1821 – The United States Senate ratified the treaty with Spain and Florida became a U.S. Territory.
1895 – There were 119 Florida Keys vessels engaged in sponge fishing. Each vessel carried 4 to 5 skiffs that were fished by a two-man crew. The vessels made 2-month trips three to four times a year. If the weather and water condition were satisfactory a sponger could make a good living.
1906 – Stock Island and Key West were joined for the first time by the new 12-foot roadway built for the Florida East Coast Railroad.
1917 – Polk’s Key West city directory for 1917/1918 listed 80 grocery stores in the city.
1921 – The yacht Genesee, owned by W.K. Vanderbilt of New York City, was seized at Key West after arriving there from Havana with $1,800 worth of smuggled liquor aboard. This was the first seizure of its kind by federal officials since the prohibition of liquor became U.S. law.
1922 – Dogs “by the wholesale” were killed at Key West by someone who fed them strychnine-laced meat. The owners and authorities were scrambling to identify the culprit. Among the dead canines was “Snookums,” a well-known and beloved ambassador for the Red Cross.
1925 – Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Mrs. Hoover, Attorney General Stone and Mrs. Stone and Mark Sullivan, writer with Collier’s Weekly, and Mrs. Sullivan arrived on the yacht Kilkenny and registered as guests of the Hotel Casa Marina.
1926 – A gala dance contest was held at the La Concha Hotel in Key West, with prizes of a silver loving cup and a ten-dollar gold piece awarded to the top two dancers of both the Charleston and the Waltz.
1936 – Pirates Cove Fishing Camp on Sugarloaf Key reported that all of its accommodations were booked.
1946 – Boy Scouts of Troops 50, 51 and 52 left for three-day camping trip to the old CCC Camp on West Summerland Key. This was the first time the Scouts used the West Summerland Key site.
1946 – With the rumored presence of oil in a well drilled at Card Sound, Key Largo landowners were becoming increasingly enthusiastic about the value of their real estate.
1971 – The Key West Tree Commission was created by the City Commission.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Lodge at Pirate’s Cove Fishing Lodge in 1938. Photo by Romer from Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.