1823 – Commodore David Porter arrived at Key West for the purpose of establishing a Naval Station at the island. Joel Yancy, Key West’s first Collector of Customs, also arrived with Porter to establish a Custom Service office in Key West.
1943 – The United States merchant ship Gulf State was sunk by German U-Boat 155 about 20 miles southeast of the Middle Keys.
1950 – Students at Key West’s Truman Elementary School were undergoing their second round of sodium fluoride treatment to aid the health of their teeth. Cavities had been forming 4 to 5 times faster than dentists could fill them, and it was estimated that 98 percent of the school’s students needed dental care.
1955 – Southern Bell Telephone Company installed new dial equipment that gave all 8,700 phones in Key West new numbers. The old prefix number of 2 was dropped, and the new numbers used prefixes of CY4 or CY6 (294 or 296).
1975 – After months of complaints and no response from the property’s owners, Monroe County was moving to have a Grassy Key “hippie commune” declared a public nuisance. By officially pronouncing the camping area a nuisance, the Sheriff’s Office could have greater access to the private property.
2010 – A two-man prototype submarine being built by the Navy burst into flames at a Marathon boatyard. Though the fire was thought to be of electrical origin, the cause was officially listed as “undetermined.”
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Monroe County Mayor Gerald Saunders makes the first telephone call using the new "CYpress" exchange on April 3, 1955. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.