1854 – The brig Governor Brown, sailing from St. Marks to New York with a cargo of cotton, put into Key West and was detained there because of insufficient crew.
1872 – A correspondent wrote of Key West, “At the wharves you see the ugly hulls of wrecked vessels, which were formerly the main objects of trade in Key West. But this gloomy business is falling off every day. The few years of ocean stem navigation is curtailing that of sailing vessels, and the wreckers complain of dull times.”
1899 – Yellow fever began to break out at Key West. “A great many cases are known to have developed in the last 24 hours, and one death has occurred,” wrote a correspondent.
1924 – After a parade through Key West, the Key West chapter of the Ku Klux Klan held an induction ceremony at Bayview Park. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, grandson of the famed Confederate general, swore in 151 new initiates in the ritual. To this date, the local chapter had received 690 applications for membership.
1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt arrived in Key West at 3 p.m. after driving the Overseas Highway from Miami. He was met at West Summerland Key by Key West Mayor Willard Albury who rode to the city with him. The President inspected the inactive Naval Station facilities and then boarded the USS Houston which then sailed for the Caribbean to take part in war games in progress.
1946 – Monroe County Commissioner Maximo Valdez was working to keep the old wooden Boca Chica Bridge open for fishing. The state had taken possession of all the obsolete bridges in the Keys, with most slated to be torn down.
1998 – The Transit Center for Cuban Refugees on Stock Island closed and moved rafts and other artifacts to Miami where they became part of a museum of the exodus of Cuban and Haitians.
2007 – Newly-hired president of Florida Keys Community College Jill Landesberg-Boyle was getting to know staff and Keys community members. She outlined a goal of increasing the school’s enrollment: “Recruitment is critical, and we need to focus on enrollment and retention,” she said.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The Boca Chica Bridge on the First Overseas Highway C 1928. Gift Curtis Stanton. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.