February 21

Jeane Porter Kirke and Billy Spellman dancing at the Havana Madrid night club.

1925 – John Ringling, of circus fame, spent two days in Key West while enroute to Cuba.

1935 – The Havana Madrid Club in Key West celebrated its grand opening. Entertainer Jimmie Crawford was emcee for the gala event, and acts were the Atlantic Beach Club Orchestra, the Carioca group, Mendoza’s Cuban Rhumba Band, dancer Marguerite Hand, and blues singer Ann McDonnell.

1963 – The Coast Guard was searching south of Key West for the missing freighter Marine Sulphur Queen. The ship vanished on February 2 with all hands and the only trace found was some debris near Key West.

1975 – The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority urged Monroe County business and residents to reduce water consumption as demand had exceeded supply for the previous eleven days and reserve supplies were dropping.

1991 – Key West native Master Sergeant Eloy A. Rodriguez, a medic with the Army Special Forces, was killed in a helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia. He was the only local killed in the Gulf War.

1999 – Irving Baltuff, a resident of Big Pine Key, donated 15 acres of land on Big Torch Key to the Lower Keys chapter of Habitat for Humanity. “I am very happy. I just hope they can put a bunch of houses up,” said Baltuff.

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

Image: Jeane Porter Kirke and Billy Spellman dancing at the Havana Madrid night club. The Heritage House Collection, donated by the Campbell, Poirier, and Pound families. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.