1855 – The Northwest Channel Lighthouse was lighted for the first time.
1901 – Monroe County Sheriff Richard Hicks was in Tampa to deliver a prisoner for work in the phosphate camps.
1926 – Twenty-five-year-old Key Wester John Ranger died at his sister’s Caroline Street home after having been randomly shot in the back five days earlier on Petronia Street by café owner Arthur Baker.
1939 – The Palace Theater was showing “Unashamed: A Romance in the Nude.” The movie, billed as “the most revealing drama ever filmed,” had been shot at the Olympic Fields Nudist Camp near Los Angeles.
1946 – A development on Lower Matecumbe Key promised to rival Miami Beach, according to project manager J. Frank Roberts. The beach was being graded and land cleared for construction. No lot would sell for less than $2,500 and no house could be built for less than $6,500.
1948 – President Harry Truman left for a flight back to Washington, after a 10-day visit to Key West. When he left, he said, “I’ll be back here if I can make it.”
1954 – “Beneath the 12 Mile Reef” made its Key West debut at the Strand Theater. The film focuses on the rivalry between Key West spongers and their Greek counterparts in Tarpon Springs. The Greeks are depicted in a more favorable light, which was not well received by the local “Conch” audience.
1964 – The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract of $1,987,209 to Bauer Dredging Company to deepen and enlarge Key West Harbor. The Corps also awarded a $1,431,685 contract to Acme Missiles and Construction Corporation to build a missile assembly building at the Nike-Hercules facility on Key Largo.
1974 – George Halas, star of the 1973 Key West Football team, was named to the Prep All-America Football team by Coach and Athlete Magazine.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The Palace Theater in the San Carlos Institute at 516 Duval St., Key West. Photo gift of John Simmons. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.