1799 – While sailing near Key Largo, Andrew Ellicott wrote,” …about 3 o’clock A.M., I was called up to see the shooting of the stars. The phenomenon was grand and awful; the whole heavens appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, which disappeared only by the light of the sun after daybreak. The meteors, which at any one time appeared as numerous as the stars, flew in all possible directions, except from the earth, toward which they inclined, more or less; and some of them descended perpendicularly over the vessel we were in, so that I was in constant expectation of their falling among us.”
1864 – All the prisoners held at Fort Jefferson were sent to Long Key in the Dry Tortugas to search for two sailors who had deserted the barque New York two days earlier. In the evening, the fugitives were found hiding in an oven at the fort’s bakery. They were returned to the ship.
1978 – Former U.S. President Richard Nixon arrived at the Ocean Reef Club for a short vacation with friends Bebe Rebozo and industrialist Robert Abplanalp. About forty well-wishers cheered as Nixon stepped off the plane.
1996 – Key West native and aviation pioneer Steven F. Whalton died on his 96th birthday. He was the third employee of Pan American World Airways.
Information compiled by the late Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Steve Floyd Whalton and pilot Ed Musick in front of Pan American plane General New in Key West C 1928. From the Ida Woodward Barron Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center