1833 – Cholera was rampant at Key West, and people were fleeing the island. A correspondent wrote, “all the garrison except one officer and three men left for the Mainland. The inhabitants of the island are leaving as fast as opportunities occur; and to add to our misfortunes, I fear our best physicians will go, too.”
1898 – Chief Gunner’s Mate Oscar Johnson, a 31-year-old native of Sweden, was asphyxiated while in a diving suit examining the hull of the USS Newport. He was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West Cemetery.
1923 – The Key West Chamber of Commerce announced a contest for the naming of Key West’s proposed new city park, which would be an enlargement of what was known as Gato’s park. The directors of the chamber would be judges, and the winning entrant would receive a $5 gold piece.
1927 – In a “great cleanup” manned by the city scavenger crew, volunteers, and jail prisoners, more than 20 truckloads of refuse were hauled off Key West’s Duval Street. It was expected three more days would be required to complete the effort.
1930 – A group of investors purchased Key West’s La Concha hotel, along with six other Florida resorts. The unnamed investors were said to be politically connected and that their purchase of La Concha “may cause them to use their influence in having the government build the Over-Sea [highway] bridges.”
1980 – Approximately 500 members of the Key West Cuban community joined an automobile caravan at the White Street Pier to show support to the Cubans that had taken refuge in the Peruvian embassy in Havana. They made donations and sent a truck with non-perishable food to Miami to aid the refugees.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Aerial view of Key West’s North Beach on February 29, 1918, showing the neighborhoods between White Street and Eisenhower Drive. What would become Bayview Park is toward the left. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.