Wm. J.H. Taylor was the British Vice Consul in Key West.
1834 – The British brig Paragon, sailing from St. Jago de Cuba to London with a cargo of fustic and coffee, ran aground between Conch and Crocker Reefs. Wreckers saved the ship and cargo, towed it to Key West for repair, and were awarded $4000 for their efforts.
1907 – University of Chicago Professor John B. Watson, a representative of the National Audubon Society, stayed on Bird Key at the Dry Tortugas to prevent the rookeries from being disturbed during the nesting season.
1920 – Six U.S. Navy destroyers were ordered to sail from New York to Key West for possible duty in Mexican waters. U.S. diplomats wanted to have the vessels available to quickly remove U.S. citizens from Mexico if they were endangered as a result of the ongoing revolution.
1924 – The first children’s playground at Key West’s Bayview Park opened. It featured various swings and a spinning, pivoting device for multiple riders called the “Ocean Wave.”
1929 – Key West British Vice Consul William J.H. Taylor died in Tampa while on a visit. A native of Grand Turk, he had come to Key West as a young man, where he had a ship brokerage business. Taylor had served as the island’s British Vice Consul for 35 years.
1941 – Frank and Teddy Sabini opened Club La Conga at 124 Duval Street.
1951 – Juvenile Court Judge Eva Warner Gibson heard the case of two runaway girls who had been living in Bayview Park for the previous week with the assistance of residents. Gibson noted that 18 underage runaways had come to Key West over the past winter and that anyone who aided them would be arrested.
1952 – Senator Estes Kefauver campaigning for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president was in Key West and made a speech at the Elks Club Annex.
1958 – Charles P. Toppino, 68, pioneer developer of the Florida Keys, died in Monroe General Hospital.
1970 – Circuit Court Judge Aquilino Lopez Jr. ruled that the Club Jerezano on North Key Largo could train, breed and sell fighting chickens as long as there was no gambling, and the birds were not fitted with steel spurs.
2006 – A section of the tail of a U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat was discovered on a beach in Ireland. The 10-foot-long piece of vertical stabilizer came from a Boca Chica-based fighter jet that had crashed 3½ years earlier during a training flight in the Florida Keys, 4900 miles away.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Imaae: 1918 waterfront pass for William J.H. Taylor, who was the British Vice Consul in Key West. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.