1833 – Dr. B.B. Strobel and D.C. Pinkham fought a duel in which Pinkham was shot in the chest and died. Strobel left for his former home in Charleston that night and never returned to Key West.
1924 – The sale of preferred stock for building a new hotel at the corner of Duval and Fleming Streets in Key West was progressing favorably. Developer Carl E. Aubuchon had so far received $31,000 for the venture and was soon to travel to Atlanta to show conclusively that a new hotel was wanted and needed on the island.
1931 – Samuel Auxier, who had recently been given a three-year lease to Rest Beach, promised the waterfront, which had previously been the location of a slaughterhouse, would be converted to a bathing beach with a casino, bath houses, and a concrete pier for dances.
1936 – William W. Demerritt received word from the U.S. Biological Survey In Washington that two blackbirds he had shipped there were of the “true tawny shouldered” species. They were the first of the type to ever be seen in the U.S., as their previously known range was limited to Hispaniola. Demerritt’s specimens were mounted and added to the national collection.
1939 – Dr. Paul Galtsoff of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries concluded his initial studies of the sponge blight affecting the Keys. Galtsoff left Key West by car and intended to stop at other points along the island chain to collect additional samples of water and sponge.
1941 – The first participants in the Florida state convention of the American Legion arrived at Key West. It was expected that there would be over 3,000 visitors to the island as a result of the meeting.
1953 – Navy officials announced that two sailors from the USS Coates confessed to being responsible for a $39,000, middle-of-the-night vandalism spree. The two had uprooted fences and smashed headstones, monuments, and vases, including a five-foot angel statue and the headstone of a USS Maine sailor. It was speculated some of the damage could only have been done with a sledge hammer.
1980 – The Monroe County Sheriff’s office reported a steady stream of boats being trailered south as the Miami exile community converged on Key West to sail to Cuba to pick up relatives that the Castro government was allowing to leave. By the end of the day, 280 Cuban refugees had arrived in Key West and another 68 in Miami.
1982 – The Florida Keys “seceded” from the United States in a mock ceremony to protest the Border Patrol’s establishment of a roadblock at Florida City to check the citizenship of everyone leaving Monroe County. Traffic delays caused by the roadblock had resulted in a dramatic drop in tourist traffic to the Keys. Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow announced the establishment of the new “Conch Republic,” of which he was Prime Minister.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Crowd at the founding of the Conch Republic on April 23, 1982. From the Ida Woodward Barron Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.