April 20

Unloading catch of shrimp in Marathon in the 1950's.

1865 – Word reached Key West that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General U.S. Grant on April 9, virtually ending the Civil War. There was a great celebration, and U.S. Army troops fired a 100-gun salute.

1886 – Ley Memorial Methodist Church in Key West was dedicated.

1959 – Some 25 members of the Marathon-based Tortugas Shrimpers Association met with elected officials in Tallahassee to urge the passage of a bill that would reopen areas of the Tortugas shrimp beds that had been closed for conservation.

1962 – The former East Martello Battery located off Government Road in Key West was declared off-limits to unauthorized persons. The structure, covered by an earthen mound, was being activated as the Monroe County Emergency Operations Center under the national Civil Defense program.

1982 – Tourism businesses in the Keys claimed that the roadblock established by the U.S. Border Patrol to check the citizenship of everyone leaving the Florida Keys had frightened away legitimate traffic to the Keys.

2010 – The Key West Cemetery closed the Frances Street gate to curb vandalism and vagrancy, as well as to stop bicyclists and others from using the cemetery as a shortcut. “The last couple of weeks I’ve been getting more and more complaints. It’s become a problem for us,” said the sexton.

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Unloading catch of shrimp in Marathon in the 1950's. Copyright Edwin O. Swift Jr. from the archives of Edwin O. Swift III. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.