Today in Keys History – July 20, 2024
1953 – A tentative “Master Plan” for Key West was unveiled at the City Commission meeting.
1954 – John P. Goggin was named Marathon’s “Outstanding Citizen” by the Marathon Memorial American Legion. Goggin was the Monroe County Engineer, president of the Marathon Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Marathon Lions Club and Little Theater group.
1967 – Vice President Hubert Humphrey dedicated the Westinghouse desalting plant on Stock Island before a crowd of 500.
1975 – Treasure Salvors’ tugboat Northwind sank, drowning diver Rick Gage, and Dirk and Angel Fisher, Mel Fisher’s son and daughter-in-law. They were searching for the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
1985 – Mel Fisher and his team at Treasure Salvors, Inc., found the “mother lode” of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha after having searched for it for more than 15 years.
1999 – All Key West beaches were under health department advisories because of high levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria. Yellow barricades with warning signs were placed at Smathers Beach, though unknown persons had knocked many of the barriers down and removed the signs.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Members of the Marathon Lions Club, ca. 1960. L to R: Ralph Cunningham, Arthur ?, John P. Goggin, Earl Thurkelson, Doc MacDonald, and Emmett Bud Graham. Photo from Erma Stout’s scrapbook. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.