The Welters Cornet Band in Key West, circa 1920
1820 – A Cuban pirate ship plundered the schooners Mary McKay and Primrose off Tavernier Key, hijacked the vessels to Key West, and then plundered two more ships in the harbor there.
1903 – The cornerstone was laid for the First Congregational Church on William Street. The ceremony was conducted by Reverend S.F. Gale, Home Missionary Superintendent for the Congregational Church of Florida.
1914 – The R.L. Polk & Company Key West City Directory contained 8,606 names. By using the multiple 3 to allow for women and children, whose names did not appear, a population of 25,818 was indicated for the city.
1921 – The U.S. Census Bureau reported the illiteracy rate at Key West in 1920 was 5.2 percent, down from 8.8 percent in 1910.
1933 – The foundation for the Smith Shoal light, 11 miles NNW of Key West, was complete. H.B. Haskins, Asst. Superintendent of lighthouses, planned to use a diving helmet to inspect the ironwork, and if he approved, construction of the superstructure would start at once.
1934 – Frank Welters died at age 70. In 1889, he was one of the founders of the 17-piece Welters Cornet Band, which had appeared all over the state and was named Champion Band of the State.
1946 -The polio epidemic was at 19 cases with four deaths. Of the four deaths, three were adults.
1969 – Milton Santini was training a bottlenose dolphin named Theresa at his Grassy Key facility to assist shipwreck divers for the planned salvage of the Union ironclad Tecumseh, sunk in Mobile Bay in the Civil War.
2011 – Enough rain fell at Florida City to recharge the mainland aquifer, which allowed the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority to stop running its desalination plant. For six weeks, while the Florida Keys experienced one of the worst droughts on record, the facility had been making 6 million gallons of freshwater a day.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Welters Band circa 1920. The Heritage House Collection, donated by the Campbell, Poirier and Pound families. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.