1844 – The schooner Select, sailing from New Orleans to Barbados, was lost off Key Vaca. The cargo of provisions was saved by wreckers and taken to Key West.
1849 – A report said that, except for Key West and the Tortugas, there were few inhabitants of other Florida Keys: “One house on Saddle Keys; a few families of Bahamians on Key Vaca; some four families on Indian Key, and one family on Key Biscayne.”
1910 – The Key West City Council and Board of Public Works met to hear proposals for paving the city’s streets, as engineers had completed the necessary surveys. Vitrified brick, wood blocks, and bitulithic were being considered for paving materials.
1923 – Rear Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee, U.S. Navy retired, died at his home in New York. He was captain of the Battleship Maine when it was destroyed in Havana in 1898, which resulted in the war with Spain.
1936 – A large grass fire burned near the Porter fruit orchard in Key West. Firefighters stood by to monitor the blaze until it burned out.
1942 – The merchant vessel Baja California was sunk 42 miles northeast of the Dry Tortugas by the German submarine U-84.
1942 – The merchant vessel Port Antonio was sunk 95 miles of southwest of the Dry Tortugas by German U-129.
2008 – Robert the Doll traveled outside of Key West for the first time to make an appearance at a paranormal conference in Clearwater.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee on September 7, 1917. Key West Art and Historical Society Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.