1848 – The new Key West Lighthouse on Whitehead Street was lighted for the first time.
1902 – Some of Key West’s leading Black citizens organized a grocery business known as the Mutual Mercantile Company. The officers were: C.F. Dupont, president; Joseph G. Brown, vice-president; Joseph Lang, secretary and James A. Fleming, treasurer.
1913 – Key West Mayor J.N. Fogarty suspended Police Chief John Cates and Captain of Police Rafael Reinosa after they refused to resign. The punishment came after members of the police department had been implicated in receiving graft from illegal gambling resorts.
1914 – Miss Lovey Turner, beloved principal of Russell Hall School for 25 years, suffered fatal injuries in her home on Fleming Street. She apparently struck a match to light the stove, when the burning head broke off and lodged in her clothes, setting them aflame. Miss Turner was taken to the Louise Maloney Hospital, where she died.
1919 – The 192-foot-long U.S. Navy dirigible C-1 arrived at Key West from Rockaway, N.Y. It took three days to make the 1500-mile flight.
1961 – CBS television aired “The Gershwin Years,” which featured a segment filmed at the Key West Bight. The sequence featured renowned dancers Carmen de Lavallade, Claude Thompson, Harold Pierson, and Alvin Ailey performing to music from Porgy and Bess. 1
1971 – Roger Foster, who admitted he killed charter boat Captain Douglas Trevor and his son Edward off the Marquesas Keys in 1963, was found guilty of second-degree murder.
1993 – Julian “Yankee” Kee, 82, known to tourists worldwide for selling shells at the Southernmost Point, died.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: CBS Television filmed a sequence for a special titled ‘The Gershwin Years’ in January 1960. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.