Northwest Channel lighthouse, circa 1970
1774 – It was reported that English surveyor George Gauld had set out from Pensacola in May to chart the entirety of the Florida Keys. Gauld’s goal was to document the island chain’s hazardous maze of reefs, shoals, and channels and make it safer to sail through the area.
1824 – Lt. James McIntosh wrote from Key West that John Simonton had brought a master carpenter to the island from Baltimore, and the rate of construction had nearly doubled since his arrival.
1854 – The U.S. schooner Pharos arrived with construction materials for the new Northwest Channel lighthouse. Because construction had been suspended for the summer, the materials were offloaded and stored in Fort Taylor for later use.
1908 – Monroe County Deputy Sheriff and Audubon Society Game Warden Guy M. Bradley was shot and killed by outlaw feather hunters in what is now the Everglades National Park.
1923 – The state Board of health loaned Key West’s Monroe Theater a film on the hatching of mosquitos. It would be open to the public for two nights.
1927 – Twenty-eight Turkish and Syrian refugees landed at Cape Sable on mainland Monroe County and were caught by authorities. The group had been brought there by smugglers from Havana.
1942 – The merchant vessel J.A. Moffett Jr. was damaged near Alligator Lighthouse by German submarine U-571.
1945 – Dr. James B. Parramore, county health director, reported there had been 35 cases of polio in Key West during the summer.
1962 – The movie PT-109, the story of President Kennedy during World War II, was being filmed on Munson Island. The movie starred Cliff Robertson as Kennedy.
1986 – Ida Barron, newspaper columnist and historian, died at age 75. Among other accomplishments she was instrumental in bringing together the Island Roots celebration in the 1970’s in which Key West and New Plymouth in the Bahamas were named sister cities.
2013 – The Florida Department of Transportation had removed invasive vegetation and was restoring a 6.5-acre tract of land on Lower Matecumbe Key to its natural condition. The property, deemed “the rarest plant habitat in Florida” by botanists, included one of the few cactus barrens in the Keys.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The Northwest Channel Lighthouse circa 1970. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.