Douglass High School, circa 1963
1924 – A party of Key Westers returning from Dog Rocks in the Bahamas released four dozen whelks near Sand Key. They hoped the whelks would thrive. Some Key Westers considered the whelk tastier than the conch.
1934 – The Federal Emergency Relief Administration began a demolition program at Key West with 60 workers readying the dump for discarded materials. Buildings deemed unfit would be scavenged for useful materials, and the debris taken to the trash and destroyed.
1938 – Miss Bernice Brantley was acclaimed Miss Key West and Queen of the Overseas Highway Celebration, July 2-4, at the Cabaret Dance at the Habana Madrid.
1953 – The Smithsonian Institution announced that a Florida Keys shipwreck they had been exploring was that of a Spanish galleon sunk in 1733. Though the name of the ship was not known, Mendel Peterson, head of the U.S. National Museum’s history department, said the recovered artifacts matched documents describing the loss of a treasure fleet in that year.
1956 – Monroe County Sheriff John M. Spottswood was elected president of the Florida State Sheriff’s Association.
1960 – The U.S. Navy publicly demonstrated their previously top-secret ASROC anti-submarine missile in waters off Key West. Because it carried an acoustic homing torpedo, the new 15-foot missile could be fired from a long distance, eliminating the need for a chase.
1965 – After 95 years of operation in various locations, the all-Black Douglass School was closed, with the facility to house the new Monroe Junior College. The Douglass students would be integrated into other, existing Key West schools.
1965 – The Garrison Bight causeway bridge was officially opened by Monroe County Mayor Gerald Saunders, Key West Mayor Kermit Lewin and Rear Admiral Thomas A. Christopher.
1978 – Key West Mayor Charles “Sonny” McCoy water-skied from Key West to Havana.
2008 – A rare beaked whale was recuperating at Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo after having been found stranded in shallow water behind an Islamorada home. To help understand its plight, the 14-foot whale was given a hearing test by U.S. Navy audiologists.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A group in front of Douglass High School circa 1963. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.