American Shoal Lighthouse
1857 – The ship Carrack, sailing from New Orleans to Liverpool with 2,700 bales of cotton, was struck by lightning and caught fire 250 miles from the Dry Tortugas. Seeing no hope for the vessel, the crew abandoned ship in three boats. They were picked up separately, with two brought to Key West and one to Tampa.
1880 – The American Shoals Lighthouse was first lighted.
1893 – Judge Angel De Lono died at age 69 at his home on Caroline Street. He was born in Santiago de Cuba and came to Key West in 1878. He had served as justice of the peace and county judge.
1921 – Captain John W.F. Pierce, the oldest person at Key West, celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday. Pierce had been a bar pilot for 61 years and never stranded a vessel. He still put to sea occasionally.
1935 – The Pulaski Shoals Lighthouse was first lighted.
1953 – The Monroe County Commission approved a 99-year lease of $1 a year with the Key West Lions Club for a choice bay bottom site on North Roosevelt Boulevard.
1953 – The State of Florida was selling a 2,000-foot-wide strip of bay bottom that ran for 33 miles from Key Largo to Biscayne Bay. Real estate developer Thomas Horobin had offered $100,000 for the property and was expected to be the successful bidder.
1954 – Thirty-three cases of polio had been reported for the year.
1961 – County Commissioner Clarence Higgs, age 59, died suddenly at his home. He had served on the commission since 1944 and was business manager of the local Carpenters’ Union, a position he had held for 22 years.
1970 – The Key West Housing Authority celebrated the groundbreaking for the 200-unit senior citizen high-rise on Kennedy Drive.
2013 – The founders of Reef Relief urged members of the organization to vote “no” in a referendum on whether the City of Key West should conduct a study on the effects of widening the Main Ship Channel.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: American Shoals Lighthouse. U.S. Coast Guard photo. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.