef. The Yucatan had bilged, and its cargo of 1,200 bales of cotton, 5,000 sacks of corn, and barrels of flour, pork, and lard, could be recovered only with great difficulty.
1898 – The United States declared war on Spain.
1926 – Confederate Memorial Day was observed by the Stephen R. Mallory chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy at the Confederate memorial in Bayview Park. Hymns and readings preceded a memorial address by Rev. W.K.E. James. The decoration of Confederate graves in the Key West cemetery followed.
1951 – A Compamia Cubana de Aviacion four-motor aircraft carrying 34 passengers and a five-man crew flying from Miami to Havana collided with a Navy SNB-5 trainer with a two-man crew. Both planes crashed into the sea off South Beach with no survivors. The investigation later found both planes at fault in the accident.
1975 – Key West’s first Bicentennial project, the Conch Tour Train depot and general offices at the corner of Duval and Front Streets, was dedicated.
1980 – The Coast Guard ordered extra cutters to the Florida Straits to handle the increased flow of refugees from Cuba. This was the beginning of the largest peacetime operation in Coast Guard history. More than 2,000 small boats and a large fleet of commercial fishing boats had left Key West for the Port of Mariel. More than 1,200 refugees had landed in Key West since the boatlift began.
1984 – Federal wildlife officials held a meeting on Plantation Key to discuss future protection of the Key Largo wood rat and the Key Largo cotton mouse. Few residents were sympathetic to the plight of the endangered rodents. Said one attendee, “We don’t miss the dinosaurs, and we’ll never miss these rats…They should be eradicated.”
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Conch Train depot on Front Street at Duval Street in March 1976. Photo by Raymond L. Blazevic. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.