1862 – The USS Magnolia, while on patrol for blockade runners, captured the British schooner Carmita off the Marquesas Keys and sent it to Key West for adjudication.
1883 – Mr. E.G. Chesley reported that a vessel from Key West landed at Key Biscayne with 120,000 coconuts to be planted there. Chesley predicted “that the entire coast line of Monroe County will ere long be a vast cocoanut grove.”
1921 – John Wardlow, president of the Ruy Lopez Cigar Company, announced that the factory would close, and the business would be liquidated.
1929 – Twenty-two undocumented migrants were found at an abandoned house on North Key Largo. The refugees, 18 Polish Jews and four Spaniards, had paid a boat captain $300 each to carry them to Tampa.
1966 – The Navy reported that the military community in Key West was composed of 8,582 Navy, 663 Air Force, 570 Army, 37 Coast Guard, 1,180 military students, 1,294 civilian employees and 10,002 military dependents living in the area.
1969 – Mr. and Mrs. Victor Lang sold the Southern Cross Hotel at 326 Duval Street to Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kozlowski of New Jersey for an undisclosed sum.
1975 – The Florida Statistical Abstract for 1975 showed that in 1974 Monroe County had the highest cost of living of any county in Florida.
Information compiled by the late Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The Southern Cross Hotel and sign at 326 Duval Street C 1960s. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center