1861 – At Fort Independence in Boston Harbor, Major Lewis G. Arnold of the 2nd United States Artillery was ordered to “embark your company for Fort Jefferson, on one of the Tortugas Islands, to garrison the same under your command.”
1923 – J.F. Urbach, collector of internal revenue, calculated that 43,396,675 cigars were made at Key West in 1922, with 4,406,743 rolled in December alone.
1929 – The P. & O. Steamship Company announced daily service both to and from Key West and Havana, effective immediately.
1950 – Cupid won out in Monroe County in 1949: There were 358 marriage licenses issued and 314 divorce petitions filed during the year.
1952 – Mrs. George Lemay, 21-year-old Canadian beauty, disappeared while fishing with her husband off Tom’s Harbor bridge. Her husband was under investigation but maintained that she went to the car, and he never saw her again. Without a body or any evidence of a crime she was listed as missing, and no trace was ever found.
1974 – TV stars Jonathan Winters and Ernest Borgnine arrived in Key West to join Curt Gowdy in filming an ocean fishing feature for the ABC TV show “American Sportsman.”
1992 – The San Carlos Institute reopened after a six-year renovation. Institute President Rafael Penalver, who supervised the work, introduced guest speaker U.S. Senator Bob Graham.
1998 – Key West was selling residential parking stickers for $5 and expected to start enforcing the reserved residential plan by the middle of the month.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Ernest Borgnine, Jonathan Winters and Curt Gowdy in Key West to for TV show American Sportsman January 1974. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.