1825 – The U.S. schooner Shark sailed from Key West to Havana with a group of pirates captured by the USS Sea Gull. The outlaws were to be delivered to Spanish authorities.
1937 – The José Martí Monument in Bayview Park was unveiled. Mayor Harry C. Galey, Cuban Senator José M. Castillo and Marie Gusten, matron of the Mercedes Hospital, presided over the ceremony.
1963 – Two reporters from the Key West Citizen visited No Name Key to investigate reports that anti-Castro Revolutionaries were using the island for training. They found a secret camp with nine young Cubans training on the island. At that time there was no bridge to the island.
1974 – The Monroe County School Board voted to name the new elementary school to be built on Stock Island after Gerald Adams, who served as chairman of the board between 1949 and 1961.
1984 – After 45 years in Key West, the schooner Western Union headed to its new home port of Philadelphia. The former cable tender had been purchased by Vision Quest, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping troubled and delinquent youth.
2009 – The Spottswood Companies announced a three-phase redevelopment of Marathon’s Faro Blanco Marina Resort would start immediately with the renovation of a 125-slip oceanside marina on Boot Key Harbor.
2019 – The estate of Key West developer David Wolkowsky donated Ballast Key to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under agreement the property would be managed by The Nature Conservancy. The home on the island would be used to house researchers and support staff.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Gerald Adams Elementary School, 1970s. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.