March 3

Aerial view of the Kennedy Drive Sports Complex and Poinciana School, September 1, 1999.

1898 – An unidentified sailor from the Battleship Maine was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery.

1917 – Carl G. Fisher of Indianapolis won the Express Cruiser Speedboat Race from Miami to Key West. His boat, the Shadow II, took six hours and 17 minutes to cover the 161 miles. Five boats started the race but only two finished.

1954 – First National Bank President J.J. Trevor presented the old doors to the Key West Art & Historical Society for use at East Martello. The doors had been installed at the bank when it was constructed in 1891.

1955 – Representatives of the Brooklyn Dodgers arrived in Key West and signed former KWHS baseball players Julio Henriquez, Gibby Gates, and Richard “Biff” Salgado to play with the organization.

1961 – A crowded, tumultuous meeting of the Board of Directors of the San Carlos Institute resulted in a break in relations between the Institute and the government of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

2005 – The Monroe County School Board approved the demolition of the existing Poinciana Elementary School and the construction of a new $18.5 million replacement campus that could accommodate 600 students. 

2010 – Representatives for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuay acknowledged that the eradication of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish from Keys waters was impossible and that control strategies would shift to containment.

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

Image: Aerial view of the Kennedy Drive Sports Complex and Poinciana School, September 1, 1999. Photo by Ty Symroski and Wendy Tucker. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.