The musical ‘Cayo Hueso ’76’ at the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West
1826 – A letter written at Indian Key said “the musketoes are so numerous and voracious that they keep the hogs squealing, the dogs barking, and the fowls cackling all night.”
1836 – Native Seminole people were harvesting coontie (arrowroot), near Cape Sable on mainland Monroe County. Some of their encampments were so close to the Keys that, at night, their fires were visible from Indian Key.
1924 – Twenty of the best names suggested for the new hotel at Duval and Fleming Streets were submitted to G.L. Miller of the Miller Bonding Company, sponsor of the contest to name the building. After he made his choice, Miller would announce the winner of the $100 prize in the Key West Citizen.
1928 – Eighteen Girl Scouts of Key West Troop A, accompanied by three adults, left on the Overseas Highway for a two-week camping expedition at Lower Matecumbe Key.
1941 – British subjects residing in Key West were requested to register for military duty with the British consulate at Jacksonville. Men between 18 and 60 were most likely to be considered for service.
1965 – Townsend Morgan, 81, died in Englewood, Florida. During the Great Depression he was one of the artists sent to Key West by the Works Progress Administration. He became the first director of the Key West Art Center.
1976 – The Bicentennial musical “Cayo Hueso 76” opened at the Waterfront Playhouse. The musical that gave a colorful history of the island was written by Jim Russell with historic research by Betty Bruce and Peggy Murphree.
1982 – The last Navy C-121 Super Constellation left Naval Air Station Key West on its last flight to the Air and Missile Museum in Florence, S.C.
1991 – Bobby Marion Francis was executed in the Florida State Prison at Starke for the Aug. 17, 1975, murder of Titus Walters in Key West.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The 1976 Bicentennial play at the Waterfront Playhouse. Wright Langley Collection.. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.