1830 – William R. Hackley recorded in his diary: Rose with the sun and after breakfast read the “Lost Heir.” At ten o’clock A.M. Norman Sherwood was taken from the jail to the gallows erected near the road out from the courthouse to the West and, in pursuance of the sentence of the law was hung by the neck until he was dead. He said nothing at the gallows and died stubbornly and did not even change color. Last evening the Revenue Cutter Pulaski came in from the reef. After dinner took a walk up the road to procure some of the seed of the Hibiscus. After tea down at the warehouse. Wind northeast. Weather cool.
1834 – In a special election, Joseph A. Thouron was elected Clerk of Court for Monroe County to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Day.
1899 – Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Allen has written that the bodies of the USS Maine victims will remain in Key West. The Maine dead buried in Cuba will be removed to the United States and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1938 – Key West City Attorney Henry H. Taylor Jr. filed incorporation papers for the Key West Federal Art Center. The center was a nonprofit organization to initiate and aid cultural activity in the city. Mrs. Florence Spottswood was chairman.
1951 – President Harry Truman departed for Washington after a month’s vacation. His departing words were “I’m coming back in March if I can –1952 is a special year — you know.”
1955 – The cornerstone laying for the new Key West High School on Flagler Avenue was conducted by Roy T. Lord, Grand Master of Masons of Florida.
1950 – The U.S. Department of State presented Key West native Frank E. Pinder, head agricultural production specialist of the United States Economic Mission in Liberia, with the Meritorious Service award.
1976 – The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority hired a firm to design the new water pipeline. The work was only the part of the line that would be part of the new bridges being built in the Keys. The Authority did not have the funds to replace the pipeline.
1993 – The new Monroe County Jail on Stock Island was dedicated.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library
Image: Burying the dead sailors of the USS Maine at Key West. Stereoview by Keystone View Company, copyright, 1898, by B. L. Singley. The DeWolfe and Wood Collection.Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/5836773489