March 25

A yacht tied up to a Naval Station Key West pier, ca. 1935.

1929 – Ty Cobb, the famous baseball player, was visiting Key West for a fishing trip.

1935 – A resolution by Florida Congressman James Wilcox to designate Key West Naval base as a winter station for submarines met opposition from the Navy Department. Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson said the department’s plan was to continue to keep the station “in an inoperative status.”

1946 – Former U. S. President Herbert Hoover paid a visit to the Key West Naval Station while on his annual fishing trip to the Keys.

1950 – Five Black Key West men were found guilty of raping a white woman on Stock Island in January, after the state introduced signed confessions from the five as evidence. The verdicts came “with mercy,” meaning death sentences were off the table.

1961 – The beach along South Roosevelt Boulevard was dedicated and named for Florida Senator George Smathers. The Senator attended the ceremony.

1986 – The National Marine Fisheries Service issued an emergency ruling closing the commercial fishing season for kingfish in the Gulf of Mexico. Kingfish had been declared a threatened species.

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

Image: A yacht tied up to a Naval Station Key West pier, ca. 1935. From the Dale McDonald Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.