1826 – It was announced that the Light Ship at Carysfort Reef near Key Largo was soon to be lit. The vessel would “show two fixed lights, one about 50 feet high, the other 40 – in hazy weather, a bell will be struck frequently to warn vessels to keep off.”
1827 – The new brick lighthouse at Sand Key was lit. The light cycled in a pattern of showing one minute, then obscured for the same length of time. A wooden beacon that had preceded the lighthouse was torn down.
1829 – It was proposed to establish a Temperance Society at Key West.
1886 – The Key West Building and Loan Association was incorporated in 1886 with John J. Philbrick, president, R. Alvarez, secretary and George W. Allen, treasurer. It was located over the Union Bank at 427 Front St.
1929 – Canon Arthur B. Rudd of the Washington Cathedral gave an illustrated lecture entitled “The Glory and Beauty of the Cathedral in Washington” at St. Paul’s Church in Key West. The presentation featured 60 colored stereopticon slides.
1930 – Andrew J. Page moved his store to the modern two-story concrete building he built at the corner of Fleming and Duval Streets.
1939 – Governor A.B. “Happy” Chandler of Kentucky was a guest at the La Concha Hotel. The Governor and his party brought in a large catch while fishing with Captain Begley Filer.
1961 – A Cuban Air Force plane, one of three that had bombed and strafed Cuban military installations earlier in the day, landed at Boca Chica Naval Air Station. The dissident pilot immediately asked for political asylum in the U.S.
1970 – Key West High School’s Bill Butler was named the no. 2 basketball player in the state by the Miami News.
1975 – Governor Reubin Askew and the State Cabinet voted to declare the Florida Keys an area of critical state concern. This gave the state the authority to control land use and development in the Keys.
1980 – Bad weather foiled an unorganized band of Miami Cuban exiles from sailing a fleet of small boats from Key West carrying food and medicine to their countrymen seeking asylum in the Peruvian Embassy in Havana.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Florida Gov. Reubin Askew and state officials meeting in Key West for land use planning circa 1970s. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.