Postcard of a house at 400 South St., Key West
1861 – Rains had fallen at Key West allowing Capt. E.B. Hunt of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open new wells sufficient for horses and cooking at the southeast point of the island. Hunt had also recently received an apparatus from New York that could distill enough freshwater from seawater to support a thousand men.
1898 – Apprentice First Class Ernest Suntzenich, who was wounded in battle at Cienfuegos, Cuba, died of his wounds at the Army Hospital at the Key West Barracks. He was buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery.
1914 – Wireless messages were received at Key West reporting that the Norwegian freight steamer Times, bound from New York to Cuba, was aground at Pickles Reef near Tavernier.
1924 – Several thousand people attended the formal opening of Bayview Park in Key West. Mayor Frank Ladd was the main speaker for the event, and the Water Lilies Club raised a flagpole and provided a banner bearing the words “Bayview Park.”
1934 – Key West Constable Ray Elwood raided Pedro Santana’s on Angela Street for alleged gambling activities. Seized in the raid were three spindle wheels, one umbrella wheel, two slot machines, and a box of bolita tickets.
1935 – A skytrain, consisting of an airplane with two gliders in tow, stopped at Key West on its way to Havana.
1940 -Thelma Strabel, author of “Reap the Wild Wind,” the story of Key West wreckers, took out a building permit for $12,000 to construct a house at 400 South Street.
1942 – The Mexican freighter Potrero Del Llano was sunk by the German submarine U-564 near Fowey Rocks Lighthouse.
1953 – Captain Manuel Fernandez, U.S. Air Force, shot down his 14th MIG jet fighter over Korea. The leading air ace was born in Key West.
1954 – Twenty-five polio cases had been recorded in Monroe County for the year. This was up significantly from the previous year, when only two cases had been recorded by the same date.
1964 – Francis Cardinal Spellman, military vicar of the Catholic Armed Forces of the United States and Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of New York, arrived for a visit to the Navy in Key West.
1978 – The Panamanian freighter Florida Silver Bow ran aground on the reef to the west of the American Shoals Lighthouse.
1980 – A task force of business leaders was formed to combat the unfavorable press coverage of the Mariel boatlift. Merchants reported that business was down between 25 and 50 per cent compared with the previous year.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Postcard of a Key West house at 400 South Street. From the collection of Christopher C. Belland. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.