1839 – Key West Superior Court judge Wm. Marvin awarded 10 percent of the value of the brig Black Hawk to the wreckers who salvaged it. They asked to be paid in kind, so the court granted them 190 barrels of the brig’s cargo of molasses.
1876 – The Lighthouse on Fort Jefferson was lighted.
1895 – U.S. Navy engineers were making preliminary plans for a railroad that would run the length of the Keys. Increasing revolutionary troubles in Cuba were increasing the strategic importance of Key West, and a railroad connection would enhance its status.
1909 – Alfredo Zayas, Vice President of Cuba, visited the Cuban Community of Key West and was welcomed by Mayor Fogarty at a reception in the San Carlos.
1918 – Student aviator Thomas W. Eden was killed and student J.J. Mitchell was injured when the airplanes they were piloting collided 100 feet above Key West.
1926 – The schooner Mandan was captured by the Coast Guard while sailing in the Gulf of Mexico with 1,800 cases of liquor and 600 cases of alcohol onboard. The vessel was formerly known as the Island Home, which had been built at Plantation Key in 1903 by Johnathan Pinder and used to transport pineapples from there to Key West.
1969 – Former President Harry Truman and Bess Truman left Key West after a two-week visit. This was his last visit to the Keys.
1976 – By unanimous vote the Key West City Commission appointed G.C. “Gibby” Cates fire chief.
1976 – Joseph “Bum” Farto, former Key West Fire Chief, failed to appear in court for sentencing for his conviction of drug dealing. He was never seen again.
1989 – The U.S. Air Force Surveillance blimp nicknamed “Fat Albert” went down in the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest of its station on Cudjoe Key.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Fort Jefferson lighthouse and keepers quarters, 1898. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.