1911 – The Key West Chamber of Commerce and the Key West Commercial Club, to more effectively promote the island’s businesses, voted to merge and operate under the Chamber of Commerce banner. Dr. J.B. Maloney was elected president.
1911 – The Key West naval wireless station had established daily communication with San Francisco, and on this date received a message from the steamer Sierra, 3,300 miles away in the Pacific Ocean.
1917 – The Ladies Civic Association of Key West voted to support the establishment of kindergarten in all Monroe County schools to help remedy the “little mothers” problem, whereby 8- to 10-year-old girls were forced to stay home and miss school to take care of younger, kindergarten-age siblings.
1918 – The U.S. seaplane No. 339, piloted by Lt. S.V. Parker, flew from the aero station at Key West to Punta Gorda, making the 180-mile voyage in just under 3 hours. A throng of hundreds turned out to welcome the “strange craft.”
1935 – The first traffic light was installed in Key West.
1954 – Key West diver Ed Ciesinski left for Nassau to work as an assistant to the underwater camera crew on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” a film being produced by Walt Disney Studios.
1957 – Glynn R. Archer was sworn in as a member of the Monroe County School Board.
1974 – Bernie Clayton Papy Jr. and Steve Alex bought American Air Taxi and renamed the firm “Air Sunshine.”
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Underwater photographers Ed Ciesinski and Dr. R. Cunningham display the latest cameras on May 13, 1955. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.