1909 – The Florida East Coast Railway chartered the schooner Helen Thomas to bring 1,600 to 1,700 tons of iron rails from Baltimore to...

1900 – The Key West Library in the Masonic Temple building at 315 Simonton Street had 1,600 volumes under Librarian Sallie E. Roberts....

1852 – The steamer Philadelphia arrived at Key West with many passengers sick with cholera. No one was allowed on the island, and...

1889 – The Florida Legislature granted a new charter to the city of Key West that included the entire island within the city limits. 1890...

1823 – The U.S. Navy steamer Sea Gull , the storeship Decoy , and the schooners Greyhound and Jackall were at Key West, with the...

1861 – Major Wm. French, commanding officer at Key West, met with Mayor J.P. Baldwin to work toward defusing tensions between the...

1896 – The schooner Competitor of Key West was seized by the Spanish gunboat Mensagera near Havana, loaded with Mauser and Remington...

1847 – The British ship Yucatan ran ashore on French Reef and bilged while carrying 1,200 bales of cotton, 800 barrels of flour, 300 of...

1865 – Word reached Key West that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General U.S. Grant on April 9, virtually ending the Civil...

1865 – To celebrate of the recent fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond, the ships of the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron at Key...

1825 – The U.S. schooner Shark sailed from Key West to Havana with a group of pirates captured by the USS Sea Gull . The outlaws were...

1898 – Lieutenant Commander Adolph Marix, carrying the final report of the USS Maine Court of Inquiry, sailed on the steamer City of...

1838 – Tomas Sachetti was elected Mayor of Key West. He was the candidate of a group of merchants opposed to occupational licenses that...

1829 – During a gale, the British ship Britannia , carrying rum, sugar, coffee, pimento, fustic and hides from Jamaica, wrecked on Conch...

1853 – Bowne and Curry successfully tested a marine railway that was capable of lifting vessels of 500 tons. 1858 – Professor Louis...

1904 – Key West police officer Clarence K. Till was killed in a shootout with Dutchy Melbourne. Officer Till had answered a call about a...

1898 – An unidentified sailor from the Battleship Maine was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery. 1911 –...

1898 – The Court of Inquiry investigating the loss of the Battleship Maine met in the Key West Custom House. 1923 – United Daughters...

1862 – U.S. troops at Key West were flouting postal protocol by smuggling their letters via Spanish “fruit sloops” to Havana, from where...

1926 – Herman Wolkowsky of Key West erected a 16-by-24-foot promotional sign in Miami that read “You Have Not Seen Florida Until You See...