1860 – The U.S. Navy steamer Crusader captured an unnamed brig outfitted for the slave trade off the coast of Cuba and took it to Key West.
1887 – Two new cases of yellow fever were reported in 24 hours with one death. There had been 242 cases since the epidemic began with 47 deaths.
1933 – The wife, daughters, and grandchildren of recently deposed Cuban President Gerardo Machado arrived at Key West on the yacht Gen. Juan B. Zayas. Local officials offered them safe conduct and a special train was arranged to take them northward.
1945 – Key West greeted the news World War II had ended by throngs parading on Duval Street. The Navy Yard announced the news with 10 long blasts on the siren and all the ships in the harbor sounded their whistles. As had been planned, all bars and clubs in the city and on the bases were closed.
1947 – City Commissioner John Carbonell led a large delegation of from Key West that attended the ceremony when Havana Mayor Nicolas Castellanos Rivero changed the name of the old San Francisco Plaza in Havana to Key West Plaza.
1970 – Thieves made off with 20,000 steaks, 5,000 eggs, and unknown quantities of chicken, lobster tails, and canned fruit from the cold storage unit at Naval Station Key West. The haul was valued at $35,000.
1971 – Three unopposed candidates were running for three open city council seats in the City of Layton: Pete Riley, A.W. “Buster” Fallin, and Charlie Leiby.
1988 – Pritam Singh held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin his construction on the Truman Annex.
1994 – Arturo Cobo, head of the Cuban Transit Center on Stock Island, said nearly 700 Cuban refugees had passed through the doors in the first two weeks of August. Over 5,500 people had been rescued from makeshift boats and rafts to this date in 1994, drawing comparisons to the 1980 Mariel Boat Lift.
2005 – Approximately 1,000 greater-Tampa-area residents came to Key West to celebrate gay pride. Their travel was prompted by the Hillsborough County Commission’s ban on county agencies acknowledging, promoting, or participating in gay pride recognition and events.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Members of the official family of General Gerardo Machado y Morales fleeing Cuba. Changing trains in Miami. Mrs. Elisa Sanches, boarding train, Sheriff Thompson, of Monroe County, Florida, who brought party from Key West to Miami, Mrs. Obregon, with her one-year-old daughter in arms, Dr. Ramon Crau with hat. See Key West Citizen 15 August 1933. The Scott DeWolfe Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.