1831 – In an election for a Delegate to Congress, Key West voters chose James Gadsden over Joseph M. White 70 to 17.
1898 – Writer Stephen Crane arrived in Key West as a reporter for the New York World.
1904 – The Key West Board of Alderman found funds to pay the police force, so the officers who had been dismissed two days earlier were reinstated.
1936 – A count of registered voters by Monroe County Supervisor of Registration John England showed 5451 qualified voters on the rolls – 5428 Democrats and 23 Republicans.
1946 – Gulf Oil Company began construction of a distribution center on the water at the north end of Duval Street.
1949 – At a meeting of the Monroe County School Board, parents lodged protests against the hazing of new students at Key West High School. The Board asked the principal and Key West Police Department to cooperate and see that no further hazing be allowed.
1950 – Bernie C. Papy was re-elected state representative by a majority of 624 votes.
1953 – Boy Scout Troop 59, an all-Black Key West troop under the leadership of Scoutmaster Roosevelt Sands, Sr., traveled to the Dry Tortugas on Navy Patrol Boat 1206. The 24 scouts explored Fort Jefferson and learned about the natural history of the Tortugas.
1955 – Key West resident Tennessee Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
1972 – Kerry Highsmith, principal of Harris Elementary School, was named principal of Key West High School.
2013 – Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers removed an American crocodile nest laid in a Lower Matecumbe Key homeowner’s garden and transferred it to a remote, undeveloped location four miles away. Previously, such a nest would not have been disturbed, but an increasing numbers of Keys crocodiles had instigated a relocation policy.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Gulf Oil Corporation tanks at 0 Duval Street in 1964. Photo from Monroe County Property Appraiser’s office. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.