1823 – Commodore David Porter arrived at Key West to establish a Navy base. Joel Yancy arrived with him to establish the Custom Service office in Key West.
1829 – The Spanish brig Curreo No.1 wrecked at Carysfort Reef. The crew, cargo of specie, and passengers who had set out on a raft, were rescued by wreckers. The shipwrecked victims, though, threatened to hijack the wrecking vessels to Cuba. With assistance from other wreckers the mutiny was quelled, and the Spaniards were first taken to Indian Key and then transported to Key West.
1848 – The wrecking schooner Levina arrive at Key West with an iron chest and $3422 in pistareens from the wreck of the Spanish brig Fomento. The chest was in 5 fathoms of water and had to be broken open by divers to extract the money. Other items recovered were clothing, chain, hides, an anchor, and copper.
1895 – Speculation was growing that Henry Flagler intended to build a railroad to Key West: He had purchased half of Key Largo and small tracts of land on 63 other keys.
1898 – Governor William D. Bloxham ordered Captain F.C. Brossier to put the Key West Guard on a war footing.
1904 – Jake Aronovitz died at the age of 80. He came to Key West in 1890 and operated Joe’s Trading Palace on Duval Street until he retired. He was a charter member of B’nai Zion Congregation.
1926 – Police Chief Cleveland Niles began a policy of ringing the fire bell at nine o’clock in the evening to remind Key West juveniles 16 years and younger that there was a curfew and they needed to be home.
1926 – Ernest Poirier, a Montreal businessman, bought a 75 x 250-foot lot at the corner of Greene and Duval Streets from Abraham Wolkowsky. Poirier planned to tear down the shacks that stood there and replace them with a modern building.
1943 – The United States merchant ship Gulf State was sunk by German U-Boat 155 about 20 miles southeast of the Middle Keys.
1953 – Enrollment in Monroe County Schools had increased 67 percent in the past 10 years: In the 1942-43 year there were 2,771 students; in the 1952-53 school year there were 4,131.
1979 – Directors of the Southernmost Chamber of Commerce elected Jack Smith their first president. The Southernmost Chamber was formed by a group of dissident members from the Greater Key West Chamber earlier in the year.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Key West Police Chief Cleveland Niles. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.