1858 - Professor Louis Agassiz of Harvard University was at Key West continuing his multi-year examination of the Florida reef and collect specimens for his work on natural history.
1925 – The Oversea Highway Association stretched a 30-foot banner across Duval Street in Key West, emblazoned with the words “Are you a Booster or a Rooster?” The sign was in support of the highway construction bond issue to be decided on by voters.
1926 – The Junior Ku Klux Klan burned a cross between 10 and 11 o’clock in the vicinity of the “second Martello tower.” They first attended the Congregational Church in regalia and afterward paraded through the town to the site where the cross was erected.
1947 – President Harry Truman’s arrival in Key West was a windfall for many residents: The car he rode in bore license plate No. 45, and a 21-gun salute was fired when he reached the Naval Station, prompting many islanders to play those numbers in the evening’s bolita. As luck would have it, first prize was 21, and third prize was 45.
1950 – The new prison camp on Big Pine Key was opened to the public for inspection.
2010 – The Monroe County School Board was trying to figure out how an unauthorized and unpermitted $218,000 concession stand came to be constructed beside the athletic field of Key West’s Horace O’Bryant Middle School.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: President Harry Truman passes St. Mary Star of the Sea Church on Division Street during a 1947 visit to Key West. The Scott DeWolfe Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.