1887 – William Cooper was publicly hanged on the grounds of the Key West jail for the murders of Liverpool Bain and George Hudson and the attempted murder of James Thompson. Cooper’s crimes had occurred the previous September at a charcoal-making camp on Big Pine Key.
1901 – Several seamen charged with insubordination were removed from government tugs at Key West and taken to the Dry Tortugas, to be placed into the custody of Marines stationed there.
1926 – Abram Wolkowsky was arrested for making repairs on his property without permits. Wolkowsky was working on one of the several dilapidated shacks he owned at the corner of Duval and Greene streets.
1933 – The temperature reached 94 degrees, the hottest day since 1884.
1934 – Sidney Franklin, the first American to become a successful bullfighter in Spain, was visiting Key West. Franklin was a friend of author Ernest Hemingway and was a subject of his book “Death in the Afternoon.”
1948 – The Upper Keys, Marathon, and Key West Chambers of Commerce sent a telegram to Warner Brothers Pictures to protest a line in the film “Key Largo” that they feared would affect tourism. “Lionel Barrymore’s remark in your movie, implying that the winter temperature [in the Florida Keys] sometimes gets as low as 100 degrees, thereby inferring that the summer temperatures are much higher, is clearly a slander on our community,” read the statement.
1953 – Charles Aronovitz retired from the business his father started in 1889 and he had taken over in 1939. His son Sidney continued the operation with a retail store at 622 Duval Street.
1955 – Assistant Fire Chief Charles Torres collapsed while fighting a fire on Whitehead Street and was pronounced dead on arrival at Monroe General Hospital.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: B’nai Zion Installation Charles Aronovitz and Dr. H.B. Bernstein on January 11, 1955. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.