1847 – Six enslaved men who had been put to work on the construction of Fort Jefferson escaped on a schooner from the Dry Tortugas and attempted to sail to the Bahamas to find freedom. The six were located and captured near Indian Key by Key West wreckers, who filed a salvage claim on their value.
1917 – The coal barge City of Washington was wrecked on Elbow Reef near Key Largo. Wreckers were attempting to save the vessel when heavy seas broke it to pieces. One crewman was drowned.
1924 – “La Concha” was chosen as the name for the new hotel at the corner of Duval and Fleming Streets in Key West. Mr. G.L. Miller of the Miller Bonding Company, sponsor of the contest to name the building, made the decision and awarded a $100 bond to Louis T. Bragassa, Deputy Collector of Customs at Key West, for submitting the winning moniker.
1947 – The State Medical Board, trying to identify tuberculosis cases, had administered 1,800 chest x-rays in Key West during the previous week. The x-ray machine would be on the island for another week.
1948 – Commissioned Gunner Leonard Stanley Allen, Royal Navy, who was killed in an accident on the British ship HMS Crossbow, was buried in the Key West City Cemetery. A crowd of about 2,000 attended the grave side services conducted by Father James MacConnell of St. Paul’s Church.
1953 – A well drilled by Harry I. Morgan Company on upper Key Largo found oil and was being tested to see if the oil was of commercial importance.
1953 – Captain Shirley Garson of the bottom fishing charter boat Storm King brought in an 11-foot shark.
1993 – A barracuda leaped into a boat off Islamorada, knocking a 46-year-old Tampa woman to the deck and then biting her. The woman was rushed to Mariners Hospital in Key Largo and received over 200 stitches to close her wounds.
2008 – The dilapidated, Depression-era bandstand at Bayview Park was torn down. The bandstand had had once been a community hub and the site of concerts, political rallies, and high school graduations.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The La Concha Hotel at 430 Duval Street circa 1928. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.