1825 – The French ship Point Petre, sailing from New Orleans for Bordeaux, was lost on the Florida reef. The crew was saved, along with 536 bales of cotton. The cotton sold at Key West as 5.5 cents per pound, with 76% of the proceeds going to the wreckers.
1904 – Key West police officer, Clarence K. Till, was killed in a shootout with Dutchy Melbourne. Till had answered a call of a disturbance at a coffee shop on White Street caused by Melbourne and his gang.
1923 – Judge William Hunt Harris was buried from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He was born in Louisiana and came to Key West at the age of 20. He had served Monroe County in the Florida House and Senate of which he was president in 1907 and also served as Key West Police Court Judge for 14 years. At the time of his death he was Judge of the Criminal Court.
1933 – Dorothy Craig was commissioned as postmistress for the office at the small community of Craig Key, located between Islamorada and Long Key.
1939 – As part of the renovation and construction by the WPA, crews began painting the Monroe County Court House on Whitehead Street white.
1946 – An Atlantic-side property on Plantation Key containing six four-bedroom houses, six one-bedroom houses, a seven-room concrete house, a clubhouse, a powerhouse, a garage and a wharf, sold to the Reynolds Metal Company for $135,000.
1952 – President Harry Truman arrived for his 11th working vacation in Key West, his last as the nation’s Chief Executive Officer.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Craig Key June 2, 1938. Photo by Romer from Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.