1890 – The schooner Competitor, with a crew of 11, returned from a five-week voyage to the sponge beds with 1,375 bunches. Their haul sold for a remarkable $4,312, which “greatly tickled the owners of the sponge.”
1905 – Tension was growing between British and American wreckers over the Dutch steamer Andania, wrecked at the Double-headed Shot Keys on Cay Sal Bank. Though the vessel was aground in British territory, a team of wreckers from Key West had reached it first and claimed salvage rights. Washington diplomats were likely to become involved.
1912 – The “Opening of the Overseas Railway to Key West” was the cover story of Collier’s Weekly Magazine, which brought the monumental achievement to a national audience.
1915 – The accounts of Monroe County Tax Collector T.A. Sweeting were found to be $22,000 short. Auditors made this discovery 10 days after Sweeting had disappeared.
1928 – Humorist and social commentator Will Rogers arrived at Key West by boat. While he waited for an outbound train, Rogers drove across the island from one end to the other and declared Key West was a “good city.”
1955 – Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas S. Gates, Jr. issued a report that threatened “drastic action” on U.S. Navy operations at Key West unless the city cracked down on prostitution, gambling, police brutality, and “60-cent beer.”
1958 – A groundbreaking was held for the Robert Gabriel housing project.
2005 – The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council instituted new rules for a 104-square-mile area around Pulley Ridge, a thriving, deepwater reef near the Dry Tortugas. No longer could anchors, traps, or bottom-trawling gear be used in the unique habitat.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Collier’s magazine, Vol XLVIII, No 18. January 20, 1912. Gift of Mrs. Page Brown. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center