1911 – The U.S. Coast Survey steamer Bache was in Key West after having spent a week charting shoals around the Marquesas Keys. The vessel would soon leave to begin surveys of Rebecca Shoals.
1925 – Homestead Mayor and former Key Wester Ernest P. Roberts was leading a movement to create the new “Redlands County” from the southern part of Dade County and the mainland part of Monroe.
1935 – Key West’s Army baseball team beat the Federal Emergency Relief Administration players 6 to 3 in a Social Diamondball League game.
1941 – Ed Ball, general manager of the Alfred I. Dupont estate, purchased 600 acres of land on Upper Matecumbe, Little Torch, and Sugarloaf keys.
1986 – The last “Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet” took place, with Father Tony Mullane performing the service as shrimp boats passed by Mallory Square. The ceremony was a 25-year tradition sponsored by the Old Island Restoration Foundation.
1994 – The Key West City Commission was trying to pass a sound control ordinance, which was causing strife between Old Town residents and Duval Street bar owners.
2000 – A group of Big Pine Key sports enthusiasts, frustrated by overcrowding at the Watson ballfield, was urging Monroe County to purchase the flea market grounds for $2 million and develop the property into a sports complex for the area’s youth.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Blessing of the Key West shrimp fleet, with the Gulf Pirate and Gulf Star leading the procession. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.