1852 – Wreckers engaged in salvaging the ship Telamon, wrecked on Delta Shoal, contracted with Daniel Davis to refloat the vessel by using windmill powered pumps. If successful, Davis was to receive $1,800; if not he would get $9. The effort failed, though the pumps did lower the water by 10 inches at one point.
1954 – The Key West City Commission granted Joe Sirugo a 20-year lease on waterfront land at the north end of Simonton Street, from where he planned to operate an auto ferry to Havana. Sirugo was required have the ferry in operation by the end of the year, or the lease would be null and void.
1985 – The gun sight hood from the Battleship Maine that had been at Harris School since it was given to Key West was moved to the new Key West Post Office on Whitehead Street and rededicated.
1994 – Anti-drug activist Herman Wrice of Philadelphia was in Key West to meet with city and county officials to outline his community-based method of fighting against illegal drugs. Thirty of his supporters attended a City Commission meeting wearing yellow “Up With Hope, Down With Dope” T-shirts.
1995 – The new 19,999 square foot terminal at Marathon Airport opened. The terminal was part of a $7.4 million airport upgrade.
2007 – County officials and hundreds of residents gathered at the Marathon Airport to welcome a 40-passenger Delta Airlines jet from Atlanta, the first commercial air service to the Middle Keys since 2000.
2019 – Key West closed a portion of Duval Street for the first of 11 “Mall on Duval” weekends, whereby, from 5 p.m. to midnight, the 500, 600, and 700 blocks of the popular city street would become pedestrian-only.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Mayor C.B. Harvey signs the papers leasing the land at the end of Simonton Street to Joe Sirugo for use by the Cuban Ferry, February 1954. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.