1830 – William R. Hackley recorded in his diary: Rose at daybreak and Brother went on board at sunrise. At half past seven the Schooner Mayflower got under weigh with the wind from the northeast but light. She dropped down about 3 miles and came to anchor on account of not being able to stem the flood tide. Wrote a postscript to the letter I wrote to Father on the 27 of last month to go by the Brig Enterprize today. Mr. Porter loaned me the Pearl and the Atlantic Souvenirs for 1830. Reading the Pearl in the forenoon. The Schooner Durango from New York to St. Marks came in and I received a letter and some copies of Van Ressalers opinion from Father and brought out by a Mr. Ruan a cousin of Porter’s who intends remaining on the Key. Weather nearly cold.
1832 – John William Charles Fleeming, one of the four original owners of Key West, died and was buried in St. Paul’s churchyard.
1898 – At a meeting of the Fire Department Board a fire police was organized. The fire police were used for crowd control at the scene of fires.
1927 – Key West Airport was designated a port of entry.
1975 – Former Key West Mayor C.B. Harvey retired after 40 years of government service. He served in the Navy during World War II and after the war was employed in Navy Civil Service and at the time of his retirement was Director of the Engineering Division of the Public Works Department of the Naval Air Station.
1993 – Joe Dietrich of the local cable TV station produced a 45-minute video, “AIDS/HIV Florida Keys Update,” which was honored with the Community Action Network’s 1993 Media Award.
1998 – Mel Fisher, the world’s greatest treasure hunter, died at age 76. He searched for 15 years, overcoming government regulation, lawsuits, weather and the loss of his son to find the mother lode of the Spanish treasure ship Atocha in 1985.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library.
Images President Harry Truman, Louie Carbonell, Hilary Albury and Key West Mayor C.B. Harvey circa 1950. Jeff Brodhead Collection. Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/8151129708