1829 – Key West’s first newspaper, The Key West Register, began publication under Thomas Eastin.
1851 – Capt. J.W.P. Lewis, engineer, with 36 men, was erecting an iron lighthouse on screw piles at Sand Key.
1889 – The Hamilton Opera Troupe arrived at Key West to begin a week of performances, but opening night did not go well. One performer was seasick from the voyage, “inebriety” plagued a “quasi-gentleman singer” and “combined with other domestic infelicity,” the show was “torn to tatters.”
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.
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.
1983 – Seven greyhound racing dogs were shot and killed at the top of Key West’s “Mount Trashmore.” The shooter told a landfill employee that “the dogs had lost a few races” and he had been told to destroy them.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A postcard of the Sand Key Lighthouse C 1970. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center