1906 – El Centro Asturiano established a branch in Key West. The society had one of the finest hospitals in Havana.
1906 – Wm. Curry & Sons received two large wagons, each capable of carrying five tons; one to carry ice and one for general merchandise. Both wagons were powered by electric motors and could run at 8-to-10 miles per hour when loaded to capacity.
1909 – The schooner Thomas W. Knight arrived at Key West from Guanaja, Honduras, with a cargo of bananas and plantains. The voyage took 10 days, and the fruit was in bad shape.
1939 – The large Pan American Airways hangar at Key West was sold to Albert O. Cleare of Miami who disassembled it and moved it. The airline’s ticket office was sold to Charles Ogden who moved it to another location.
1953 – The 11th case of polio in the Florida Keys for the year was reported, as well as the first death of the year, when 6-year-old Graydon Menendez died in Miami’s Children’s Variety Hospital.
1994 – In a shift in U.S. policy towards Cuban refugees who made it ashore in the Florida Keys, it was announced that after being initially aided at the Transit Center for Cuban Refugees on Stock Island, they would be sent to detention camps in Texas. Sixty-three Cubans landed across the Keys on this date.
1999 – Marathon’s spiny lobster fishermen were reporting an excellent catch for the season. Boats and fish houses were “slammed” and operating at 100 percent capacity.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Pan American Airway hangar and office at Meacham Field Key West, ca. 1928. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.